I want to tell you one of the funniest true stories I've heard in my whole wealth creation career to date .

Once upon a time, there were two friends, who were in business together.

They thought they were getting there, becoming successful, working hard with not much time off, not taking much money out themselves but building something real, something substantial, possibly getting there.

Occasionally they met people, in ordinary places and in strange places; at kid's birthday parties, in Jacuzzi's in a honeymoon resort, over dinner with friends, who seemed to have three things in common...

1. They had a lot of time on their hands

2. They had an awful lot of money

3. They owned a lot of property.

Those people always said the same thing, no matter what. No matter what objections our fine pair came up with, no matter what the economy was doing, no matter what the headlines said.

The thing those people said was.....

"Go and buy some property boys! Please just one, just buy ONE, for Gawd's sakes"

But eventually, after TEN YEARS of this thing happening to them, these fine lads called up an estate agent mate, and said those immortal words

"We want to buy a property".

Then they did some research ...........er no, actually, that's a lie, they didn't do any research.

Their mate fixed up a viewing, just one viewing, of a property he'd had on his books for a while and couldn't shift because it was BRIGHT YELLOW outside. He must have been rubbing his hands together with glee.

Luckily the Yellow Peril was round the corner from their office, so it was easy to view it. This also meant that it was in the least desirable part of their town but hey, it was a quick viewing.

They viewed it, with knowledgeable faces on, then haggled hard.

Actually they offered the full asking price.

Then the endless paperwork started, which nearly put our intrepid pair off this property investing business but they battled through. Their secretary probably did it for them!

In the six months it took to complete, one of them managed to puzzle out that their Yellow Peril had gone up in value, due not to any cleverness on the part of our heroes, but due to the whole town recovering from the doldrums it have been languishing in for the last few years.

It had gone up in value by £50,000.

It took some repeated sums on the calculator, but our boys worked out that £50,000 was HALF of the profit their entire business had made the year before, even with two factories, 100 staff, 125 vans, a lot of late nights and weekend working and a whole lot of grief.

Hmmmm, this property investing might be "A Good Thing" after all.

So one of the pair (the one handiest with a calculator) was dispatched to buy more property and do some belated research, while the second one was given the easy job of selling the business, two factories, 125 vans, over 50 pieces of equipment, and 100 staff.

Who drew the short straw there then?

Fate, or the Universe if you like, stepped in at this point to lend a hand, because, as these things happen, The Universe helps those who show willing to help themselves.

One of their reps knew they wanted to sell, and alerted one of their competitors who wanted to expand and eventually the deal was done.

By now, the one with the calculator had figured out that, if you can buy a property more than 15% under perceived market value, you can do a bit of cosmetic touching up, and revalue, refinance and get your money back out to go again, as quickly as possible.

O yes! After a slow start of nearly 12 years, these boys were catching on fast. They went again, and again, and again, until, within 10 years and at the last count, they owned property worth in excess of £37 million.

That's when first my sister Sarah, met them, she called me to come home from Spain to meet them, then I did and my world turned on it's axis rather dramatically.

They blew my mind on many levels. Not just about property, but about how money works and creating wealth in general. They just think differently about stuff. Self-made wealthy people do, I find.

And as we all know that property doubles in value every 7-10 years, faster in the South East, where our intrepid pair are located, and buying, what do you think they will be worth in 10 years time?

What level of funds will they be able to draw on, tax free, within the next 10 years?

For ever?