Welcome to my place!

In this post, I go into an honest deep-dive of my financial situation and what I've spent my money on as a mortgaged Millennial SINK. I also break down the true expenses of the Sydney property market.

I'm back! After a long hiatus from my blog, I've decided to make a return. It's been a hot minute since I've posted so I better explain what I've been doing. My life has become extremely busy and expensive over the past few years. While I'd love to be spending money on travel, makeup and brushes, I've found it difficult to justify making these purchases. I did not purchase any fude for three years and finally broke my no-buy streak just recently.

Today's post is going to be a long one. I'm going to transparently tell you what I've been spending my money on and give you a life update. You might have seen it on Instagram a while back, but I finally got the keys to my apartment. I bought an off-the-plan property many years ago which finally finished construction after the Covid delays. So now I'm a mortgaged SINK and most of my income goes to paying off the sizeable home loan that I have.

How I spent $25 000+ in two years

I remember very confidently declaring that I could buy all my furniture for $10k. My friends actually laughed. One snorted. Loudly. But I was sure that as the bargain-hunting queen, I could do it. For the first few months, I bought my furniture one piece at a time. I did not buy anything that didn't come with a discount. Everything was on back-order after the end of the pandemic lock-downs.

I genuinely lived with a dining table, a stool and my bed for a few months. It took 3 weeks for my fridge to turn up. I ate out of an Esky. My couch travelled around various global warehouses for three-and-a-half months but luckily, I used that time to continue adding more furniture to my order, taking advantage of the original free delivery deal.

Cue my friends side-eyeing me now. The most frugal of my friends had taken me aside to say, "Seriously, budget $12 grand at least, if not $15k" while the more extravagant had said, "Haha, start the budget at $20k and wait for it to blow out to $35k".

Technically, when all was done and dusted, I did come in at under ten grand for furniture. I spent a grand total of $8200. The couch (with pull-out queen bed) was $1999 with $300 off and I bought a cheap bed frame but a nice mattress which came in at a cool $1225. I managed to score some sweet deals with my marble coffee table for $528, down from $899 and the deepest discount of all was my outdoor lounge set which was originally $1095 (why are they so expensive?!) but I only paid $525 after sales and coupon stacking. You may stop reading to applause.

I diligently searched online, took out my industrial-grade tape measure and I put masking tape on my floor to help me imagine life with furniture. Like a crazed person, I spent weeks walking around the taped zones so I could get used to where the real pieces would eventually live. One delivery man asked "Where do you want your furniture?" before spotting the taped spots. He giggled gleefully as he placed my items in their designated floor spaces.

But then, I had to install roller-blinds, curtains and flyscreens, all which had to be custom made to my bank account's chagrin. "But wait!" I hear you scream, "Ikea sells curtains!" Yeah, they do. I checked. But they only make ones with a maximum height of 250cm whereas my ceilings are 280cm high. I thought I could go without for a while.

What really broke me was that I have floor to ceiling glass-sliding doors in my bedroom. I resisted spending the money for two weeks before calling in experts.

You can see how the $45 spent on three of the IKEA stick on blinds were holding on for dear life with the aid of copious amounts of masking tape and staples. All Asian women know that the sun is our eternal enemy. It is the enemy of beauty and the enemy of sleep. I've always been a night-owl but for months I looked more like a panda. I never knew the true meaning of the phrase "the crack of dawn" until I experienced it. One interior designer, more pandemic-related delays and $5500 later, I got my entire apartment done.

The fly-screens were a project I undertook after a year of living here. Deep-down, I am an eternally cheap tight-arse. I know it's the most 'modern' thing to have open plan living but it also means that turning on the air-conditioning means I have to cool the entire place. Electricity is expensive. I purchased a number of mini fans but since my bedroom and balcony face north, I get good light and warmth all year round. What is a really necessary installation (but non-existent in new high-rise builds) are fly-screens over the sliding doors. Part of the reason why I needed to hire an interior designer to do my curtains was that there wasn't enough space to put both blockout roller-blinds and sheer curtains in due to the ceiling design that was intended to mask any ugly hardware. Everyone said it couldn't be done. There just wasn't enough space. But I don't like to hear 'no'. And I was right in the end wasn't I?

