Quote:
Originally Posted by leesa
Out of interest what did you do between your 20s and mid30s? Were you living with parents to save a deposit or renting? It's a beautiful house but it seems like you might have had more help than most? How did you manage to save 500'000 in cash at a young age on a single income without handouts or an inheritance?
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No, I finished Uni at 22 after doing 2 degrees (primary teaching and high school subject). Oh, before you ask I paid for my degrees myself upfront. While at Uni I was living at home and paying board.
I worked for a year, during that time I lived in an 15br share house in the Eastern suburbs of Vaucluse paying $100 per week. Not a bad gig considering the bloke in charge had a preference for young European female tenants.
Worked a ton, saved a ton. Took a year off to go backpacking.
Returned after a year, put a deposit on a modest 4br house out west with the money left over from my trip, converted it to 6br and rented 5 of the rooms out averaging $700 a week.
Stayed there for a few years. Met my ex Mrs, sold house and bought 2br unit closer to city outright in her name as she didn't need to pay stamp duty (big mistake...).
Anyway, how did I get that money? When I found the block I refinanced the unit and pulled most of the money I put into it.
Also sold a house I had in Cowra, a Villa in Bathurst and accessed money I had in a term deposit that matured about the same time.
Prior to that I had bought, renovated and sold other places before meeting my ex. One house in Eagle Vale, a unit in Warrawong and a house in Dubbo.
The house in Eagle Vale was bought at 18 with some help from my parents. That was my first place. They matched any deposit I could come up with, but that place was $144k if memory serves so it wasn't as much as you would assume.
I made lots of mistakes along the way. Invested substantial cash in a property development company that went broke, put too much trust in my now ex wife, and didn't seek advice on arranging my financial affairs better but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
And, after all that I don't regret a thing. I do wonder where I would be financially if I didn't sell everything off or meet my ex's but then I would not have my 2 beautiful daughters.
Now I'm going to sit back and relax and take each day as it comes.