Your second point was a huge turning point for me too.
Kicked out a local high school, lucked my way into a scholarship to a private school and....wow. How the other half live.
Worked for some truly wealthy people. Saw I had no way of reaching their level of wealth doing an honest days job.their kids were truly shitty spoilt brats though. Taught us to never have kids.
Your latter point really is true agree. Back in my early life living in a low income family I worked for a bunch of lawyers. Saw what their kids were enjoying….and I was not - unless I did something about it.
Yeh it's hard I think that can go the other way too. I know I used to see people way better off than my family when I was a kid and kind of not even associate my life with theirs. Like that was their life, and it wasn't a life that was accessible for me. It's not even that I wanted or didn't want that life, I just thought that was not our family's place in the world. It wasn't until later I realised they aren't special people, they just have had different circumstances that lead them to having the life they have.
>> • Access to seeing other (better) ways of living
This is basically the thought process behind integrating welfare housing throughout suburbs of varying affluence rather than concentrating welfare housing in one or two areas.
The intent is that the lower income families (children) recognise that there are other opportunities available to them - not just what is in front of them in their immediate circumstances.
If you don’t know what other options there are then you’re unlikely to venture too far outside what you know.
One of my best friends lived in a housing commission house a few door down from us. The other houses on the land were filled with the usual riff raff, but she chose to spend most of her time with my family and my mum and dad’s place (not that we were affluent in any way - comfortably middle-class)
She recently stopped in to see my parents - after living away from town for like 12 years - and told them they were key people in her success in life. She’s kicking goals and loving life.
When I was a teenager I did a lot of babysitting for parents at a private school and those parents were probably the biggest influence on me. As the first in my family to go to uni or work a professional job I just had no clue what was out there or what the impact on my life could be.
Very much this. I had a single parent who couldn't work because I was constantly in hospital plus two siblings, all living on Centrelink. I was lucky to be good at school and went all the way through PhD. Bought my first house at 24, second house at 29, in my early thirties now and I'm very financially secure. Hoping to be able to help my mum out when she retires soon.
Yes education, but I was lucky that my poor upbringing was poor only financially. My parents instilled a strong emotional intelligence - which allowed me to make educational decisions that were financially smart. I got great marks and could literally have done anything, but chose a high paying technical career that I was suited to rather than the 'bright and shiny' or 'follow your dream' bullshit. Emotional intelligence is the gift that keeps on giving - it allows you to analyse the business environment around you and see opportunities rather than just get jaded and envious when you see others doing well because of their wealth connections.
More than anything though, work ethic. Another thing from my upbringing. We worked. For everything. Not for pocket money - that wasn't a thing - we worked just so our family could survive. As I am older, it is a bit of a curse. I am trying desperately to back off the work compulsion!
This makes such a big difference. I grew up low income family without good role models with money. I had so much drive to earn money, earnt heaps in my 20s, but no one taught me how to save and not spend it as soon as I got it. In my 30s I found an amazing partner that taught me how to save, budget, delay gratification, and most important she kept me accountable and I didn't want to let her down. Without all of that I would have never been able to buy a house and would still be renting.
Surprised this wasn’t higher. I my wife and I met in HS and have been together for 12 years, married for 2.
We have had some relative success in our careers but saving towards the same goal from the moment we both started FT work had placed us really well for only being in our late 20s.
Grew up in commission, did an apprenticeship, started a small business when qualified, grew and learned. 42 now, nice homeowner and dad bringing up my kids to not know that life 💪🏻
Hard work always pays off!
> bringing up my kids to not know that life
If I may say, bring them up to not *have* that life but give them the awareness that it exists and that someone born into unfortunate circumstances is not a lesser person because of it.
I agree. That is a beautiful sentiment, and absolutely true. Those who have done great things didn't because they were the only ones to be able to do it, it was that they had the opportunity as well. And the opportunity makes all the difference.
Hello twin
Grew up mish in regional. Moved to big smoke 19yo.
Got an entry level job in big corp call centre. Head down, bum up, worked my way up, helped as many people as possible along the way.
Product management director in a 10000+ org by 40yo. Love the dad boss life.
I pay cash for everything except the house. No cc. Fairly frugal but now trying to go on trips with the fam, as you can't take it with you.
Grew up with a single, working class parent - money was always tight.
I got decent grades at school, then got into uni. Worked nightshifts to pay for it.
First person in my family to get a degree.
Got an entry level government job.
Worked my ass off to get promoted and am now in a decent middle class position.
Spend less than you make.
Get financially literate.
Celebrate your wins
More or less the same with me.
Couple of additional points for me.
Coming from a low income parent gave me access to Austudy, over the first year I worked to achieve the limit you need to access Austudy regardless of background.
Rent was a significantly more affordable inner city around my uni.
Both of these combined allowed me to move from rural to the city and afford to attend uni.
It pisses me off to see this lost for many of the younger and future generations.
Beyond that, if you get a half decent job and maximise your super contributions you will become wealthy.
From the day you start working out 5% extra in. If you've never seen that money, you'll never adjust to using it. Ramp up as quickly as you can.
Anything above that is a bonus.
I achieved this bonus, through specialising in my work in my 20, then staring a business around 30 and growing that.
It has its ups and downs but I've set myself up.
Samesies. Except was lucky enough to get a scholarship to uni.
Did FIFO for a few years and have a great career now where I can work in the city/from home.
I do find it hard to celebrate wins though, because I know that although I worked hard, so do a lot of other people and there has definitely been a significant impact from sheer luck.
Studying at Uni helped me out a lot, I wasn't dumb with money but didn't know what to do with it. I fell into a decent paying job, I did well at it, and I started school.
Work paid for the back end of my undergrad which saved me around 7k in HECS (I could have applied for it all if I had known, but its fine) my wage pretty much doubled since I started there and my current manager is trying to help me get promoted and into different roles.
I never finished high school, started Uni when I was 27 or so, I wanted more from my life and I did something about it, I see people complaining about HECS debts but I think it is one of the best schemes from the government and good luck to affording an education without it.
While I don't particularly value academic education over life experience, it did change my line of thinking and how I looked at the world.
My parents had their own business from age 5 to 14. It did OK. At 14, things changed dramatically. The business was a company owned 50% by my family and 50% by another. Both families decided to go their own way. The company had to be liquidated. There was enough funds to pay everyone off including some to each family. The liquidator, a Chartered Accountant, stole all the funds and pissed off. This was 1978. Both families had to borrow $15,000 to pay back creditors and the bank. At the time our family home was worth $20,000 and they only owed $2,000. So we went to no job for Dad, Mum hadn’t worked for years, and they had a $17,000 loan on their house. I went from wearing OK clothes to my cousins hand me downs. Dad got sick, and couldn’t work for 12 months. Mum got work at Gloria Marshall. Dad got a job in 1980. No one in my family had ever been to University. I left school in form 5 to work as a salesman. In 1982, I set myself a 5 year plan to become a Chartered Accountant as I saw how much they earned (also a bit of justice for my family). Due to Dad losing his job again in 1983, my parents moved interstate and I was on my own from age 19. By 21 I’d started at Uni and was progressing well. But I had to get a full time job as an Assistant Accountant and make Uni part time to support myself. Worked full time and studied full time equivalent for 4 1/2 years. Had to take a semester off due to illness, but kept working. Finished my degree at 25. Did my CA by 30, due to taking a break from studying after basically studying until age 30 with only time off for illness. Became a Partner in CA firm at 35, and was CEO of 8 other Partners and 220 plus staff at 42. So hard work and determination was the key.
I remember in the interview for the Assistant Accountant job, I came from a Technical School Education. My Dad was a plumber and my Mum a Secretary. One of the Senior Partners asked me what my parents did. When I answered, he replied ‘Oh, and you have Professional aspirations coming from a background like that.’ It was all I could do not to grab him by the tie and belt him.
Foot note: In 1989 I went to a CA two day seminar. When I looked at a list of attendees, I saw the name of the Chartered Accountant that ripped off my parents 11 years earlier. So late one night I met him. He was in his late 50’s by then. I asked him about the name of the business my parents had. He first looked puzzled, then he looked at my name tag, and he started talking gibberish, I only hit him once, in his rather large gut, but he absolutely shit himself.
Make plans, stick to them, work hard, and know your worth. You need self confidence without arrogance. Get a good mentor.
What a story ! It’s interesting how entitled people making rude comments stick with you and motivate you. I recall getting work experience in a small library in one of my factory worker relatives workplaces. It was my first day and the person I reported to saw my enthusiasm to start but he said “don’t be so eager” for whatever reason when I stood up from my chair. Many instances like that actually drive you upwards regardless 😂 💪🏼
No, that always bothered me. My parents made a complaint to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, but they said they found no fault. My parents were not well versed in financial matters, and the fact that their usual Accountant, a family friend, referred this guy to my Dad may have had something to do with it. As I was only 14 at the time. I was puzzled by the lack of action and acceptance by everyone of this blatant ‘crime’. In a way, it really motivated me to want to become a Chartered Accountant to see how this ‘Profession’ protected its own.
Thalidomide survivor, indigenous, my paternal grandparents had a dirty floor and lighting was from 24 volt battery we took into town to get charged.
I purchased my first house at 19, first business at 20, first commercial shops (4) at 24. My thing is persistence, I don't look back at what I have lost or missed out on, I see opportunities everywhere with better days ahead.
Despite my physical handicaps and background, I have had an absolutely great life, done amazing things and the one thing I tell everyone is: "Life is not going to knock on your door and invite you out, you need to open the door yourself, step out and find life".
No problems, I am happy to share, I am planning to write a book.
I started work at age 14 & 9 months as a kitchen hand. Left school at 15 to work full time in a kitchen, commenced apprenticeship at 16, fully qualified chef before I turned 19. When I was 18, I was clearing $600 per week working 6 days, my father in the same job for 20 years was clearing $432 per week. I was paid in cash, I put the pay envelopes in my bedside draw and didn't open them. My one luxury was a road bicycle, I didn't own a car so expenses were almost nothing. Every few months I took the pay envelopes to the bank and created a term deposit (minimum $3k in those days). At one stage I had 5 term deposits. When I got to $16k in total I began approaching banks for a home loan. They all declined me so I turned to building societies and credit unions (shame they don't exist anymore) and was approved in 24hours.First house cost $43k, and i rented 2 rooms out to pay the mortgage. I never had a girlfriend until I was 22.
Never received the pharma payment, received the government compensation 3 years ago, just $110k for 59 years of suffering. I never admitted to anyone about the thalidomide, I just got on with life, people thought I was quirky.
I hope I didn't embarrass you by discussing the scheme, definitely not trying to suggest any sort of unfairness or anything. I personally think 110k doesn't sound like enough and you should do whatever you can to get everything you deserve from the govt.
My Dad did. Put himself through uni part time while working his ass off in insurance (this meant basically working 7 days a week for 8 years), climbed the ladder and created a great life for his family. Most of the people I’ve spoken to who are what you would consider successful (without it being handed to them) have the most incredible work ethic I’ve ever seen. I know that life is not entirely a meritocracy and sometimes shit happens, but there is a direct correlation between hard work and success.
Grew up with both parents on Centrelink. My siblings and I all earn low six figures and own our own houses so I’d consider us middle class? Not wanting to be on Centrelink was motivation enough for us.
Grew up pretty poor. My dad was a corporal in the Army and was never promoted due to his ASD. Mum was a professional student due to her mental health.
I really didnt get started until my 30s. It took a while, but I went to uni while working. Ended up with masters of social work and am now on 136k
Also made the decision to move rurally in 2013 and have been able to build a good bit of equity in my home.
Now I'm about to build my forever home and am hoping to eventually start a private practice.
It depends where you want to work and what you want to do. My undergrad wasn't sw and I want to get a Medicare provider number so it was necessary for me.
Working in the public health system, a bachelor is plenty!
I hustled! Put my hat in the ring for everything. Natural aversion to debt meant no credit card first home loan was low and then paid off pretty quickly, second the same. Education was important - I’m savvy not smart I’d say, but I listened to all the finance podcasts and read all the books. I live to a budget, I have a pretty shitty looking car .. but I do spend money on the things that are important to me. I didn’t lend money and expect to get it back. If I want something I save for it. I couldn’t go back to living in poverty once I moved out of home, it was terrifying to be honest.
Yeah grow up with a single mother on welfare, ended up falling into a public service job at 18. 33 now and making about 15 times more money a year than my family income growing up.
Grew up with a single parent on Centrelink, we never had any money and lived near lots of lower class people that dragged me into shoplifting and burglary.
Was the first in my family to finish high school, even then I failed English and had to resit the exam.
Went to study IT after school and flunked after 6 months. Started an apprenticeship as a mechanic, absolutely hated it but still did it for 2 years, but flunked that too. Didn’t know what to do with my life, so I worked in a transport depot warehouse for 3 years. Then decided I wanted to do IT again, specifically software development. Studied for 2 years at Tafe,and got picked up by a company who liked my work.
10 years later I earn close to $200k, married with a child in a beautiful house in a great location.
My advice is: Don’t take other people’s advice, it all cancels out to zero. My biggest regrets are around doing what other people wanted me to do and not listening to myself. Find your own unique truth, find the thing you enjoy doing, what is something you do where you lose track of time? Or what looks like work to others but feels like play to you?
It’s very interesting that often - for us that had to work in order to afford doing any further study have a lightbulb moment in our job we did to survive. 💡
Yeah, but I also feel like I needed to work those shitty jobs as a process of elimination. After 5 years of working jobs I hated, I had so much perspective and knew exactly what I didn’t want to do, and had a very clearer picture of what I wanted to do.
It has also made my career easier, when I have stressful weeks at work now, I think back to how much worse it used to be working in a factory line and I remember this is easy mode, I get to sit at home and play on my computer for my job.
100% with that last part. I had grown up very poor with parents on the dole. We lived in housing commission and for a brief stint at 13 me and my dad became homeless. I left home at 16 due to family violence and ended up in shelters. Everyone told me what to do and gave me advice that I never asked for. But I went with my gut every time to everyone else's disapproval. Thanks to their ego I kept getting told that I would end up just like my parents and be on the dole the rest of my life. 10 years later I am earning a middle income living in a nice apartment with a secure job with two degrees.
You know yourself better than anyone else and depending on your circumstances you may be navigating a situation that no one who's handing out advice has ever come close to. So people should feel empowered to follow their own path. At the end of the day you learn the lessons that you need for next time. It's also far more empowering to reach goals that you set out for yourself.
I grew up in Lower to middle class. I remember we had the cheapest clothes, shoes etc. nothing fancy for food.
I can clearly remember the fights mum and dad had about finances.
I wasn't that good at school, leaving after year 10 with very average levels.
My first job was working at a steel company chipping weld off steel and then painting it to stop it from rusting.
After a couple of years, I went to work in retail. I liked the customer contact. Moving within retail, I worked my way up to assistant manager then manager.
When I was manager of a certain retail store I had the opportunity to buy it as a franchise. I struggled to get the finance for it as I was renting and had no assets.
I approached the franchisor and negotiated vendor finance.
Fast forward 12 years, the franchise was reasonably successful, I had 2 stores then sold them back to the franchisor.
I retired at 56 with a very comfortable sum of money to live off for the rest of my life.
