If you own a home with more potential than plan
- or you are staring down retirement with a mortgage that still feels like a lot of money
- and you have caught yourself saying "I've got this place. I need to do something" - this is for you.
Introducing
Your Home's Retirement Plan
The four-step plan that tells you which move your home should make for your retirement - so you don't spend $100,000, or your super, finding out it was the wrong one
Renovate?
Sell? Downsize? Develop? Add a granny flat?
You do not need another idea. You need to know which one to look at first.
$47. Instant access. 7-day money-back guarantee.
30 yrs
Helping women decide
6
Property pathways compared
1 hr
To watch
$47
One-time · yours to keep
You know the equity in your home could
fund a comfortable retirement.
You're just not sure where to start.
It's not that you're short of ideas.
Everyone has one.
The bloke at the barbecue who renovated in 1998.
The friends who've done a bit of developing.
The Facebook groups.
Even your financial planner has had his say.
So you have plenty of possibilities,
a growing sense that something needs to happen,
and no way of telling which one is right for you.
It's not that you can't make decisions.
You've made harder ones than this.
You need fewer opinions and more direction.
Which is usually the point where you think: I need a professional. But which one?
A builder. An engineer. A surveyor. A town planner. A strategist. A financial planner.
Every one of them comes with an invoice.
And money spent on untested plans is usually money down the drain.
"Bernadette saw what I couldn’t.
What began as a plan for a beautiful renovation became a strategy with the potential to eliminate my $800,000 mortgage and completely change my life.."
James Burgin
We've been exactly where you're standing.
You've been thinking about this for a long time,
and nothing has moved.
Maybe you're sitting in a house that needs more work than you want to add up. On a block you've wondered about for years. With a shed out the back you once had plans for.
Maybe you're awake at 2am running the same options in a loop. Renovate. Sell. Downsize. Granny flat. Do nothing for another year. You get to the end, you haven't landed anywhere, and you start again the next night.
Maybe you've raised it with your partner. Again. He's flat out, he means well, the conversation runs twenty minutes and ends up back where it started, and it gets shelved until a weekend that keeps not arriving.
Maybe you've asked the friends who've done a bit of developing. They were generous with their time, and you came away with three more ideas than you walked in with. As one woman said to me: "If I take on too much information, half of it goes out the window."
The most valuable thing you can do with your property this year is work out the right order to look at your options
The answer is rarely complicated. The wrong first step is what costs the money.
Nearly every woman I meet is spending in the wrong order. An architect before the council. A survey before the planner. A kitchen designer before anyone has priced the cracking in the wall. Two thousand dollars later, sometimes ten, she discovers the one fact that made the whole idea impossible from the beginning. A fact that was free to establish with a single phone call.
Four things worth knowing before you pay anyone:
1
A phone call to the council duty planner costs nothing.
A survey costs thousands. Most people pay for the survey first.
2
Borrowing options narrow once you or your partner stops work.
An option you have this year may be closed in three.
3
Equity is not cash.
You can own a home, watch it go up every year & still not be able to fund what you want to do with it.
4
A Renovation that adds $150,000 of value and costs $120,000
Has only made you $30,000 and taken eighteen months of your life.
Every one of those facts is free to establish. Which means the most valuable move available to you right now costs nothing but a few phone calls, made in the right order.
We call it The Right Order.
Four steps.
Two stop signs that halt a pathway no matter how well it scores everywhere else:
And a list of things you're specifically not allowed to pay for yet. That's the page that ends up on the fridge.
That's the difference between hoping your home will be enough and knowing exactly what it can do.
Bernadette & Stephen Janson
I was 55, with a $200,000 mortgage and five years from retirement, when I worked this out for us.
Stephen has spent 50 years in construction.
Between us, you get someone who has lived the decision, and someone who has stood on enough sites to know when a plan actually holds up.
We've seen the expensive version too. The plans paid for too soon. The reno that adds a nicer kitchen and leaves the mortgage exactly where it was.
Since then we've helped hundreds of women through The School of Renovating make this decision with their eyes open.
THE TRANSFORMATION
Imagine how this feels instead
To Go From This
Awake at 2am running the same six options in a loop, and landing on none of them. Again.
A folder of quotes from six years ago, a shed you once had plans for, and a growing feeling that something needs to happen.
No real idea what you could safely borrow, or whether all that equity is money you can actually use.
Raising it with your partner again, and ending the conversation exactly where it started.
Wondering whether you can afford to get this wrong, and deciding not to decide.
To This
You know the two pathways worth your time, and you've stopped thinking about the other four. Tonight.
Three phone calls written down in order, each with a date beside it, and the first one already made.
A broker conversation booked and a real number, so you know what's on the table before you plan anything.
Sitting down together with one page of your own numbers, and a conversation that finally goes somewhere.
Knowing exactly what you're not spending a cent on yet, and feeling the pressure come off.
Here's what's inside Your Home's Retirement Plan
Four short video lessons, about an hour all up, plus the worksheets that turn them into a decision. Six property pathways, one page of your own numbers, and a clear plan for your next chapter.
Short videos. Around an hour all up.
Lesson 1 - Your Starting Point: your numbers in one place instead of on three scraps of paper and in your head at 2am.
Lesson 2 - Your Six Property Pathways: every job your home could do for you, including the ones you hadn't thought of.
Lesson 3 - Which Pathway Fits You Best: the option that fits your money, your timeline and your appetite.
Lesson 4 - What Should You Do Next: three actions in the right order, and what you're not paying for yet.
