How to Create Realistic Real Estate Investment Goals as a Couple

Life by Design

In this episode of Life by Design, Jessilyn and Brian dive into the essentials of setting achievable real estate investment goals as a couple. They emphasize the importance of mutual understanding and active involvement in goal-setting that fosters both support and helps avoid conflict. One important takeaway is their "sleep at night factor" philosophy—choosing investments that offer peace of mind over stress and overwhelm.

Jessilyn and Brian break down three levels of wealth for listeners: financial security, covering expenses with passive income, and complete time and money freedom. They encourage couples to start small when setting goals and evaluating their current assets and skills. From there, listeners can build realistic 90-day action plans to maintain focus and momentum with incremental steps toward the larger vision.

During the episode, they also explore strategies for aligning real estate goals with each partner's strengths and passions. They stress the importance of open communication and regular check-ins to track progress and adapt tasks and goals as needed. Additionally, they highlight the value of working with coaches and mentors to accelerate success, avoid common pitfalls, and provide clarity in decision-making. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your real estate strategy, this episode provides actionable steps and expert insights to help couples achieve their financial goals together.

Resources discussed in this episode:

• The 3 Mistakes that Keep High Achieving Couples from Building their Wealth, Freedom & Living a Life they Love

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Contact Jessilyn and Brian Persson | Discover Life By Design:

• Website: DiscoverLifeByDesign.ca
• Instagram: DiscoverLifeByDesign
• Facebook: Discover Life By Design
• Linkedin: Discover Life By Design

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Transcript
Jessilyn Persson: [00:00:08] Welcome to the Life by Design podcast. We are your hosts, Jessilyn and Brian. Are you and your partner looking to align your financial goals and build wealth together? Have you ever wondered what might be stopping you from confidently investing in real estate or growing your wealth as a couple? Or why it feels so hard to get on the same page financially?

Brian Persson: [00:00:30] That's exactly why we created this podcast, and the 'Riches, Relationships and Real Estate' program to help couples like you invest confidently and achieve both your financial and relationship goals. Curious to learn more? Visit discoverlifebydesign.ca to book your discovery call to build your customized wealth strategy. Let's create the life you deserve together.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:00:56] Today's topic is, how to create realistic real estate investment goals as a couple.

Brian Persson: [00:01:03] So why is this important? That's the question we always ask, what we're trying to output here is, why are these topics that we're covering important? Personally, I think that realistic real estate goals are important because real estate can be very intimidating. We've encountered a lot of couples where they just don't want to start. It's so threatening to them that they literally will not start in real estate at all. It's kind of one of those things where once you start lifting the weights, it gets easier and easier. I like to provide a framework that will give, basically, the realistic expectations. Where you just have to stretch yourself a little bit and not too far. Any thoughts on that?

Jessilyn Persson: [00:01:50] Getting into real estate is always a big leap for most people, and generally it's an individual leap. Not very often do you find a couple leaping in it together at the same time on the same page. If you set goals together for your real estate, you want to do it where you're both actually involved in the conversation. It is actually both your goals, not one set of goals, and the other one's just agreeing to agree or to be nice or not to create conflict. You want to make sure you're both on the same page for building your wealth and building your real estate, it'll make it so much easier. Regardless of whether both of you actually do the real estate part itself, but if you're both on the same page and both invested from a goal set perspective, then you're at least there. The other partner is a great support for you.

Brian Persson: [00:02:43] You're always going to be in it together. It's not like one partner is only doing the work. One of the most important things of joint venture partnerships, where you have a money partner and an active partner is that, even though the money partner is just bringing the money, they need to know how to run a proforma as well, because otherwise they don't really understand what they're investing in. The same thing goes with a couple. If the husband is doing all the work, the wife should still understand the real estate business because otherwise she doesn't understand what their relationship has really got into and vice versa. Someone might actually be doing 'boots on the ground', but both of you should understand what you're getting into.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:03:27] Absolutely. It impacts both of you in the end, regardless of who's doing the legwork and who's maybe more the support. Whether it's your finances impacted, emotionally, physically, if your partner's got into real estate and something went sideways, your partner's going to feel the stress of that and that stress comes home. So regardless of who's doing what in the business of real estate, there is an absolute impact felt, seen, heard holistically for your family.

Brian Persson: [00:03:54] That's one of the things we actually teach a lot of our couples, is something we call the 'sleep at night factor' where, what can you invest in that is going to help you sleep at night? Are you going to invest in something that is going to keep you worried and up at night? Or are you going to invest in something that you're more confident in and makes you feel good and you understand it as an investment?

Jessilyn Persson: [00:04:16] Real estate, as we've mentioned before, is a vast field. There are so many different ways to invest in it, and there is something in real estate that can work for everyone. But they need to explore those options before they jump in with both feet on any one option to say, this is my game. Because it may not be if you have not explored every avenue of what that investment will take from you physically, financially, mentally, as opposed to other options that are on the table. So make sure to consider your options before you just go and choose an option. I wouldn't do it blindly.

Brian Persson: [00:04:49] One of the last reasons that I think creating realistic real estate investment goals is, we encounter a lot of couples where they say, I'm going to have $50 million of real estate, and they haven't bought their first property yet. It's like, do you have $1 of real estate yet? How do you know what $50 million of real estate really looks like? So a realistic goal would maybe get them to their first million.

Jessilyn Persson: [00:05:16] Or their first property.

Brian Persson: [00:05:18] Nowadays, two properties is $1 million, even here in Edmonton where it's super cheap. Canada standards, anyway. But people have these really, really lofty goals that are so big that they don't even know where to...