Get Started Snapshot
Name & Nickname: Lachlan Turville
Age: 21
Hometown & current home: Grew up in Forster, NSW, currently living in Newcastle
Profession: FIFO Electrician
Favourite book: Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
Favourite money-saving hack: I work two weeks on, one week off. FIFO roster accommodation and meals are all covered on site, so for two weeks at a time I'm eating camp food and don’t touch my card. By the time I'm home, the urge to splurge has usually passed.
Most extravagant purchase: When I turned 18, I decided to get my skydiving A license. The course was $4k, then I caught the bug, did 50 jumps and bought some gear which was another $5k.

What was your relationship with money like growing up?

From a young age, money was something you earned. My parents tied pocket money to chores around the house, and watching both of them work hard their whole lives made it pretty clear early on that if you wanted nice things, you had to earn and save for them.

What was your first job? (And how much did you get paid?)

At 12, I mowed my elderly neighbour Chris's lawn, front and back, for $50. From there I picked up a dishwashing job at a local cafe for $11 an hour, and when I finally hit 14 and 9 months, I got my first 'real' job at the local Foodworks in the fruit and veg section.

How did you first come across investing?

Two things got me started. My grandfather was a big influence. Every time I visited, he'd be reading the share market section of the newspaper and give me the latest Morningstar magazine for me to take home. From a young age I was fascinated by the idea that you could own a small slice of companies that were part of your everyday life, and he inspired me to put some of my lawn mowing money to work.

The other was stumbling across Equity Mates back in early 2017 when they were just getting started. Breaking down investing without all the jargon was exactly what I needed. I’d often pause episodes and write things down then ask my Dad about it.

Was there a memorable early investment?

Inspired by my grandfather, my first purchase was 325 units of Telstra at $3.10 a share. He then told me I needed to look at a Listed Investment Company and pointed me toward BKI. Bryce had also mentioned it on Equity Mates, so between the two of them I was sold, and my next lot of lawn-mowing money went straight there.

Then someone I knew told me about a FinTech company called ISX — which specialised in identity verification and payment processing. I bought in at $0.69 with $500, and two weeks later sold at $1.11 for $798. The very next day it shot up to $1.68. I was gutted, convinced I'd sold too early, so a month later when the price fell back to $1.08 I jumped back in with my original $500, keeping the profit separate.

The company then went into a trading halt. Three years later it was delisted after regulators raised serious concerns about their disclosure practices and corporate behaviour. My original $500 was down the drain.

It was a hard lesson at 16, but an important one. I hadn't done any real due diligence, I was essentially gambling. That's what pushed me toward ETFs, and I haven't looked back.

How are you currently investing and can you provide a breakdown of your portfolio?

My portfolio is heavily weighted toward property right now as I recently settled on my first investment property, so that's where a lot of my money is allocated at this stage. On the shares side I keep it simple with DHHF as my core holding, a small tilt toward NDQ for technology exposure, and an education bond.

Where do you see investing taking you?

The goal isn't to stop working, I genuinely love what I do and can see myself doing it for a long time. But I'd love to reach a point where work is optional. Having that security, being able to travel when I want and do the things that make me happy, that's what I'm building toward.

Starting young and letting compounding do the heavy lifting is the whole game the earlier you start, the less you have to do.

What is one super extravagant and outlandish purchase that you hope investing will be able to buy you in the future?

F1 Paddock Club access at the Monaco Grand Prix. We're talking hospitality suites overlooking the circuit, pit lane walk, meet the teams, the whole experience. It's absurdly expensive and completely over the top, which is entirely the point.

My girlfriend is a massive F1 fan, so if investing eventually gets us both to Monaco for a Paddock Club weekend, that counts as a pretty solid return on investment.

If you only had 25 words to convince someone to invest, what would you say?

You don't need much to start, even small amounts add up. Talk to your mates, read, listen, learn. The best time to start was yesterday.

• We want to hear your ‘How I Got Started’ stories. Respond to this email if you would like to be featured and we’ll get in touch!

Shares or Property

Lachlan told us how he recently bought his first investment property and is also continuing to invest in the market. We spoke about how you can do both on a recent episode titled ‘Shares or Property: Which Should You Invest in First?’ (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

Ren: The financial media loves to have a dichotomy. Growth vs. Value, Property vs. Shares. They love to pit two things against each other because I guess it gets the juices flowing, it gets the clicks coming, it gets the comments riled up.

So much in financial media is pitched as a debate, and I think for the first few years that we did this podcast, we kind of thought that we needed to figure out who was right, what's the right way to invest, what's the right way to make money, what's the right asset class to invest in? What we've learned over the journey is that there are so many ways to make money as investors. There's no one right way.

The right way to invest for you is a way that suits your temperament, your risk appetite, your goals, your time horizon, all of that stuff. But for most people in most situations, the right way to invest is to do a bit of everything and that’s what we’re here to talk about today.