EXPOSED: What the Government Is Not Telling You About Inflation

George Markoski Hello, George Markoski coming to you live with Positive Property, with my co-host Christina. Hi, Christina. Christina Markoski Hello, ladies and gentlemen. George Markoski The government is lying to us about inflation and about the oil crisis, and I want to dig deep on this. And what I was going to do tonight is go through my normal state of the nation, go through graphs and things like that. But I thought tonight what I want to do is really talk to people, because I can see there’s a lot of fear happening at the moment. Consumer confidence is at a 57-year low in Australia. Christina Markoski Wow, that’s huge. George Markoski I know. People are very scared at the moment, and I think it’s important to give people what’s happening, the truth, no sugarcoating. And what’s going to happen? Because, see, this is something people get completely wrong and backwards about an energy crisis. Right. What they do is they see rising oil prices, right, they see the stock market slide, they hear the word inflation and assume it’s time to pull back and wait for calmer skies. It’s understandable. You know, historically speaking, the most reliable way to miss out on creating generational wealth is to sit on the sidelines and pull back when there’s a crisis. I’ve seen this happen over and over again, and that’s why I need to address this, because there’s a lot of fear in the market. George Markoski People are watching the news, and sometimes if you listen too closely to the news and count all the missiles that have been dropped on different people and what’s happening with the oil crisis and everything else, it’s easy to get scared. Christina Markoski Very easy. The media is always doom and gloom, isn’t it? George Markoski Yeah. And the thing is, but what’s actually going on? Well, the global energy market is under serious strain at the moment. Right. That’s the fact of it. Serious strain. This is the worst it’s ever been. Christina Markoski Wow. See, I didn’t know that. That’s quite shocking to hear. George Markoski Yeah. So the fact of it is, at the moment, the Strait of Hormuz is closed. Iran are not letting many boats out. Basically all this is happening because of the war with the USA and Israel against Iran. And Iran have been threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz many times, but this time they actually did it. Christina Markoski They’ve done it now. George Markoski They’ve done it. Funny enough, this is really interesting, because what’s happening is there’s two or three wars happening at the same time, right? There’s the physical war of Israel and America bombing Iran, Iran throwing missiles at Israel and American bases around the Gulf. But then there’s the economic war on the sidelines, right? And the economic war is interesting because it’s an energy war. And what Iran are doing is they’re trying to push oil prices up, because if oil prices go up, that’s going to cause a lot of inflation, going to cause a lot of economic pain for the world, and everyone’s going to go, “We need to stop this war.” So they’re trying to — because they can’t win a war against the USA head on, so they need to fight the economic war. George Markoski So what they’ve done is they’ve closed off the Strait of Hormuz, and basically over 20% of oil goes through there. But not only that, fertiliser as well. So what’s going to happen is, one, when you’ve got no oil and diesel, that basically affects everything. It’s very inflationary because our whole world runs on oil. Energy, transport, everything runs on oil. Very important. The fact of it is, renewables can’t do what oil does, especially in Australia. We need a lot of diesel, and there’s been lots of places running out of diesel. Christina Markoski Australia’s got fertiliser to grow the food, right? George Markoski Yes, yes. Now, fertiliser — interesting thing, because it comes out of the Strait of Hormuz, less fertiliser equals less crops, which equals food inflation. On top of that, oil inflation. Because you need three things for food. One, you need fertiliser. Two, you need oil and diesel to run the tractors and also water pumps. And three, you need to transport the food to market. So it’s a triple whammy when it comes to inflation on that. Christina Markoski Wow, that’s crazy. George Markoski Yes. So that’s also pretty bad. Now, here in Australia — well, I’m in Bali at the moment, but in Australia, when it comes to food, Australians are very good at producing food. We produce enough food for 73 million people, not 23 million. Right. But the challenge is getting it around Australia, because we don’t have enough oil to do that. Right now we’re looking at rate cuts recently, and suddenly the RBA’s hiked rates. So that’s another reason people have got fear. So when you think about it, there’s a lot of uncertainty. The stock markets have gone down, and that’s what happens when there’s uncertainty. Right. So at the moment it’s a massive oil shock, and even if they end the war tomorrow, we’ve still got a lot of lag. What’s going to happen, there’s going to — Christina Markoski Have that rebound effect, right? George Markoski Yeah. So the thing is, energy-driven inflation is different to demand-driven inflation. Right. Because demand-driven inflation is people wanting to buy something, and that’s why it’s worth more money. Energy-driven inflation is things are more expensive because energy costs more money, and — Christina Markoski There’s scarcity with the energy at the moment. George Markoski Yes. So the Reserve Bank, they increase rates to try to slow the inflation down. But when you think about it — doesn’t make any sense, if you ask me. The RBA’s decision to raise rates is the stupidest thing they could have done, and it just shows their lack of understanding when it comes to money and how money works and how supply and demand works. Christina Markoski Then why have they done it? George Markoski I don’t know. Because they’re stupid? Can I say that? Can I say they’re stupid? Because they are. I mean, I’ve been talking about the RBA for many years now, and I don’t know — are they incompetent, or are they trying to just stuff Australia up and really destroy the middle class? Is that what they’re doing, or are they just stupid? One of the two — they’re either stupid or evil. But the fact of it is, when you’ve got massive demand and that’s creating inflation, putting up interest rates slows demand down. But when inflation happens because of a lack of energy, it doesn’t really help. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski And what they should be doing is reducing rates to make it easier for — Christina Markoski Everyone, because that’s just going to make the cost of living even harder for Australians. George Markoski Yeah. But the thing is, what an energy crisis does to real estate, it compresses — Christina Markoski Supply, when we’ve already got compressed supply. George Markoski Yes, but it’s going to compress it further. The fact of it is, what’s going to happen is our rates have gone up, which is going to make it harder for people to borrow money. And a lot of people on the sidelines now with property — there’s the energy crisis, the oil crisis. A lot of people, what they’re doing is they’re cashing up, they’re selling out of the stock market. A lot of people are planning on selling their properties, and a lot of people are cashing out, waiting for opportunities. So what they’re trying to do is they’re trying to time the market. Christina Markoski Okay? George Markoski Yeah, right. That’s what they’re trying to do. And timing the market is very dangerous, because it’s a bit like gambling, right? Because they’re getting the fundamentals wrong. I see what happens to people that try to time the market — I’ve seen this over and over again. I’ll give you a good example. I’m going to show you Barry, right, who joined our program, and what he did during COVID and what he achieved, and what happened to other people. So I want to talk about when COVID hit, there was a lot of fear. This is good to talk about because it happened recently. COVID hit, there was a lot of fear in the marketplace, and what happened was there was a lot of people selling properties. George Markoski A lot of people that were going to join our program said, “Oh, I’m going to wait.” A lot of people that joined our program didn’t have the confidence and didn’t want to buy, and actually stopped buying, and went through that. And I tried to explain to people that at the end of the day, the price you’re paying now, you’re never going to see that price again. And what happened during COVID is there was a small dip in the market. There was a pause, there was a dip, it slowed down, and people tried to time the market. And I’ll tell you what — 99% of those people that tried to time the market, what happened to them? Christina Markoski They missed out. George Markoski They got priced out. They got priced out. And I know people personally who could have bought two properties pre-COVID that now can buy zero properties, because their borrowing capacity is finished. When you’ve got borrowing capacity, don’t take it for granted. Right? I’m just telling people out there, if you’re listening — if you want to invest in property, one, you shouldn’t be selling just because there’s some negative news out there, and you shouldn’t be delaying purchasing, because you’re going to severely miss out. Property prices — what’s going to happen now? Approvals are down and completions are being delayed. And there’s been a price rise with plumbing. I’ll get this article up. At the moment, what’s happened is Reece Group — right, their pipe and fittings is up 36%, their PVC piping fittings up 28%, and corrugated stormwater pipe 31%. Christina Markoski Is that because of the war? George Markoski Yep. This is the letter — it goes, “Important update: plastic pipe and fitting pricing. We want to give our valued customers as much notice as possible about upcoming price changes affecting plastic pipe and fittings, driven by the conflict in the Middle East. From the 18th of April, prices from our plastic piping and fitting supply will increase across the following categories.” Now, you know this is going to happen — there’s going to be hundreds of developers and builders that could be — Christina Markoski Going broke very soon again, like over COVID. George Markoski Yeah. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski Because if they’ve got tight margins and they don’t buy everything before the 18th of April, they’re screwed. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski Right. And like we’re doing — I’m doing a big project with Adam in Queensland, and we have to get some piping, and now we’re trying to rush and buy some in Melbourne. I’m going to have to export it all to Queensland, because in Queensland we’ve got to wait a year to get it. Christina Markoski Get in before the price hike. George Markoski It’s just very hard to get. It’s almost impossible to even get. Christina Markoski So it’s really difficult to build properties right now. George Markoski Very difficult. Christina Markoski And it’s only going to get harder. George Markoski That’s a letter from one supplier. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski That just came out a couple of days ago. Right. So basically, the investors that hold on — just what I feel like at the moment, have you seen Braveheart? And they’re about to fight the English and they’re all there getting motivated, and Wallace is going, “Hold, hold.” And I feel like saying that to all our members and all the people in property at the moment. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski This is what I feel like saying — hold, don’t sell, hold, buy property before they go up again. Christina Markoski Absolutely. George Markoski Because there’s going to be a massive shortage. We’ve had a lot of immigration. Adam Vella just wrote, “300,000 immigration from June in Australia.” Right. And I’ve been talking about a massive problem with property supply for how long now? I’ve been talking about this for seven, eight years straight. Christina Markoski Ten years, at least ten years. George Markoski And I’ve been like a broken record, haven’t I? And the thing is, you’d think after ten years we would have sorted this out in Australia. Like, come on. Right. I didn’t expect it to last this long. I really thought by mid-2025 we would have sorted out this whole supply issue of property. Christina Markoski I almost feel like it gets worse every year, though. George Markoski It does. And what’s happening now with the Middle East war and the inflation, it’s going to put a lot of builders out. We’ve had more builders go broke in the last five years than — Christina Markoski How do we navigate that, George, and stay safe to make sure that we’re getting a property that’s actually going to be completed? George Markoski Yeah, exactly. Well, you’ve got to be careful, because this is the challenge. Right. Some of the biggest builders in Australia went broke, a lot of the smaller ones went broke. So what we do with Adam — and I’m getting Adam on next week to talk about how to stay safe — we’re doing a whole session on that. Christina Markoski Oh, okay. That’s a whole other episode. George Markoski We’re going to do a whole session on that. But just to give you a bit of an idea, the amount of due diligence we do — we keep an eye on our builders, and what’s important is knowing their margins. Because builders that have got margins that are too tight, they’re finished. Right? They’re finished. Because if you’ve got tight margins and piping’s gone up 30%, you’re done. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski But when you give too much, it’s too much of a margin too. So that’s one of the other things — when we negotiate with builders and developers, we don’t negotiate down to the bone. We want a win situation, with them having enough money to finish the project. Right. Christina Markoski Complete the house. George Markoski Yeah. That’s been our philosophy over the last ten years. Before — you know, 20 years ago, it was different. Right. They had lots of margin and we tried to get the best deal possible all the time, but once there were other challenges, right, then it’s very different. The fact of it is, so basically what’s happening now is we’re going to have a lowering of demand for property for a brief period. Christina Markoski Right, okay. George Markoski This is a great opportunity to actually be able to get properties that we can get 100% behind. The thing is though, you’ve got to be very careful and you’ve got to get the right builder, because a lot of them are going to go broke if they haven’t got their act together. You’ve got to get someone that’s really organised, because a lot of builders are good at building but they’re not good at running a business. And you need to deal with someone that’s really good at running a business and has got it down pat and fine-tuned. Because in order to run a successful building company in 2025 in Australia, you’re going to have to be very good. You can’t be average. Right. In the old days, anyone could run a building company and make money. Christina Markoski It takes a lot more skill now. George Markoski Yeah. And you don’t want to deal with a builder that doesn’t know how to make money, because they won’t be around — they won’t be able to foresee all this. So the fact of it is, the market’s going to slow down, right? And this gives us a little breathing space to accumulate property while we can. So basically the market is going to get compressed, and there probably won’t be a lot of growth in the short term. But when there’s a lack of growth in the short term, there’s a big bounce back, right? It’s going to bounce right back. Christina Markoski With the Brisbane Olympics just around the corner, are there opportunities in New South Wales and South Queensland? George Markoski The Olympics — we’ve taken a lot of that opportunity already. It’s already been priced in now. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski That’s the fact of it. But basically there’s going to be two types of people at the end of all this, right? There’s going to be the people that follow the principles, right, that don’t sit there and watch the headlines. Right. Because if you watch the news too closely and get nervous at the wrong moment, right, it makes you stay out of the market or sell. That’s the thing you have to be careful of, right? Christina Markoski You’re being guided by fear rather than facts. George Markoski That’s right. But it’s very easy, especially if you’re not part of a community like ours, to be guided by that. Exactly. Very easy. Christina Markoski That’s why being educated and knowing what’s really happening is so important. George Markoski Yeah. And look what’s happening in the world — like we had COVID, and now suddenly governments are telling people to stay home again. It’s a different reason, but the same sort of policy. There’s a lot of countries now telling people to stay home and work from home. Now, I’ve been saying commercial property is dead for a long time, and there’s another nail in the coffin of commercial property, right? Because if people don’t have enough fuel to get to work, they’re going to have to work from home. Christina Markoski They can’t go to work — too expensive. George Markoski We’ve got our oil supply and diesel supplies — 20 years of mismanagement in the making. All these oil tankers and refineries that we’ve had — we haven’t, we need to be a bit more self-sufficient and have more oil stores. Christina Markoski Is this a good time to own an electric car? George Markoski No, it’s never a good time to own an electric car when you don’t have — Christina Markoski To pay for petrol. George Markoski Sorry, what makes electricity, Christina? Christina Markoski What makes electricity? Yeah, exactly. George Markoski Oil, gas. Right, so energy is — electricity doesn’t come from nowhere. Renewables just don’t do the job. Right. A lot of people sit with me at the moment, but renewables are not the answer. People think they are. Right. Renewables are only good for certain things. Wind and solar are unreliable, and for a lot of stuff, you don’t need it. Right. It’s a good time to have some panels. Christina Markoski And a battery. George Markoski And a battery, yeah. Christina Markoski Because without the battery, prices are up as well. George Markoski Yeah, exactly. And electricity prices are up as well. That’s the problem. Christina Markoski Right, so it’s going to cost you more to charge your Tesla. George Markoski That’s right, exactly. And you see what happens to the price of Teslas when they get sold secondhand — they drop significantly. The thing is, the most expensive part of an electric car is the battery, and batteries only last a certain number of cycles. I mean, that’s why I change my iPhone every year — because by the time a year’s gone, since I use my phone so much, it doesn’t last that long, doesn’t charge. And electric cars don’t go far anyway. Imagine what happens when your battery is worn out after a couple of years. Right, so — we’ll see food prices go up along with everything else, with shortages potentially triggering panic buying. I see the supply line starting to shift, with fuel levy fees beginning to roll in. We’re bracing for the supply issues. Yep, it’s true. George Markoski Okay — “For a first acquisition in the current 2026 climate, which submarkets offer the highest potential for both rental yield stability and capital growth?” Good question. Look, the thing is, if you want high rental yield and high growth, you can’t get both. You always have to balance it out. It’s an equation. Because think about this — it’s a bit like growth is bulking and rental yield is shredding. And if you’re into bodybuilding, you can’t grow and shred at the same time. Not possible. And there’s always a trade-off. So what needs to happen when you’re buying property is you need to have that trade-off in mind, about what you’re looking for. But the real money in property is made through capital growth. That’s where the money is. Right. And it’s just a matter of which market you go into. George Markoski And basically that’s why we’ve got the top 100. Because blue-chip properties, even though they’ve got good capital growth, they’re the ones that drop quickly during a crisis. And that’s the other challenge. Right. So when there’s a crisis, apartments and blue-chip get hit. But when you’ve got the top 100, where there’s a lack of supply and lots of competition, that’s where you make the money. So you’re not looking for rental stability — yes, rental stability is going to happen in most places anyway, right — but you chase a property for the capital growth, and when the growth goes up, the rent goes up, and as you hold the property longer, rentals stabilise. Yeah, that’s what’s happening. George Markoski So the fact of it is, fear is false expectations appearing real, because people think it’s the end of the world — end of the petrodollar, end of this, end of that. But look, the world’s gone through a lot of crises over the — Christina Markoski Years, and they’re going to continue. George Markoski They’re going to continue no matter what. Usually what happens, we get back to baseline and it’s back to business as