Paul Smith was Managing Director of Allied Distillers, a multi-billion-pound international drinks business responsible for operations spanning 26 sites in more than 100 countries. In 2004, aged 39, he was made redundant from that role and walked out of the building by a security guard, with no pay-off attached to the departure. He kept investing in property throughout the following two decades of corporate roles, applying a rule he still teaches today: don’t leave full-time employment until property income reaches a minimum of three times your salary. “If you want to become a property investor, if you want to become a property entrepreneur, you shouldn’t leave your full-time job until your property income is a minimum of three times your day job,” Smith says. That property income, built quietly over more than two decades of employment, meant the 2004 redundancy cost him a salary but not his financial footing.