The Finance Bible

OD #8 - The Real Reason You Haven’t Bought a Property Yet

• Zeke Guenthroth and Oscar Don

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You don’t have a property problem. You have a discipline problem.

In this episode, Oscar breaks down the uncomfortable truth behind why most first-time investors never make it past “research mode.” You’ll learn how your daily habits are quietly destroying your borrowing power—and how simple, intentional decisions can fast-track your first investment property.

Inside this episode:

  • The top 3 excuses killing your wealth potential
  • How $250/week can turn into a deposit in 18 months
  • Real stats on savings, spending, and property growth in Australia
  • What lenders actually look at before approving your loan
  • Oscar’s 30-Day Discipline Sprint: a challenge designed to build momentum, money, and confidence

Whether you’re earning $65k or $200k—this one’s for anyone who’s serious about getting off the sidelines and into the game.

DISCLAIMER:

The information in this podcast is general in nature and does not constitute personal financial advice. It does not take into account your individual objectives, financial situation, or needs. Always consider whether the information is appropriate for you and seek advice from a qualified professional before making financial decisions.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of the Finance Bible Podcast. Zeke here and your co-host, oscar. But before we get into it, please note that nothing in this podcast should ever be considered as personal financial advice. Of course, if that is what you are seeking, reach out. We'll get you in touch with the correct professionals. Get the job done properly, sit back, relax and enjoy the show. Let's get into it. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode.

Speaker 1:

If you've been saying for the past year that you're waiting for the right time to invest or that you just need to save a little bit more, this episode is for you, because here's the truth. You don't have a property problem. You have a discipline problem. But this isn't just about motivation or mindset. This episode will unpack how discipline directly impacts your borrowing power, also your deposit building, risk management and your ability to execute a proper strategy that works. We're going deep into the behavioral and financial systems behind many successful investors, so let's hope that you walk away with practical actions and not just inspiration.

Speaker 1:

Firstly, I just want to call out some of the most common excuses we hear, not just from client facing and meeting individuals who want to invest, but also a lot of DMs and people we find hit us up on Instagram and TikTok A lot of them. I'm too busy, yet you scroll TikTok for two hours a day. Second, I don't have enough money, but a week later you might see this individual on a trip interstate with their friends, hitting the bar and just having the time of their life. Thirdly one of the most common ones interest rates are too high. The truth is they might have been. They're lowering now, but so are property prices three years ago. You waited then too. So these aren't financial limitations, they're simple discipline gaps. You say you want financial freedom, but act like someone chasing dopamine, not wealth. And here's the kicker these micro decisions aren't just delaying your first property. They're actually impacting your borrowing power.

Speaker 1:

So lenders, look at your spending patterns also, your savings history and your monthly commitments. If you're undisciplined with your lifestyle spending, it literally affects what banks will lend you. A recent survey by Finder revealed that one in three Aussies have less than $1,000 in savings. So just like that, that's not a savings issue, because everyone can save. Yes, some people might have more commitments money commitments like higher rent or bills or looking after someone else but you can still put money aside. So, like I said, it's not a savings issue. It's actually a behavioral one.

Speaker 1:

Let's do a quick calculation. If you're spending $50 per week on takeaway might be Uber Eats $50 is pretty cheap for some people. Some people spend $50 a night. So anyway, $50 a week, $2,600 per year Over three years, that's nearly eight grand. Yes, it's not enough for a property deposit, but it's a substantial amount of money that you could put towards a property deposit or put into shares like an ETF, giving you a modest return which can help you leverage into a property.

Speaker 1:

So the question I want to ask is what does discipline really look like, not just financially, but also behaviorally? So discipline isn't sexy. It's not a highlight reel, but it's also not abstract. Let's break it into financial behaviors. Number one let's talk about automated savings. Your investment deposit should be building in the background every week. I don't want any guesswork. So if you know for a fact that you want to save $30,000 for the year, make sure that you've calculated how much you need to put into your savings account per week to hit that $30,000 at the end of the year. Make sure that you've calculated how much you need to put into your savings account per week to hit that $30,000 at the end of the year. That's what reverse engineering is figuring out what you need to put in per week to actually hit your goal. It's like if you're going to the gym and you want to lose weight by three months, you're going to the gym every day to put in the work to get the goal and the results you want. It's literally everything you do in life and it's so simple with money as well, because you can actually see it and calculate it and make it happen.

Speaker 1:

Secondly, debt hygiene. You need to make sure you're paying down credit cards. You're eliminating your buy now, pay later schemes such as zip, afterpay, and the most important reason for doing this is these also impact your credit profile. Yes, credit cards are the main ones that everyone thinks about, but buy now, pay later can affect your credit profile as much as credit cards do. So make sure that you're not just you know being silly and because you might pay 50 bucks back every fortnight, really think about it. If you have further goals in six to 12 months that you're wanting to purchase something, make sure that you're actually planning ahead.

Speaker 1:

Thirdly, consistency in income. The banks love stability, so if you find yourself job hopping every three to six months trying to climb the corporate ladder or look for a new pay bump. That's not the best case scenario in the bank's eyes. That will hurt your case because they don't see you as reliable or consistent. They see you as someone who they're not going to put their trust into payback alone. So if you're in a job and you're wanting to potentially move, but you're also looking to purchase a property, I would stay in it until you get the lending done, because if you keep jumping ship, you're not going to get anywhere. If you want in terms of borrowing power, yes, you might get a higher income and move to a company that you like, but in the bank's point of view, they're not going to lend you any money.

