A grandad claims he is on track to amass a fortune after creating an impressive property portfolio, all while earning a minimum wage job.
Perry Wilson, 63, has set himself the ambitious goal of becoming a millionaire so he can retire comfortably in three years.
At 57, the hardworking taxi driver realised that retirement was looming. With no savings and a £10k credit card debt, Perry says he was determined to secure his future so planned to accumulate £300k so he could retire.
To achieve this, he doubled his working hours from 40 to 80 per week as a cabbie, saving £20k in two years. With these savings, he secured a mortgage for a two-bedroom semi-detached house to rent out.
As his savings increased, he continued to invest in more properties. He now owns three rental properties and plans to expand his portfolio to eleven by the end of 2025.
Despite having around £25,000 in cash savings, Perry believes his burgeoning property empire in the northeast will enable him to reach his £1m target by the time he turns 67.
The grandfather of two said: “At 57, I realised I’d retire with no money and decided to do something drastic.
“I set a goal of making £300k in 10 years – but as I went along, I kept raising it until I hit £1m.
“For the first two years, I worked every day of the year to make enough to buy my first house to let out.
“Within three years, I owned three – and now I’m in the process of buying a further eight flats using a bank loan and angel investors.
“And this portfolio is part of a larger portfolio – there are 70 more that I plan to purchase from the same seller in the future.
“In July I will be seven years into my 10 year plan and and it’s going well – and I’m still working 80-hour weeks too.
“But there has to be a work-life imbalance for a while when you’re trying to achieve something extraordinary.”
Perry, who has two adult daughters and two grandchildren, has been earning a full-time minimum wage since leaving the Royal Navy in 1989.
As his retirement loomed, the realisation hit that he had no savings for travels with his wife Susan Wilson, 64.
He decided a property empire would be the best way to finance his post-retirement goals – and committed to graft for his last ten years of work.
He doubled his hours at work to 80 hours a week – with his alarm going off some mornings as early as 4.15am.
This brought his annual income from £19,760 up to £39,520 when he was earning £7.83 per hour.
He said: “Working double hours, I was paid double – so I used half to pay my bills and saved the other half.
“After two years I had saved about £20k and in 2021 I bought a £63k two-bed semi-detached house with a mortgage in Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham.”
It became his first buy-to-let – and the profits he made on rental payments were saved to pay for his next property investment.
The same year he split the cost of a three-bed house in Shildon with a friend, and then bought a third three-bed in Stockton-on-Tees.
With each additional buy-to-let, he could set more money aside, but when income rates went up in 2022, he looked into alternatives to rental properties.
He discovered he could buy more properties faster using ‘angel investors’.
These are silent individual lenders who lend a lump sum which is later paid back with interest added.
He said: “What slows you down is the time taken to generate the income to buy – unless you can get other people to give you money to pay for a deposit.”
From there, Perry’s sights were next set on an eight-flat portfolio across the north east, all owned by the same seller and going for £300k as they all needed a lot of renovation work.
Once complete and renovated, the portfolio would have a worth of £550k, according to a surveyor Perry spoke to.
And he said from there, he’ll refinance to pay off the original loan, and pay back his ‘angels’ with an additional 5% on their investments, before looking towards an even bigger portfolio.
He said: “There’s another 70-house portfolio the same seller wants to sell to me as well.
“We want to work out a plan for me to purchase those in the next two years as well, but we it’s hypothetical at the moment.
“I spoke to a prospective angel investor last week with £1.6million to lend – lots of people want to lend me their money for this!
“So now I’m feeling confident that I will surpass my goal of £1million in savings in the time I have left before turning 67.”
Perry, from Gateshead, has said his family, while initially confused by his sudden intense schedule, understands that his 10-year plan is “a means to an end.”
He said: “Everything comes with a price – I don’t love working. Once I’ve made sufficient money, I’ll stop.
“It’s no good having money and being the loneliest bloke in the world – but money gives you freedom and choices.
“Once I’m done, I’ll do whatever I like – I’ll homeschool my grandchildren and complete my travel bucket list with my wife.
“We want to go on a world cruise and stay in the Nevada Desert.
“And I’ll be able to do it because I’ll be bringing in 5-10k a month from my properties, without doing anything.”
He added: “I don’t believe in burnout – if your goal is strong enough, you can run through brick walls.”
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