We wanted to share a bit about our story today. Something a bit personal. It’s easy to share what is glossy and going well in life. People do tend to think that if you worked in high end corporate organisations, you had every resource to build what you did. Somethings you already know… However here goes…
We moved to Sydney, Australia from Karachi, Pakistan in October 2000.
When we came to Australia, we lived in a crammed 2-bedroom apartment in Lakemba, Sydney (if you don’t know – it is a low socio economic area of Sydney). It was tough. We went to Wiley Park Girls’ High School, which is a disadvantaged High School in Sydney’s West.
We did see our friends and classmates with a lot more resources to buy what they wanted to buy and to drive in nice family cars to school. Even to be able to go to some school excursions, we would make a choice to not go to, as we didn’t have the funds to do it (our excuse was – HSC was more important to focus on). We did however choose to keep our heads down and tails up so we could get into University on merit, in the courses of our choosing.
Some of the earlier tests of our journey included having less than $100 to buy our first semester university books. We didn’t know whether life would ever get better. Whether one day we’d have the resources like our peers did to build a better life. What we did know was, all we can do is take one step at a time and then the one after that, like a rock climber putting one foot on a rock and then the one after that and then the one after that.
Many young peeps, finishing university, choose to travel the world, going places, meeting friends for dinners and having a balance. Nothing wrong with that. We had different plans however – perhaps to the detriment and judgment of some of our peers and friends. All we longed for was a comfortable family home. We didn’t know if we’d ever get there. However the vision was set. All decisions made pointed in one direction – to get into a family home.
The journey started with $40,000 at 24 years of age (losing $2,000 on deposits on Off The Plan properties – as the first home owners grant was so attractive! Thank God, we missed out!). On 17th March 2016 we got the keys to our newly built family home in Sydney. It goes without saying, it was a challenging journey- simply a vision. But we made it!
We know how it feels to save up for a first property deposit and more importantly to set it up right so it lets you move forward with your finance goals.
In our journey, we’ve bought homes, upgraded, refinanced and set up a property portfolio from scratch. It started with 1 however. As the saying goes, the journey of a 1000 steps starts with ONE. The journey felt long.
Often when life does get you down, you do wonder, whether the journey is really worth it, whether you can really achieve what you set out to. Let us tell you, it really is worth taking ownership of your financial future, even if you wonder – if it’s even possible for you.
In our 8 years of trialling and erroring on what makes the right finance set up, we realised the importance of structuring it correctly from the word go and the importance of a BIG PICTURE focus.
If we can do it, you can do it.
You can hear more about our journey and property philosophy on the Smart Property Investor Podcast listed on our website below:
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