What would an extra $1,000/year mean for your life? Maybe it would mean that you wouldn’t have to stress about your car’s registration each year, or you could have an extra weekend away each year. Maybe you could buy a new TV, or go out to expensive restaurants a couple of times per year.
There is a lot you can do for $1,000 and many investors can easily increase their rental income by $1,000/year. This is just a simple rental increase of $20/week and in most cases this is extremely achievable.
I don’t want to go into detail about how you can increase your rental income because I have already done this in my post 10 Ways To Increase Your Rental Income For Under $1,000 but what I do want to do is to start getting the cogs in your mind churning about the possibility of increasing your income.
I want you to begin looking at your investment as an investment and to look at ways you can get more from your investment. I want you to do the following 2 exercises.
1. Close your eyes and imagine exactly what you would do this year with that extra $1,000. How would it impact your lifestyle? Would it simply mean paying less towards your mortgage because the rent now covers it. Would it mean living a little bit more lavishly?
How would this extra $1,000 make you feel? Maybe a little bit more financially secure. Maybe it would make your feel hopeful for future rental increases. Maybe it would make you that little bit less stressed.
2. Now I want you to look at your investment portfolio (or if you don’t have one look at your life) and write down 5 ways you can increase your income by $1,000/year (just $20/week) immediately. These need to be actions you can take right away.
Maybe it will be as simple as getting your real estate agent to increase your rental income by $20 at the next opportunity. Or maybe you can plan some renovations for when the current tenant ends their lease. Maybe you can move your loan to interest only to decrease investment expenses and thus increase your income. I don’t have all the answers, but you do.
Come up with 5 things now that you can do to increase your income by $1,000 and do at least one of them. If you find that this doesn’t work then move down your list and do each one until your income goes up.
Always be thinking about ways you can maximise the income you receive from your investments. Just doing this one thing will make you a more successful investor and it will allow you to buy more property, get richer quicker and retire early.