How I’m Saving My First Deposit (My Journey)

I might be able to buy my first investment property in the next couple of months. I am finally saving my first house deposit.

It has been a long journey and this episode I want to take you on a journey of the property deposits I have saved in the past. But why didn’t I buy property in the past and what am I doing to save my deposit today?

Book a Free Property Strategy Session – https://onproperty.com/strategy

0:00 – Introduction
1:33 – Where I’m at now
2:22 – My 1st Deposit (Age 16)
5:21 – My 2nd Deposit (Age 25)
8:47 – My 3rd Deposit (Age 28)
12:05 – My 4th Deposit (Age 31)
18:58 – Getting Out of Debt
21:55 – Saving My 5th Deposit
23:39 – Do I Regret Not Buying Property In The Past?
25:00 – It’s Never Too Late To Get Into Property
26:30 – Building a Large Portfolio
27:32 – Property strategy session=

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Transcription

Ryan 0:00
I might actually be able to buy a property my first investment property in just a couple of months, which is super exciting. I am finally saving my first house deposit. This is not the first deposit that I’ve saved, but Fingers crossed, this will be the one that will actually get me my first property. It is absolutely amazing what a difference a couple of years can make. In this episode, I want to take you on the journey of the deposits that I’ve saved in the past which I’ve actually saved quite a few and never purchased property. why I did that? Do I regret it? Because, you know, I could have purchased property probably around 15 years ago, which obviously would have grown But why didn’t I What happened? And then what am I doing to save my deposit today. So grab yourself a tea or coffee or water and settling because it is storytime This is my journey. This has been a long journey and an arduous journey. But hopefully this will encourage you to go out there and to say that, even if it doesn’t happen overnight, if we have a plan, if we strategize if we work towards it, we can get there eventually. And we can have an amazing life along the way, which I actually think is more important than buying the properties. I think the most important thing is having the amazing life, you buy properties as an insurance policy to give you financial freedom to give you choices in order to do that. So now I’m saving my deposit probably got around about the 15 to $25,000 put aside for property, I’m looking at buying something around about 350 to $450,000, with maybe a five to 10% deposit. So I probably need anywhere from around 17 and a half 1000 up to $45,000 for a deposit plus stamp duty and closing costs. So you’re looking at another what maybe 1015 $20,000 in order to save for those closing costs. So I’m actually not too far away from purchasing my first property, hopefully in a couple of months. But let’s go back and look over my life and see what got me to this point. Why haven’t I bought property yet? What sort of things have I done along the way? So my first deposit was saved before I was 18. So I remember going driving out to Lythgoe with my dad at age 16 I had around $20,000 in cash, looking at properties around about the $100,000. Mark. So you’re looking at 10 to 15% deposit plus closing costs there. I had the money in order to do that. So looking at those properties. The thing that was difficult for me at that time, being so young, only having a part time job was just serviceability, right. I couldn’t get a loan in order to purchase these properties. And that really held me back at that time. I think if a bank was willing to lend a 16 year old $80,000 or $90,000, in order to buy a house, then I would have gone ahead and done that then and purchased a property in Lythgoe, what, 15 years ago, no, 17 years ago now. And we’ll probably I don’t know if I’d still own that property today. But that would have been the start of my journey. So that didn’t happen. I wasn’t able to borrow money. And then in my late teens, early 20s, when I was thinking about what career do I want to pursue, I knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I knew I wanted to make money online. So again, I continued to work, just casually just part time while I tried to build up my business and make this dream a reality of working full time online. So again, my service ability suffered. I also had met an amazing partner, we decided to get married. And so around that time, the deposit that I had saved, got used for things like just living expenses, going on holidays, doing fun things. I gave some of that money away as well, a big chunk of that I actually gave to a cause that I believed in at the time. And so quickly that deposit went from existing in my bank account to not existing to the point where when we got engaged, I actually had to sell laptops and basically sell everything that I own in order to afford the engagement ring to present to who would become my wife

