Netball focus, property strategy: Paige Hadley on building wealth when your career is year to year

Professional sport looks glamorous for an hour a week. The rest is sacrifice, uncertainty, and pressure.

Paige Hadley describes netball as a roller coaster. More downs than ups. Contracts that can disappear year to year. And a hard truth that hits every athlete eventually. There is a time limit.

That reality is what pushed her to invest. Not to chase hype, but to build options.

What Happened

Paige joined the podcast to unpack two journeys running in parallel.

• The sporting journey, built on elite focus, support staff, and constant performance review
• The investing journey, built on data, a strategy, and a team around her

She explains that early in her career, she heard the advice, have something beyond netball. She studied, coached, and later launched her business, Pivot with Paige Hadley.

But the wealth plan did not move from thought to action until later. The trigger was real life planning with her partner Jordan, including conversations about kids and what happens after sport.

From there, she met InvestorKit and stepped into a structured process. Strategy. Broker support. Conveyancing. Clear next steps. Ongoing communication. A team, like sport.

Key Findings

1. Athletes live in the now because the job is not guaranteed

Paige explains the mindset shift is hard when your income is temporary.

One minute you have a contract. The next year you might not. That pushes many athletes into short-term thinking, because they are trying to win now.

2. A “wealth team” mirrors an elite sports team

Her lightbulb moment came when investing started to feel like high performance sport.

In netball you do not try to be the coach, the physio, the analyst, and the strength coach.In property, she learned you also do not try to be the strategist, broker, conveyancer, and buyer.

When the right people were around her, she says she would not have bought an investment property alone.

3. Sydney can freeze people into inaction

Paige calls Sydney “crazy”. The price point is confronting.

The bigger issue is what that does psychologically. People see Sydney, assume property is impossible, and do nothing.

Her approach was different. Invest based on data and serviceability, not postcode pride.

4. The first purchase removes fear and builds momentum

Paige describes the “cut the ribbon” moment.

Once the first property was done and the numbers worked, she could see she could still train, still perform, and still afford the plan. That made the next steps feel simpler.

5. Women do not need to earn millions to start

Paige is direct about what held her back.

• Risk
• Uncertainty
• Not seeing investing modelled in her circles
• Believing it was for high earners only

Her message is practical. Get educated. Ask questions. Take the first step when it is right for you.

Action Steps

1. Write down your “career reality”
   If your income can change fast, plan around that. Buffers matter more than optimism.
2. Build your wealth support team
   Think in roles: strategy, lending, conveyancing, property selection, ongoing management. Your job is to make decisions, not do every task.
3. Separate where you live from where you invest
   If your home city is expensive, do not let that stop you. Data-led investing can be borderless.
4. Define the first deal as a confidence builder
   The goal is not to “win” the first purchase. The goal is to learn the process, validate the numbers, and build momentum.
5. Ask more questions than you think you should
   Paige asked the same question “50 times”. That is not a weakness. That is how clarity is built.

Final CTA

Want a clear, data-led property plan with a team around you, like an elite performance program? Book a discovery call with InvestorKit and map your next steps with confidence.