usual. Yeah, that’s the fact of it. Right. Christina Markoski Rinse and repeat. George Markoski So the important thing is you’ve got to focus on the fundamentals and do the fundamentals well. And you’ve got to hold and not sell and not panic and not try to time the market, and have the courage to invest bit by bit, building your portfolio of freedom. That’s how you build freedom. Right. You build freedom through building a portfolio. And the fact of it is, the short-term property market — what happens in the short term is not that important. What’s important is what’s going to happen long term. But here are the facts. Looking at what’s happening with oil — whatever property you buy now, you will not be able to build that same property again in the future. Christina Markoski Not for the same price. No way. George Markoski Not for the same price. So properties go up in three different ways. They go up because the land goes up. They also go up because building costs cost more, and they go up because of demand. There are three different levers there, right? And the fact of it is, demand is very strong and building costs are going up. So you’ve got those two things. Is land going up? Not necessarily. I’ll tell you why — it’s already gone up quite a bit. I don’t know if it’s got many places to go at the moment. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski You’ve got pressure from the other two areas pushing in. Right. That’s the fact of it. Because a lot of people think there’s money in land, but there’s money in property, not land. Sometimes the land goes up, but really there are three things that push property up, not just one thing. And you want all three. But really, scarcity is the one thing that pushes property prices up. And you’ve got to look at the long-term supply of an area and see what happens there. That’s the important thing. So what I want to do is share a video of one of our members, Barry Magliarditi. He came along to our two-day workshop and I presented him the Katana of Freedom. George Markoski And why his story is so good is because when he met us, he’d been investing for quite a while and wasn’t getting anywhere. He joined our program, and then COVID hit. A lot of people were worried about COVID and pulled out of the marketplace. But there were certain people, like Barry, who stayed the course and kept accumulating property. And it’s really good for everyone to see what happened with him, to see what happens when things like this happen. Christina Markoski Someone who’s been through that crisis and what they’ve done in their situation. George Markoski That’s right. Barry Magliarditi You never lose money while you’re holding on. I mean, and that equates into crypto, it equates into shares, it equates to property as well — that if you buy in the right area, right, whether you get the timing right or not, if you hold on long enough, you’re going to make money. George Markoski Time fixes all problems, if you can hold on. Barry Magliarditi Yeah, land is the one thing that God’s not making any more of. It’s a scarce resource. It’s very good for making money, but I never had any — I wasn’t very good at keeping it. George Markoski The Katana — now, the people that get the Katana are a rare breed, because these people think outside the square, they’re confident, and they just do what they need to do. And Barry’s one of those people. I’ve known Barry for a long time, and I consider him a friend. I’d love to have a bit of a chat to you about your journey before we present the Katana. So — $2.5 million profit, and Barry’s retired. So what do you reckon? That deserves some love. Okay. So Barry, I met Barry at a business thing with Taki. Right. We’re both part of the same group, a really good group of people, and I’m thankful for that, because we met a lot of people and you and I had a good rapport. We stayed in touch. George Markoski Then Barry was doing business training, and I joined Barry’s program. Barry’s got an excellent business, he’s really smart and has helped me do a lot of stuff. And a lot of the stuff you’ve seen me do this weekend, I’ve learned from Barry. Right. So it’s pretty cool, so thank you for that. And then while we’re at the business thing, we were talking about our guarantees, and I talked about our guarantee at the time. And then a lot of people in your course said, “This is good.” Barry said, “George, let’s go have lunch.” And he said, “I’m in.” And actually, a lot of people in your business group ended up joining our program because of you. You joined and you didn’t muck around. You came in, just got Capalaba, then got Durack, got Burpengary, Sippy Downs, just kept going. George Markoski So what gave you the confidence and everything else to just do this and just get in there, you know? Because a lot of people find that difficult. Barry Magliarditi I guess for me, one thing I realised for a long time is I was very good at making money, but I never had any. I wasn’t very good at keeping it. And so my ability to create business and generate cash flow was great, but I had nowhere to move it. And I remember something that my grandfather said to me when I was very young. He said, “Barry, land is the one thing that God’s not making any more of. It’s a scarce resource.” And I started to look down the path of property. I mean, I’d gone into crypto, into shares, into different business ventures, a whole bunch of get-rich-quick things, and some paid off, and some paid off well, and many didn’t. Barry Magliarditi But another mentor of mine said, “Barry, you want to have a business that’s boring.” Like, a business that’s boring becomes like an ATM. You can still make a difference and do a lot of cool things, but to have that consistency of cash flow for you and for your family, and for what you can invest back into your community as well — like that’s the ultimate, not this drama cycle. And so I worked hard on getting my company to that level. Came across you, and a few things you said — I was like, “You can get me ten properties in ten years?” And you said, “Absolutely, if you have this first deposit, we can get there.” I bought a property with my brother just after a bankruptcy period 20 years ago, and it didn’t move for eight years. Barry Magliarditi Every time we checked in, it just didn’t change. After the eighth year it went up, but it’s a long time to sit on it. And I met you, and I said, “I trust you. Just like you trust me in business, I trust you — tell me which property to go after.” And we got Capalaba, and I don’t know, right place, right time. The first three were the most difficult, just to wrangle with banks and cash flow and how things were going to happen. But then the equity started growing significantly. George Markoski Well, Capalaba, remember, was up $40,000 as soon as you bought it. Barry Magliarditi Yeah. George Markoski Which was great. Barry Magliarditi Yeah, I got a little bit caught on Burpengary, because that was during COVID — they were building it, and a lot of the timber prices and things went up, and there was a clause in the contract that allowed them to do that. But even still, the moment construction was