MUM-OF-TWO Tania King-Mohammad has gone from a life of stress and over £30,000 of debt, to making up to £80,000 a month in profits from her new businesses.
The 38-year-old spent 20 years working in the NHS, but as the only breadwinner in her home, she racked up huge credit card bills over several years.
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Her husband Raphael, 44, is from Brazil and wasn’t then allowed to work in the UK.
“The money that I was making in my medical job just couldn’t pay all of our bills and we started mounting a lot of debt,” she told The Sun.
“By 2016, I got to the stage where I was really unhappy at work, with the responsibility on my shoulders and the stress.
“I was severely burnt out and borderline depressed and I realised that I just couldn’t carry on with that kind of lifestyle.”
Tania decided she had to find a way out.
She had bought her first home in Devon in 2012.
“We didn’t have the money to do it ourselves, so we begged and borrowed from people we knew, and we managed to put £7,000 on this two-bed apartment we’d fallen in love with in Devon,” she said.
But, after their first daughter was born in 2016, they didn’t have enough space and needed to sell up.
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This ended up being her and her husband’s first small move into becoming property developers, which would eventually pay off all Tania’s debts and give her family financial freedom.
“I was completely green, I had no idea about business or making money, but we realised we need to be thinking more creatively to make money,” she said.
She attended a masterclass in earning income through property and put their apartment on the market in 2018.
“My husband had become a carpenter by then and we’d done some work on the place ourselves, so we made a £20,000 profit,” she said.
“And, instead of utilising that money to go and buy another home, we decided to buy our first investment property.”
Meanwhile, they rented a bigger house and struck an enterprising deal with their new landlord for low rent.
“We paid £300 a month for a big three-bedroom house with a private driveway and a big garden, and in return, we did a lot of upkeep to the property, redecorating and gardening,” she added.
They bought their first investment property in Devon for £97,000, spent around £17,000 doing it up through money raised from other people they knew and on 0% interest credit cards, and raised the value up to £150,000.
“Once it was done, we rented it out and were able to pull a little bit of money out and use that money to buy another investment property, doing the same process of buying, refurbishing, refinancing and then renting,” she said.
“We kept rolling the money from there, finding good deals that were below market value where we could add value and then pull money out once the job was done, holding on to the property to rent it out.
“At the end of 2018, we switched to the Airbnb short-term rental strategy, which we realised could make us much more money.”
Their biggest success was a property in Devon that went up in value by £120,000 after their renovation, with Raphael becoming the hands-on project manager.
“The one that stands out for me is a place we bought for £200,000,” she said.
“It was a real doer-upper, it hadn’t been touched since the 1950s. We spent around £45,000 and, when we’d finished, it was revalued at £320,000.”
By the end of 2019, Tania had grown her Airbnb and short-term rental income revenue to over £100,000, and built up her portfolio to eight properties, all while still working as a doctor and being a mum.
Tania started expanding her services to both manage other people’s rental properties on commission, and doing rent-to-rent, where they rent homes from other people, and then, with their permission, implement their short-term rental strategy.
“We’ve expanded our portfolio that way and it’s still very lucrative even if you’re renting someone else’s property,” she said.
“We are essentially responsible for the property so we pay them rent but we’re allowed to market it on Airbnb.”
Her second daughter was born in 2019 and, in 2021, she had paid off all of her personal debt and was able to quit her job and live off the income from the properties.
“Historically, I was never a risk taker. My husband is, so that’s rubbed off on me a little bit,” she said.
“In the beginning, I would always be the one saying ‘Oh, I don’t know if this is going to work. What if we lose all of our money?’ but I bit the bullet and I got more accustomed to risk – and it worked.”
Tania and her family now live in Ibiza, where they moved in the summer of 2021, and rent a seafront house with a pool.
They now have 13 properties in their portfolio in the UK, making an average of £20,000 net profit a month although Tania said she takes a minimal salary and dividends.
From Ibiza, she also runs Freedom With Tania, mentoring other people on how to build their own property empires and online businesses to build long-term wealth.
The second business boosts her monthly profits by another £60,000, according to documents seen by The Sun.
She has plenty of advice for others on gaining financial freedom from a life of debt.
“The first thing I’d say is that you need to have a backup income stream up and running before taking the plunge to hand in your notice,” she said.
“Make sure it’s something you really enjoy doing, but take all emotion out of it and make sure it is a viable business option.”
In terms of a lack of funds, she noted there is good debt and there is bad debt.
She added: I personally am not averse to taking out a 0% credit card if it’s going to allow me to utilise a certain amount of capital, so long as I have a plan to pay it back before it starts costing me interest.
“Once it starts costing you interest, that’s when it’s bad debt because it’s costing you to borrow that money.”
“Plus I do genuinely believe that we all know someone who has a lump of cash sitting in their bank account, who you can actually help by giving them passive income if they were to invest that money with your business venture – compared to what interest rates are and what you’d be getting in the bank right now.
“Who could you raise that money off, even if it’s a relative, a friend, or someone you know down the pub?
“I’m proof it is possible to go from crippling debt to financial freedom and I want to empower and support other people to do the same.”
Know the risks
Credit cards
Not using a credit card effectively can wreak havoc on your finances and your credit score.
If you don’t keep up with repayments or default on your debt, you are likely to get a black mark on your credit record, which could affect your ability to get a credit card, loan or mortgage in the future.
Always clear the full balance as soon as possible.
Property investment
Property prices and demand for rentals can go up and down, so you need to be prepared to invest your money for the long term.
If you’re over-invested in property – for example, if most of your money is tied up in a buy-to-let property – you might end up in trouble when housing markets slow.
To avoid this, you should spread the risks of your property portfolio by holding different kinds of investments.
