| Twenty years ago, Jan was your average high school maths teacher who left the blackboard behind to raise a young family. With her teaching career on hold, she took advantage of her time at home to pursue other interests, namely property investment. With the help of husband Ian, that interest was to become so rewarding it became a passion and Jan never did go back to teaching high school maths. Today, Jan spends her time writing books and teaching (some would say preaching to) others about the wonderful benefits of direct property investment.
Her interest in property can be traced back to 1972 when she and Ian bought their first house. Although they accumulated many investment properties over the following years, it was not something that was planned.
Constrained somewhat by the needs of three very young children, it was a time Jan used most productively to read and to learn. Introduced to a personal computer for the first time by programmer and husband Ian, she relished the opportunity to analyse investment property in depth, playing with the figures to her heart's content.
At first she had trouble believing what the computer kept telling her, but no matter which way she looked at it, the answer always came out the same: residential property, properly financed and kept long term, was a wonderful investment! Jan now had an insight into why the family had been able to achieve so much through investment in property in the past, on just average wages. As a result, Jan and Ian went on to buy many more investment properties, and now have a multi-million dollar property portfolio.
Jan never did go back to teaching high-school mathematics. In 1989, with husband Ian, she established Somerset Financial Services Pty Ltd and now enjoys sharing her knowledge with others through her lectures, books, videos and computer software.
Someone recently asked her when she hoped to retire! Jan's response was that if retirement meant being able to do the things that you enjoyed most, she had retired many years ago. Her property investments have made that financially possible. But as a teacher, she enjoyed teaching motivated students and as she says, property investors are amongst the most motivated around.
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Jan Somers