finished, it was $80,000 up on what I paid for it. George Markoski Yep. Barry Magliarditi So again, right place, right time, having George’s knowledge around where to purchase. And for me, it was never a short game. I was always playing the long game. And I think that’s where people get caught — they want to go in for short-term cash flow, and they see other people making gains in crypto or other things and feel like they’re missing out. But the way to make money is by never losing it. George Markoski Absolutely. Barry Magliarditi And with the dollars that you make, it’s about finding a way that they can compound to pay for your lifestyle. So for me, I built as far as I could, and then my situation changed. I decided to leave Australia and move here to Bali. I kept riding the Australian bank system as long as I could, because I was soon becoming a non-tax-paying resident, so I borrowed to my maximum. And then what I learned from this process with you is I learned to start seeing deals and understanding things. And I was lucky enough to be here during COVID, when the locals would take almost anything for property here. So I managed to take a lot of that knowledge from you. Barry Magliarditi But I changed the model a little bit and went into renovations here, bought a few properties, did some renovations, and then happened to sell at the right time as the borders opened back up and things went crazy. So I kept on compounding. George Markoski Leapfrogging your money over and over. Barry Magliarditi And I ended up selling out of a few in Australia, moving the money into some incredible freehold land here and in Western Bali, which are two projects I’m working on. George Markoski Because you’re doing some big projects in Bali now too. Yeah. Barry Magliarditi Pretty exciting too. George Markoski Yeah. Barry Magliarditi So for me, again, I guess one of the keys was to have a long-term focus. As long as I just stuck to the path, kept doing my day job, kept earning money and having this vehicle to move it into, the market’s going to go up. Something else my grandfather said is, you never lose money while you’re holding on. I mean, and that equates into crypto, it equates into shares, it equates to property as well — if you buy in the right area, right, whether you get the timing right or not, if you hold on long enough, you’re going to make money. Time fixes all problems, if you can hold on. George Markoski Yeah. Excellent, excellent. So let’s give them some love — one, two, three. And what’s your lifestyle now? What are you doing — surfing, cruising around, spiritual development? Barry Magliarditi I very much don’t have a calendar or an agenda. I wake up and do what I want, which is one thing I said in the beginning — I wanted to have the freedom to do what I want, when I want, with who I want, how I want. But in saying that, I’m working on a pretty big wellness sanctuary up in Jatiluwih. I’ve got a few hectares of freehold land that’s right next to a really beautiful water temple, and we’re working with the locals to create this sacred space that harmonises between the Western style of tourism and bringing in money, but keeping it sustainable with the farming, the land and the locals as well. George Markoski So you’re really moving into purposeful work, things that serve your purpose, getting up without an alarm — is that pretty cool? And then doing a massive project that you really love and want to do — would you consider that financial freedom? Barry Magliarditi Yeah. Don’t look at others and judge yourself, because often on social media we see people’s highlight reels — we don’t see the whole story. And often when we see someone, we’re judging their eighth chapter against our first chapter of the journey. Age is not defined by the chapters of life. But you guys being here, showing up and continuing to take action, and finding yourselves in a room with people that are smarter than you and have something to offer — over time, again, time fixes everything. But for me, looking back, I’d be so much further ahead if I wasn’t so impatient. When I was younger, I lost a lot of money by just being impatient and trying to ride the next big thing, rather than having a strategy that allowed me to go and do what I love doing. But I knew that a percentage of my money was going into my property portfolio, and that was growing. Barry Magliarditi So that’s a big part of what’s brought me to here now. And I’m grateful that our paths crossed a few times. George Markoski Yeah, it’s awesome. And now in Bali as well, we get to hang out, right? Awesome. So I want everyone to show Barry some love — one, two, three. It’s my honour to present you the Katana of Freedom. George Markoski Okay, I didn’t realise I had a few swear words — we have to beep those out, because this is going on our podcast. Oh my God. That was at the end of our two-day workshop. He built a $5 million to $6 million property portfolio, and most of that was during COVID. Yeah. Christina Markoski That’s amazing. George Markoski The thing is, he had the confidence to keep going and hold on, where a lot of people were scared and didn’t do anything. And literally those properties that he got during COVID made a massive difference to him, because now he’s retired, and it’s really good to see. Because that’s what we’re about. See, the thing is, people think they want to retire, but really, most of the people that have graduated from our program — what they’ve done is they’ve left work, they haven’t retired, but they’ve done something they love. He’s building that wellness sanctuary. We’ve got other people travelling the world. We’ve got a couple driving around Australia, cruising around and doing cool things. So it’s very exciting to see what people are doing as well. Christina Markoski 100%. George Markoski Yeah. Christina Markoski Living the dream. They’ve done the hard yards, they’ve worked their whole lives, they’ve invested smartly, invested in property, and now they’re reaping the rewards of that. George Markoski Yeah, exactly. And the thing is, the biggest thing with property is the mindset thing. It’s all about mindset. