Tammy and Rob Pitman have achieved a feat many young Australian couples can only dream of.
Not only do they own their own home in Middle Swan, Western Australia, but they own it outright after paying off their $365,000 mortgage in just four years.
“By [the time I was] 27, we were debt free,” Tammy told Today Tonight.
The Pitmans didn’t inherit a wad of cash nor did they win the lottery, they just made sacrifices, savvy choices and followed these simple steps.
They bought their home with a 20 per cent deposit in December 2011 and by Christmas 2015 had paid it off, only losing around $7000 in interest.
First, they picked a place for half the price they could afford, rented it out, then paid double the minimum repayments each month.
To do this, the couple moved to regional Western Australia where they landed higher-paying jobs (though not with "mining wages", Tammy admitted) and ditched their credit cards along the way.
For four years they only took simple holidays and cooked all their own meals - including smashed avocado on toast, they joked.
“I think it’s the small sacrifices that actually can make sometimes the biggest difference when it comes to actually saving money and paying off a house,” Tammy explained.
Rob was the first to admit the short-term pain for long-term gain approach had paid off but certainly wouldn't be sustainable for more than a few years.
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"The way we saved wasn’t realistic for us to live our whole life, it wouldn’t have happened, we would have burnt out,” he told Today Tonight.
“Paying the big chunks off early and getting that interest right down is a big deal,” he added.
Of course, not everyone can pack up their lives for a few years, but according to research agency Canstar, even an extra $200 a month can save up to $60,000 on a $300,000 loan in the long run.
A lifetime's worth of fancy brunches, basically.
Top Comments
This is definitely possible if you don't have children. We made the decision to have kids straight away, so I have only worked a small amount in the last 5 years. And we don't regret that decision at all by the way.
But if we didn't have kids and I worked full time, we could have had our mortgage paid off by now too.
This is great - I love that they took their own path to meet this challenge, while their choices would not be for everyone, it definitely inspires me to to think outside the box as far as strategies, approaches that will empower my financial position. Good on them..