THE RETIREMENT PROPERTY SNAPSHOT
Your one-page position, calculated for you
Automatic calculations, so you can stop doing sums on the back of an envelope.
A "to be confirmed" marker on every figure you don't know yet, so not knowing becomes an action.
The equity distinction most people get wrong, so you never plan around money you can't access.
One page you can put in front of your partner, your broker or your accountant.
THE WORKBOOK
Where the decision actually gets made
Six pathways, finally with a way to compare them.
The Six Pathways page - every option gets a yes, a maybe or a no.
The Pathway Scorecard - your two options tested against the same five questions.
The Right Order Checklist - free investigations before the expensive ones.
The Next Three Steps page - three questions, three people, three numbers, a date beside each.
The do-not-spend-yet list - for when someone lovely suggests the next step is a set of plans.
GET ALL OF THIS TODAY
Only $47
Four lessons.
The Retirement Property Snapshot.
The full workbook.
Yours to come back to every
time the numbers change.
Instant access · Work through it at your own pace · 7-day money-back guarantee
BONUSES
Available until 8pm Sunday
BONUS 1:
Your Next Chapter Conversation Kit (Value $29)
Because the hardest conversation is often not with the council. It's at the kitchen table.
A six-page guide for talking to your partner or adult kids about changing the family home. It helps you:
Start the conversation without it turning into an argument.
Say what matters to you, and hear what worries them.
Answer "Why change anything?" and "But that's our family home!"
Leave the table with shared priorities and one agreed next step.
BONUS 2:
The Right Move Live Q&A with Bernadette and Stephen (Value $199)
Bring your numbers, your plans and your questions, and we'll make sure every one of them gets answered. Renovate, sell, downsize, subdivide, rent out a room: if you're still not sure which pathway is even worth investigating, this is where you ask.
Live on 07, October, 6PM AEST. Recorded if you can't make it. Every buyer gets the link by email.
Both bonuses are included free until 8pm Sunday 20th September. After that the Q&A closes and the Kit becomes a paid add-on.
Let me put the price in context
A survey you didn't need: around $2,000
A set of plans for a dwelling the council was never going to approve: considerably more
A renovation that cost $120,000 and added $150,000: eighteen months of your life for $30,000
One phone call to the duty planner, made first: free
Your Home's Retirement Plan, which tells you which call to make and in what order: $47
GET ALL OF THIS TODAY FOR $47
Four video lessons. The Retirement Property Snapshot. The full workbook. The Conversation Kit and the Live Q&A while the launch is open. Yours to come back to every time the numbers change.
Instant access · Work through it at your own pace · 7-day money-back guarantee
What Women Say About Learning With Bernadette and Stephen
"Life changing . I discovered I could use the equity in our family home .. and now I know financial independence in retirement is actually possible for me."
Amali De Vos
Questions you might still have
How much time will this take me?
About an hour of video, plus however long it takes to write down your numbers. Most women finish the Snapshot in one sitting and the Scorecard the next day.
What do I need to have ready?
Nothing. If you don't know a figure, you mark it "to be confirmed" and it becomes one of your next three steps. Not knowing is where most people start.
I'm not good with spreadsheets. Will I cope?
The Snapshot does the sums for you. You type in what you know and it calculates the rest. If you can fill in a form, you'll cope.
Will this tell me what to do with my property?
It won't tell you to renovate or to sell. It will tell you which two pathways deserve your attention, which questions to ask first, and what not to pay for yet. The decision stays yours. It will just be an informed one.
Is this a renovation course?
No. This is the step before any renovation, sale or development. It helps you work out whether a renovation is even the right move. If it is, we can talk about that next.
My partner isn't really engaged with this. Is there any point?
Yes. Most women who go through this are the one driving it. The Snapshot gives you one page to put in front of him, and the Conversation Kit is there for the talk itself.
Who is this not for?
If you've already paid for plans and committed to a path, or you're flipping a property you just bought, this isn't your tool. It's for the woman who owns her home, knows something needs to happen, and hasn't decided what yet.
Is this financial advice?
No. It's a way of organising your own numbers and options so that when you do sit down with a broker, planner or accountant, you're asking the right questions and paying for the right things.
Why is it only $47?
Because the decision is worth thousands and the plan takes an hour. We'd rather help a lot of women make it well than a few women make it expensively.
What if it isn't for me?
Email us within 7 days and we'll refund you. No forms, no questions.
Everything you get, the moment you join
Lesson 1: Your Starting Point
The Retirement Property Snapshot
Lesson 2: Your Six Property Pathways
The Six Pathways Worksheet
Lesson 3: Which Pathway Fits You Best
The Pathway Scorecard
Lesson 4: What Should You Do Next
The Right Order Checklist
The Next Three Steps page
The do-not-spend-yet list
One more thing, since you've read this far. Whatever you decide about this, don't decide nothing. Not for another year. The house will keep sitting there. The quotes will get older. And the options you have while you're both still working are the widest you will ever have. You don't have to know the answer today. You only have to find out which question to ask first.
Bernadette and Stephen Janson
The School of Renovating
Renovating properties has changed my life for the better in so many ways. The only regret I have is that I didn't start sooner. Anything Bernadette offers with The School of Renovating, just do it. You won't regret it.
It's so easy to make mistakes, to lose money, to not make the money you planned to make. Having people around you who have already made the mistakes means you don't make them.
It gives you options you hadn't even considered before. It opens up a world of possibilities for what can be done with a property or a site.
This is general information only. Please speak with a qualified broker, planner, accountant or adviser about your own circumstances.