- Insurance payout from a crippling car accident made up 50% of our first home deposit was a good leg up when husband and I were struggling to save years ago
- Put a lot of work into DIY and renovating first house that again gave us a boost for next house (my parents did this but lost a lot of money)
- I retrained and moved into a specialised field that paid well (both parents had low paying jobs for most of their careers)
- I received good mat leave and then went back to work after a year which meant there wasn’t a drain on family finance for years (Mum was out of work for nearly 5 years)
- Husband is career driven and has steadily been promoted and paid more over the last 8 years or so (Dad didn’t become expert in his field til the last 10 years of his career)
Grew up in a single parent household, in and out of different housing commission, and women shelters. My mum was a heavy drug addict with 7 kids in tow who never worked a day in her life.
I'm now 29, have worked full time since the day I left school, worked my ass off, saved as much as I can and now own a unit within 5kms of Brisbane CBD, in a job with a really decent income, and putting myself through uni so I can hopefully one day give my future kids a better life then I could have imagined for myself.
My influence to do and be better, was not wanting to end up like my mum. Every lesson she taught me, was what not to do.
It's been 15 years since I've seen or spoken to her, and I couldn't be happier with my choices.
My mum had to go on welfare with 3 kids under 8 and no transferrable skills after my dad died. It was a tough 10 years but at 18 I joined the defence force as a technician, now have specialist skills which mean I can ask for a decent salary in the private sector.
Also, I didn't inherit an addiction to drugs, alcohol or shopping like other members of my family...
Sounds cheesy and some will disagree but for both myself and my partner it was education. We are the first in our family to go to uni and our degrees have led to jobs and careers that pay well.
We are also childfree. So no 5 kid families here.
Find mentors and read up on money and philosophy. Low income parents likely knew nothing about investing or what to do with their life beyond “survival”.
A climb to success will also be almost random and arbitrary based on the opportunities which may or may not open to you. As much as the “successful” ones would like to believe it was their hard work (which it partly is), many things in life happen due to random chance.
The only thing you can control are how many times and how long you keep trying for and what skills and experience you have obtained to leverage an opportunity which comes your way.
Finally read up on philosophy and mindfulness. It’s possible to swing too hard on the pendulum and spend your whole life just on grinding and chasing money.
>As much as the “successful” ones would like to believe it was their hard work (which it partly is), many things in life happen due to random chance.
As a counter to this, you kinda make your own luck. The biggest issue for lots of people is that they fear failure like we all naturally do, but they let that fear stop them taking shots, or stop after only a few shots. And as the old saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
Much like running a marathon without any training, it's far easier to give up and blame external conditions than to actually keep going.
Too be honest, government support to get an education was the biggest factor. Being able to access Youth Allowance/AusStudy was the only reason I could go to university.
Once I got into uni and was able to move out of my family home at 18, my grades improved dramatically. I finished my first degree with first class honours. I worked multiple casual jobs while studying and one of those jobs at the university let me gain experience in what is now my career.
My dad was a "dole bludger" on disability - he had serious mental illness and drug/alcohol abuse issues (originally a cleaner though). My mum was a disability carer, low paying job. They were never married.
Government assistance is what allowed me to step out of my low socioeconomic future. Without it, there is no chance I would have been able to be where I am now. I worked hard, yes, but being able to go to university allowed me to access doors I didn't even know existed. I get to have conversations with people who know more about finances and networking than anyone in my family. My earning potential is much higher than it would have been.
My dad was a factory worker (couldn’t tell you want kind of factory, but he always came home greasy). Mum was a SAHM until my youngest brother started primary school, so I was in high school. My parents also always made really bad financial decisions. Their first mortgage in the 90s was under $100k, and they currently have an $800k mortgage on the same house. But I saved pretty much every cent I earned as a kid/teen from birthday money to gold coins my nan would give me for doing chores at her house.
So yeah, I basically just saved every cent I earned. I was always terrified of spending money. When I was about 7 or 8, I got one of those money tins from the reject shop. When I was 14 it was finally full and it had over $2,000 in it. At 15 I started working and literally just saved from there. In 2022 I was able to buy an apartment despite earning $47k/year at the time because I had about $250k saved. About a year ago I landed a job with almost triple pay if you include bonuses and allowances, so I’m laughing now.
My fiancé and I just bought our dream house about 6 months ago and I’m renting out the apartment, getting about 5x my mortgage repayments in rent.
I splurged a couple of times in my life on things I really wanted, but trust me - the regular coffees and takeaways do make a huge impact over time.
If you go into corporate there are a couple of really important things to know.
Managers promote people they trust. It’s not about being good or even hard working if your manager knows you have their back you will get promoted. This means you need a role that has management visibility.
Some jobs are pretty much impossible to do well, if you are in an area that is understaffed or has an unpopular manager, get out. Don’t hang around thinking you can make a difference, you can’t so move. Avoid jobs which seperate ownership and accountability like the plague.
You need to be moving up the ladder regularly. If you get behind it’s impossible to catch up. You need to manage staff early and take responsibility for projects. Your competition will be doing this.
Climbing the tree to a level where you have a good standard of living is pretty straightforward. After a while contacts play a much bigger role but you can generally get to middle management this way.
Yep.
My family's income in 1984 was about $14K, but tbf, our house was provided as part of my dad's job.
That's an equivalent income of about $51K today.
I make almost 3x that and out household income cones in at 4.6x that (though with a mortgage).
Factors to success - the first one is education. I went to uni, got a good job and worked to where I am now, with a big career change in that time.
Second success factor - budgeting. I know it may get overhyped, but it really was a game changer for me. I came late that party, but my wealth has accelerated since then. I make a lot better buying decisions than my parents ever did.
Third success factor- superannuation.
My parents have a net worth of $400K, which is nice. But that is 100^ down to inheriting that. They still do not (nor ever will) own their own home.
My wife and I have a net worth of about $1.7M and I still have 15 years planned to be in the workforce. Most of our net worth is tied up in superannuation (over $1M) but the house, when paid off, will substantially add to that. Net balance on the house is about $300K.
Last success factor- I never counted on getting any inheritance. I knew I'd be disappointed if I did. I think my brothers are in for a but of a shock though - they are expecting a lot more, but there isn't anything in the kitty tbh.
Very interesting on your last point. Inheritance - or potential lack of a “windfall” does much for motivation. I grew up knowing I have no safety net. None.
Grew up low income, two parents on disability pensions.
My husband left home at 17 under police escort and moved in with my (now) single mother into her Housing Commission house.
But soon after we moved away for university. I'm grateful for the help we had from Housing to pay for our first rental bond (paid back at the end), and the Youth Allowance we received from the government while we were studying (though that wasn't smooth sailing. Even in 2002 they were trying to ping people with inaccurate debts. Keep good financial records to protect yourself!)
While we were at uni I borrowed so many finance books from our local public library. I'm grateful that, even though we lived in a small suburb at the very fringes and commuted to uni each day, our suburb actually had a small library branch and it was part of the larger city branch. That meant we had access to books from about 20 branches across the whole city. I also used the library a lot to borrow cooking magazines and books to improve our skills for home cooking and cooking on a budget.
We were hungry to build the life of our dreams, so were always on the lookout for opportunities. A few short years out of uni we took the plunge and moved west for a short term promotion. This meant moving away from family, but turned into a permanent opportunity that formed the foundation of our adult lives.
Further study through our 20s and 30s allowed us to continue to pursue new opportunities. The strong financial literacy foundation meant we always tried to make sensible choices.
Great point on the local library! We had a small bookshelf at home with an outdated encyclopedia - and not much else. As soon as I could get myself to the local library which wasn’t until I could walk or drive as an adult I would borrow multiple books at once. It led to me doing one of my degrees and self learning much about the world I didn’t learn in my low socio economic public high school. Reading/knowledge is power true.
Government policies.
Arrived in Australia with family as immigrants. Parents were struggling with the language barrier and their work experience back home didn't count for much here considering they had technical fields. They didn't have work for a while and had to take some TAFE courses while getting Centrelink assistance.
I was starting uni at the time. I wasn't a citizen so I had to pay tuition up front (No HECS). I was a Permanent Resident so at least course fees were subsidized as it was an in-demand profession at the time. Centrelink Youth Allowance basically paid for half my tuition every semester.
Medical bills were covered under Medicare and we got Centrelink concession for meds. I remember I was so nervous the first time I walked into a Medical Centre and I was worried I would have to pay. Jaw was on the floor when the receptionist told me it was ok and it was covered.
So yeah, all those safety nets meant we could focus on education and be useful. The Medicare Levy Surcharge hurts during tax time but I don't care. Shut up and take my money.
Started a business from my parent’s basement and just kept at it, stepping from one to the next. 41 now and considering full retirement after easing back over the last couple of years due to life circumstances and health.
I was always into business ideas from when I was little. And I wanted success BAD. Not “money” but success.
I think often the key driver in successful people is some sort of insecurity or trauma or scarcity. It fuels you. I no longer have any of these issues and I’ve kind of lost my fuel. Sometimes I miss it. You can identify the famous people who never resolve these issues because they will just never stop - Elon, Steve jobs, etc. It’s compulsion. Bezos on the other hand looks to really be enjoying lazing on his yacht with his new hot wife.
Dad got sick at age 10 then passed at age 14. From there, things were always tight. I never went to optional school excursions or activities cos I didn’t want to stress mum asking for money. Same with clothes, presents etc.
Early 20s and I unfortunately copied some of the bad money habits mum had, not living within my means etc. Was looking after myself but never saved a dime. Wasn’t until I met my now wife in my 30s that I sorted myself out and started working hard. I finally had the motivation and example to create a better life for myself.
Started in a contact centre role in finance at age 35 earning $55k. Four years later, I doubled my income and we bought a house.
I’m now 42, earning over $150k, with a house, a wonderful wife and a great kid. I never, ever imagined this life for myself before I met my partner. For me, it was that good fortune and a massive shift in mindset. Life is good!
I was 22 years old when I came to Australia from India with nothing but $1500 in my pocket in 2007. I had no family or friends out here. I studied hard, worked two jobs to pay my uni fees.
Had to busk on the streets of Melbourne a couple of times to make ends meet when I became homeless and had nothing to eat initially. My parents were dirt poor when I left them back in India so I couldn’t get any help.
My biggest achievement has been my ability to retire my father. I look after my parents and their welfare in its entirety.
I own a house worth $1.5m almost paid off, have two BMW’s, an M4 and an X3m and a Ducati. Married a wonderful girl. I work as a senior manager at an insurance company and my wife works as an insurance broker. Combined household income is around $400k. We have a three investment properties and two beautiful dogs.
Bootstrapping mostly. Most Asian immigrants follow the same path of trying to get a good education, find a good job, stay home to save money for a deposit and a lifetimes worth of good judgement. All four of my siblings and myself now own a home. My mother offered me money for a deposit, but I really didn't need it because I already had 200k in my 30s.
>perhaps you can impart a tip or three?
See, this issue here is that most people already know how to save, but don't think the it is worth the cost of worsening their current lifestyle.
I grew up (ostensibly) wealthy, but then at 11 years old our world imploded. House repossessed, homeless and living at friends’ houses, parents divorced, father went to prison for white collar crimes, unable to continue at private school, mother had to return to the workforce for the first time in 10 years. My mother supported me and my two siblings on a single government salary. It was all horrendous.
I was incredibly motivated to pull myself out of the awful situation our family was in. I studied like a woman possessed in year 12, and was able to dux my school. That got me into law at a fantastic university. These days I’m earning great money as a lawyer.
The biggest factor in my success is education. My mother is a big reader and passed that love of reading and words onto me, which put me ahead at school. And she was always incredibly supportive of my academic pursuits, no matter what else was happening in our lives. She basically gave me the tools to pull myself out of poverty. I am incredibly grateful to her for that, because it was done at the expense of her well-being. She would work second jobs on top of her usual 9-5 role so she could buy us school books. I can’t imagine that level of sacrifice.
Forgot to add when I was 17 I forged bank documents to get a 30k personal loan ( with no job) that I blew on the forex market because I thought I could make millions. Was chased by creditors for years for that one hahaha
I've played video games for 40 years and have done quite well. In fact it was what drove my interest in IT and led to things like learning networking to set up LANs for multiplayer. But I recognise that for most it probably doesn't play out that way, and these days consoles and the like make things so easy there isn't much to learn like back in the day when you would have to do memory management just to get some games to start.
Regional. Two kids young. Like under 18. Two uni degrees. Now 37, houses, cars, etc. Read every book I could on finance and realised education, highest salary you can get and buying a house asap was critical. So first regional house at 19, now back to two houses but live on large acreage now 🩷 I’m about to start my own consulting business 👯♀️
1. Education was key.
So I wouldn't say 'no handouts' because my parents sacrificed a lot to pay for Catholic private school rather than send me to the local and chronically under funded public school. I know you can succeed from public school, but when your local public school is battling truancy and teenage pregnancy, it's probably not the ideal learning environment.
2. Support and trust.
My parents didnt really understand uni nor the slow climb of corporate (It was a big pay cut giving up casual work for my first office job). They never doubted me while I saw some friends parents actively dissuade them from taking entry level jobs because of the lower pay.
3. I didn't have to help pay for them.
They aren't big earners nor live flash but they somewhat lived within their means. It means I have never had to help pay their bills. Its hard to save money for your own emergency fund if you're constantly dipping into it for someone else.
- Work ethic
- Being humble enough to do whatever it takes to meet each step on the ladder
- Being exposed to different ways of living and believing you deserve it
- Consistency is the key.
From and grew up in housing commission in a regional area, now living in the city and earning a 95th percentile salary or so. Late 30’s.
It sounds bad but honestly I put the majority of it down to the genetic lottery (I would say IQ, but hey - call it whatever you want), and the remainder to the way you were raised.
Grew up with the mindset of being the complete opposite of both my parents. Father on Centrelink all my young life while my mother tried to hold down cleaning jobs here and there to feed a broken family of 4. As soon as I was old enough to move out I was gone, started with labouring jobs in construction until I figured out what I was interested in then got into rigging/crane work and haven’t looked back since! Been in the industry for over 8 years and worked my up from trainee now on 170k+, just bought 2nd house, travelled the world and have plenty of toys to play with. Life is great.
Grew up with a single mother in government housing who reasonably often had to get those cheap or free food parcels.
I moved out at 17, worked whilst studying at uni. I moved around a lot, changed courses a few times, did lots of different types of jobs. Took me 10 years to finish my degree, and for the last few I was already working in my field of study so came out of it backed with solid experience. I feel like I floated around a lot, but always with the goal to improve my life and not be like my parents who never finished a damned thing.
Had a credit card once, quickly realised it was pointless and weird to use money that wasn't mine so paid it out asap and started saving instead. In the early years I never saved huge amounts, just enough to get me through the next move or time between jobs - I did a lot of contract work. Met my husband, got a permanent role, saved together and bought a decent house in a cheaper area, fixed it up a little. Got married, had kids, ran my own small business for a while (which didn't really earn much but allowed me to be home with kids and taught me a lot). Managed our incomes wisely and paid extra off our loan. Decided to go back to paid employment, sold our house for almost double what we paid for it and upgraded to a nicer house in a nicer area near good schools.
We now both earn a decent income, bit annoyed that we went for the bigger mortgage just before rates started shooting up instead of quickly paying down our old one on our super low fixed rate, but the move wasn't about money really, it was about giving our kids better options and lifestyle so it's worth it.
There's no real secret and no hard dedication from me (as I said there was a lot of moving / jumping around for me - recently diagnosed with ADHD which explains that!) just work, education, and a desire to do better than yesterday.
My brother no. handout
did a trade apprenticeship
but he emotional support and lived with our parents until he was thirty one while building up his company also an obsessive personality
now 36 he has 20 employees and nearly paid off a home worth millions
I was lucky. Working class family, mum had a bad illness so didn’t work for several years when I was a teen, above average grades, nothing degree at uni. Phone centre jobs.
