From Backpacker to $12M Portfolio: Dawn Fouhy’s Futureproof Property Strategy

Oh, that was hard. What I saw every day people having regrets, they had to work for money to pay off these massive mortgages that they thought would give them freedom. My mom passed away when she was 57 of cancer. I actually nursed my mom at the end of her life. Everything I do is to show people that retirement may never come. For areas, or Rolexes, or all that bull, but doesn't mean anything. Future proof investing is all about freedom of time to spend with your family, your friends, and doing what you want to do. Not here to sell you a course. There's so much noise out there. I'm really here to help you cut through that noise. Welcome to the Future Proof Property Podcast. This is the podcast where we're not here to sell you anything. I'm not selling a course. We're not trying to upsell you to anything at all. I'm literally here to provide you guys value. Value on what markets we see value in, investor stories, guests. And we want to hear as much from you, the audience as possible. I'm building this far you guys. You could drop me a follow over on my Instagram. Don Fouhee. That's who I am, by the way. I'm your host, Don Fouhee. I'm an Irish import here into Australia into this bloody beautiful country. Being living here for 18 years and absolutely loved. I am the co-founder of Future Proof Property Advisory. We are a buyer's agency and we buy property all over Australia. We talk real markets, real strategies, and real mistakes that we see investors make every day. My sole purpose is to help you not continue to make the same mistakes so you can actually get ahead and get future proof. I'll explain what a future proof property is and how you guys can outperform the market. The main reason I started this podcast is I got so bored of hearing the same old stuff out there. Hop in the car, search for a property podcast. But every time I would listen, they wouldn't actually give you the solution or the answer or an action step on what you can do to actually future proof your portfolio. All I heard was the same thing. They would lead you in, hook you in, reel you in like the big bar of Monday that you are, but they'd never actually tell you the answer on how you'd get ahead. It was like, do our course. So you might be the type of investor who's just starting out. She can't afford to buy your own home. You're looking for value without having to sink thousands on some course that might not even be relevant to you. Or that course is a funnel to sell you into a full service offering because let's be real. A lot of these podcasts out there are very slick marketing funnels. And I've fallen for that before. My whole ethos and what we do at future proof is that we can only help a certain number of people every week and that's done intentionally because we like to work one on one with our clients. So when you work with future proof, you work with me, you work with Melissa, there is no waiting six to eight months for a property because that's an opportunity cost for you. That could be hundreds of thousands of dollars. For us, all I want to do with this podcast is have as much expert guests on as possible. Tell you everything you need to know and be completely honest with you guys from the jump. And what I've learned through over a decade of investing that's helped Melissa and I build over a $12 million of portfolio and that's not a flex. That's surely to show you that I came here to this country as a backpacker. Literally I came with the backpack on my back, lived in Von Die in a two bedroom environment with seven of us in there. And I take the same tenacity to life as I did as that backpacker. So if you guys want to come along on this journey where we offer real value and real solutions and you don't have to buy some lame course because let's face it, all the information is out there. You just have to know what you're looking for. And I'm here to give you all that information and have a bit of fun while we're doing it guys. So welcome to Future Property. Can't wait to have you on this journey with us. I came to Australia at 23 years old. I was a nurse. I was a nurse for many years. It was an intensive care unit nurse for 12 years. And what I saw every day as a nurse was people having regrets. So they would always say, I wish I worked less. I wish I'd spend more time with my family. But their constraint was always that they had to work for money to pay off these massive mortgages that they thought would give them freedom. But what I really saw was I just never wanted to have those regrets. Future Proof investing is all about freedom of time. It's all about giving you that time back to spend with your family, your friends, and doing what you want to do. Why we went all in on the agency was-- and this is a hard story to tell-- but my mom passed away when she was 57 of cancer. So really fit, healthy, amazing woman. And she taught me so much. So I actually nursed my mom at the end of her life. That's what she wanted. And everything I do is to make her proud and to show people that retirement may never come. And sorry, this is just an upsetting thing to talk about, but this is reality. And this is why it's so important for me to share that I don't want you guys to be focused on for areas, where Rolexes, or all that bull crap, it doesn't mean anything. I see a lot of people get lost in the chase. They get stuck in this heave-n-estic treadmill of material stuff when all that matters is being able to spend time with people that you love. And not with these golden handcuffs, I see people coming to me with every day. So I talk to a lot of people who are five or four workers. They spend time away from their family. But they're stuck in the job because it pays them a lot. And I talk to business owners who are working night and day because they've gotten a huge mortgage. But they've lost their way as to what's making them content. To me, future proof investing, and what we do is we work a lot helping people get mortgage free, not upgrading your home, trying to time markets, get future proof properties. And I'll explain to you throughout the course of what we're going to do on what a future proof property is. And how to get a head. I wish that for my mom, Breeder, being 57, that it was always her dream and retirement to go to Dubai and plan everything that she wanted to do. And she never got the chance to do that. And as lame as it sounds, it's money that's going to get you there. So everything out there is against you. So your wages aren't buying as much as they used to. So instead of you guys like winging and saying, what's the government's fault, it's my neighbor's fault, it's no one's fault. You have to try and understand how everything out there is rigged for you to get a head. You just need to know the blueprint to that. And that's what I'm here to help you with. Not here to sell you a course or to take you on some sophisticated marketing funnel to hook you in like the big, beautiful bar and one day that you are, we're not here to do that. We're simply here to add you value, value through investor stories. People we've helped, people we've helped build a three-property portfolio. I'm not here to sell you some aspirational thing of you can build 20 properties when you're earning 100K a year. That's not reality. I'm here to give you that reality check. And to help you, there's so much noise out there. And I really just want you guys to enjoy this journey as much as I know I'm going to by learning off of all these experts, the episode stories and to investor stories and to really help you guys get future proof. If you're tired of all the noise out there, all of that, you know, banter, it's just lame. If you're here for real value, stick around because I think you guys are really going to enjoy this. And let's get even more of your future proof. If any of this has resonated with you guys, would love you to stick around. I'm investing in this personally, giving up a lot of my time, self-funding it, because we want to just provide you guys value. So if you're somebody that resonates with our message, drop us a like, subscribe, tell your neighbor, your Nana, your nephew, and can wait to take you all on this journey of getting lots more of you future proof. This is our maiden voyage with a solo podcast. I know you guys will have seen me, you may have, or you may not have on other property podcasts knocking around, but we're going to do a double drop on this party. And you know, it might take you back to your festival days. But what I want you guys to do is there's another one right there for you to have a listen to the straight after this one. And just to remind you guys, this podcast is for general information only and reflects the personal views of the horse and guests. Any discussion of property markets, regions, or prices is speculative and not financially learned investment advice. Property markets can change and past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Always do your own research and seek advice from a qualified professional before making any property decisions.