Speaker 1:

Number four trackable budgeting. You need to know exactly how much your lifestyle costs you per month. So many people spend a lot more than they can actually afford and live way beyond their means. So I've spoken about it before, but there's so many tools to track your budget. I personally have created a good old spreadsheet that you can literally just go on Google and find. You can download it. It's just personal finance budget spreadsheet and you can do it as a Google sheet or Excel spreadsheet. There's also other tools like Pocketbook and Spendy, which I know a lot of people have actually used. So jump online and get those sorted, because that's vital Now. According to the ABS, the average Australian household spends over $2,500 per year on takeaway and food delivery like Uber Eats. That's a deposit in the making. Now let's just say with your non-essential spending, let's say you can just drop that by $100 a week, that's $5,200 saved in a year. In two years you're looking at around $10,000, and that's where the momentum starts. That just shows discipline, and discipline is the bridge between design execution.

Speaker 1:

If you do have dreams of owning property but you can't manage your daily cash flow, it's pointless. You're building on sand. You need to manage your daily cash flow because it is vital Short-term pain for long-term gain. If you need to and you want to buy a property, you might need to go ghost mode for six months and just not socialize as much as you have been, as in going out for drinks, maybe to see your friends and go for a walk or just have a little coffee. But if you're a big spender, you need to pull back. If you're serious about leveraging into a property, let's get technical for a second. Let's say, you want to buy a $500,000 investment property and you may be targeting Queensland, perhaps a dual income property in Logan or Moreton Bay. To do that, you'll need 30 grand rough deposit, if leveraging LMI 12 to 15,000 for stamp duty and other costs, and then your pre-approval based on your income liabilities and also a buffer, which is required.

Speaker 1:

Here's where discipline plays, in that $30,000 doesn't save itself. Weekly automated contributions based on the actual reverse engineered savings goals is how you build it. I mentioned that earlier, so rewind it if you don't recall. But reverse engineer what you need to save. If your afterpay, car loan or credit card debts are high, that will also slash your borrowing capacities. That's where discipline comes in as well, and your expenses need to show margin a buffer, which is important for the bank. So let's break it down. If you need $30,000 in 18 months, that's $385 per week in savings. Is it doable? Yes, but only with structure. So CoreLogic has shared data that shows property values in some growth corridors have increased by over 30% in just three years.

Speaker 1:

Waiting too long while planning could be the most expensive decision you actually make. So again, you don't have a strategy problem, you have an execution problem. But let's think bigger. Most people buy one property and that's it. They stall Episode. Last week on the Finance Bubble podcast, we spoke about why 70% of property investors fell after one purchase. So this actually directly correlates to the previous episode. The disciplined investors buy one, which sets them up to buy the second, third and fourth. So that means keeping your living expenses lean after your first property, choosing your assets with strong yield to help fund the next one, understanding the difference between interest only versus principal and interest structures and, most importantly, building an A-team of advisors. So mortgage broker, property investment advisor, accountant, a strategist you need the team around you to help you get into these properties and build your long-term game in your portfolio.

Speaker 1:

Discipline means you review your portfolio annually, you don't panic sell, you don't chase hype suburbs because generally it's too late and, most of all, you don't make emotionally reactive moves. Let's say your first property grows by 5% annually. In four years you've gained 100K in equity on a 500K asset. That equity could be your deposit for the next one, if, and only if, you're disciplined with your finances. Now this is a bit of fun.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to give you a challenge. It's called the 30-day financial discipline sprint. So this is what I want you to do For the next 30 days cut Uber Eats. Cut subscription sprawl, cut random online buyers. Track every single expense. Make sure you set an auto transfer into your savings account that reflects your first property goal. Reach out to a mortgage broker and ask for a ballpark borrowing estimate. These four things will shift your mind to how do I reach the goal. Hopefully, you do speak to a broker and they can give you an understanding of where you are at at the moment.

Speaker 1:

You might be ready to buy a property in terms of the bank's point of view, or you might be 20 grand off, but this is what you need to do if you are serious about it. This isn't about being perfect. It's about getting real. Let's be practical. Even just saving 250 bucks a week for 30 days adds up to a grand. That's one step closer to your first property. It builds financial rhythm. You're not building a dream board. You're building a deposit. You're not hoping for a future. You're actually funding it. If you can actually master the 30 days of discipline, you'll prove to yourself that you can handle 30 years of wealth.

Speaker 1:

And the fun thing is, I don't know about you, but I love goal setting, and especially when you're trying to hit a monetary amount, you know you've got a number that you want to hit. Isn't it fun to look at your bank account every few weeks and you're getting closer and closer to that number. Like it's, if you want to hit 20 grand, you might be on 11. And then in a month you might be on 11. And then in a month you might be on 12. And then, like every month, you might put $1,000 in and then you know for a fact when you're going to hit the amount that you want. So just shift it around.

Speaker 1:

In the past, money and money conversations have always had a weird connotation to it. A lot of people avoid chatting about money in households. It's actually the number one reason for divorce, because no one chats about money Such a simple thing to talk about and it's good to be open about. You might speak to a mate and be embarrassed because you know they have more money than you, but it shouldn't be like that. Everyone should be learning and growing together because after 30 days you can understand fully what you need to do. So in closing, you don't have a property problem again. You have a discipline and execution problem. Once you fix that, the door's open, but until next time, stay disciplined, stay focused, and we'll see you at the door. We hope you enjoyed the episode. As always, you know exactly what to do. Hit that follow button, subscribe whatever platform you listen to this podcast on. Also share it to friends, families, co-workers, whoever you think may benefit from it. But unfortunately it's the end and we'll see you next week.

People on this episode

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Oscar Don

Co-host
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Zeke Guenthroth

Co-host