About Michael Pound

About Me, Michael Pound

Hi, my name is Michael Pound and this is my about me page. I have created this web site for a number of reasons.

This web site is my diary. This is where I write down all our business and investment experiences.
To share our experiences with the rest of the world so that others may benefit from what lessons we may learn along the way.
To provide inspiration to others who might have similar goals in life.

I am 26 years old and currently work full time as a Computer Programmer in London. I have to be honest, computers don’t really interest me all that much, but while I was in high school I got asked the questions every that every child gets asked:

My Niece Jennifer, Nephew
Daniel and Myself

“What are you going to do when you leave school?”

The truth is, I had no idea, and if were asked that same question again today, I still would have no idea. You see, I don’t want a career, I never have. Why would anybody choose to live in the Rat Race; work 9 hours a day, 5 days a week for 40+ years? All I knew at the time was I wanted to make money. I had no intention of going to university for at least 4 years to study I have no idea what just to be in the same boat when it comes graduation time.

I knew I needed to acquire a further skill if I wanted a well paying job, and I found a college that specialises in IT training. What drew me to this college was the course was only 1 year long. It meant that I would be able to start earning money after just a year where as all my school friends would still be studying at university for another 3 years at least.

College as it turns out was much more valuable than just learning IT skills. It was here that I met my wife Catherine, she was also studying programming. Catherine and I have been together for about since 2003 and in May 2006 I proposed to her on a rocky staircase overlooking the sea in Spain. Last year (2007) we got married at a stunning location in Johannesburg - South Africa. It was a truly magical day and I will cherish the memories for the rest of my life. Click here to see some photos of our big day.

South Africa? That’s an unusual place to get married you might ask. No, actually it makes perfect sense because we are both South African and we only moved to England in 2003.

Michael Pound
and Catherine Pound

We moved to England to give ourselves the opportunity to travel around Europe and experience different cultures and also there is more financial opportunity here.

About two or three years ago my dad gave me the book Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki to read. He said that he found it very interesting and that I might too. Eventually I started to read the book. This book was exactly what I needed. Mr Kiyosaki sums up why the rich get richer and why the poor get poorer. He explains that the only difference between the wealthy and the underprivileged is their mind sets and they way they have been educated about money. The poor get taught that you need to study hard, go to university, and get a good job working for someone else. The rich get taught how to invest in assets, leverage off other peoples time and money so that you can have money working for you, providing you free time to do as you please.

Robert Kiyosaki talks about how the rich nearly always own their own business and how they invest their money in property and the stock market. He recommends network marketing as his choice of business to learn the arts of entrepreneurship.

Network Marketing? That sounds like a good idea, but I have no idea what it is, it sounds like a pyramid scheme to me. I decided not to let my preconceived ideas of what network marketing was prevent me from researching the industry properly. I read many books on the subject, looked up many web sites and viewed a couple of presentations. What I discovered amazed me.

Yes there are some pyramid schemes out there, but these schemes are illegal and are giving network marketing a bad name. If you would like a better understanding on the network marketing industry, visit the link below. To me this is the best explanation available, I think Robert Kiyosaki has done an excellent job putting this video together: Click here to learn about Network Marketing

The more I learn about Network Marketing the more I like it, and the more it makes sense to me. Its all about building a residual income, an income that will keep flowing into your bank account whether you work or not simply because you have learned how to effectively leverage time and money. I highly recommend visiting the above link if you do not fully understand the power of this industry.

I spent about 12 months researching different companies and opportunities and I have found the company that I feel really comfortable with. I like the people involved and have even had conference calls with the founder of the company, there are not too many companies out there that can offer that kind of support.

Aside from my Network Marketing business, I am fascinated with property and the opportunity there is to make money in it. In 2005, Catherine and I bought our first house. It’s a small 1 bedroom house, but it’s a start, we are on the property ladder. The house was on the market for £112,000 and we offered £106,000. In hindsight we could probably have offered less because the seller was eager to move to another town and accepted the offer immediately. Through the help of our financial advisor we were able to get a 100% loan and an unsecured loan on top of that.

Our First House

We paid off all our credit card debts and all our loans and made some improvements to the house. One year later and I saw on Rightmove that all similar houses in the same area were on the market for about £125,000. That’s 17% more than what we paid for it and because we have put none of our own money down, it's an infinite return on investment.

At the beginning of 2007 Catherine and I attended a two day property investment seminar. We met loads of likeminded people and really learned a great deal about the industry. a few months later, we had remortgaged our house, released some equity and purchased our first rental property. It is an off plan property in Sheffield, and we were able to get a really good discount on it. The first investment property in our portfolio.

In 2008, after getting married, we decided that we had had enough of living in a small one bedroom house, and we really needed some space. We did our research, spoke with our mortgage advisors and decided to purchase a three bed property. We did not sell our one-bed house as we firmly believe - never sell property, and we are now renting it out. House number 2 in the portfolio.

My plans for the future are to work on my network marketing business on part time basis, and invest all profits into property. I want to accumulate as many properties as possible.

Join me as I share my trials and tribulations, my successes and my failures.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, but what I do know is it is going to be one heck of a ride

Enjoy this site and do return