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski And that’s what people have to realise, because we’re not taught to do this at school or in society. Right. That’s the fact of it. What we’re doing is different, and people are scared of it. People think it’s a cult — buying ten properties in ten years, that sort of stuff. Right. When I started investing in property, people kept telling me, “Be careful, the market’s going to go down.” Everyone thought they were an expert, right, and kept giving me advice. And even after I had ten properties, people tried to give me advice on how to invest in property. You know what I mean? Crazy. The thing is, you only want to listen to people that are good at what they do. Christina Markoski Right. George Markoski At the end of the day, if someone wants to teach me how to become a millionaire, they’d better be a millionaire themselves. I don’t want to learn from someone that’s read a book about it and is going to tell me how to become a millionaire when he’s not one himself, and hasn’t actually taught other people. Right. So that’s the fact of it. So what you really want to do is learn from people that are excellent at what they do — Christina Markoski And who have the results that you aspire to have. George Markoski Yeah. I mean, let’s say you wanted to go skydiving — would you Google who’s the cheapest skydiver in town and go there? Christina Markoski Absolutely not. George Markoski Would you skydive with someone that’s read a book about it and is going to try to teach you? Christina Markoski I’d be Googling the safest, most experienced. George Markoski That’s right, exactly. That’s what I mean. So people go out there and hire a buyer’s agent, and a buyer’s agent’s done an eight-week course and may not have even bought any property for themselves, and then they’re using this buyer’s agent to get a property. It’s like getting a skydiver that’s done a course in skydiving but hasn’t actually skydived. Because you want someone that’s not only successfully skydived themselves, but helped other people do the same. With that analogy, I’ve helped 3,500 people skydive. And I guess, look, part of investing in property is having that faith and being able to do that. Right, because there needs to be some level of trust with who you’re working with. Because if you don’t trust who you’re working with, it’s going to be hard for you. But you’ve got to trust yourself, and you’ve got to get past the normal fear of what happens in the news cycle, in the community and everything else. Christina Markoski It does take courage. But having someone who’s got the experience to help guide you through each step really takes the pressure off and removes all of that fear, so you can just know exactly what to do. George Markoski I’ve been through every crisis there’s been over the last 20 years investing in property. I’ve been through all of them. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski And the fact of it is, if you stick to the principles and you don’t panic-buy, you don’t sit on your hands and wait for that perfect timing — Christina Markoski Or make excuses. George Markoski That’s what you’ve got to do. To be successful in property, you’ve got to follow the fundamentals and do them really well — just the fundamentals, no shortcuts, and take the emotion out of it. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski Right. That’s the fact of it. Because there’s a lot of people now wanting to sell — I know, because every crisis, people want to sell. Now I’m here to tell those people, don’t be stupid. Right. That’s the fact of it. Christina Markoski Especially if you’ve just bought a property. I mean, that’s crazy. That’s the worst time to sell. George Markoski Yeah. Well, the sooner you sell a property, the less money you make out of it. The longer you hold it, the more money you make. That’s the fact of it. Christina Markoski So that’s why our strategy’s always been buy and hold. George Markoski Exactly. Long term, that’s what it is. Because properties double every seven, ten or twelve years. Right. Over the last 50 years, they’ve averaged around 7% per year, just over that. That’s the fact of it. Just look at the long-term numbers — that’s all you’ve got to look at. Christina Markoski Yeah, absolutely. George Markoski So once you’ve done it a few times, you get less fear. And once you’ve done it as many times as me, you’ve got no fear at all. But it’s a matter of getting comfortable with it. You know, when you go to the gym, the first time you go it’s uncomfortable. First time you buy a property, it’s uncomfortable. Second time it’s easier. Third and fourth time, even easier. That’s the fact of it. So I guess my message to everyone out there is, don’t get scared by the headlines. Right. What you need to do is look long term and do the fundamentals. And as long as you follow the fundamentals, you’re going to be fine. Christina Markoski 100%. What’s a good ROI on an investment? George Markoski Good question — what’s a good ROI on investment? Well, Adam, I know what you’ve got in your investment, and your ROI is massive. Actually, I’ve got a slide with Adam on there. Christina Markoski So we have to go through the numbers and have a look. George Markoski Let’s open up Adam’s slide and put Adam on. How’s that? Christina Markoski We’ve actually got Adam this week as a case study. George Markoski So, Adam, I’ve got a slide. Okay, let’s look at this. Adam, hello, Adam, how are you? Adam Vella Hello, George. Hey, Christina. George Markoski Let’s look at Northgate. He settled in 2024, purchased for $430,000. Deposit $43,000. Current value $583,000. So capital growth on that is $153,000 in one year. $153,000 in one year — good ROI. Adam Vella Well, yeah, I like that, mate. Even though it’s in the SMSF and I can’t draw the equity on it, it’s a good little earner there. George Markoski Byford’s almost — I don’t know, this doesn’t make sense. Byford, purchase of $170,000? I don’t think so. Adam Vella No. $290,000. George Markoski $290,000, was it? Adam Vella $329,000, I think it was. I’ve been going through those figures. George Markoski So, team, I need to get the full story. Oh, is that just the land cost only? Oh, you paid $170,000. Adam Vella Land cost was $170,000. Yeah. George Markoski And now the land’s worth $325,000. Adam Vella Wow, now that’s good. George Markoski So, Adam, you’ve got three properties. Just these two properties alone have made you over $300,000 in one year. That ROI is pretty amazing. Adam Vella It is, George. Yeah, we’re sort of working through it, and with the cost of things going up, it has put a bit of pressure on it. We’re still waiting for the completion of Byford, but there are constraints everywhere, so you’ve just got to batten down the hatches and keep — rule number one is making more money, so we can just keep that ticking over. George Markoski Yeah, that’s pretty amazing if you ask me, because most people, to make $300,000 in one year, would have to work more than one year to make that, because the average wage in Australia — what’s the average wage in Australia? Anyone know? Adam Vella I think it’s about — what is it, about $1,200? Is it a week? $1,200 to $1,500? George Markoski Probably, maybe — probably $70,000 to $80,000 a year. And you’ve made quadruple that in one year. So that’s the difference between making passive income and working for income, and that’s why investing is so important. The thing is, though, it’s equity, so you can’t just grab that money easily. So it’s not — you know what I mean, we all understand that. However, that money will eventually end up in your hands in one form or another anyway, because as the equity goes up, you get rent for the equity you haven’t paid for, and that’s how you make your profit year in, year out as the equity goes up. Adam Vella But the ultimate goal is to actually utilise that equity and keep it moving, because you don’t really want to just grab the equity and use it for holidays or things like that. You want to put it into the next investment, keep it moving, keep rolling it over. And the rent keeps that going. So we’re just about there, and I can just see