Sound advice on retiring rich and young

PHUKET: This last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a seminar from one of my business partners whom most Thai readers would be familiar with.

They may not know, however, the extent of the business success that Paul Pattrapon has had outside of the limelight of being a Thai superstar.

On top of singing, modeling, acting in soaps, hosting television shows and being one of the highest paid event MCs in the country; Paul has also been a successful entrepreneur, investor and best-selling author.

His seminar, Retire Rich and Young, was held in conjunction with Mr Nu from Boat Development Company Ltd, one of the most successful developers on the island.

Paul mentioned that he is asked frequently by childhood friends to help them sell things, but the reason he jumped at this opportunity was that he was asked to help educate people rather than simply hype up a project.

That being said, the houses and villas I saw looked extremely nice and the location the company is developing should be extremely desirable in the future.

In his section, Paul went over the many ways he earned active income in his career before explaining, that to really retire happily, we need passive income. As I have written many times, there is a big difference between being rich and being financially free. He also highlighted the need for free time while we still have our health.

Paul explained the six main types of passive income that we can develop to achieve this, but unlike most of us, he actually has all six and is thus able to contrast and compare from his own experience.

Many are out of reach for the majority of us due to the high capital cost required to achieve a large passive income via financial investments or the limits of our capabilities to create intellectual assets, like world-wide best-selling books.

Even though Paul has the number one best-selling personal finance book in Thailand, the market is too small to provide a lasting and large enough income to retire on.

Real estate is one asset class where, due to leverage, most people can begin building up a passive income early on in life if they acquire the knowledge and experience to do so.

Paul let the expert, Mr Nu, explain the specific details of this asset class, mainly highlighting the need to get the most important part of the equation correct – location, location, location.

As you have surely heard many times, this is one area where following the lead of an established developer who is able to affect trends can help you get it right.

The event drew a pretty large crowd and laid out a very straightforward path to achieving financial freedom in a short period of time.

The main conclusion was to start now. Everybody has a day one, but if we never get started there will never come the day where we can retire with 100 per cent freedom to use our lives in the manner that allows us to follow our own unique passions.

Paul’s book is available in both Thai and English and you can pick up the English version under the title Retired by Forty at Asia Books or order it online. The Thai version is available at B2S.

— David Mayes