For years, I believed the equation was simple:
Work hard + Earn a good salary+Save and Invest= Financial Security.
I did this for many years in my home country. I was disciplined, consistent, and careful with money.
When I moved to Australia, the exchange rate quietly erased a decade of effort. What I’d built suddenly felt small.It felt like starting from scratch, even though I’d done “everything right”.
Like many families, my husband and I worked full time while trying to raise our young family. The kind of freedom I craved- especially time freedom felt completely out of reach.
Deep down I knew something was uncomfortable.
Working hard and earning a salary alone was not going to change our future in the long term.
The Lightbulb Moment 💡
A salary provides certainty. It’s predictable, dependable, and necessary.
But over time, I realised that my ability to grow wealth still depended on how much I could personally contribute in hours, energy, and focus.
Between full-time work, raising a young family, and simply trying to keep life moving, there was a natural limit to how much more I could give.
Even with discipline and steady savings, progress felt incremental.
I wanted part of my wealth to grow quietly in the background during the busy seasons, the tired evenings, and yes, even while I slept.
That was the shift.
To build long-term freedom, I needed assets that could grow alongside my life, not compete with it for time
Why Property? 🏠
Choosing property was a conscious decision.
It came after years of saving, learning, and thinking carefully about the kind of financial foundation we wanted to build.
By that stage, I had a clear understanding of my own relationship with money. I valued stability, long-term thinking, and steady progress over constant activity.
Property aligned naturally with those principles
It offered a tangible asset that could grow over time, using a structure we understood, without requiring our constant involvement.
It also allowed us to use leverage thoughtfully not to accelerate recklessly, but to build gradually, in a way that suited our risk tolerance and stage of life.
Property fit within our broader financial lessons: be patient, stay disciplined, and let time do the heavy lifting
It supported our long-term goals, without demanding more of our time.
I began to realise that investing in property wasn’t just about owning bricks and mortar. It was about creating leverage.A property could grow in value quietly over time, without requiring my constant attention. Equity could then be unlocked and used to build again — a compounding effect waiting to unfold.
The Fear Factor 😬
Of course, realising my salary wasn’t enough didn’t mean I immediately had the courage to act. Like many people, I worried about:
• Taking on too much debt
• What if I chose the wrong suburb?
• What if I failed?
But the scarier thought was doing nothing and staying stuck.
The Start of a New Journey 🚀
This post is the start of me documenting that journey — the wins, the mistakes, and everything in between. I’m not a guru, I don’t have all the answers, and I’m still learning daily.
But what I do know is this:
👉 If you’ve ever had that same sinking feeling that your salary won’t get you where you want to be, you’re not alone.
Realising my salary wasn’t enough didn’t arrive in a dramatic moment.It crept in slowly through tired evenings, long days, and the quiet question of is this it? A salary gave us stability but building wealth required a shift.This blog is where I capture that shift — from relying solely on a salary to building assets that can grow beyond it.
PropertyGirlDownUnder 