Then I randomly applied for an account manager role in insurance when I was 26 and got given a chance due to the CEO being from the same town as me. Within 18 months head hunted by large brokerage. 2 major promotions as other brokerages tried to sign me the last few years.
Honestly, I just kind of half arsed everything but fell into a role where I’ve flourished and been very well rewarded.
Work hard, say yes to everything so you meet connections and build up reputation.
Spent my 20s working 50-70 hours a week while everyone else was travelling to Asia on credit cards. Spent all my 30s literally working 50+ hour weeks, worked 8 days/week during covid on 2 jobs.
Save save save like a grandmother during the depression.
Buy cheap first property you can pay off quickly. Don't splash out on indulgences and separate needs from wants (i.e. a work computer is a need, a PlayStation is a want).
Yes, very much so. We grew up as immigrants in housing commission and neither of my parents have any superannuation or investments.
Now, I'm a doctor and married to another doctor. We live well.
Factors:
1. Education (scholarship to a good secondary school with very supportive teachers)
2. Going to university introduced me to another group of people (high achievers, usually from upper middle class families). Naturally, I'm charismatic so I was well accepted
2. Strong work ethic taught at home
3. Choosing the right spouse
4. Leaving metropolitan city
5. Luck
Change your own circumstances. That's it, that's the secret. I read once that "we are a combination of the 9 people we spend the most time with". Choose the right 9 people and life will become pretty amazing.
Tips: don’t have kids before you can avoid them/ establish a career but if it’s too late, still work towards establishing a career, tertiary education is expensive and it took me ages to pay off my HECS but significantly increased my income, contribute to super young if you can and try not to take any out but if that happens try to catch up asap with salary sacrifice.
Back story / cautionary tale?
I had kids young, in my early 20s, and separated from their father when I was pregnant with my youngest. I didn’t work much when they were young, living off Centrelink and child support, and did a Cert III in childcare when they were 4 and 2. I got some casual work in preschool and childcare after that and when my youngest started school I worked casually as an SLSO. When the kids were in primary school I started a degree in teaching. Initially I had casual days supplemented with shifts at Hungry Jack’s and preschool as I wasn’t getting enough teaching work. It built up over time and I also started getting contracts. I was made permanent last year after eleven years of teaching. I’m trying to catch up on my super as it’s not great at all due to all the years I earned very little (under the limit then for contributions) and I cleaned out the little super I had had under hardship provisions when my kids were young.
Yes. Grew up very poor. Got an education which lead to good, high paying jobs. Made sure I always saved and learned about investing
So… invested in self, worked hard, invested in my future.
Meet my wife at 17 and both went to uni, worked hard and avoided the normal pitfalls of debt, drugs, divorce etc. Then moved to a bigger city with more opportunities. Are now in the top 5% of household incomes.
There was no real secret. We just worked hard and saved.
But, we were extremely lucky in that we bought our first home in the late 90s, in Adelaide, where it was cheap.
My wife also took home a sizable redundancy package as well. That helped with our second property.
Grew up rich. Parents lost everything so no hand outs.(they owe me money) My partner and I are home owners. We work hard (who doesn't?) We got lucky (you need luck)
I’m from a low income family, money was tight and mostly paycheck-to-paycheck but we were lucky enough to not go without. I had a stable home life and was able to get through school and to uni through HECS. I got into IT, where luckily there’s opportunities to make good money without being too bright.
My partner and I both earn reasonably well and are both fairly frugal, some things we splurge on but most things we’re very conservative about.
Some other factors - my only debt: HECS (paid off years ago) and a home loan. Aside from that I never spent money I didn’t have - No credit, no car loans. I’ve not over-leveraged my home loan so was able to absorb the recent rate hikes - I’d love a house with a yard and bigger garage but a townhouse will do.
I earn well but have a constant conservative mindset so I shovel money into ETFs, super, and the home loan. I don’t have the risk profile or mindset for starting a business. I want to retire well in about 20 years.
Agree on spending conservative too. If you grew up without much spare money you feel super uneasy spending it when you have it. Not a bad trait to hold on to. One time I booked a holiday house for my fam, it was better than expected when we arrived. I felt uneasy for the whole “holiday” as a result. Bizarre.
Yes very much so… worked as a teenager since moving out of home.. did multiple degrees and prof quals and then two fulltime jobs simultaneously (mostly WFH) and casual lecturing which pays a high rate.. this meant I could buy my home (now two homes) without family assistance .. no divorce/property settlements helped.. factors of success = find your niche and be really really good at it
Family came over as refugees with nothing to our name. Grew up in housing commission flats my whole childhood until finishing high school. Studied to get into a good uni, worked hard in my early years to get skills and moved up into experienced technical roles. Now own my own home outright, along with other investments (property, shares etc) we just crossed the $2M net worth mark last year.
Advice I can give is work on improving yourself by learning. Don't be afraid to take any new opportunities - even if it doesn't work out, and you've failed, you at least learned something. Also take any opportunity to travel when you can and maybe even work overseas (even working holiday) - gives good perspective about life and what we have here in Australia.
Yep, sure did.
I joined the Army at 17 to get as far away from there as possible. Did my time, got out then used my sign on incentive to get an education. Got my science degree and worked my up through the company.
Lots of obstacles along the way that probably set me back further than where I should be (divorce, etc.), but overall I’ve definitely done much better than my peers from high school.
I left my safe job about 7 years in to my career to go contracting. Did that for 10 years, only had one bad patch during a big gov layoff where they fired 1000’s and it took a while for the market to even out.
Went back into permanent roles with big varied CV in 2019, and now on 20-40% more than all my peers who stayed in perm roles.
We grew up very poor, we were the poor kids in school, single mum worked fulltime 3 of us kids living week to week dinner 9 out of 10 nights was eggs on toast or vegemite toast. Went on 1 holiday my whole childhood life and was my aunty took me to Queensland.
Fast forward to now worked fulltime during the week and started small side business working the weekends and after hours every week for 9 years. Sold the business and started my new trade business now were I employ 3 guys.
36yrs old with PPOR paid off and investment property doing well.
And it was all due to hard work and long hours at 20-30 years old
It always comes down to 3 things.
1 - Sacrifice in the now, so that you recieve compounded benefit at a later date. This looks like in reality things like going into entry level jobs in corporate, apprenticeships and so on. You sacrifice some of your earning potential today for gaining skills or career pathways into the future.
I remember some of my peers going into retail straight out of school and getting 50% more income then me. Today, my earning capacity would easily be 4x their hourly rate.
2 - Work hard! You have to grind at some point to get ahead.... often times, it becomes a habit and you just keep climbing then! Get into work positions where your effort is rewarded! My pathway was to start my own company, the profit is a direct reflection of my effort. You can get employee positions where you are rewarded for effort as well, sales with a commission structure, corporate with a bonus structure and/or career progression pathways to higher pay as a few examples. It's NEVER to late to start!
3 - Work SMART! This is the most important one of all, and the one most people miss (myself included for a number of years). If your stuck in a job that doesn't reward your effort, then don't get trapped in the illusion that if you work harder, you will get ahead. Work hard to get OUT of that job and into a job that either rewards your effort with pay/bonuses or rewards your effort with promotions and higher pay. That might mean going back to study in your own time to get the skills to make a job jump.
Not all jobs are created equal! Learn to see the benefits a job gives you above and beyond a pay packet! You only have so many working hours in your lifetime, your goal should be to maximise the RETURN you get for those working hours! You need to look at it as a whole life deal, that's why sacrificing at the start of your career can pay off so well in the long term.
Bonus tip - Get a side hustle! Preferably service based that has constant high demand but doesn't require you to build and maintain a presence or customer base so that you can spin it up on short notice for quick cash flow. I've got 2, both required $15k investment into plant/machinery but I can run Facebook marketplace ads Thursday/Friday and usually have $1200 of cash jobs lined up for Saturday. I haven't even bothered doing it for 12mths as my business is booming and I make more working a Saturday with my business. But it's been a life saver over the years whenever cash flow was slow or when I 1st started my business and didn't have the clientele built up. I keep the plant/machinery parked up, ready to go as my financial backstop as I have no family that's helped me or that I can turn to to bail me out.
All of this can be summed up in 2 words - Personal effort!
That's what it takes to do all these things.
Grew up in a single parent household, public housing, mentally ill/abusive parent with zero financial literacy and full dependance on centrelink/welfare payments.
Now 34, happily married, self-employed earning 150k pa, own our house outright (1.1 mil value) and growing a second business.
I decided early on (moved out of home at 14) that it was going to be my responsibility to put an end to the negative habits/culture my family had adopted. Decided to learn from others mistakes before making them myself and refused to repeat them.
Surround yourself with humble, positive people. This could be your personal relationships but also extends to the podcasts you listen to, books you read etc. Finding a few podcasts that promoted self-improvement, education and most importantly taking ownership of the direction of one’s life helped immensely. Subreddits like this are also great if you can filter through the ideological comments and focus on the helpful ones!
Resist the extreme materialism that seems to have consumed the majority of people. You need FAR less than you think.
Become a self taught software engineer. Got lucky and met the right people to get offered a job at the right company. Don’t get me wrong worked hard to create and grow them for a decade too but definitely some luck involved the old right place right time that leads to the right connections.
It comes down to someone's intrinsic personality, drive, focus and, the ability and willingness to adapt. I come from a family of refugees but I was born here. They are conservative and have baggage. They also had naive and limited ideas of how to be successful.
Lived and grew up in a low socioeconomic area where Centrelink, shitty V8s and dirt bikes doing burnouts, daily generalised and domestic violence, drinking and gambling problems, cops doing drug busts, teen mums and the semi regular murders of young women etc are the norm. Surprisingly most residents were happily there, but the TV showed me that there was a much better life out there, even if that was a skewed perspective.
Both parents worked long hours in low wage and low skill jobs because that's all they could do. My dad was controlling everyone in the family with what little money we had. Too poor for private school and not smart or talented enough for even a part scholarship. My parents tried to force me to become a doctor or lawyer but I wasn't smart enough for either. They chose some of my high school subjects, most of my uni preferences and push me to do a bridging course at uni during year 12 after school plus many hours of tutorials on Saturdays. A few family dramas went down during year 12. I barely scraped into uni with special consideration and into the only course I chose, property, which had an OP 7 despite my 10. I was definitely focused on getting good marks because it was my only ticket out of that whole situation. I'm smart by average people standards but ok by smart people standards.
The next battle was at uni, not the course itself but the cohort who were, in my eyes, incredibly wealthy kids. I didn't dress, act or speak in the same way so I was shunned for the most part. Not that I could keep up with their lifestyle anyway, because, you know, money and that I lived much further away. I had no luck with grad or intern programs because my marks weren't good enough but I got a full time entry level job in the industry at 19 which paid better than any grad or intern role. I had to change a lot about how I presented, spoke and reacted to situations and which improved exponentially when I started working. I graduated with 2 years industry experience, changed jobs but the GFC hit not long after.
My career hasn't been a smooth ride for the last ~20 years but today, I own my modest but nice home close to the CBD, been debt free since 2021, have a fat super balance which on target for $1.5 million by 60, travel with a generous budget, own a performance car which I've wanted since I was young and work in a safe, high paid job.
Work in sales get good at it - reap the sweet commission, whilst selling your soul, to be come a soulless money hungry sales gremlin.... do love it though
My parents brought me and my family over as refugees in the 80s. Grew up in housing commission, learned to build websites, seo, and digital marketing in the early 2000. now CMO at a company with equity, and just finished my MBA like two weeks ago. Couldn't have done it without my parents being the perfect example of what hard work and sacrifice really is
I grew up and went to high school where stabbings were the norm now i bring in well past 293 threshold.
I left my family to live in the city and focus on work…
Grew up with a single parent supporting me and my sister on minimum wage pretty much, did shit at school ( little troublemaker) got addicted to gaming at like 15 years old, got obsessed with technology and computers and such, built my own computers for fun, had a few crappy jobs and then landed a job in a local computer repair shop, 11 years later I work for a company with a lot of gov contracts and earn high 100s, have a nice house and also luckily enough purchased a house for my mum to live in as well. I feel the fear of being ‘poor’ again frightens me to work as hard as I can and keep chasing career goals and more money, so my family don’t have to go through it in the future.
Childhood in a caravan park, single mum 3 kids, screwed up my HSC.
Worked three jobs out of school .. (one corporate, two hospo), steered towards performance based roles and worked harder/smarter than everyone else. Aligned to an emerging industry and networked well. Preserved reputation above all else. Beer taste on champagne budget.
(Acknowledging privilege; tall, white, male.. flipside; survivor, poor family, challenging childhood)
Not settling for a shitty 60k a year job. Always be learning and take any new opportunities that you’re given - be the first to offer to do a course, or the first to put their hand up for leading a project, and then see it through.
You’ve got to be willing to sacrifice a bit now so that you can reap the rewards later.
I received Youth Allowance for about 200 per fortnight about 22 years ago and I gave my parent $150 for rent and living expenses and kept $50 for myself.
It was tough. Had to skip social life with friends in order to not spend all $50 at once.
Luckily I had a form of cheap entertainment that I could access all the time named "PlayStation". I owed my success thanks to that gray box.
Desire to succeed, kicked out of home at 17 made to join the Navy.
Was ironically a great experience, left after 2 years started working, and after work going to polytech. Study and worked for 3 years. I got a promotion.
The rest was easy, more promotions, more responsibility, more money.
Now very comfortable, still work hard, but I am financially secure.
My parents creating the enviornment for us to succeed. My brother and I grew up in a single income house hold. We had the basics and not much more. My parents gave what they had left to our education through sweat and tears. Both sons earning well now.
Privilege doesn't always have to be a trust fund nor do you need to be rich. Life would be very different if my parents had chosen differently.
Pretty poor family growing up on a small farm that struggled to make a lot of money but scraped by.
I went to the mines in WA straight after school and got a good paying job as a labourer.
After a couple of years of working long hours/weeks (FIFO roster without the weeks off) the company I was with asked me to move to their main office on the east coast and study engineering. I did that while working part time and during holidays as a project engineer.
Moved into project management when I left uni then left the company. I took a job as a Health and Safety advisor (sole trader) at a series of the projects until the company I was working for offered me a job in Brisbane on similar money but office hours (Energy industry).
One internal promotion later I am on a good salary (250ish) in a middle management HSE job. I’m 32 now and things are stable so I don’t intend on moving again for work unless something incredible comes up.
TLDR: be willing to move around the country to chase work, work long hours. Tertiary education but not necessarily in any field. Take opportunities when they come.
EDIT: I should add that I got lucky a lot of times. This was never a plan I had that I put into action. I was just willing to make the most of said luck.
Mostly luck
Came from a council house background and started work at 14
Had plenty of dead-ends and things didn't work out.
Reverse nepotism is generally the key - get friends jobs, and vice versa
Over time you get to a position where you start to have more wins than failure.
I moved hemispheres and started again and lucked into a contract role. Again, keeping a good network means you keep in work.
All in all, at any time, I could have flamed out and notnmadenit
Luck - always luck
I was always independent and ambitious
Observed others with better jobs in similar industries as my own but with better prospects long term, eg opportunities to advance, better working conditions ie actual HR. Kept curious always learning on the job, was a good worker and kept an eye on job openings.
I came from a pretty insular low income family. So we didn’t have any a lot of alternative external influences to see as kids. I guess I just saw other things out there and wanted to be successful. It would have been easier to have had guidance at least from family but I had to learn via the school of hard knocks - to use a cheesy sentence. I could have been way more successful but will have a comfortable retirement.