so that was first deposit Sade and first deposit gone and then we started married life in a fair amount of debt because we went on a trip to Thailand, we both had credit cards that were given to us by the banks because we’re earning okay money and those credit cards quickly filled up as you do when you’re not a good money manager. And when you’re young so went into marriage with Probably around 10 to $20,000 worth of credit card debt because of this holiday, and previous credit card debts that were combined together, so not after the best, that’s for sure. And I was working online trying to build up my business, doing some freelance writing, not making much money. It wasn’t until I got a full time job, then moved into a pharmaceutical company, got an internal promotion and started working as a pharmaceutical rep that I started, well, we paid off that debt and saved our second deposit. So that job was really cool because it was 6040 in terms of salary and commissions. So 40% of my salary was in Commission’s that were paid once a quarter. So what that meant was that we lived off the 60%. And we got by on the 60%. And if I hit my targets and got my commissions, which I did most quarters, that money would go towards paying off debt, and then go towards saving a deposit. And so what we had done is we paid off and cleared all of our debt, we had started saving a deposit, we were one commission away from a deposit, which I would get paid later. And so we were basically there, right, we had started looking at properties on the Central Coast, which is where we lived stuff around the early $200,000. Mark was the pricing at the time. And so we didn’t need a huge amount of money in order to get into the market. And that was when I quit my job and went full time online. I had always wanted to live in Queensland, but my wife at the time, didn’t want to move that far away from family, we had already moved up to the central coast, so two hours out of Sydney. And we were living up there. So we can still drive back and see family. We went on a holiday to the Gold Coast with the kids. And then she was like, Okay, I’m ready to move up here. But my condition is that you get a job up here before we move. So I actually did a bunch of interviews, and I did secure a job in marketing in Brisbane, that would have been a similar income to what I was on as a pharmaceutical rep. But what I really felt in my heart was that I wanted to go full time online, I’d built up my side business to be earning around 500 to $1,000 a month. And I felt like with full time dedication, I can make this happen. And we have this savings, we have this deposit, let’s actually give this a go. So I quit the high paying six figure job to go full time on a business that was making 500 to $1,000 per month like that was absolutely crazy. And I’m pretty sure that was October 2013. So that was around eight years ago of the time of recording this. And so what happened was we we moved up to Queensland, we did it, I went full time on my business, I got some government support. But the savings that we had got spent on living and getting by my wife at the time, she worked a part time job in order to give us some money as well. And so those two years, those first two years were really rough, because I wasn’t earning a lot of money, she wasn’t earning a lot of money. And the business was only just starting to grow. And I think back then I didn’t realize how the business grows over time and the delay of 12 months to two years before you start making good money. So in hindsight, with the experience I have now I probably could have approached that differently. But regardless, those two years were tough. And it was really in the second year, or the end of the second year that things started to take off. And that I was actually able to start making good money again. And I actually became financially free through my business when I was 28. So five years ago now though the first few years were a massive struggle, then it started getting good. And by year three or four, the business was actually earning enough money by itself that I didn’t need to work. And at that point, we could have saved a deposit. We were on the Gold Coast, we’d been there for around three, three and a half years. But we were both just miserable at the time. And so it’s like, okay, we know that we can save a deposit and actually purchase an investment property or purchase a home to live in on the Gold Coast. financially speaking, that would probably be the best decision to make at the time. And we did think about that and talk about that. But we also reflected on our lives and our community on the Gold Coast and thought we’re just both really unhappy right now.