Once I had my heart set on fly-screens, I also couldn't take 'no' for an answer. Over a period of six months, I was rejected by 18 installers who said that either flat-out said it couldn't be done or that the curtains, the roller-blinds or both had to come down. But what's the point of paying for a custom-made product if they can't make something to fit? I intransigently refused to believe it couldn't be done. I eventually tracked down the manufacturing company and it turns out the owner lives only two suburbs away from me. Validation came to me in the form of a tiny Korean woman named Debbie who owned the factory that manufactured said fly-screens for everyone. In the throes of her second mid-life crisis due to her Gen Z daughter wanting to rage-quit her corporate career only 8 months into her first job after graduating university to start an unplanned and undecided business (which as business owners we both cackled at for a full five minutes) and a son who had left an engineering degree to tour with his band full-time, she was my salvation. She said that if I didn't mind her husband coming to install them, she'd make the necessary adjustments, powder-coat the metal to the exact colour of my existing frames and offer me the same warranty as everyone else. Best of all, she undercut the installers by $2500–$5000 on the cost. I could have kissed her. I got my retractable accordion-style fly screens across my entire living room and bedroom done for a bit under $3000. It is easily the most practical investment I have made in my place. I have constant natural air-flow.

So what have I learnt? If you find the right experts and pay them what they ask, they can make the seemingly impossible happen.

I also spent $4500 on new appliances and white-goods. I did my bit for the environment though. I only purchased big brand high water-saving and energy-efficient products. I mean, it takes two and a half hours to wash a full load of laundry but yay for the planet, I guess?

And don't even get me started on how much decor and artwork costs. I have given up on plants too. They're dead. All of them. What also was a shock was the cost of storage tubs. My place has been tetris-tub organised to high heaven. I'm not a tidy person by nature so my general philosophy is that so long as it's in a tub or a drawer, it's fine. My kitchen sink area is a precursor of what I've done to every single cupboard at my place.

The Sydney Property Market

Sydney is one of the most expensive places to buy property in the world. It currently sits as the second most unaffordable housing market, trailing just behind Hong Kong. And yet, property remains the crux of the Great Australian Dream. It is one that is different from the American Dream which is about opportunity, upward social mobility and creating self-made wealth. The Australian Dream is to own a house. Literally, that's it.

Australian property is well and truly stuffed. When you add on stamp duty property taxes, legal fees, government registration fees and bank mortgage registration fees on top of my purchase price, I paid just a few dollars shy of AUD$775 000 as a first home buyer. This equates to more than AUD$12.7k per square metre which translates to USD$850 per square foot. Was this a good investment? I know that generally people shouldn't think of their PPORs as an investment but in Australia, property has made two entire generations into multi-millionaires within the span of three to four decades.

My own little apartment has increased in value by another $200k just by existing. While I think my home is wonderful, I'm not sure I agree with the bank's current valuation that it's AUD$15,700/sqm or USD$1020/sq ft wonderful. It doesn't matter that it probably wouldn't fetch that price if I put my property on the market, it only matters what the banks value it at for refinancing and equity purposes. Sure, the old saying is "location, location, location" and I'm extremely close to amenities and transport in a middle-class suburb but it's not like I have a view of the Sydney Opera House or anything so these prices probably shock anyone outside Australia.

We're all just so numb to these numbers now. No one blinked an eye when the two-bedroom plus study apartment next door was purchased by retired empty-nest downsizers for a touch over AUD$1.4 million. It doesn't really make sense but there's the Australian property market in a nutshell.

According to the most recent census data, 55% of Australian millennials now own property. Our government provides significant tax incentives to homeowners including zero taxation on money kept in offset bank accounts, negative gearing to allow for any rental losses to reduce one's regular occupational income, a 50% discount on capital gains tax for property and generous first home buyer discounts or complete exemptions on stamp duty or transfer duty taxes. We also don't count your principal place of residence in your asset pool to be eligible for the aged pension. Basically, you can build significant wealth by being an Australian property owner.