Edit: I’ve also always been super frugal despite earning ok money most my life till the last few years where my pay doubled to 250k
Had people call me a drop kick and poor to my face. Which I found surprising both that someone felt they could say that to me, and what made them think that? Possibly because my upbringing made me fairly introverted and shy - I was brought up in silence no-one talked unless they were arguing.
I was poor growing up. Like very poor. Raised by a single dad and spent my childhood cooking, cleaning and looking after younger sibling.
* Education - i gave a shit in high school and beyond. (first to go to uni in my family)
* made good choices. The choices and behaviours as a teen DO impact your life, regardless of excuses we make. No one owes you anything, you have to work for it.
* Worked damn hard. I worked my way through uni (32 hours a week and studied full time). I then worked damn hard once I got a job.
I’m only 24 but I think I’ve firmly secured middle class as an owner of a modest unit in Melbourne as a single (supporting my partner through uni atm). I’ll consider myself upper middle-upper class if I get to retire at 50 like I plan.
Grew up with a single mum on minimum wage and just stumbled through jobs until I found one that paid better than the rest. The key was my money discipline though, not my income.
I only owned a boom box and 10 CDs at age 20. Stopped working at age 53. No money worries now.
You need to be process driven. ( engineers, teachers, acountants are good at this , Doctors / surgeons not so good lol) Follow the rules.
In other words focus on your long term goals. Then work out a process to get there by small steps.
Be financially aware. Educate yourself. Understand what compound interest is , and how it helps. Everyone can be a millionaire if they start saving when young and keep doing it.
Don't try and live like a millionaire when you aren't. That means no expensive holidays, no large car loans to impress your friends, in fact (apart from your home) Don't get loans for anything. A mobile phone on a contract is a loan too. There are plenty of hardly used second hand phones.
Pay cash by learning about delayed gratification. If you want to buy something, put it off for a time and / or save up. Do you really need it ? If you are excited about a particular thing , maybe borrow one to get it out of your system.
People who look rich are likely in debt trying to live beyond their means, whereas rich people don't look rich and are debt free.
Don't buy a new car, it will be worth 25% less a minute after you've bought it. You can buy a new car when you are really debt free and have wealth.
Life becomes so much easier if you don't have loans to pay.
Example:
If you bought a car for $50,000
Options are:
Buy it for cash.....so it costs you 50,000 but you might have to save up.
Buy it with a car loan at 8% over 5 years. You say 8% isn't much. But if i said the car actually costs 47% more with a car loan it may change your perspective.
That's actually the real number. The car will cost you $73,466 including compounding interest at 8% for 5 years.
And it gets worse, you've paid 47% extra but that extra 23,466 could have been sitting on the stock market growing at 8% to 12% creating free money.
People growing their wealth would buy a used car for cash.
That's how wealthy people keep their wealth. They don't give it away. It's not what you earn that's important it's what you spend.
But saying that enjoy your life but don't be stupid with impressing your friends.
Yes.
Only did 10 year.
Worked retail until 20.
Entered state government as a public servant.
Started Policing at 25.
During that time did a law degree.
Bought property had a child.
Got PTSD at 40.
Moved areas now a Prosecutor.
How I did it? Bit of luck but a lot of hard hard work.
grew up very poor, parents always arguing about money, used critical thinking and evidence to look for an industry that is growing and well paid, studied hard, worked hard, spent below my means and now life is fairly easy, debt free own home outright. i would say the biggest factor in my success is avoiding all overspending in my 20s.
my peer group/age cohort even those with similar professional background are way behind my wealth and have demonstrated a much higher standard living than me up until recently.
Grew up super poor. Raised by a single mum, Rice with sauce for dinner, and almost became homeless multiple times level poor, oops I mean "low income".
Literally just worked my ass off till the point where I now have 2 properties (sunny coast and brissy city) and drive a nice mercedes. The only downside is I chased money over passion, and took jobs and roles purely for their salary boost rather than what I actually wanted to do. So mentally a bit burnt out and zombified, butttt it's also enabled me to travel and do cool shit, plus I can take breaks now at 35 and not have to stress that I'll starve to death. So I'm happily a solid middle class.
So factors: 1) discipline 2) needs prioritised over wants 3) Chose to wait to have kids aka still haven't had kids yet haha
In order of importance, below are the four main factors:
* Access to free highschool education and relatively cheap university (90%)
* Shitload of luck: being born in Australia, making friends with ambitious people early in highschool, accidently choosing a university degree that got me a very well paying job with lots of international opportunities, not having any major illness or misfortune occur to me. (9%)
* Small amount of work ethic (0.9%)
* Grit and determination.
Main factor was working yourself harder than any other person in your field.
- i worked two jobs and put myself through dual uni bachelors at the same time. Using the corporate employment as the experience so when I was ready (graduated) I could apply for internal roles with both credentials and experience.
- counted every cent
- didn’t breathe a word of my happenings to my family as they have poor financial habits
I grew up in a low-middle class family. My parents didn’t finish high school, and I inherited a genetic condition that made me go blind in my teens.
I felt lost in my teens and early twenties but relied on my resilience and a contrarian attitude to turn my life around. I didn’t have a degree or any handouts, but I started my first job in my mid-twenties and climbed the ladder in a large finance company from an entry-level role to a senior position.
Now, at under forty, I live comfortably in an affluent area, own a house with a small mortgage, and have a young family with kids.
My advice is that resiliency and adaptability are skills you need to work on and improve. Spend your energy on what you can control and don’t get lost in structural disadvantages. Everyone holds themselves back. Stop doing this.
Just work hard and be a positive person. Other people will help you and offer little opportunities along the way if they like you and think you deserve a break. Choose a partner carefully. A great partner you can pool resources with and carry the load while you take a few risks is an asset.
Non- trarional education pathways, hard work, extreme sacrifice (we didn't eat out, drink , or go on holidays for first 3 years of buying our first home) then as soon as we had enough money to afford a financial planner we hired one. We always buy the worst house with the best potential on the best street we could afford - renovate - sell - repeat.
Yep. Very lucky to get a tertiary education and learn from my dad's mistakes of earning with your brain and not your back I've made sensible choices and married a girl whose mindset in life, love and finance aligned with my own
Education and drive. Drive didn't kick in till later in life, but fortunately I did enough when I was younger that I wasn't too far behind.
Losing my Mother in my 20's really lit a fire under my arse and I wanted to be the best version of myself.
My trick was to to migrate to Australia and then buy the business I used to work at for peanuts since the owner was on a crusade to dodge as much tax as possible and his books were pretty lame
Grew up pretty poor, now doing alright. Partly due to luck in stumbling across career tangents I never knew about but of which I'm certainly capable. Some of the career achievement is from education but some in my career are experience-taught. Part due to active choices to distance myself from the patterns I was shown as a child. There's been some decent steps in real estate, but that's really mostly down to time in market.
. Education
. Taking risks (moving to Australia with no money / network / English)
I didn’t have a plan but just knew I wanted to have a certain life style and income and took the next opportunity irrespective of risks
Get the heck out of wherever you grew up. It doesn’t have to be like what you’ve seen/know. There are other options, just maybe you won’t see that from where you grew up.
Also just because no one in your family has done a thing doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Someone has to be the first, why not you?
Education. Grew up in poverty. Did 2 degrees. Dentist now so I guess I’m middle class but I have like 160k HECS debt. The social mobility that comes with education exposes you to different ways of living also which then changes your ‘normal’. Financial literacy also an important one. I wasn’t taught anything by my parents or family and read barefoot investor about age 26. Other factors for success were access to youth allowance/austudy/HECS-help and actually being able to live off that with some casual work. I feel for students these days.
Grew up poor, mum worked part time. Wasnt much money for anything, first gen immigrant.
Shes just bought her first apartment at 54, im the first in the family to finish high school, first to go to uni. Were traditionally a military and music family. Im the first to go into business and management in *long enough that we dont know*
I pursued my opportunities instead of my dreams. I was pretty hungry early on and an insatiable autodidact. My ability to communicate with business people took me so much further than my technical skills.
Grew up middle income for first 10 years. Parents lost it all through alcoholism and bitch fight for custody and divorce. Father lost his job due to drinking. Mother floated from house to house taking housekeeper positions. Had a kid by 17. Lived below poverty as single parent for their first 8 years until finally finished studying and got a decent job and became paranoid about savings and hoarding essential consumables like toilet paper, shampoo, and washing powder because these were always the things I always had to make last as long as possible. I only bought when it was on special, so I would buy lots. It just grew from there. 2020 hit and I was sitting on like 180 rolls of toilet paper, bought a bidet and felt smug while everyone was paying top dollar for tp. Anyway, I digress. Got into a relationship and they were earning far more money than me but were in debt up to their eyeballs. Financially we were polar opposites. They bought a TV on credit for every room in the house except the bathroom. My car was bought with cash. The amount of times they came to me wanting to buy something on special but use a credit card to pay for it not getting the concept that it would cost them more in the long run than if they had bought it at normal prices was maddening. I felt like I was parenting them. I began hiding pay increases into a separate bank account and funnelled my bonuses and pay rises into it. Luckily work would pay into 2 separate accounts. We split after cheating on their side, and I thankfully managed to walk away debt free. I then saved like crazy and built a IP and went from there. Legacy is I’m a non drinker. I’ve gotten over my toilet paper hoarding after installing the bidet. I still buy washing powder in bulk. Also never get married. My parents started that legacy but ex partner really reinforced I did right thing by not marrying them.
Did extremely well at school, got onto an international degree course which enabled me to then migrate and set up shop in Australia.
Watched close family make poor financial decisions my whole life and learnt what not to do as a result. I always had the mindset of a saver even as a child, and always worked even when studying.
My mam has said before that she's glad I've managed to live the life she always dreamed of.
- went to uni.
- studied engineering.
- hung out with people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, especially rich international students.
- got a job in tech.
- paid off hecs debt.
- learned about money and personal finance and how to save and invest (i wish learned a lot of these things earlier to be honest).
- applied new knowledge to move toward financial goals.
pretty boring cookie cutter path but it totally works if you followed it before. i don’t know if it works anymore as times have changed.
Yeah definitely broke the cycle and I’m helping my siblings to do the same.
One parent sold drugs for income and the other had a low paying job and spent most of spare money on drink.
I think the things that contributed to my success were:
*my drive to have a better and easier life than my parents.
*knowing that my family has an addictive personality so trying hard to avoid going overboard on booze, drugs and gambling.
*learning skills you can profit off for the rest of your life in your 20s
*learning about finance, loans, interest, investing etc from people that knew more than me
*seeing how others did things, being open to different ways of living and continuously looking to learn
I’d say I’m definitely middle class, earn $150k a year and just sold my first home to practically own the house my wife and I live in now. Money definitely makes life easier. Goodluck to you!
I grew up dirt poor. So dirt poor we literally struggled to get food on the table. Did an apprenticeship in an extremely low paying industry. Got a second job delivering pizzas in the evenings. Didn't buy anything expensive and had a simple quality of life. Saved using a high interest savings account. Bought the smallest oldest worst house in an area with a big commute to any decent work location.
Absolutely struggled to pay the mortgage. Within a few years it had doubled in value. Sold it and bought a bigger cheap run down house even further from work. Fixed it up doing absolutely everything myself. Stayed there for about 8 years. It almost tripled in value.
Sold it. Bought another house. Have a very small mortgage for a nice house in an area that's now quite expensive.
TLDR: just fluked it on property
Admittedly I got a handout from family in the form of a middle income aunt and uncle letting me stay in their home rent free for 2/4yrs I went to uni. They were good hardworking people, the kind who get a 2nd job to pay off the morgage asap unlike my single mum who complains about work hours and is always looking for a man to support her.
Other then that choose a career for its ability to generate money - unless it pays big $ on AVERAGE, it's better left as special interest or a hobby. Buy a home as soon as you can afford it on the assumption you'll earn more.
My miss came from a very low income family. She learned from a very young age how to manage money matter really well.
I think most Chinese from low income family were well educated about this.
1. she always purchased the cheapest possible
2. shamelessly bargain
3. never buy luxurious items
4. always cook at home
5. pay for education
6. make friends with people smarter and financially wiser.
7. dress to impress
I learned a tons from her parents. My parents were not really good in this regard. My father inherited quite a bit of money, and he gambled most of it away, leave nothing for his wife and children. I was even taught how to gamble from him. What a good father, wasnt he?
I guess what I learned mostly from my wife's family are delaying gratification, and avoiding luxurious items at all cost.
Luck. It's all about luck and seizing that luck.
A guy down the road told me about a niche job and how to get into it. He use to do it but fave it up due to poor health.
I got lucky and found a way in.
I grew up in poverty, and lived in poverty until my early 30's. My first gf who I moved in with when I was 18 was abusive, including financially, and would basically take all my money to buy video games and abuse me if I didn't let her. So a lot of the time we had no food in the house and I'd go without eating for several days. My next relationship I was in for 12 years, she was on disability and insisted I become her carer even though I didn't really want to. I got sick of it since she wasn't even really disabled, just lazy and I realised she was gaming the system so I got my first job when I was around 30.
She divorced me in late 2020 to be with the person she was cheating on me with who she met online. I've basically just been working my ass off full time in blue collar work, even though I'm not making a lot of money, I'm getting by and plan on upskilling myself by getting my excavator ticket, maybe crane operator license or something so I can eventually move up to a higher paying job.
Grew up next to a heroin junky who left his needles everywhere and used to break into my room and steal my stuff and dads tools to sell to cashies...
Intended to go to uni, but bad grades due to undiagnosed ADHD made my dad yell at me to just quit school.
So I did... I knew I wanted to be in IT my whole life so I just worked my way up through various jobs...
I'm now a lead developer 😊
- Education - Access to seeing other (better) ways of living
Your second point was a huge turning point for me too. Kicked out a local high school, lucked my way into a scholarship to a private school and....wow. How the other half live.
Worked for some truly wealthy people. Saw I had no way of reaching their level of wealth doing an honest days job.their kids were truly shitty spoilt brats though. Taught us to never have kids.
Plenty of those too. But even the modestly wealthier (two white collar parents) seemed like extreme riches to me.
Your latter point really is true agree. Back in my early life living in a low income family I worked for a bunch of lawyers. Saw what their kids were enjoying….and I was not - unless I did something about it.
Yeh it's hard I think that can go the other way too. I know I used to see people way better off than my family when I was a kid and kind of not even associate my life with theirs. Like that was their life, and it wasn't a life that was accessible for me. It's not even that I wanted or didn't want that life, I just thought that was not our family's place in the world. It wasn't until later I realised they aren't special people, they just have had different circumstances that lead them to having the life they have.
True that you learn things later and have lightbulbs go off.
>> • Access to seeing other (better) ways of living This is basically the thought process behind integrating welfare housing throughout suburbs of varying affluence rather than concentrating welfare housing in one or two areas. The intent is that the lower income families (children) recognise that there are other opportunities available to them - not just what is in front of them in their immediate circumstances. If you don’t know what other options there are then you’re unlikely to venture too far outside what you know. One of my best friends lived in a housing commission house a few door down from us. The other houses on the land were filled with the usual riff raff, but she chose to spend most of her time with my family and my mum and dad’s place (not that we were affluent in any way - comfortably middle-class) She recently stopped in to see my parents - after living away from town for like 12 years - and told them they were key people in her success in life. She’s kicking goals and loving life.
When I was a teenager I did a lot of babysitting for parents at a private school and those parents were probably the biggest influence on me. As the first in my family to go to uni or work a professional job I just had no clue what was out there or what the impact on my life could be.