And we looked at the other people around us who you know, maybe that next step ahead or who were just living lives around us and we thought any of them living the life that we want and we thought no no one is out there living the life that we want. I was really into Tiny Homes had gotten into van life sort of stuff on YouTube. And we thought why not give this a go Let’s buy a van and convert it I will just put in a snippet. Now of On the beach talking about that idea, and how excited we were at the time, we’re looking at spending around $12,000. On this printer, which is what we said Originally, we were then thinking are we want to sprint Oh probably need to pay 15 to 20. Yeah, but we found one that was on for like 14,000. And the guys happy to take 1250. So check that out yesterday, we’re gonna get a mechanic to look at it in a week just to make sure it’s all good. And then we go ahead and buy it. So hopefully by the end of next week, we will have event and then then it won’t be altered. So over the next few months, we took any extra earnings that I had, that would have been a deposit, the amount of money that we spent on the van would have been a deposit. So we purchased the van for around $13,000. And then we probably spent around 15 to $20,000 actually doing the van up. So you’re looking at a total investment costs of around about $30,000, which again, would have been another deposit either on an investment property or on a home or a unit on the Gold Coast. So what’s the point of being rich when you’re not going to be happy. And at this point, I was already financially free through my businesses anyway. And we had young kids and we thought we are young, now is the time to go and experience life and do this. So we moved into the van, we traveled in the van, it rained for about three months straight while we were traveling. So a lot of money was spent on Airbnb, because having three kids in a van in the rain was just absolutely manic and insane and trying to homeschool and everything. It was a tough trip. To be honest, there was some really great times when it was sunny. It was absolutely amazing. But let’s just say the van life wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. It did absolutely change our lives, though, because we ended up moving up to Noosa. Because we were we could just live anywhere. And we found this really cool school that had just opened up in Noosa. And the kids did a trial day there. absolutely loved it. We loved the vibe. And we thought well, let’s just move here, let’s just try it and see how it goes. So that was deposit number three that wasn’t invested into property, there’s actually a fourth one as well, which is crazy to think that I’ve actually saved the deposit four times and still not purchased the property. So we moved up to new sa financially free through the business at some point in time. So it didn’t have to work. I went through a lot of depression in that time, and spend a lot of time exploring myself also spent a lot of time with family, we would go to the beach, we would go to our favorite place on the weekends, which was this flagella fan run by this amazing couple, overlooking, you know, the hills in the hinterland up there. So we just spent a lot of time doing that. And I hardly worked in those times at all. But business continued to take along and about 18 months into the van life slash new SAS slash not working, I started getting serious about buying a property again, I started working more seriously on my business was growing the income we were budgeting better, we were getting a lot better at that. And we started creating some videos around budgeting on the channel as well, because we were doing so much better and had actually started saving a deposit. Now that deposit I put a large chunk of that into cryptocurrency at the time, because I believed in I guess the three year timeline for that. So this was back in 2018, just after the crash. So I was purchasing cryptocurrency, around about the eight to $12,000 Mark per Bitcoin. And that’s eight to $12,000 Australian, not US dollars. And so it was probably around 5000 US dollars at the time with the goal that in three years time, this could help us actually purchase property because it can help us save a deposit. I knew that in the short term, it was extremely risky. But I assumed that you know, we’ll just write it out. And in three years time I really believed in the technology and the investment, that it would be a worthwhile investment. And so I put a lot of money into that loss a bunch through both the learning as well as the timing the market. So crypto had gone up to around I

think 20,000 24,000 US had come down. So I was purchasing between eight and 12 no around five, between five and eight us. And it actually eventually went down to around $3,000. So there was actually a lot of money that was lost during that time as well as me playing with old coins and things like that. I just lost a bunch of money. And unfortunately, that was when everything went to shit. But even with that loss of money, we still had a good amount of savings in the bank. So we probably had around about 10 to 15,000 not quite a deposit, but we were really on that journey towards saving a deposit. And that is when you know things really went badly. me my wife then decided to separate because we Want to different things long term and it just wasn’t working for us, which meant that, you know, we moved into separate houses, my wife at the time, didn’t have a job. So I was paying for the multiple houses and just paying for everything the exact same time, like the same month that I went through that or that we went through that was the same month that my business went through a shocking downturn. And we had a big change in the market and in the market sentiment when it comes to property. So on property was one of my largest businesses at the time. And so that went through a downturn, as well as my other business I hadn’t been working on for two years. So that was going through a downturn as well, just through lack of work. So at the same time going through this separation, business income, just absolutely plummeted, and in some months, was basically zero or negative. So when you’re going from earning six figures, and got a good monthly income, and you know, you’re saving towards a deposit to then going, Okay, you’re going from that to nothing. Or to actually have more business expenses this month in income. Holy moly, like that was that was tough. And so the deposit that was saved was quickly spent, I quickly also spent money that I didn’t have, so tax savings for the business, I was basically spending, I was just trying to stay afloat at the time. And I had bills that had to be paid and the income wasn’t coming in. And so I don’t know if I could have done anything differently. But yeah, like that time was tough. And as well, the money I’d put into cryptocurrency had still gone down in value. So I probably lost about 50% of that there. And I’ve done a video of how I lost 1000s in cryptocurrency, which I’ll link up down below. But it’s so frustrating because I always knew that I would probably lose money in the short term, I knew that I couldn’t turn the market perfectly. But that cryptocurrency was added pretty, pretty low amount. And then in a few years time, I believed it would go through another cycle and recording this now. It’s around about 50 to $60,000 per Bitcoin USD is around, I think, 70 to $75,000 Australian. So given that I had around about two Bitcoin at the time, I probably would have been able to buy more, if business didn’t go through the downturn, the separation didn’t happen, you know, to Bitcoin on, maybe I would have had four or five Bitcoin times by $70,000. Like, what’s that 350 grand, in three years. It’s like, Oh, I had the long term plan. I knew that this was three years back then I was like, I know, this is a long term play, and risky in the short term. We ended up selling our crypto at the bottom because she wanted the money and she was really unhappy with it being left in Bitcoin and in cryptocurrency, so she wanted to liquidate it, we’re going through the separation. So I just did it. And it’s sad to think about that now as one of the ones that got away. But I didn’t factor in the changes that happen in life. So I had this three year goal of investing, even investing in property is a long ago.

