Lessons Learned: Avoid These Pitfalls on Your Property Journey
How much should you spend when buying your first home, next home, or investment?
If your answer is "whatever the bank will lend me," keep reading.
When I ask, ‘What price range are you looking at?’ many people reply, ‘How much can I borrow? But the real question should be—How much can I afford?
For example
Say you’re a couple buying your first home for $600,000 with a 5% deposit using the Government Guarantee Scheme and first-home buyer stamp duty concession.
You’ve saved $30,000, and you’re ready to go.
- Combined income: $140,000 - $98,000 after tax (~$8,200/month)
- Rent: $2,200/month
- Living expenses: $3,000/month
- Savings: $3,000/month
Base don this, they’d need to keep repayments under $5,200/month to maintain their lifestyle. But the real question is—what feels right for them?
This couple decides they want to cap their mortgage at $3,700/month so they can allocate $1,500 for travel and lifestyle.
A $600,000 home with a $570,000 loan at 6% = $3,417/month → Right in the sweet spot.
But what if they stretch to $750,000 with a 5% deposit?
A $712,500 loan at 6% = $4,272/month
Now, they need to decide—does this work, or is it too much of a stretch?
Planning for the future
Let’s take it one step further. Say the plan is to start a family in 12 months.
- Mortgage: $4,272/month
- Living expenses: $3,000/month
- One partner takes maternity leave → Household income drops by $4,100/month
If nothing changes, they’d be going backwards by $3,172/month. That’s not necessarily bad—it just means knowing in advance what to expect and have a plan on how you’re going to manage it.
One way to prepare? Live off one income now.
- You’ll adjust your lifestyle before you’re forced to.
- You’ll build savings to cover the gap when income drops.
Because let’s be real—the excitement of a first home, next home, or investment fades. But the repayments? They stick around.
What Can You Afford?
Here’s how to check your numbers:
First home buyers
- Rent/board you pay + amount you save each month
- Decide how much of that you’d put toward a mortgage
- Use a repayment calculator to match this to a loan size
Upsizers
- Current mortgage payment + savings per month
- Decide your max comfortable mortgage amount
- Use a repayment calculator to find the loan size
Investors
- How much are you saving per month?
- Decide how much you’re willing to invest
- Let’s chat about what properties fit within that budget
Use the link below to work out what your monthly repayment could be.
Different stages, different strategies
A first home buyer is at a different stage in life to someone upsizing or investing, we are all headed in the same direction, but how we get there and what we have when we do will be different for everyone.
- First home buyers are early in their careers, traveling, going out, and enjoying themselves.
- Upsizers have growing families, are earning more, and need more space.
- Investors are usually further along—kids have moved out, equity has grown, and now they’re thinking about retirement.
If you understand at what stage of life you're in and what's next, it's going to help you make better decisions.
Start with the end in mind
One day, your biggest priority will be 'how do I support myself in retirement'? The choices you make now don’t just affect today—they shape your future.
When I started, I was following the “usual” path:
Go to school → Get a job → Buy a home → Get a better job → Get married → Have kids → Upgrade the home → Pay off the mortgage → Retire.
Some things I got right by accident. Others, I wish I’d known earlier. Lucky for you, I’ve learned the lessons the hard way so you don’t have to.
The short cut to what you want is just one conversation away.
Use the link below and find out how I can help you.