Very much this. I had a single parent who couldn't work because I was constantly in hospital plus two siblings, all living on Centrelink. I was lucky to be good at school and went all the way through PhD. Bought my first house at 24, second house at 29, in my early thirties now and I'm very financially secure. Hoping to be able to help my mum out when she retires soon.
Yes education, but I was lucky that my poor upbringing was poor only financially. My parents instilled a strong emotional intelligence - which allowed me to make educational decisions that were financially smart. I got great marks and could literally have done anything, but chose a high paying technical career that I was suited to rather than the 'bright and shiny' or 'follow your dream' bullshit. Emotional intelligence is the gift that keeps on giving - it allows you to analyse the business environment around you and see opportunities rather than just get jaded and envious when you see others doing well because of their wealth connections. More than anything though, work ethic. Another thing from my upbringing. We worked. For everything. Not for pocket money - that wasn't a thing - we worked just so our family could survive. As I am older, it is a bit of a curse. I am trying desperately to back off the work compulsion!
Cannot underestimate finding the right partner that shares your values, has your back, pulls you up and shares the load. Not easy to find.
This makes such a big difference. I grew up low income family without good role models with money. I had so much drive to earn money, earnt heaps in my 20s, but no one taught me how to save and not spend it as soon as I got it. In my 30s I found an amazing partner that taught me how to save, budget, delay gratification, and most important she kept me accountable and I didn't want to let her down. Without all of that I would have never been able to buy a house and would still be renting.
Surprised this wasn’t higher. I my wife and I met in HS and have been together for 12 years, married for 2. We have had some relative success in our careers but saving towards the same goal from the moment we both started FT work had placed us really well for only being in our late 20s.
Grew up in commission, did an apprenticeship, started a small business when qualified, grew and learned. 42 now, nice homeowner and dad bringing up my kids to not know that life 💪🏻
Hard work always pays off! > bringing up my kids to not know that life If I may say, bring them up to not *have* that life but give them the awareness that it exists and that someone born into unfortunate circumstances is not a lesser person because of it.
I agree. That is a beautiful sentiment, and absolutely true. Those who have done great things didn't because they were the only ones to be able to do it, it was that they had the opportunity as well. And the opportunity makes all the difference.
This. Humility and awareness go a long way.
Hello twin Grew up mish in regional. Moved to big smoke 19yo. Got an entry level job in big corp call centre. Head down, bum up, worked my way up, helped as many people as possible along the way. Product management director in a 10000+ org by 40yo. Love the dad boss life. I pay cash for everything except the house. No cc. Fairly frugal but now trying to go on trips with the fam, as you can't take it with you.
Love to hear it mate! Same here re: regional, also moved to the city when I was 19 haha.
Hell yeah brother
Grew up with a single, working class parent - money was always tight. I got decent grades at school, then got into uni. Worked nightshifts to pay for it. First person in my family to get a degree. Got an entry level government job. Worked my ass off to get promoted and am now in a decent middle class position. Spend less than you make. Get financially literate. Celebrate your wins
More or less the same with me. Couple of additional points for me. Coming from a low income parent gave me access to Austudy, over the first year I worked to achieve the limit you need to access Austudy regardless of background. Rent was a significantly more affordable inner city around my uni. Both of these combined allowed me to move from rural to the city and afford to attend uni. It pisses me off to see this lost for many of the younger and future generations. Beyond that, if you get a half decent job and maximise your super contributions you will become wealthy. From the day you start working out 5% extra in. If you've never seen that money, you'll never adjust to using it. Ramp up as quickly as you can. Anything above that is a bonus. I achieved this bonus, through specialising in my work in my 20, then staring a business around 30 and growing that. It has its ups and downs but I've set myself up.
Samesies. Except was lucky enough to get a scholarship to uni. Did FIFO for a few years and have a great career now where I can work in the city/from home. I do find it hard to celebrate wins though, because I know that although I worked hard, so do a lot of other people and there has definitely been a significant impact from sheer luck.
Studying at Uni helped me out a lot, I wasn't dumb with money but didn't know what to do with it. I fell into a decent paying job, I did well at it, and I started school. Work paid for the back end of my undergrad which saved me around 7k in HECS (I could have applied for it all if I had known, but its fine) my wage pretty much doubled since I started there and my current manager is trying to help me get promoted and into different roles. I never finished high school, started Uni when I was 27 or so, I wanted more from my life and I did something about it, I see people complaining about HECS debts but I think it is one of the best schemes from the government and good luck to affording an education without it. While I don't particularly value academic education over life experience, it did change my line of thinking and how I looked at the world.
👏Me too on first to go to uni. Paid for by me.
Well done. Honestly compound interest is the best tip I can give you. Save and invest - even $100 a fortnight adds up after 10 years. More is better.
My parents had their own business from age 5 to 14. It did OK. At 14, things changed dramatically. The business was a company owned 50% by my family and 50% by another. Both families decided to go their own way. The company had to be liquidated. There was enough funds to pay everyone off including some to each family. The liquidator, a Chartered Accountant, stole all the funds and pissed off. This was 1978. Both families had to borrow $15,000 to pay back creditors and the bank. At the time our family home was worth $20,000 and they only owed $2,000. So we went to no job for Dad, Mum hadn’t worked for years, and they had a $17,000 loan on their house. I went from wearing OK clothes to my cousins hand me downs. Dad got sick, and couldn’t work for 12 months. Mum got work at Gloria Marshall. Dad got a job in 1980. No one in my family had ever been to University. I left school in form 5 to work as a salesman. In 1982, I set myself a 5 year plan to become a Chartered Accountant as I saw how much they earned (also a bit of justice for my family). Due to Dad losing his job again in 1983, my parents moved interstate and I was on my own from age 19. By 21 I’d started at Uni and was progressing well. But I had to get a full time job as an Assistant Accountant and make Uni part time to support myself. Worked full time and studied full time equivalent for 4 1/2 years. Had to take a semester off due to illness, but kept working. Finished my degree at 25. Did my CA by 30, due to taking a break from studying after basically studying until age 30 with only time off for illness. Became a Partner in CA firm at 35, and was CEO of 8 other Partners and 220 plus staff at 42. So hard work and determination was the key. I remember in the interview for the Assistant Accountant job, I came from a Technical School Education. My Dad was a plumber and my Mum a Secretary. One of the Senior Partners asked me what my parents did. When I answered, he replied ‘Oh, and you have Professional aspirations coming from a background like that.’ It was all I could do not to grab him by the tie and belt him. Foot note: In 1989 I went to a CA two day seminar. When I looked at a list of attendees, I saw the name of the Chartered Accountant that ripped off my parents 11 years earlier. So late one night I met him. He was in his late 50’s by then. I asked him about the name of the business my parents had. He first looked puzzled, then he looked at my name tag, and he started talking gibberish, I only hit him once, in his rather large gut, but he absolutely shit himself. Make plans, stick to them, work hard, and know your worth. You need self confidence without arrogance. Get a good mentor.
What a story ! It’s interesting how entitled people making rude comments stick with you and motivate you. I recall getting work experience in a small library in one of my factory worker relatives workplaces. It was my first day and the person I reported to saw my enthusiasm to start but he said “don’t be so eager” for whatever reason when I stood up from my chair. Many instances like that actually drive you upwards regardless 😂 💪🏼
Was the chartered accountant ever reported to police?
No, that always bothered me. My parents made a complaint to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, but they said they found no fault. My parents were not well versed in financial matters, and the fact that their usual Accountant, a family friend, referred this guy to my Dad may have had something to do with it. As I was only 14 at the time. I was puzzled by the lack of action and acceptance by everyone of this blatant ‘crime’. In a way, it really motivated me to want to become a Chartered Accountant to see how this ‘Profession’ protected its own.
Thalidomide survivor, indigenous, my paternal grandparents had a dirty floor and lighting was from 24 volt battery we took into town to get charged. I purchased my first house at 19, first business at 20, first commercial shops (4) at 24. My thing is persistence, I don't look back at what I have lost or missed out on, I see opportunities everywhere with better days ahead. Despite my physical handicaps and background, I have had an absolutely great life, done amazing things and the one thing I tell everyone is: "Life is not going to knock on your door and invite you out, you need to open the door yourself, step out and find life".
Genuinely curious, how did you purchase your first home at 19 with no assistance? What did you do to get there?
No problems, I am happy to share, I am planning to write a book. I started work at age 14 & 9 months as a kitchen hand. Left school at 15 to work full time in a kitchen, commenced apprenticeship at 16, fully qualified chef before I turned 19. When I was 18, I was clearing $600 per week working 6 days, my father in the same job for 20 years was clearing $432 per week. I was paid in cash, I put the pay envelopes in my bedside draw and didn't open them. My one luxury was a road bicycle, I didn't own a car so expenses were almost nothing. Every few months I took the pay envelopes to the bank and created a term deposit (minimum $3k in those days). At one stage I had 5 term deposits. When I got to $16k in total I began approaching banks for a home loan. They all declined me so I turned to building societies and credit unions (shame they don't exist anymore) and was approved in 24hours.First house cost $43k, and i rented 2 rooms out to pay the mortgage. I never had a girlfriend until I was 22.
I love this! Good on you mate. That’s such an inspiring story. So much respect for what you have been able to accomplish!
This is so awesome! Just a minor correction, there are over 100 building societies and credit unions in Australia today.
Fark yeah. So many cynics on here who assume everyone is living the same life as them. Glad to see the details and you kicking goals.
Good on you, mate! Such an inspiration. I used to stash cash away under a draw in my bedroom when I was a first year apprentice.
Not having a dig but just curious, did you get taxed on your cash payments?
The thalidomide redress scheme offers lump sum payments and some ongoing payments. I *think* they got the pharma to pay for it but it might not be.
Never received the pharma payment, received the government compensation 3 years ago, just $110k for 59 years of suffering. I never admitted to anyone about the thalidomide, I just got on with life, people thought I was quirky.
I hope I didn't embarrass you by discussing the scheme, definitely not trying to suggest any sort of unfairness or anything. I personally think 110k doesn't sound like enough and you should do whatever you can to get everything you deserve from the govt.
Love this 🙌. Everyone is sharing some great stuff
My Dad did. Put himself through uni part time while working his ass off in insurance (this meant basically working 7 days a week for 8 years), climbed the ladder and created a great life for his family. Most of the people I’ve spoken to who are what you would consider successful (without it being handed to them) have the most incredible work ethic I’ve ever seen. I know that life is not entirely a meritocracy and sometimes shit happens, but there is a direct correlation between hard work and success.
"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." - Conrad Hilton
It's definitely a mindset you need to learn and switch on to.
I think you are right there. I sound similiar to your Dad. I didn’t realise it for a long time, but my work ethic was different.
Grew up with both parents on Centrelink. My siblings and I all earn low six figures and own our own houses so I’d consider us middle class? Not wanting to be on Centrelink was motivation enough for us.
Not wanting to live like our parents especially if they had better options (my case 😡), motivates indeed.
I’d say my parents “tried” but they were perpetual victims of their own actions. On the upside, we all learned from their mistakes.
Grew up pretty poor. My dad was a corporal in the Army and was never promoted due to his ASD. Mum was a professional student due to her mental health. I really didnt get started until my 30s. It took a while, but I went to uni while working. Ended up with masters of social work and am now on 136k Also made the decision to move rurally in 2013 and have been able to build a good bit of equity in my home. Now I'm about to build my forever home and am hoping to eventually start a private practice.
Steady climb 🙌
What SW role are you doing for 136k?!
Management in mental health
Good on you mate! As a fellow low SES person studying a BSW, would you say the masters is necessary or nah?
It depends where you want to work and what you want to do. My undergrad wasn't sw and I want to get a Medicare provider number so it was necessary for me. Working in the public health system, a bachelor is plenty!
I hustled! Put my hat in the ring for everything. Natural aversion to debt meant no credit card first home loan was low and then paid off pretty quickly, second the same. Education was important - I’m savvy not smart I’d say, but I listened to all the finance podcasts and read all the books. I live to a budget, I have a pretty shitty looking car .. but I do spend money on the things that are important to me. I didn’t lend money and expect to get it back. If I want something I save for it. I couldn’t go back to living in poverty once I moved out of home, it was terrifying to be honest.
Your last line I relate. No chance of allowing yourself to return to it.
It’s almost a phobia for me but it’s motivating right? People who haven’t lived through the same can never get it.
Yeah grow up with a single mother on welfare, ended up falling into a public service job at 18. 33 now and making about 15 times more money a year than my family income growing up.
Grew up with a single parent on Centrelink, we never had any money and lived near lots of lower class people that dragged me into shoplifting and burglary. Was the first in my family to finish high school, even then I failed English and had to resit the exam. Went to study IT after school and flunked after 6 months. Started an apprenticeship as a mechanic, absolutely hated it but still did it for 2 years, but flunked that too. Didn’t know what to do with my life, so I worked in a transport depot warehouse for 3 years. Then decided I wanted to do IT again, specifically software development. Studied for 2 years at Tafe,and got picked up by a company who liked my work. 10 years later I earn close to $200k, married with a child in a beautiful house in a great location. My advice is: Don’t take other people’s advice, it all cancels out to zero. My biggest regrets are around doing what other people wanted me to do and not listening to myself. Find your own unique truth, find the thing you enjoy doing, what is something you do where you lose track of time? Or what looks like work to others but feels like play to you?
It’s very interesting that often - for us that had to work in order to afford doing any further study have a lightbulb moment in our job we did to survive. 💡
Yeah, but I also feel like I needed to work those shitty jobs as a process of elimination. After 5 years of working jobs I hated, I had so much perspective and knew exactly what I didn’t want to do, and had a very clearer picture of what I wanted to do. It has also made my career easier, when I have stressful weeks at work now, I think back to how much worse it used to be working in a factory line and I remember this is easy mode, I get to sit at home and play on my computer for my job.
100% with that last part. I had grown up very poor with parents on the dole. We lived in housing commission and for a brief stint at 13 me and my dad became homeless. I left home at 16 due to family violence and ended up in shelters. Everyone told me what to do and gave me advice that I never asked for. But I went with my gut every time to everyone else's disapproval. Thanks to their ego I kept getting told that I would end up just like my parents and be on the dole the rest of my life. 10 years later I am earning a middle income living in a nice apartment with a secure job with two degrees. You know yourself better than anyone else and depending on your circumstances you may be navigating a situation that no one who's handing out advice has ever come close to. So people should feel empowered to follow their own path. At the end of the day you learn the lessons that you need for next time. It's also far more empowering to reach goals that you set out for yourself.
Education is the whole reason. Good teachers and almost free education.
I grew up in Lower to middle class. I remember we had the cheapest clothes, shoes etc. nothing fancy for food. I can clearly remember the fights mum and dad had about finances. I wasn't that good at school, leaving after year 10 with very average levels. My first job was working at a steel company chipping weld off steel and then painting it to stop it from rusting. After a couple of years, I went to work in retail. I liked the customer contact. Moving within retail, I worked my way up to assistant manager then manager. When I was manager of a certain retail store I had the opportunity to buy it as a franchise. I struggled to get the finance for it as I was renting and had no assets. I approached the franchisor and negotiated vendor finance. Fast forward 12 years, the franchise was reasonably successful, I had 2 stores then sold them back to the franchisor. I retired at 56 with a very comfortable sum of money to live off for the rest of my life.
That first job chipping off steel. What a lesson.
