Posts Tagged ‘Noughties decade highlights’
HAPPY NEW DECADE
Wishing you all an extremely happy decade as we warmly welcome the “tens”.
Whether we call 2010, “twenty ten” or “two-thousand and ten”, it doesn’t matter. What is important is that we step back and reflect over what happened last decade. Did things in life happen around us, as if we were merely a passenger, or did we make things happen.
Lets commit to making 2010 a good year, and this decade to being an excellent one, where you right down some long term goals and work to achieving them. If you need help in this regard, you should get a tried and tested mentor.
Contact me if you need help with goal setting and smart wealth creation (or maintenance) strategies for the coming decade.
My Highlights of the Noughties
Well another decade has come and gone. It has been an interesting and fun one filled with highlights. This is a log of highlights of the Noughties Decade where I name a few of them for me:
1. My Wedding to Bridget
A very happy day and special occassion. I had been going out with Bridget since October 2000, and we got engaged in December 2005, so my March 2007 wedding was good timing.
As with so many people, it came and went so fast and to be brutally honest I can’t actually remember that much of it, apart from the fact it was a great day!
The honeymoon to the Yasawa Island’s in Fiji was amazing – thanks Dean Letfus for the recommendation to go to Nanuya Island Resort on Nanuya Lailai Island – home of the Blue Lagoon – yes the very place where the movie of the same name was filmed, where Brooke Shields became a household name. We spent the rest of the time at the Sheraton on Denarau Island – super stuff.
2. My son being born
Well I didn’t know quite what to expect with my first child – I got told a lot. Being squeamish I fainted once in hearing about the delivery process, but I managed to hold my nerve and was able to talk property investment with our midwife and specialist O&G surgeon that we had on the ‘case’ during delivery and numerous consultations and scans. The result is one fantastic baby boy (now nearly 14 months old), Liam Whitburn, who can already run up our hallway with a full size rugby ball and trip up and score a try. He likes eating food on our plates that he lunges for whilst we are eating, as well as soil and leaves from our garden too, so he’s a real omnivore!
3. NZ Property Market
The Property Boom of 2002 – 2007 was New Zealand’s biggest highlight for me. This is where we saw several thousand millionaires made in our country. Yes unfortunately 2008 and 2009 tail end the decade as badly as it began in 2000 and 2001 with negative equity recorded in the 2000 and 2008 calendar years.
I am a big statistics fan and researcher, even did a stats paper at Auckland University in 1997 as part of my BSc degree. As a result lets look back at the decade’s property prices in January of each year as laid out on my blog here. We had a 109% increase in New Zealand overall in the period from January 2000 to November 2009. That is pretty special, and we could easily see similar growth in this coming decade.
4. Hitting my goal and becoming a millionaire in my 20s
I wrote down a very aggressive goal when I was 24 – to become a millionaire before I hit 30. The great news was that I did it! In addition I turned 30 in time lock in my million before the downturn and reduce my loan to value ratio to safe levels. Fortunately my portfolio was well presented and in good locations so I had tenants the whole way through the downturn, bar 17 days in one property, and the value I lost that year has more than come back. It’s a great feeling to have hit my goals.
5. Sporting Highlights
There are just so many to choose from with the Silver Ferns win in 2003 Netball World Championships in Jamaica (beating Australia 47 – 45 in the final), the League Team winning the World Championships in Australia in 2008 (beating overwhelming favourites Australia 34 – 20 in the final) and on an individual note Scott Dixon’s Indy Car racing successes this decade including the title in 2008, Valerie Vili’s shotputting feats, Hamish Carter’s glorious Athens Olympic Gold and Nathan Astle’s 222 off 168 balls – still the fastest double century in international cricket (including 28 fours and 11 sixes). Michael Campbell’s 2005 US Open victory at Pinehurst (by 2 shots over the legendary Tiger Woods) was a memorable success too.
However for my decade runner up I am choosing an obscure highlight of Andre Adams securing an impossible victory for Auckland over Northern Districts chasing 161 in the 20/20 game at Seddon Park, Hamilton on 28 January 2007. Auckland needed 12 runs to win off the last ball – usually this would be thought impossible, but not for the big hitting uber talented Aucklander Andre Adams, and Graeme Aldridge bowling a waist high full toss (a no-ball) which was slammed for 4. Then Auckland needed 6 off the last ball – surely he couldn’t achieve the dream… However Aldridge’s bowling and Adams clean hitting ensured that defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory, as Adams absolutely pounded the ball for a big six over long off to guide Auckland to an amazing win.
The Decade Winner has to be the All Whites who qualified for the World Cup for the first time since 1982. Despite Rory Fallon heading home the goal just before half time from an expertly taken Leo Bertos corner, and Mark Paston saving an amazing kick from the penalty spot, the whole team played like a bunch of heroes. Well organised, structured and solid – can we mix it on the World Stage at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. We are drawn against Italy, Slovakia and Paraguay – can we be in the top 2 teams of this pool to qualify for the 2nd round?