But it didn’t factor in the fact that life happens, right? I knew that Bitcoin might go down in the short term, but I didn’t factor in that I might go through a separation business might go through a downturn, and I might need that money. And I didn’t have a buffer in place that I could spend. I actually had to liquidate that. It was pretty extreme circumstances. But I had to liquidate that at market lows, which meant that I lost money. So what was that deposit number for gone? And so yeah, that has been my journey, I ended up in a whole huge amount of debt. And I’ve done a video on how I managed to pay off $100,000 worth of debt, as well as become financially free through my business in just two years. So I’ll link up to that down below, if you want to go ahead and check that out. But yeah, that was what late 2018 and we’re now around mid 2021. So two and a half years later. So it actually took me a full two years in order to get on top of my finances to build up my business again. I was obviously deeply in debt, hemorrhaging cash in terms of that had to cut down my expenses like crazy. We moved back to Sydney, I moved back in with my dad in order to save on rent, I cut my expenses to the bone in order to pay the things that I needed to pay like food for the kids paying child support, paying my phone bill, that sort of stuff. Just keep the lights on, keep the bellies for and that’s it. So I did that worked in an espresso bar for the short term cash to pay those bills while I feel My business. And two years later, in October of 2020, was when I had finally built my business to the point where I wasn’t yet debt free. But I was earning enough income to make the repayments on my debt, and not really have to worry about money as much. And then it was probably around December, January, where I had finally earned enough money that I was basically debt free. So while I still had my debts, I had enough savings put aside that I could pay off those debts instantly if I wanted to. And then for the next few months, I kind of fluctuated in and out of debt, I had spent the last two years not spending any money. And I finally you know, stepped up and moved into an apartment and paid three month’s rent up front. So there was 1000s of dollars there as well as paying a bond that, you know, kind of put me back into debt. And then I got some sales and moods back into the positive and then decided to book a holiday for the kids. Finally, because it’s been three years since I’ve been on a holiday. So spend a couple of $1,000 there. So went back in debt. So for a few months there, I was kind of in debt out of debt in debt out of debt, depending on how I was spending the money. And I guess I did live a little more lavishly in what I would spend money on and was just kind of expanding my life not excessively, but just kind of bringing it up to Okay, I can now have my own apartment, and have a place for my kids that is their own, which I think is really important for them. I still haven’t upgraded my car and still driving the same beat up old car, the Holden Astro that was given to me by a family member of my partners, that is two door and the two door car with three kids is not great. The slides have fallen off it. But look, it still runs fine. And that still goes okay. So I still got the same beat up old car, and I’m trying to keep my expenses low. And it’s been in the last couple of months that I’ve actually been able to start saving my deposit and moving towards that. So this is a really long story in order to explain where I’m at now and how I’m saving my deposit now. But how I’m saving it is just similar to everything that I’ve done in the past. It’s like keep expenses low, and keep growing your income. And I think growing the income is the thing that’s really done it for me, because over the last two years, as I was paying off that debt, that entire time I was focused on increasing my income, yes, spend less, but increase my income as much as possible. And while I’m spending a bit more now, I’m still focusing on increasing my income, and any extra money that comes in, I’m saving and putting towards my deposit, I’m about to come into the peak season for my business. And my business is very seasonal, with winter being the best months for me because it’s summer over in the United States. And so any extra income that’s coming in, that is going to go towards the deposit. And so because I’ve paid off the debt, because I’ve started saving the deposit now, and I’m going into peak season, I should actually be able to save a deposit pretty quickly in just the space of a few months time and hopefully be able to purchase a property Yes, still need to talk to a mortgage broker and see how that’s gonna go. But as long as I can actually get a loan to purchase a property, fingers crossed,