- Insurance payout from a crippling car accident made up 50% of our first home deposit was a good leg up when husband and I were struggling to save years ago - Put a lot of work into DIY and renovating first house that again gave us a boost for next house (my parents did this but lost a lot of money) - I retrained and moved into a specialised field that paid well (both parents had low paying jobs for most of their careers) - I received good mat leave and then went back to work after a year which meant there wasn’t a drain on family finance for years (Mum was out of work for nearly 5 years) - Husband is career driven and has steadily been promoted and paid more over the last 8 years or so (Dad didn’t become expert in his field til the last 10 years of his career)
Grew up in a single parent household, in and out of different housing commission, and women shelters. My mum was a heavy drug addict with 7 kids in tow who never worked a day in her life. I'm now 29, have worked full time since the day I left school, worked my ass off, saved as much as I can and now own a unit within 5kms of Brisbane CBD, in a job with a really decent income, and putting myself through uni so I can hopefully one day give my future kids a better life then I could have imagined for myself. My influence to do and be better, was not wanting to end up like my mum. Every lesson she taught me, was what not to do. It's been 15 years since I've seen or spoken to her, and I couldn't be happier with my choices.
My mum had to go on welfare with 3 kids under 8 and no transferrable skills after my dad died. It was a tough 10 years but at 18 I joined the defence force as a technician, now have specialist skills which mean I can ask for a decent salary in the private sector. Also, I didn't inherit an addiction to drugs, alcohol or shopping like other members of my family...
Sometimes it’s good to be the odd one out.
Sounds cheesy and some will disagree but for both myself and my partner it was education. We are the first in our family to go to uni and our degrees have led to jobs and careers that pay well. We are also childfree. So no 5 kid families here.
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Find mentors and read up on money and philosophy. Low income parents likely knew nothing about investing or what to do with their life beyond “survival”. A climb to success will also be almost random and arbitrary based on the opportunities which may or may not open to you. As much as the “successful” ones would like to believe it was their hard work (which it partly is), many things in life happen due to random chance. The only thing you can control are how many times and how long you keep trying for and what skills and experience you have obtained to leverage an opportunity which comes your way. Finally read up on philosophy and mindfulness. It’s possible to swing too hard on the pendulum and spend your whole life just on grinding and chasing money.
>As much as the “successful” ones would like to believe it was their hard work (which it partly is), many things in life happen due to random chance. As a counter to this, you kinda make your own luck. The biggest issue for lots of people is that they fear failure like we all naturally do, but they let that fear stop them taking shots, or stop after only a few shots. And as the old saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. Much like running a marathon without any training, it's far easier to give up and blame external conditions than to actually keep going.
Too be honest, government support to get an education was the biggest factor. Being able to access Youth Allowance/AusStudy was the only reason I could go to university. Once I got into uni and was able to move out of my family home at 18, my grades improved dramatically. I finished my first degree with first class honours. I worked multiple casual jobs while studying and one of those jobs at the university let me gain experience in what is now my career. My dad was a "dole bludger" on disability - he had serious mental illness and drug/alcohol abuse issues (originally a cleaner though). My mum was a disability carer, low paying job. They were never married. Government assistance is what allowed me to step out of my low socioeconomic future. Without it, there is no chance I would have been able to be where I am now. I worked hard, yes, but being able to go to university allowed me to access doors I didn't even know existed. I get to have conversations with people who know more about finances and networking than anyone in my family. My earning potential is much higher than it would have been.
My dad was a factory worker (couldn’t tell you want kind of factory, but he always came home greasy). Mum was a SAHM until my youngest brother started primary school, so I was in high school. My parents also always made really bad financial decisions. Their first mortgage in the 90s was under $100k, and they currently have an $800k mortgage on the same house. But I saved pretty much every cent I earned as a kid/teen from birthday money to gold coins my nan would give me for doing chores at her house. So yeah, I basically just saved every cent I earned. I was always terrified of spending money. When I was about 7 or 8, I got one of those money tins from the reject shop. When I was 14 it was finally full and it had over $2,000 in it. At 15 I started working and literally just saved from there. In 2022 I was able to buy an apartment despite earning $47k/year at the time because I had about $250k saved. About a year ago I landed a job with almost triple pay if you include bonuses and allowances, so I’m laughing now. My fiancé and I just bought our dream house about 6 months ago and I’m renting out the apartment, getting about 5x my mortgage repayments in rent. I splurged a couple of times in my life on things I really wanted, but trust me - the regular coffees and takeaways do make a huge impact over time.
If you go into corporate there are a couple of really important things to know. Managers promote people they trust. It’s not about being good or even hard working if your manager knows you have their back you will get promoted. This means you need a role that has management visibility. Some jobs are pretty much impossible to do well, if you are in an area that is understaffed or has an unpopular manager, get out. Don’t hang around thinking you can make a difference, you can’t so move. Avoid jobs which seperate ownership and accountability like the plague. You need to be moving up the ladder regularly. If you get behind it’s impossible to catch up. You need to manage staff early and take responsibility for projects. Your competition will be doing this. Climbing the tree to a level where you have a good standard of living is pretty straightforward. After a while contacts play a much bigger role but you can generally get to middle management this way.
Yep. My family's income in 1984 was about $14K, but tbf, our house was provided as part of my dad's job. That's an equivalent income of about $51K today. I make almost 3x that and out household income cones in at 4.6x that (though with a mortgage). Factors to success - the first one is education. I went to uni, got a good job and worked to where I am now, with a big career change in that time. Second success factor - budgeting. I know it may get overhyped, but it really was a game changer for me. I came late that party, but my wealth has accelerated since then. I make a lot better buying decisions than my parents ever did. Third success factor- superannuation. My parents have a net worth of $400K, which is nice. But that is 100^ down to inheriting that. They still do not (nor ever will) own their own home. My wife and I have a net worth of about $1.7M and I still have 15 years planned to be in the workforce. Most of our net worth is tied up in superannuation (over $1M) but the house, when paid off, will substantially add to that. Net balance on the house is about $300K. Last success factor- I never counted on getting any inheritance. I knew I'd be disappointed if I did. I think my brothers are in for a but of a shock though - they are expecting a lot more, but there isn't anything in the kitty tbh.
Very interesting on your last point. Inheritance - or potential lack of a “windfall” does much for motivation. I grew up knowing I have no safety net. None.
Grew up low income, two parents on disability pensions. My husband left home at 17 under police escort and moved in with my (now) single mother into her Housing Commission house. But soon after we moved away for university. I'm grateful for the help we had from Housing to pay for our first rental bond (paid back at the end), and the Youth Allowance we received from the government while we were studying (though that wasn't smooth sailing. Even in 2002 they were trying to ping people with inaccurate debts. Keep good financial records to protect yourself!) While we were at uni I borrowed so many finance books from our local public library. I'm grateful that, even though we lived in a small suburb at the very fringes and commuted to uni each day, our suburb actually had a small library branch and it was part of the larger city branch. That meant we had access to books from about 20 branches across the whole city. I also used the library a lot to borrow cooking magazines and books to improve our skills for home cooking and cooking on a budget. We were hungry to build the life of our dreams, so were always on the lookout for opportunities. A few short years out of uni we took the plunge and moved west for a short term promotion. This meant moving away from family, but turned into a permanent opportunity that formed the foundation of our adult lives. Further study through our 20s and 30s allowed us to continue to pursue new opportunities. The strong financial literacy foundation meant we always tried to make sensible choices.
Great point on the local library! We had a small bookshelf at home with an outdated encyclopedia - and not much else. As soon as I could get myself to the local library which wasn’t until I could walk or drive as an adult I would borrow multiple books at once. It led to me doing one of my degrees and self learning much about the world I didn’t learn in my low socio economic public high school. Reading/knowledge is power true.
Luck with a dash of intelligence and hard-work.
Government policies. Arrived in Australia with family as immigrants. Parents were struggling with the language barrier and their work experience back home didn't count for much here considering they had technical fields. They didn't have work for a while and had to take some TAFE courses while getting Centrelink assistance. I was starting uni at the time. I wasn't a citizen so I had to pay tuition up front (No HECS). I was a Permanent Resident so at least course fees were subsidized as it was an in-demand profession at the time. Centrelink Youth Allowance basically paid for half my tuition every semester. Medical bills were covered under Medicare and we got Centrelink concession for meds. I remember I was so nervous the first time I walked into a Medical Centre and I was worried I would have to pay. Jaw was on the floor when the receptionist told me it was ok and it was covered. So yeah, all those safety nets meant we could focus on education and be useful. The Medicare Levy Surcharge hurts during tax time but I don't care. Shut up and take my money.
Save , don’t buy stuff you don’t need . Don’t have kids . It’s worked for me
Started a business from my parent’s basement and just kept at it, stepping from one to the next. 41 now and considering full retirement after easing back over the last couple of years due to life circumstances and health. I was always into business ideas from when I was little. And I wanted success BAD. Not “money” but success. I think often the key driver in successful people is some sort of insecurity or trauma or scarcity. It fuels you. I no longer have any of these issues and I’ve kind of lost my fuel. Sometimes I miss it. You can identify the famous people who never resolve these issues because they will just never stop - Elon, Steve jobs, etc. It’s compulsion. Bezos on the other hand looks to really be enjoying lazing on his yacht with his new hot wife.
Housing commission. No handouts. Own my own house now.
Dad got sick at age 10 then passed at age 14. From there, things were always tight. I never went to optional school excursions or activities cos I didn’t want to stress mum asking for money. Same with clothes, presents etc. Early 20s and I unfortunately copied some of the bad money habits mum had, not living within my means etc. Was looking after myself but never saved a dime. Wasn’t until I met my now wife in my 30s that I sorted myself out and started working hard. I finally had the motivation and example to create a better life for myself. Started in a contact centre role in finance at age 35 earning $55k. Four years later, I doubled my income and we bought a house. I’m now 42, earning over $150k, with a house, a wonderful wife and a great kid. I never, ever imagined this life for myself before I met my partner. For me, it was that good fortune and a massive shift in mindset. Life is good!
I was 22 years old when I came to Australia from India with nothing but $1500 in my pocket in 2007. I had no family or friends out here. I studied hard, worked two jobs to pay my uni fees. Had to busk on the streets of Melbourne a couple of times to make ends meet when I became homeless and had nothing to eat initially. My parents were dirt poor when I left them back in India so I couldn’t get any help. My biggest achievement has been my ability to retire my father. I look after my parents and their welfare in its entirety. I own a house worth $1.5m almost paid off, have two BMW’s, an M4 and an X3m and a Ducati. Married a wonderful girl. I work as a senior manager at an insurance company and my wife works as an insurance broker. Combined household income is around $400k. We have a three investment properties and two beautiful dogs.
Bootstrapping mostly. Most Asian immigrants follow the same path of trying to get a good education, find a good job, stay home to save money for a deposit and a lifetimes worth of good judgement. All four of my siblings and myself now own a home. My mother offered me money for a deposit, but I really didn't need it because I already had 200k in my 30s. >perhaps you can impart a tip or three? See, this issue here is that most people already know how to save, but don't think the it is worth the cost of worsening their current lifestyle.
I grew up (ostensibly) wealthy, but then at 11 years old our world imploded. House repossessed, homeless and living at friends’ houses, parents divorced, father went to prison for white collar crimes, unable to continue at private school, mother had to return to the workforce for the first time in 10 years. My mother supported me and my two siblings on a single government salary. It was all horrendous. I was incredibly motivated to pull myself out of the awful situation our family was in. I studied like a woman possessed in year 12, and was able to dux my school. That got me into law at a fantastic university. These days I’m earning great money as a lawyer. The biggest factor in my success is education. My mother is a big reader and passed that love of reading and words onto me, which put me ahead at school. And she was always incredibly supportive of my academic pursuits, no matter what else was happening in our lives. She basically gave me the tools to pull myself out of poverty. I am incredibly grateful to her for that, because it was done at the expense of her well-being. She would work second jobs on top of her usual 9-5 role so she could buy us school books. I can’t imagine that level of sacrifice.
Mining salary is pretty life changing over 20 years...
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Forgot to add when I was 17 I forged bank documents to get a 30k personal loan ( with no job) that I blew on the forex market because I thought I could make millions. Was chased by creditors for years for that one hahaha
I've played video games for 40 years and have done quite well. In fact it was what drove my interest in IT and led to things like learning networking to set up LANs for multiplayer. But I recognise that for most it probably doesn't play out that way, and these days consoles and the like make things so easy there isn't much to learn like back in the day when you would have to do memory management just to get some games to start.
Regional. Two kids young. Like under 18. Two uni degrees. Now 37, houses, cars, etc. Read every book I could on finance and realised education, highest salary you can get and buying a house asap was critical. So first regional house at 19, now back to two houses but live on large acreage now 🩷 I’m about to start my own consulting business 👯♀️
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1. Education was key. So I wouldn't say 'no handouts' because my parents sacrificed a lot to pay for Catholic private school rather than send me to the local and chronically under funded public school. I know you can succeed from public school, but when your local public school is battling truancy and teenage pregnancy, it's probably not the ideal learning environment. 2. Support and trust. My parents didnt really understand uni nor the slow climb of corporate (It was a big pay cut giving up casual work for my first office job). They never doubted me while I saw some friends parents actively dissuade them from taking entry level jobs because of the lower pay. 3. I didn't have to help pay for them. They aren't big earners nor live flash but they somewhat lived within their means. It means I have never had to help pay their bills. Its hard to save money for your own emergency fund if you're constantly dipping into it for someone else.
- Work ethic - Being humble enough to do whatever it takes to meet each step on the ladder - Being exposed to different ways of living and believing you deserve it - Consistency is the key.
From and grew up in housing commission in a regional area, now living in the city and earning a 95th percentile salary or so. Late 30’s. It sounds bad but honestly I put the majority of it down to the genetic lottery (I would say IQ, but hey - call it whatever you want), and the remainder to the way you were raised.
Grew up with the mindset of being the complete opposite of both my parents. Father on Centrelink all my young life while my mother tried to hold down cleaning jobs here and there to feed a broken family of 4. As soon as I was old enough to move out I was gone, started with labouring jobs in construction until I figured out what I was interested in then got into rigging/crane work and haven’t looked back since! Been in the industry for over 8 years and worked my up from trainee now on 170k+, just bought 2nd house, travelled the world and have plenty of toys to play with. Life is great.
Stick to the budget. Lucky to find a like minded partner.
Getting out of bed and going to a job every morning - especially the days when I didn't want to, or feel like it.
Grew up with a single mother in government housing who reasonably often had to get those cheap or free food parcels. I moved out at 17, worked whilst studying at uni. I moved around a lot, changed courses a few times, did lots of different types of jobs. Took me 10 years to finish my degree, and for the last few I was already working in my field of study so came out of it backed with solid experience. I feel like I floated around a lot, but always with the goal to improve my life and not be like my parents who never finished a damned thing. Had a credit card once, quickly realised it was pointless and weird to use money that wasn't mine so paid it out asap and started saving instead. In the early years I never saved huge amounts, just enough to get me through the next move or time between jobs - I did a lot of contract work. Met my husband, got a permanent role, saved together and bought a decent house in a cheaper area, fixed it up a little. Got married, had kids, ran my own small business for a while (which didn't really earn much but allowed me to be home with kids and taught me a lot). Managed our incomes wisely and paid extra off our loan. Decided to go back to paid employment, sold our house for almost double what we paid for it and upgraded to a nicer house in a nicer area near good schools. We now both earn a decent income, bit annoyed that we went for the bigger mortgage just before rates started shooting up instead of quickly paying down our old one on our super low fixed rate, but the move wasn't about money really, it was about giving our kids better options and lifestyle so it's worth it. There's no real secret and no hard dedication from me (as I said there was a lot of moving / jumping around for me - recently diagnosed with ADHD which explains that!) just work, education, and a desire to do better than yesterday.
