property investing advice for a beginner, page-44

Depends on your position . Ultimately do you just want to own these three properties and retire ? Or do you want to keep going and buy more ? If you're younger you might be happy to keep working for 10 years ? If you're older , you want to pay them off and kick back ? There's no right or wrong answer here . It's more about what suits your situation .

If you can easily pay P&I then you can easily afford to buy more property . Have you considered that ?

I have an interest only loan with an offset account . So , while I'm maximising my leverage through IO , I'm accumulating cash in my savings account which offsets the amount I owe . So , in a roundabout way , it is P & I but it's a bit more flexible .

I have been doing this for a couple of reasons .

I wanted to build a new house so while I was saving up the money , it made sense to have that money offset my interest bill .

The last couple of years I wasn't real confident in the future of the economy so instead of buying more property ( or shares ) I thought I'd reduce a bit of debt . While I probably missed a bit of opportunity in real estate , I didn't want to increase my risk because I reckon I have enough stuff anyway .

Now that I believe the future looks brighter for the economy ( world ) I am starting to lean toward borrowing more . I am paying a fair bit of tax ( a consequence of being positively geared ) so I figure I might as well invest it in myself . I don't try and pick the peaks in property , I'm a long term investor so anytime to buy is a good time for me as long as I think the property is right .