Business savvy: Although Azizi Ali is largely known as a property coach and investor, he is also a pilot, publisher, author and qualified financial planner.
Azizi Ali, 48, is as versatile as it gets. A pilot, publisher, property investor and coach, author, qualified financial planner – or to put it succinctly an all-round entrepreneur. A voracious reader (he reads three books in a week!), unsurprisingly Ali credits his success to his healthy appetite for knowledge. He quips, “The more books on money matters that you read, the wealthier you will be. This is not just a tagline. It is the truth. I wish somebody had told me that 30 years ago!”
Most of us would’ve heard of Confucius’s quote, Choose a job you love and you will never have to work for a day in your life. Ali is a fine example of “living” that advise. His five-figure income is derived from his passion. As he puts it, he does not have to work but finds no reason to retire from doing what he loves. He says, “I only do things I like in my life. I like to fly. I like to write. I like to speak. I like business.”
StarProperty.my chats with the high-flying Ali about his passion for money matters, his successes and a music business that cost him RM100,000.
Tell us about yourself. How did you start in property investment?
When I started my career, despite being hardworking, I only made little money. I did not have any financial knowledge and was broke most of the time. This went on for about four years. At that time, I was about 20 or 21 years old. I started my career very young. I am a pilot by profession.
Are you still a pilot today?
Yes. After a while, I wondered if I will be living hand-to-mouth until retirement. I wondered what was wrong with me. Even my colleagues then, even if they were older and married, and making the same amount as me, they were doing okay but I was broke. So something is wrong. I realised what was wrong was my knowledge of financial matters, which was practically non-existent. So I started educating myself on financial matters. The intention was not to become a millionaire, but so that I would not be broke again. This was in 1985, where there were not as many books on money matters. So to educate myself, I did what most people would do. I asked people who I thought were experts at the time. They gave advice but they were not the real experts. Though their advice was not all wrong, but it was incomplete.
As I educated myself, I began to have some money. I wasn’t broke anymore, which was great. I read more books and asked more people. But after a while, I realised that some of the advice given was opposite of what the books said. After a while, I leaned more on books. I was repeating the formula of reading more books and I knew it was working and have enough money for investments. So that’s why I tell people today, the more books on money matters you read, the wealthier you will be. This is not just a tagline. It is the truth. I wish somebody had told me that 30 years ago. I would be a lot richer.
The reality is that much of the information out there is biased. For example, insurance. Who do you ask information from? Probably insurance agents. That’s why the information is biased. So people don’t make as good a decision as it could be. That’s why you have to get different points of view.
I started investing when I was about 25 or 26 years old. Like most people, the first place was stock market. I started reading books on stocks which helped a little. Like most people, I made a little money, and lost a little money. I did a lot of work. Most people rely on tips. All in all, I suppose that I did not make money from the stock market. After a while, I started investing in properties, and then business.
My first business was a music shop, selling cassettes and CDs, in 1990. In my eagerness to become an entrepreneur, I did research, but too little. In the end, after three or four years I lost over RM100,000. Now I can laugh about it. At that time, it wasn’t funny (laughs).
Why did your music business fail to take off?
Actually, if I had done proper research, I would not open the shop. I was blinded by the light of business, and was so eager that I jumped into it. There were a lot of things that I didn’t know about before I started. The margins were very low, less than 30% − which means that I had to sell a lot to pay the rent. Plus, cassettes are so small and hence, easily stolen.
What did you do after that?
The good thing is that even though the business did not work, my personal finance was better.
You were doing other things at the same time?
Yes, just like now. Although my name is synonymous with property, it is just a small part of my business. We have to put the money from business somewhere. One of it is properties. It is very good but it’s not the only game in town. At the same time, my main business is still business. Property is just a small part. See, a couple of years ago, I bought a house for RM800,000. When it was completed, I sold it for RM1.1 million. So the profit was RM300,000 and at that time, RPGT (real property gains tax) was still at 30%. All in all, my profit was RM200,000 after two years. I suppose that’s not too bad. But in business, I can make RM200,000 per month. So where should I be concentrating on? It’s a no-brainer.
How old were you then?
I started my publishing business when I was about 37 or 38 years old.
When did you start investing in properties?
I bought a house for own stay in 1997. Property investment for rentals started in 1995.
What was your first investment?
Condominium, which I rented out. At that time, my formula is for rental. I have sold most of it.
What’s your property portfolio now?
Not a lot. I sold most of it in 2010. The net worth is maybe six million.
Why did you sell most of your properties? Is it because of the “property bubble”?
Yes. I was reading a few books that explained about the US crash. Some reasons was the low interest rate, user-friendly mortgage, questionable borrowers and current owners refinancing. I shuddered when I read it. It is exactly like in Malaysia. That’s why I wrote the article,
“The US property crash, could it happen here?”. For most current owners, even if their house is almost paid off, they refinance to get the money to invest in other properties
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