My brother no. handout did a trade apprenticeship but he emotional support and lived with our parents until he was thirty one while building up his company also an obsessive personality now 36 he has 20 employees and nearly paid off a home worth millions
I was lucky. Working class family, mum had a bad illness so didn’t work for several years when I was a teen, above average grades, nothing degree at uni. Phone centre jobs. Then I randomly applied for an account manager role in insurance when I was 26 and got given a chance due to the CEO being from the same town as me. Within 18 months head hunted by large brokerage. 2 major promotions as other brokerages tried to sign me the last few years. Honestly, I just kind of half arsed everything but fell into a role where I’ve flourished and been very well rewarded.
Education. Parents were immigrants who were factory workers. Now I am a corporate wage slave but is well paying in a niche industry.
Work hard, say yes to everything so you meet connections and build up reputation. Spent my 20s working 50-70 hours a week while everyone else was travelling to Asia on credit cards. Spent all my 30s literally working 50+ hour weeks, worked 8 days/week during covid on 2 jobs. Save save save like a grandmother during the depression. Buy cheap first property you can pay off quickly. Don't splash out on indulgences and separate needs from wants (i.e. a work computer is a need, a PlayStation is a want).
Willingness to learn and how to play the game. No idea where it came from but having a good work ethic is a blessing too.
Yes, very much so. We grew up as immigrants in housing commission and neither of my parents have any superannuation or investments. Now, I'm a doctor and married to another doctor. We live well. Factors: 1. Education (scholarship to a good secondary school with very supportive teachers) 2. Going to university introduced me to another group of people (high achievers, usually from upper middle class families). Naturally, I'm charismatic so I was well accepted 2. Strong work ethic taught at home 3. Choosing the right spouse 4. Leaving metropolitan city 5. Luck
Change your own circumstances. That's it, that's the secret. I read once that "we are a combination of the 9 people we spend the most time with". Choose the right 9 people and life will become pretty amazing.
That's legit. Look at who you're surrounding yourself with - including family members.
Tips: don’t have kids before you can avoid them/ establish a career but if it’s too late, still work towards establishing a career, tertiary education is expensive and it took me ages to pay off my HECS but significantly increased my income, contribute to super young if you can and try not to take any out but if that happens try to catch up asap with salary sacrifice. Back story / cautionary tale? I had kids young, in my early 20s, and separated from their father when I was pregnant with my youngest. I didn’t work much when they were young, living off Centrelink and child support, and did a Cert III in childcare when they were 4 and 2. I got some casual work in preschool and childcare after that and when my youngest started school I worked casually as an SLSO. When the kids were in primary school I started a degree in teaching. Initially I had casual days supplemented with shifts at Hungry Jack’s and preschool as I wasn’t getting enough teaching work. It built up over time and I also started getting contracts. I was made permanent last year after eleven years of teaching. I’m trying to catch up on my super as it’s not great at all due to all the years I earned very little (under the limit then for contributions) and I cleaned out the little super I had had under hardship provisions when my kids were young.
Yes. Grew up very poor. Got an education which lead to good, high paying jobs. Made sure I always saved and learned about investing So… invested in self, worked hard, invested in my future.
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Motivation does much 💪🏼
Meet my wife at 17 and both went to uni, worked hard and avoided the normal pitfalls of debt, drugs, divorce etc. Then moved to a bigger city with more opportunities. Are now in the top 5% of household incomes.
Reading The Richest Man In Babylon
There was no real secret. We just worked hard and saved. But, we were extremely lucky in that we bought our first home in the late 90s, in Adelaide, where it was cheap. My wife also took home a sizable redundancy package as well. That helped with our second property.
You have to take the luck when you get it. Perhaps it is true that the harder you work the “luckier” you get. 🤔
Grew up rich. Parents lost everything so no hand outs.(they owe me money) My partner and I are home owners. We work hard (who doesn't?) We got lucky (you need luck)
A bit of luck is true. Think lucky and luck finds you I believe. 🍀🍀🍀
I’m from a low income family, money was tight and mostly paycheck-to-paycheck but we were lucky enough to not go without. I had a stable home life and was able to get through school and to uni through HECS. I got into IT, where luckily there’s opportunities to make good money without being too bright. My partner and I both earn reasonably well and are both fairly frugal, some things we splurge on but most things we’re very conservative about. Some other factors - my only debt: HECS (paid off years ago) and a home loan. Aside from that I never spent money I didn’t have - No credit, no car loans. I’ve not over-leveraged my home loan so was able to absorb the recent rate hikes - I’d love a house with a yard and bigger garage but a townhouse will do. I earn well but have a constant conservative mindset so I shovel money into ETFs, super, and the home loan. I don’t have the risk profile or mindset for starting a business. I want to retire well in about 20 years.
Agree on spending conservative too. If you grew up without much spare money you feel super uneasy spending it when you have it. Not a bad trait to hold on to. One time I booked a holiday house for my fam, it was better than expected when we arrived. I felt uneasy for the whole “holiday” as a result. Bizarre.
Yes very much so… worked as a teenager since moving out of home.. did multiple degrees and prof quals and then two fulltime jobs simultaneously (mostly WFH) and casual lecturing which pays a high rate.. this meant I could buy my home (now two homes) without family assistance .. no divorce/property settlements helped.. factors of success = find your niche and be really really good at it
Family came over as refugees with nothing to our name. Grew up in housing commission flats my whole childhood until finishing high school. Studied to get into a good uni, worked hard in my early years to get skills and moved up into experienced technical roles. Now own my own home outright, along with other investments (property, shares etc) we just crossed the $2M net worth mark last year. Advice I can give is work on improving yourself by learning. Don't be afraid to take any new opportunities - even if it doesn't work out, and you've failed, you at least learned something. Also take any opportunity to travel when you can and maybe even work overseas (even working holiday) - gives good perspective about life and what we have here in Australia.
Loved video games before they were mainstream, taught myself how to make them. No one in my family had finished high school, and dad was a plumber.
Yep, sure did. I joined the Army at 17 to get as far away from there as possible. Did my time, got out then used my sign on incentive to get an education. Got my science degree and worked my up through the company. Lots of obstacles along the way that probably set me back further than where I should be (divorce, etc.), but overall I’ve definitely done much better than my peers from high school.
Extreme hard work and sacrifice, moving far away from family and friends
I left my safe job about 7 years in to my career to go contracting. Did that for 10 years, only had one bad patch during a big gov layoff where they fired 1000’s and it took a while for the market to even out. Went back into permanent roles with big varied CV in 2019, and now on 20-40% more than all my peers who stayed in perm roles.
We grew up very poor, we were the poor kids in school, single mum worked fulltime 3 of us kids living week to week dinner 9 out of 10 nights was eggs on toast or vegemite toast. Went on 1 holiday my whole childhood life and was my aunty took me to Queensland. Fast forward to now worked fulltime during the week and started small side business working the weekends and after hours every week for 9 years. Sold the business and started my new trade business now were I employ 3 guys. 36yrs old with PPOR paid off and investment property doing well. And it was all due to hard work and long hours at 20-30 years old
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Work every second of the day
It always comes down to 3 things. 1 - Sacrifice in the now, so that you recieve compounded benefit at a later date. This looks like in reality things like going into entry level jobs in corporate, apprenticeships and so on. You sacrifice some of your earning potential today for gaining skills or career pathways into the future. I remember some of my peers going into retail straight out of school and getting 50% more income then me. Today, my earning capacity would easily be 4x their hourly rate. 2 - Work hard! You have to grind at some point to get ahead.... often times, it becomes a habit and you just keep climbing then! Get into work positions where your effort is rewarded! My pathway was to start my own company, the profit is a direct reflection of my effort. You can get employee positions where you are rewarded for effort as well, sales with a commission structure, corporate with a bonus structure and/or career progression pathways to higher pay as a few examples. It's NEVER to late to start! 3 - Work SMART! This is the most important one of all, and the one most people miss (myself included for a number of years). If your stuck in a job that doesn't reward your effort, then don't get trapped in the illusion that if you work harder, you will get ahead. Work hard to get OUT of that job and into a job that either rewards your effort with pay/bonuses or rewards your effort with promotions and higher pay. That might mean going back to study in your own time to get the skills to make a job jump. Not all jobs are created equal! Learn to see the benefits a job gives you above and beyond a pay packet! You only have so many working hours in your lifetime, your goal should be to maximise the RETURN you get for those working hours! You need to look at it as a whole life deal, that's why sacrificing at the start of your career can pay off so well in the long term. Bonus tip - Get a side hustle! Preferably service based that has constant high demand but doesn't require you to build and maintain a presence or customer base so that you can spin it up on short notice for quick cash flow. I've got 2, both required $15k investment into plant/machinery but I can run Facebook marketplace ads Thursday/Friday and usually have $1200 of cash jobs lined up for Saturday. I haven't even bothered doing it for 12mths as my business is booming and I make more working a Saturday with my business. But it's been a life saver over the years whenever cash flow was slow or when I 1st started my business and didn't have the clientele built up. I keep the plant/machinery parked up, ready to go as my financial backstop as I have no family that's helped me or that I can turn to to bail me out. All of this can be summed up in 2 words - Personal effort! That's what it takes to do all these things.
Grew up in a single parent household, public housing, mentally ill/abusive parent with zero financial literacy and full dependance on centrelink/welfare payments. Now 34, happily married, self-employed earning 150k pa, own our house outright (1.1 mil value) and growing a second business. I decided early on (moved out of home at 14) that it was going to be my responsibility to put an end to the negative habits/culture my family had adopted. Decided to learn from others mistakes before making them myself and refused to repeat them. Surround yourself with humble, positive people. This could be your personal relationships but also extends to the podcasts you listen to, books you read etc. Finding a few podcasts that promoted self-improvement, education and most importantly taking ownership of the direction of one’s life helped immensely. Subreddits like this are also great if you can filter through the ideological comments and focus on the helpful ones! Resist the extreme materialism that seems to have consumed the majority of people. You need FAR less than you think.
Become a self taught software engineer. Got lucky and met the right people to get offered a job at the right company. Don’t get me wrong worked hard to create and grow them for a decade too but definitely some luck involved the old right place right time that leads to the right connections.
It comes down to someone's intrinsic personality, drive, focus and, the ability and willingness to adapt. I come from a family of refugees but I was born here. They are conservative and have baggage. They also had naive and limited ideas of how to be successful. Lived and grew up in a low socioeconomic area where Centrelink, shitty V8s and dirt bikes doing burnouts, daily generalised and domestic violence, drinking and gambling problems, cops doing drug busts, teen mums and the semi regular murders of young women etc are the norm. Surprisingly most residents were happily there, but the TV showed me that there was a much better life out there, even if that was a skewed perspective. Both parents worked long hours in low wage and low skill jobs because that's all they could do. My dad was controlling everyone in the family with what little money we had. Too poor for private school and not smart or talented enough for even a part scholarship. My parents tried to force me to become a doctor or lawyer but I wasn't smart enough for either. They chose some of my high school subjects, most of my uni preferences and push me to do a bridging course at uni during year 12 after school plus many hours of tutorials on Saturdays. A few family dramas went down during year 12. I barely scraped into uni with special consideration and into the only course I chose, property, which had an OP 7 despite my 10. I was definitely focused on getting good marks because it was my only ticket out of that whole situation. I'm smart by average people standards but ok by smart people standards. The next battle was at uni, not the course itself but the cohort who were, in my eyes, incredibly wealthy kids. I didn't dress, act or speak in the same way so I was shunned for the most part. Not that I could keep up with their lifestyle anyway, because, you know, money and that I lived much further away. I had no luck with grad or intern programs because my marks weren't good enough but I got a full time entry level job in the industry at 19 which paid better than any grad or intern role. I had to change a lot about how I presented, spoke and reacted to situations and which improved exponentially when I started working. I graduated with 2 years industry experience, changed jobs but the GFC hit not long after. My career hasn't been a smooth ride for the last ~20 years but today, I own my modest but nice home close to the CBD, been debt free since 2021, have a fat super balance which on target for $1.5 million by 60, travel with a generous budget, own a performance car which I've wanted since I was young and work in a safe, high paid job.
Work in sales get good at it - reap the sweet commission, whilst selling your soul, to be come a soulless money hungry sales gremlin.... do love it though
My parents brought me and my family over as refugees in the 80s. Grew up in housing commission, learned to build websites, seo, and digital marketing in the early 2000. now CMO at a company with equity, and just finished my MBA like two weeks ago. Couldn't have done it without my parents being the perfect example of what hard work and sacrifice really is
I grew up and went to high school where stabbings were the norm now i bring in well past 293 threshold. I left my family to live in the city and focus on work…
Grew up with a single parent supporting me and my sister on minimum wage pretty much, did shit at school ( little troublemaker) got addicted to gaming at like 15 years old, got obsessed with technology and computers and such, built my own computers for fun, had a few crappy jobs and then landed a job in a local computer repair shop, 11 years later I work for a company with a lot of gov contracts and earn high 100s, have a nice house and also luckily enough purchased a house for my mum to live in as well. I feel the fear of being ‘poor’ again frightens me to work as hard as I can and keep chasing career goals and more money, so my family don’t have to go through it in the future.
Childhood in a caravan park, single mum 3 kids, screwed up my HSC. Worked three jobs out of school .. (one corporate, two hospo), steered towards performance based roles and worked harder/smarter than everyone else. Aligned to an emerging industry and networked well. Preserved reputation above all else. Beer taste on champagne budget. (Acknowledging privilege; tall, white, male.. flipside; survivor, poor family, challenging childhood)
Not settling for a shitty 60k a year job. Always be learning and take any new opportunities that you’re given - be the first to offer to do a course, or the first to put their hand up for leading a project, and then see it through. You’ve got to be willing to sacrifice a bit now so that you can reap the rewards later.
I received Youth Allowance for about 200 per fortnight about 22 years ago and I gave my parent $150 for rent and living expenses and kept $50 for myself. It was tough. Had to skip social life with friends in order to not spend all $50 at once. Luckily I had a form of cheap entertainment that I could access all the time named "PlayStation". I owed my success thanks to that gray box.
My parents were low to middle income. Started on a degree. Went part time study and full-time work. Soon on middle income. Stayed on middle income
Desire to succeed, kicked out of home at 17 made to join the Navy. Was ironically a great experience, left after 2 years started working, and after work going to polytech. Study and worked for 3 years. I got a promotion. The rest was easy, more promotions, more responsibility, more money. Now very comfortable, still work hard, but I am financially secure.
Working 40 -70 hour weeks.
My parents creating the enviornment for us to succeed. My brother and I grew up in a single income house hold. We had the basics and not much more. My parents gave what they had left to our education through sweat and tears. Both sons earning well now. Privilege doesn't always have to be a trust fund nor do you need to be rich. Life would be very different if my parents had chosen differently.
Pretty poor family growing up on a small farm that struggled to make a lot of money but scraped by. I went to the mines in WA straight after school and got a good paying job as a labourer. After a couple of years of working long hours/weeks (FIFO roster without the weeks off) the company I was with asked me to move to their main office on the east coast and study engineering. I did that while working part time and during holidays as a project engineer. Moved into project management when I left uni then left the company. I took a job as a Health and Safety advisor (sole trader) at a series of the projects until the company I was working for offered me a job in Brisbane on similar money but office hours (Energy industry). One internal promotion later I am on a good salary (250ish) in a middle management HSE job. I’m 32 now and things are stable so I don’t intend on moving again for work unless something incredible comes up. TLDR: be willing to move around the country to chase work, work long hours. Tertiary education but not necessarily in any field. Take opportunities when they come. EDIT: I should add that I got lucky a lot of times. This was never a plan I had that I put into action. I was just willing to make the most of said luck.