I may actually be purchasing my first investment property and working with a team over at Pumped on Property in the next couple of months. So I am so excited for that I am so excited that this time deposit number five is going to be fifth time lucky. So do I regret not buying houses in the past? Absolutely not. Could I have done things way better? Absolutely. Yes, I could have, especially when I just kind of lost the money when I was younger, just the living expenses that really solves. But the decision to buy the van and actually pursue happiness in my life, I think was actually one of the best decisions I ever made. Even though I remember we didn’t buy a property. We were so unhappy where we were. And it wasn’t because our relationship was bad or anything like that. We just wanted something different in life. And so many people would invest in property and wait 50 years in order to try something different. We recognize that we weren’t happy and we tried something different now. So absolutely. I have no regrets there. Do I regret buying the cryptocurrency at the time? Absolutely not, because I knew I had a long term plan for that. And hindsight is 2020. I knew that it would have paid off. And it would have it’s unfortunate that the circumstances shifted, that I didn’t have a buffer fund in place. That’s something that I’m definitely learning this time and making sure that I have that buffer before I go ahead. So I’ve learned things from the past. I also don’t regret the past decisions that have occurred. It’s made me who I am today. Past Ryan wasn’t as wise as current Ryan is and also I think it’s never too late to get into it. Because Brisbane is just starting to grow after staying flat for around 13 years. So I think it’s a really great time to get into Brisbane. But even though I missed the Sydney market in 2015 1617, even though I missed them, even if I miss Brisbane, this time around, there’s going to be another market after the next mid cycle slowdown or after the next crash, there’s always a good time to buy or good markets to buy in. And so I’m not worried I noticed that with Bitcoin, it goes in cycles, and at the moment is extremely high. And everyone’s talking about how they’re making heaps of money in Bitcoin, like, yeah, I’ve been through that back in 2018, I’m okay waiting until Bitcoin drops another 70% 80%. And then I’m going to buy in at the lows, and build my wealth over the next few years through that. So even though I’ve missed this Bitcoin run, I really believe that there’s going to be opportunities to get in, in the future, I’m not too worried about it. And the same with properties, there’s going to be growth cycles in the future, I’m not too worried about it. I’ve also built up my business to the point where I’ve got good income coming in, I’m continuing to grow that and any increase in my income just means I can save deposits faster. And so hopefully getting to this point, while it’s taken me, what 15 years, or maybe 16 years from back when I’d saved that first deposit at 16. Even though it’s taken me this long to get to this point, because of the skills that I’ve built up building up my business, hopefully, rather than someone who would have just got a low paying job and slowly built their property portfolio, hopefully, I’ll actually be able to build a significant portfolio just over the next couple of years. So if I can buy a property in the next few months, that would be great. If I could buy maybe one or two properties next year in 2022. That would be great as well. Ideally, I want to get four properties. And I want to build four granny flats. So have Julian calm, have eight incomes coming in fully positive cash flow, my properties completely paying themselves off paying the mortgages, and everything like that, I could potentially get there in just a couple of years time because I’ve built up my business, because I’ve built up my income, because I’ve built up my skills of budgeting and not spending too much money. So I’m really excited. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to get a loan or not. That’s still I guess one of the challenges that may hold me back, but I’m so excited to be saving my deposit. I’m so excited to be getting into the property market. And I can’t wait for you to follow me on this journey. And to see how things go. If you’re at a point like me, where you saved your deposit, or you got most of your deposit saved, and you’re looking to invest in property, but you don’t know where to start, then the team over at Pumped on Property do offer free strategy sessions. So if you head over to onproperty. com, au forward slash strategy, you can learn about them over there. Basically, you get on the phone to someone you talk about where you’re at, where you want to be in the future, what’s holding you back, and what could be a possible property strategy in order to get you there. So go ahead, go to onproperty com.au Ford slash strategy, if you want to talk one on one with someone and really get clear on your goals and what your next steps are.

I recently did a strategy session with Simon that’s coming out on the channel soon. And it absolutely changed my life. That was what made me realize that I could buy a property in the next few months. And while I was thinking about maybe buying a new van because you know properties, probably a year or two away for me. Now I realized property is only a couple of months away for me, not batten down the hatches cut spending, there’s no excessive spending. So I’m going to make do with the van that I have fun now. So that strategy session completely changed my life. And that’s going to be out on the channel soon. So make sure you subscribe to the channel and you watch that one when it comes out. But yeah, go ahead and Book your free strategy session. If there’s any available. Again, go to onproperty. com. au forward slash strategy. Check that out. And check out some of the other videos that I’ve done about this journey, how I managed to pay off debt, how I managed to get into debt in the first place, and that strategy session with Simon, go ahead, watch them, follow me on this journey. I really look forward to sharing it all with you and until next time, stay positive