There's a flip-side to this though. Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers were able to buy property for the whopping price of five peanuts, one banana and a plastic straw which they were able to guzzle unlimited petroleum and fossil fuels through. Sure, they had to deal with 17% interest rates for a short period in 1990 (before I was born) but the median house price in Sydney back then was only $155k with the average house price at $185k. We've all heard people from our parents' generation reminisce about buying a plot of land to build their first property as dewy-eyed newlyweds for $65k. As of 2024, the variable interest rate on one's mortgage starts at 6% but Sydney's median house price sits at AUD$1.62 million and the median apartment price is more than $800k. To put those numbers into context, my 20% deposit down payment on my one bedroom apartment plus the $20k property tax (after the $10k government discount) I paid EXCEEDS the entirety of the average HOUSE purchase price from three decades earlier. Oh, and add in the $5000 in solicitor's fees, government title registration, bank mortgage registration etc on top. Everyone gets to stick their fingers into the property cash pie. It is a hard and bitter pill to swallow but at least I'm on the property ladder. Most young Australians who carry a large mortgage are now asset rich but cash poor. This is especially true for those who bought property in recent years. Our central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia has put 13 interest rate hikes on us since 2022. This totals to an added 4.25% to the cash rate. While we were at emergency low rates that did need to come up to tackle inflation, no-one really anticipated that they would come up by that much. Most mortgages sat at a low 4% in 2017 (when Sydney's house median was a low $1.2 million and the median apartment was just $760k) compared to the 6% home loans of 2024. My understanding of the USA's home loan market is that lenders there are able to offer fixed 30 year loans because the American federal government underwrites them. There is no such guarantee for our banks in Australia. The longest fixed rate mortgage here is 5 years. Nearly everyone has a variable interest rate.

What does this mean for me?

I honestly did not expect my home loan to be costing this much by this point and quite frankly, neither did APRA who governs Australian banking lending laws. Interest rates haven't been this high since 2012. The median Sydney house price in December 2012 was $594 000 so it wasn't anywhere near as painful for borrowers as it is today. Prior to 2021, borrowers were stress-tested at 7% mortgage interest (which is exactly what I budgeted for) but then, they changed the rules. You only had to survive a stress-test of the current lending rate PLUS 3% on top. The pandemic brought everyone's mortgages down to a sweet 1.9% or low 2%. Needless to say, we've all since blown through the +3% buffers.

On my end, I've had to dig out an extra $15k a year to meet the new minimum repayment amount on my mortgage. Goodbye discretionary spending. Well, not entirely. I just won't travel internationally for a while. I didn't purchase a new phone when my iPhone 6S died during the Covid lockdown. My best friend graciously gave me her old iPhone X to use and to this day, I'm still using it. This year the iPhone 16 came out and I thought, "Pfft, that's half a mortgage payment!" I think twice about buying salmon at the supermarket now. I can afford it, but it's telling that I never once hesitated prior to the mortgage increases. In fact, I ate salmon every week. And if I think twice about the cost of salmon at $42/kg (2.2lbs) then you bet your bottom dollar that I think FIVE times before I buy makeup or a new brush. I recognise that people all over the world are doing it really tough right now. Inflation, mortgage repayments, rent, insurance, groceries, electricity and just about everything associated with the cost of living has gone up. In fact, I'm one of the lucky ones. I still have a little money to put away in my savings every month. I invest money into my retirement superannuation account. I do not go hungry but I no longer have the luxury of spending as much as I once used to. I need to plan well in advance for non-essential spending.

My best friend's husband has a little habit of taking sneaky photos of all of us and then turning us into memes. He has a whole series where I gaze adoringly at food vendors while they prepare my meals. Here's one he created of me: A modern day Marie Antoinette pontificating the problems of the peasantry as I sip champagne in front of my calacatta marble kitchen. I hasten to add that the champagne was purchased (not by me) to celebrate his new job promotion.