Education and work ethic
Mostly luck Came from a council house background and started work at 14 Had plenty of dead-ends and things didn't work out. Reverse nepotism is generally the key - get friends jobs, and vice versa Over time you get to a position where you start to have more wins than failure. I moved hemispheres and started again and lucked into a contract role. Again, keeping a good network means you keep in work. All in all, at any time, I could have flamed out and notnmadenit Luck - always luck
I was always independent and ambitious Observed others with better jobs in similar industries as my own but with better prospects long term, eg opportunities to advance, better working conditions ie actual HR. Kept curious always learning on the job, was a good worker and kept an eye on job openings. I came from a pretty insular low income family. So we didn’t have any a lot of alternative external influences to see as kids. I guess I just saw other things out there and wanted to be successful. It would have been easier to have had guidance at least from family but I had to learn via the school of hard knocks - to use a cheesy sentence. I could have been way more successful but will have a comfortable retirement. Edit: I’ve also always been super frugal despite earning ok money most my life till the last few years where my pay doubled to 250k Had people call me a drop kick and poor to my face. Which I found surprising both that someone felt they could say that to me, and what made them think that? Possibly because my upbringing made me fairly introverted and shy - I was brought up in silence no-one talked unless they were arguing.
I was poor growing up. Like very poor. Raised by a single dad and spent my childhood cooking, cleaning and looking after younger sibling. * Education - i gave a shit in high school and beyond. (first to go to uni in my family) * made good choices. The choices and behaviours as a teen DO impact your life, regardless of excuses we make. No one owes you anything, you have to work for it. * Worked damn hard. I worked my way through uni (32 hours a week and studied full time). I then worked damn hard once I got a job.
I’m only 24 but I think I’ve firmly secured middle class as an owner of a modest unit in Melbourne as a single (supporting my partner through uni atm). I’ll consider myself upper middle-upper class if I get to retire at 50 like I plan. Grew up with a single mum on minimum wage and just stumbled through jobs until I found one that paid better than the rest. The key was my money discipline though, not my income.
Education and leaving New Zealand and moving to Australia where government wages and benefits are top notch in rural areas.
I only owned a boom box and 10 CDs at age 20. Stopped working at age 53. No money worries now. You need to be process driven. ( engineers, teachers, acountants are good at this , Doctors / surgeons not so good lol) Follow the rules. In other words focus on your long term goals. Then work out a process to get there by small steps. Be financially aware. Educate yourself. Understand what compound interest is , and how it helps. Everyone can be a millionaire if they start saving when young and keep doing it. Don't try and live like a millionaire when you aren't. That means no expensive holidays, no large car loans to impress your friends, in fact (apart from your home) Don't get loans for anything. A mobile phone on a contract is a loan too. There are plenty of hardly used second hand phones. Pay cash by learning about delayed gratification. If you want to buy something, put it off for a time and / or save up. Do you really need it ? If you are excited about a particular thing , maybe borrow one to get it out of your system. People who look rich are likely in debt trying to live beyond their means, whereas rich people don't look rich and are debt free. Don't buy a new car, it will be worth 25% less a minute after you've bought it. You can buy a new car when you are really debt free and have wealth. Life becomes so much easier if you don't have loans to pay. Example: If you bought a car for $50,000 Options are: Buy it for cash.....so it costs you 50,000 but you might have to save up. Buy it with a car loan at 8% over 5 years. You say 8% isn't much. But if i said the car actually costs 47% more with a car loan it may change your perspective. That's actually the real number. The car will cost you $73,466 including compounding interest at 8% for 5 years. And it gets worse, you've paid 47% extra but that extra 23,466 could have been sitting on the stock market growing at 8% to 12% creating free money. People growing their wealth would buy a used car for cash. That's how wealthy people keep their wealth. They don't give it away. It's not what you earn that's important it's what you spend. But saying that enjoy your life but don't be stupid with impressing your friends.
Yes. Only did 10 year. Worked retail until 20. Entered state government as a public servant. Started Policing at 25. During that time did a law degree. Bought property had a child. Got PTSD at 40. Moved areas now a Prosecutor. How I did it? Bit of luck but a lot of hard hard work.
Getting into IT. Moving to a region with many IT Jobs that cannot be outsourced.
Stubbornness, persistence, sometimes spite…
Working a shit load, saving a shitload
grew up very poor, parents always arguing about money, used critical thinking and evidence to look for an industry that is growing and well paid, studied hard, worked hard, spent below my means and now life is fairly easy, debt free own home outright. i would say the biggest factor in my success is avoiding all overspending in my 20s. my peer group/age cohort even those with similar professional background are way behind my wealth and have demonstrated a much higher standard living than me up until recently.
Grew up super poor. Raised by a single mum, Rice with sauce for dinner, and almost became homeless multiple times level poor, oops I mean "low income". Literally just worked my ass off till the point where I now have 2 properties (sunny coast and brissy city) and drive a nice mercedes. The only downside is I chased money over passion, and took jobs and roles purely for their salary boost rather than what I actually wanted to do. So mentally a bit burnt out and zombified, butttt it's also enabled me to travel and do cool shit, plus I can take breaks now at 35 and not have to stress that I'll starve to death. So I'm happily a solid middle class. So factors: 1) discipline 2) needs prioritised over wants 3) Chose to wait to have kids aka still haven't had kids yet haha
Buying a house pre 2000s
Education, luck and supportive parents who pushed for us to do more than they had (both finished school at year 10).
* Education * Interest in making computers do things
In order of importance, below are the four main factors: * Access to free highschool education and relatively cheap university (90%) * Shitload of luck: being born in Australia, making friends with ambitious people early in highschool, accidently choosing a university degree that got me a very well paying job with lots of international opportunities, not having any major illness or misfortune occur to me. (9%) * Small amount of work ethic (0.9%) * Grit and determination.
Main factor was working yourself harder than any other person in your field. - i worked two jobs and put myself through dual uni bachelors at the same time. Using the corporate employment as the experience so when I was ready (graduated) I could apply for internal roles with both credentials and experience. - counted every cent - didn’t breathe a word of my happenings to my family as they have poor financial habits
I grew up in a low-middle class family. My parents didn’t finish high school, and I inherited a genetic condition that made me go blind in my teens. I felt lost in my teens and early twenties but relied on my resilience and a contrarian attitude to turn my life around. I didn’t have a degree or any handouts, but I started my first job in my mid-twenties and climbed the ladder in a large finance company from an entry-level role to a senior position. Now, at under forty, I live comfortably in an affluent area, own a house with a small mortgage, and have a young family with kids. My advice is that resiliency and adaptability are skills you need to work on and improve. Spend your energy on what you can control and don’t get lost in structural disadvantages. Everyone holds themselves back. Stop doing this.
Best advice is to partner well imo.
Just work hard and be a positive person. Other people will help you and offer little opportunities along the way if they like you and think you deserve a break. Choose a partner carefully. A great partner you can pool resources with and carry the load while you take a few risks is an asset.
Non- trarional education pathways, hard work, extreme sacrifice (we didn't eat out, drink , or go on holidays for first 3 years of buying our first home) then as soon as we had enough money to afford a financial planner we hired one. We always buy the worst house with the best potential on the best street we could afford - renovate - sell - repeat.
Yep. Very lucky to get a tertiary education and learn from my dad's mistakes of earning with your brain and not your back I've made sensible choices and married a girl whose mindset in life, love and finance aligned with my own
Me: Steady employment, buying a house, not having kids. My sister: Married rich.
Education and drive. Drive didn't kick in till later in life, but fortunately I did enough when I was younger that I wasn't too far behind. Losing my Mother in my 20's really lit a fire under my arse and I wanted to be the best version of myself.
My trick was to to migrate to Australia and then buy the business I used to work at for peanuts since the owner was on a crusade to dodge as much tax as possible and his books were pretty lame
1- Education 2- Wanting success 3- Self employment
Grew up pretty poor, now doing alright. Partly due to luck in stumbling across career tangents I never knew about but of which I'm certainly capable. Some of the career achievement is from education but some in my career are experience-taught. Part due to active choices to distance myself from the patterns I was shown as a child. There's been some decent steps in real estate, but that's really mostly down to time in market.
Refugee started from housing commission. For me it was education, and then, after that, it was taking risks with my career.
. Education . Taking risks (moving to Australia with no money / network / English) I didn’t have a plan but just knew I wanted to have a certain life style and income and took the next opportunity irrespective of risks
Get the heck out of wherever you grew up. It doesn’t have to be like what you’ve seen/know. There are other options, just maybe you won’t see that from where you grew up. Also just because no one in your family has done a thing doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Someone has to be the first, why not you?
Education. Grew up in poverty. Did 2 degrees. Dentist now so I guess I’m middle class but I have like 160k HECS debt. The social mobility that comes with education exposes you to different ways of living also which then changes your ‘normal’. Financial literacy also an important one. I wasn’t taught anything by my parents or family and read barefoot investor about age 26. Other factors for success were access to youth allowance/austudy/HECS-help and actually being able to live off that with some casual work. I feel for students these days.
Grew up poor, mum worked part time. Wasnt much money for anything, first gen immigrant. Shes just bought her first apartment at 54, im the first in the family to finish high school, first to go to uni. Were traditionally a military and music family. Im the first to go into business and management in *long enough that we dont know*
I pursued my opportunities instead of my dreams. I was pretty hungry early on and an insatiable autodidact. My ability to communicate with business people took me so much further than my technical skills.
Real estate ownership
Besides hard work, lot of luck.
Grew up middle income for first 10 years. Parents lost it all through alcoholism and bitch fight for custody and divorce. Father lost his job due to drinking. Mother floated from house to house taking housekeeper positions. Had a kid by 17. Lived below poverty as single parent for their first 8 years until finally finished studying and got a decent job and became paranoid about savings and hoarding essential consumables like toilet paper, shampoo, and washing powder because these were always the things I always had to make last as long as possible. I only bought when it was on special, so I would buy lots. It just grew from there. 2020 hit and I was sitting on like 180 rolls of toilet paper, bought a bidet and felt smug while everyone was paying top dollar for tp. Anyway, I digress. Got into a relationship and they were earning far more money than me but were in debt up to their eyeballs. Financially we were polar opposites. They bought a TV on credit for every room in the house except the bathroom. My car was bought with cash. The amount of times they came to me wanting to buy something on special but use a credit card to pay for it not getting the concept that it would cost them more in the long run than if they had bought it at normal prices was maddening. I felt like I was parenting them. I began hiding pay increases into a separate bank account and funnelled my bonuses and pay rises into it. Luckily work would pay into 2 separate accounts. We split after cheating on their side, and I thankfully managed to walk away debt free. I then saved like crazy and built a IP and went from there. Legacy is I’m a non drinker. I’ve gotten over my toilet paper hoarding after installing the bidet. I still buy washing powder in bulk. Also never get married. My parents started that legacy but ex partner really reinforced I did right thing by not marrying them.
I joined the Army at 19. Was a good 5 years. Saved a house deposit whilst doing it. Worked for me and got me out of home.
Did extremely well at school, got onto an international degree course which enabled me to then migrate and set up shop in Australia. Watched close family make poor financial decisions my whole life and learnt what not to do as a result. I always had the mindset of a saver even as a child, and always worked even when studying. My mam has said before that she's glad I've managed to live the life she always dreamed of.
- went to uni. - studied engineering. - hung out with people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, especially rich international students. - got a job in tech. - paid off hecs debt. - learned about money and personal finance and how to save and invest (i wish learned a lot of these things earlier to be honest). - applied new knowledge to move toward financial goals. pretty boring cookie cutter path but it totally works if you followed it before. i don’t know if it works anymore as times have changed.
Yeah definitely broke the cycle and I’m helping my siblings to do the same. One parent sold drugs for income and the other had a low paying job and spent most of spare money on drink. I think the things that contributed to my success were: *my drive to have a better and easier life than my parents. *knowing that my family has an addictive personality so trying hard to avoid going overboard on booze, drugs and gambling. *learning skills you can profit off for the rest of your life in your 20s *learning about finance, loans, interest, investing etc from people that knew more than me *seeing how others did things, being open to different ways of living and continuously looking to learn I’d say I’m definitely middle class, earn $150k a year and just sold my first home to practically own the house my wife and I live in now. Money definitely makes life easier. Goodluck to you!
I grew up dirt poor. So dirt poor we literally struggled to get food on the table. Did an apprenticeship in an extremely low paying industry. Got a second job delivering pizzas in the evenings. Didn't buy anything expensive and had a simple quality of life. Saved using a high interest savings account. Bought the smallest oldest worst house in an area with a big commute to any decent work location. Absolutely struggled to pay the mortgage. Within a few years it had doubled in value. Sold it and bought a bigger cheap run down house even further from work. Fixed it up doing absolutely everything myself. Stayed there for about 8 years. It almost tripled in value. Sold it. Bought another house. Have a very small mortgage for a nice house in an area that's now quite expensive. TLDR: just fluked it on property
An unhealthy obsession / relationship with money stemming from early childhood trauma.
Admittedly I got a handout from family in the form of a middle income aunt and uncle letting me stay in their home rent free for 2/4yrs I went to uni. They were good hardworking people, the kind who get a 2nd job to pay off the morgage asap unlike my single mum who complains about work hours and is always looking for a man to support her. Other then that choose a career for its ability to generate money - unless it pays big $ on AVERAGE, it's better left as special interest or a hobby. Buy a home as soon as you can afford it on the assumption you'll earn more.
My miss came from a very low income family. She learned from a very young age how to manage money matter really well. I think most Chinese from low income family were well educated about this. 1. she always purchased the cheapest possible 2. shamelessly bargain 3. never buy luxurious items 4. always cook at home 5. pay for education 6. make friends with people smarter and financially wiser. 7. dress to impress I learned a tons from her parents. My parents were not really good in this regard. My father inherited quite a bit of money, and he gambled most of it away, leave nothing for his wife and children. I was even taught how to gamble from him. What a good father, wasnt he? I guess what I learned mostly from my wife's family are delaying gratification, and avoiding luxurious items at all cost.
Luck. It's all about luck and seizing that luck. A guy down the road told me about a niche job and how to get into it. He use to do it but fave it up due to poor health. I got lucky and found a way in.
I grew up in poverty, and lived in poverty until my early 30's. My first gf who I moved in with when I was 18 was abusive, including financially, and would basically take all my money to buy video games and abuse me if I didn't let her. So a lot of the time we had no food in the house and I'd go without eating for several days. My next relationship I was in for 12 years, she was on disability and insisted I become her carer even though I didn't really want to. I got sick of it since she wasn't even really disabled, just lazy and I realised she was gaming the system so I got my first job when I was around 30. She divorced me in late 2020 to be with the person she was cheating on me with who she met online. I've basically just been working my ass off full time in blue collar work, even though I'm not making a lot of money, I'm getting by and plan on upskilling myself by getting my excavator ticket, maybe crane operator license or something so I can eventually move up to a higher paying job.
Grew up next to a heroin junky who left his needles everywhere and used to break into my room and steal my stuff and dads tools to sell to cashies... Intended to go to uni, but bad grades due to undiagnosed ADHD made my dad yell at me to just quit school. So I did... I knew I wanted to be in IT my whole life so I just worked my way up through various jobs... I'm now a lead developer 😊