things flying by the end of this year. If I’m on that yacht and things are working — and it’s working well at the moment, which I’m looking forward to, heading up to the Gold Coast. George Markoski It’s going to be great. I look forward to the super yacht. Christina Markoski I have to cheers the champagne with you, Adam, when I see you. Adam Vella And you too, George and Christina. George Markoski Yes. Adam Vella Great year for you. It’s a big year, that’s for sure. George Markoski It’s a very big year. I bought a beautiful bottle of champagne at duty free, and we’re going to crack that open when Christina gives birth, because that’s going to be the first champagne she’s had for a long time. Adam Vella Fantastic. Well, I’ll tell you a funny story. We got married and had a child, all in the one year. George Markoski Wow, you’re kidding. Adam Vella Yeah, it was a massive year. That was 21 years ago. George Markoski 21 years ago. So you’ve got a 21-year-old? Adam Vella Yep. George Markoski Boy, girl? Adam Vella Two boys. George Markoski Lovely. Adam Vella Yeah, one’s 21, one’s 18. George Markoski So nice. Adam Vella I’m trying to guide them into this, but they want to live their lives. I said, okay, I’ll just keep knuckling down, and when they’re ready to learn these things, we can. I don’t want to hand it to them, but I want them to have the right knowledge. George Markoski You can bring them to the Gold Coast. Adam Vella Well, yeah, I’d like to actually. George Markoski I’m motivated, Adam. A few people brought their kids last time, I think. Adam Vella Have I? Yeah, yeah, to Bali. George Markoski Yeah, yeah. I really think bringing them to the event could be a good idea, because you’ve got to get switched on somewhere. Because what happened was when I was 17, I read Think and Grow Rich. Adam Vella Yes. George Markoski And I was like, wow, I’d like to get rich. I was sold. Right. Adam Vella I’ve got that on audiobook, but it’s actually gone now — I can’t find it, must have got deleted somewhere along the way. But I’ve got Kiyosaki on there too, so I do the quantum investing thing, you know, just to help with the knowledge and stuff like that. Yeah, that’s good. George Markoski Okay, fantastic. Excellent. Awesome. Thanks for sharing. What would you say to people at the moment that have got a bit of fear and are a bit scared? Adam Vella What I’d say is, just keep focused, keep yourself busy and just keep positive. That’s all we can do in this day and age. Try not to go with the mainstream, stick to your own focus. That’s what I’m trying to do. It’s been a pretty big year for us, and I’m sort of just thinking forward — planning to redevelop and stuff like that. So I’m looking at other avenues for once I do get that equity, what I want to do with it. Adam Vella We’ve got Botanic on target for September, so there’s a lot coming up, and it’s sort of hinging off Byford. So I’m a little bit nervous, just keeping positive and sending out emails, trying to keep pushing things over there. But if the worst case scenario comes, I’ll have to dive into the equity in our own home — which I didn’t really want to do, but if I need to, that’s a bit of a backstop, a plan B, so to speak. So there’s always ways around it. George Markoski Exactly, exactly. And I think, look, equity in your home does nothing anyway. Adam Vella No, well, that’s right. And that’s the thing — you’ve got to get it working. And that’s why it’s called a currency these days. It’s not just a dollar, it’s a currency — it’s out there moving. You’ve got to keep it moving. George Markoski Money needs to flow. Money has to flow. Adam Vella That’s right. Yeah, the thing is — George Markoski Yeah. So thanks for reminding me of that — that’s what I want to talk about tonight, money in the bank and how bad that is at the moment. Okay. Adam Vella And it’s changing people’s mindset too, isn’t it? We’ve all been brought up on that mindset of working and saving the money, but then we want to go on holidays and stuff like that. But it just doesn’t work like that, because you just keep going around that circle. Christina Markoski Investing is such an important key to success, especially if you want to get out of that nine-to-five or get out of your day job. You’ve just got to make sure you take a certain percentage of that money and put it into investments. That’s your key to true passive income and gives you that financial freedom. Adam Vella That’s right. So, like, I’ve actually had a slow few weeks at work, so I’ve been at home, and I love being at home because I’m free to dive into the things that I love. And I can see, this is where I’m going, then that’s where I want to be — home, to create. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s actually finding that right thing to do for yourself, and that’s where it is. Because making money for other people, the job and all that, you’re spending too much time for the amount that you get. It’s just not right. And with the increase in inflation and stuff like that, it’s better just to grow your veggies in the backyard and eat the tomatoes. George Markoski Grow that way, I agree. Agreed. Excellent. Adam, thanks for sharing. I appreciate it. Cheers. Adam Vella Good on you, George. George Markoski But what I was going to say is, what Adam was saying is pretty important, you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, there are two types of income you can make. Right. There’s active income, and that’s when you’ve got to work — when you trade time for dollars, that’s active income. And then there’s the other part, which is passive income, and that’s when your assets make you money. And those two things are worlds apart. And what I suggest is, when you have active income, when you’re working for money, you need to save every cent and build that up so you can create passive income, because that’s the money that’s working for you. There’s a different phase you’re in at different times. George Markoski When you’re first starting out, you’ve got to save as much as you can and invest as much as you can. That’s what you do. Once your investments start making money, then you can start enjoying life. And once you’ve replaced your income through property — and that should be your number one goal — that’s when you create freedom. And that’s when you really find out what you were here to do, what you were born to do, almost. I really believe that. How do we find out what our calling is if we never create a passive income? I don’t think you can, because you’ve got to work, and you’ve got to do things, and your life is full. George Markoski But once you create passive income, you can almost find your purpose, because it — Christina Markoski Gives you the time freedom to have that headspace, to explore what your true passions are. George Markoski Yeah. And then you find your true purpose. Christina Markoski Yeah. George Markoski And go along that path. I find that infinitely more interesting. But there was this whole FIRE movement — financial independence, retire early — that was a massive movement. And I really feel that movement has had its day. I believe there’s something more important