Just a reminder here that Millennials are now middle-management in the corporate world. We're in our thirties, the Baby Boomers are retired and our corporate overlords are the Gen X-ers who are now dealing with the fallout of their own Gen Z children in the workforce. As a side-note, I really do admire how the young-uns don't seem to give a shit about anything, tend to wear practical footwear and actually take a day off to deal with their mental health. We Millennials bent over backwards to please the Boomer tyrants when we first entered the workforce. Perhaps the 20-something year-olds could just update their corporate wear a bit past the cargo pants, white tank top and sneakers (especially when there's a client coming in) and learn not to take constructive criticism as a personal affront.

It hasn't all been champagne and caviar on my end... err... except for when it was. Just before part of my fixed mortgage jumped from a glorious 2.74% to 5.59%, I threw a bit of a last hurrah. The cash rate then proceeded to increase by another 50 basis points before my home loan rate mercifully stopped at 6.09%. I did manage to renegotiate my home loan down by 0.2%. Towards the end of 2023 though, there was a general sense that the beatings would continue until morale improved. Morale has not improved.

To be fair, I'm not mortgaged entirely up to my eyeballs. In under three years, I've managed to get my mortgage under half a million owing. YAY! I now owe less than 60% of my purchase price so the bank doesn't own me entirely. I am prudent with my money. There is some breathing room. My finances cause me a bit of stress but I am not financially stressed compared to those who are just hanging on at the moment. That being said, I still owe a hefty sum to the bank and it costs me AUD$5000 (USD$3400) a month just to put a roof over my head and eat. This is just paying my mortgage, my bills, insurance and utilities, council rates (local taxes), strata levies (HOA monthlies), groceries and necessities.

I manage to throw a bit of fun in there too. My life isn't all financial misery but I'm diverting my discretionary spending away from makeup and brushes which are very low on my priority list now. I try to keep up with the new brush releases but I have severely cut back on my non-essential spending. On top of that, real estate is at a premium so I don't want to dedicate more space to house my extensive collection than I already have.

Owing to the extensive use of storage containers and clever furniture purchases, I cleared the linen cupboard next to my bathroom to make space for my makeup and brushes. My linens go into the concealed pull-out drawers on my bed frame. I won't even show you how I have arranged my bathroom storage or this post will never end.

Storage is the biggest issue of apartment living. I have a decent amount of built-in cupboard space (and far more than many other modern apartments). But I am not a minimalist and I need to work from home. I have bought furniture for what I need and not for what I may have liked aesthetically. It is so easy for an open plan living space to look cluttered so everything needs to be tucked away.

Another problem associated with living in a small space is that I find myself getting bored. I'm seriously in the grips of a first-world problem. I need to take my morning coffee out on the balcony to enjoy the view and I change up the cushion covers and the floral arrangements every few months. These small changes to decor help to liven things up.

I'm soon approaching three years of living in my own place. I still have things I want to add, change and improve. Eventually, I'd love to upgrade to a bigger space so I can have a dedicated home office space but I'm not certain that I'll be able to keep pace with the rate Sydney property prices are increasing at.

There are many drawbacks of apartment living in a high-rise. A full-scale fire evacuation makes me consider whether I want to risk burning to death or reluctantly climb down the double-digit storey flights of fire stairs. Seriously, my legs ache the day after.

But living up so high affords me the privilege of seeing some stunning sunsets. The twilight that filters through my living room every single evening just takes my breath away. And for the past few years, I've been learning to just enjoy the little beauties in life.

So there it is. This is what has been occupying my time and money for the past few years. I plan on returning to the regular brush content and reviews soon. But obviously, I'm not buying as much as I used to so don't expect me to keep up with the new releases. When the cost of renewing this domain again came up, I briefly toyed with letting this blog lapse but I decided against it because I have some really deep dives. My monthly analytics reports still show that people are doing research before parting with their money so for now, I'm keeping my little corner of independent reviews alive on the internet.