Norma is my 90 year old Mother in Law. She lives in a small and modest house in Morningside, Brisbane.
She and her husband bought the house as newly married 21 year olds with the world at their feet and life still ahead of them. The veranda of the house became a social hub for Norma’s extended family, their friends and their children, all of the neighbours up and down the street – and their friends and relations. No invitation was required and no request for entry was ever denied. Over the decades the veranda became a hub of laughter, conversation, support, humour, debate and solace. It even staged a number of highly competitive cricket and rugby games. The veranda especially came to life on weekends.
Norma usually held court with ease and humour. She was a confidant, motivator, story teller, listener, mother hen and shoulder to cry on for all and sundry, no matter what generation they came from. For anyone in the street, if they felt like a drink, there was no better place than Norma’s veranda for company and joviality.
However, that is all in the past. Norma’s husband passed on many years ago. Her children and her neighbours children have moved on. Even their grand children have moved away to greener pastures. None of the neighbours in the street even say “hello” to each other these days. Norma’s golden years of being relevant to others have come and gone. The things that gave her fulfilment and a reason to live and strive, now live meekly in the past. “Time waits for no-one”. Norma is now very frail, needs some home care and takes a long time to move just a few metres.
These days Norma sits alone on that same veranda and never has a visitor. In fact when her birhday approaches, she is known to phone around asking hopefully “Will I see anyone on my birthday?”. In fact, she spends most Christmas’ alone, on the veranda, possibly listening to the ghostly laughs wafting in from times in the past. You don’t miss the things you never had. You only miss the things you used to have. Not being needed or not being relevant any more must be a purgatory. It must be a relentless, tormenting pain to the heart, to have spent a worthy life being needed…..and then not being needed at all, by anyone. When you are very thirsty, you have the consolation that you will eventually have a drink and that will be the end of it. When you cease to be needed or relevant, you seem to stay that way forever.
Recently Norma’s day sprang to life in an unusual way. Her “new” next door neighbours of four year standing (who she had never met) paid a bubbling surprise visit – a young couple with their two small children. Both children were born in the house next door. Norma had heard them but never seen them. There were cups of tea all round and the visit became a little bit like the good old days, with the fresh conversation and the children laughing and playing. The conversation swayed from the lives they had lived so far, hopes and ambitions – to lifes battles, mortgages, car payments, cost of living and allowing for future school fees. The neighbours revealed they had started a 30 year home loan and it still has 26 years still to run. They confided their concerns about the reality that by the time they pay off the home, their kids will have left university. How could they ever help them? How could the family live the life they imagined when the couple met? Was it just a fallacy or an unrealistic dream?
Norma could feel herself becoming useful all over again. She had seen it all before. After-all she has known Canterbury Property Services since the day it began – 39 years earlier when Norma was only 51 years old. Remember, she is my Mother in Law. Norma well knew that the solution was not to compromise, get second jobs, drive a Uber on the side or to sacrifice and go without. The answer was merely to book an appointment with Canterbury where the right structure, understanding and knowledge can be passed on, so that a 30 year home loan can become a 4 year home loan. That leaves a lot of spare, fruitful years to save, invest, pay for school fees, have holidays and smell the roses. She knew that the plans and structure implemented by Canterbury would pay off the home fast, and would actually fund the school and university fees, holidays, cars, lifestyle and an abundant retirement. Don’t forget, she has seen it all before – over and over, many times.
The success we are talking about is not possible for those who follow the well worn and ineffective path of the pack. You can’t live and behave in a normal way and yet somehow get a better than normal result.
As always, “you never know what you don’t know”, even if it’s sitting straight beside you (or in this case living right next door for four long years).
Now back to the very present. Needless to say, the neighbours are now fully fledged Canterbury clients. They now have only two years left before they pay off their originally scheduled 30 year home loan. The plans, structure and knowledge are in place to ensure their over-all wealth continues to grow, and passive incomes will arrive to pay for all the things the family yearns for. The only “stone in their shoe” is the fact that they wasted four years living next door to Norma before knocking on her door.
The neighbours now visit Norma often. In fact, separately, the kids now often make their own surprise solo visits. Once again Norma feels part of the world. She “did good” for the neighbours. They really appreciate it. Once again she feels needed, worthy and wanted.
The point of this story is to insist that you don’t also waste the same four years before getting started in doing what the neighbours did (and the thousands of Canterbury clients who came before them)
If you don’t already know Norma from Morningside, just contact Canterbury directly and we will explain it all to you. It’s not magic, it’s just structures, techniques, numbers and a little bit of understanding.