than that. I don’t think the future is about financial independence, retire early. I think it’s financial independence, find what you love, find your passion. Financial independence, find what your true purpose is, and do little experiments, right, and find that out. I believe that’s what the future is, because we’re all going to live longer. I retired in my 30s and I got bored after two years, right. And now I’ve got Positive Property, and sometimes it’s stressful and I’m like, “Why did I do this?” And other times I love it. George Markoski But I’ll be honest with you, I love the challenge, and I need a challenge. That’s me. And I was talking to you the other day, Christina — I’m so busy all the time, I’d love to not be as busy, but I know if I wasn’t as busy, I’d find something to keep me busy, because that’s just me. So it’s not going to happen — I’ll always enjoy being busy, you know what I mean? Passive income releases purpose and passion. Thanks for the inspo, Kathy. Yes, absolutely, I totally believe that, and I think that’s what we’re here to do. But I really believe there’s the time for saving, and there’s the time for using your passive income and enjoying it. George Markoski Because what happens is some people get caught up in saving and investing, and they make all this money and they never actually spend it. And I personally think that’s wrong. I think there’s hustle culture, save culture, invest culture — and I think you create what you need, and then enjoy it. You don’t necessarily need to create more than what you need, because once you’ve got a portfolio of properties, they’re going to go up every year, and your income is going to go up every year anyway. That’s the beauty of it. So you might think, “Okay, I’m going to replace my income,” but then the next year you’re actually making more money. With your wage, it doesn’t go up as much as inflation — it never does. George Markoski But your passive income normally tracks with inflation, and actually inflates as it goes up — that’s the other beautiful thing about it. So Martin Trent said, “What do you do when build costs are high and you’re running low on borrowing capacity?” Martin, it’s very difficult at the moment, it’s just challenging, and what has to happen is you just need to push from every angle — save more, make more, create that space. Christina Markoski If you haven’t looked into this option, this could be an idea — looking into the Super 6 option. George Markoski Yeah, there are a lot of different options, but what needs to happen is you need to be creative. You need to build that property empire somehow. Because the challenge is, it’s not going to get any easier than it is now. Sorry, that’s wrong — when they drop interest rates, it’s going to get easier, but that’s the only time it gets easier. So it’s better to do it now, when it’s not as easy. It’s really hard at the moment to get a property. That’s the fact of it. Christina Markoski Really, a lot of competition. George Markoski Yes. But the thing is, when interest rates drop, it’s going to make it easier for you once you’ve already got the property anyway. And they’re saying rates are going to go up — you know what my take is? Governments around the world are going to have to do something. What did they do during COVID? Christina Markoski Cut interest rates. George Markoski Yeah, but they did something first. And what they did is the government cuts interest rates when they want to borrow a lot of money. You know why? Because if interest rates go down, they can borrow more money and it costs less money. Does that make sense? How smart is that, right, if you’re the government? Christina Markoski They’re doing it for their own benefit, in other words. George Markoski Yes, exactly. So you borrow this money, you reduce rates so you don’t have to pay as much. Idea — we sure could do that, right? I love that. During COVID there were some countries in northern Europe that had a negative interest rate. Christina Markoski Wow. George Markoski Right? They paid you to borrow money. Christina Markoski That’s crazy. George Markoski Yes. But not only that, they charged you money to have money in your account. Christina Markoski Oh my God. George Markoski But you know why? Because money sitting in an account doesn’t do anything for society. Right. Christina Markoski Isn’t that what banks do anyway, with bank fees? George Markoski No, no, they use that money — they use it a lot. But money that just sits around doesn’t do anything. Money needs to flow for the economy to work. And if everyone’s got their money in the bank and no one’s spending, that’s deflation, that’s stagnation. Right. So the funny thing is, you’ve got to keep that money rolling, keep it moving. So I would guess that, even though they’re saying they’re going to put rates up again, once this inflation hits a bit harder, the world’s central banks are going to print a lot of money. They call it quantitative easing — nice way of saying print a lot of money. What’s that going to do? It’s going to create a lot more inflation, but it’s going to keep the money flowing and keep everything moving. George Markoski Because the stock market’s been going down, and they hate it when the stock market goes down. And the best way to keep the stock market up is to print more money and make money less valuable. That pushes up stocks, which is going to push up property. So it wouldn’t surprise me if we see another round of quantitative easing, interest rates drop and they print a lot of money. Let’s see what happens. Christina Markoski Get ready for it. George Markoski I’ll keep everyone updated and see what happens. Christina Markoski Beautiful. Won’t that make money worth less, though? George Markoski Yes, it will. It will make money worth less — that’s what they do. That’s the fact of it. The worst place to have money is in the bank, because inflation eats away your money. But inflation eats away everything. Christina Markoski That’s why we put it in property. George Markoski Yeah, that’s right. So anyway, just want to thank everyone for joining us tonight. Claudia said, unless it’s in your offset, then you’re making a good percentage — I love it, and that’s what we want, our money offset earning good money, not a rubbish interest rate. So next week I’m getting Adam Albright on, and we’re going to go through what’s happening in the building industry. We’re going to talk about what’s happening with builders and developments. Our development has already cost us more because of this — we’re trying to buy piping straight away, but we’re not going to be able to get everything we need, just a bit of it. But the fact of it is, everything’s gone up. George Markoski There’s going to be a deep dive on what’s happening with construction companies, with developers — who’s going to fall down, who’s going to stay, what we do, how we keep safe. It’s going to be very good. Christina Markoski Cool, that’s exciting. George Markoski Just want to thank everyone, thank you so much for watching us. Look forward to seeing you next Thursday night. Christina Markoski Thanks for joining us tonight. Have a great one. Bye-bye.