Landlord with $200,000 savings makes common Woolworths admission: 'Even me'

Yahoo

02-05-2025

A landlord has opened up about the intense cost of living despite having an investment property and $200,000 in the bank. The 32-year-old was stopped on the streets of Sydney and quizzed about her finances by investment company Coposit.
The data analyst revealed she was able to buy the home just before the pandemic caused prices to skyrocket and said her tenants always paid the rent on time. Even though she was doing "quite well" for herself, she wasn't immune to everyday costs.
"Oh, [the cost of living is] pretty expensive to be honest," she said. "Even for me, I struggle to shop at Woolies [and] have to do my budget weekly."
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The data analyst accumulated her incredible wealth by being a "big saver", and it helped having her tenants essentially pay off her mortgage.
She also diversified her finances by investing in the stock market.
The analyst advised people that if they wanted to be in a similar situation to her, they needed to save as much as possible while they're young and get into the property market as soon as they can afford it.
Westpac found that customers aged 30 to 34 with an active savings account had a median balance of $1,104, while the average balance was much higher at $21,394.
The average or mean number can be skewed by very large or small numbers, so it can be a bit misleading.
The median is the middle value when the numbers are arranged from smallest to largest, and can be a better representation of the data.The Sydney data analyst was worried her financial situation was going to be compromised by Donald Trump's tariffs.
While the full extent of that foreign policy is yet to properly play out, Coles said it's keeping a watchful eye on it.
"It's probably too early to really tell on that but we are monitoring it, particularly around impacts to things like cost of goods and particularly in the meat space," chief executive Leah Weckert said recently.
"Processing and beef for example could be one area where we might start to see increases in cost of goods coming through but we are going to need to wait and see."
Prices at the second biggest supermarket chain in Australia have started to fall, in what will be a big win for shoppers.
When you exclude tobacco sales, inflation at the supermarket remained stable at 1.1 per cent for the quarter, which was significantly below what the overall sector recorded, at 3.1 per cent.
Weckert said, as a result, prices have fallen in areas like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and tomatoes, cereal, tea, dental, healthcare, dishwashing, and cleaning goods.
Meanwhile at Woolworths, average prices fell 0.5 per cent compared to last year, which is the fifth consecutive quarterly decline.
The supermarket believed this fall is partly due to customers looking for cheaper or discounted items.
The Sydney woman said that while prices have jumped dramatically in recent years, wages haven't kept pace.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), wages growth (WPI) took a tumble due to the pandemic, dropping from 2.2 per cent in March 2020 to just 1.3 per cent three quarters later.
There was a huge spurt that peaked in the December 2023 quarter with wages growth reaching 4.4 per cent.
However, it has tumbled again to just 3.2 per cent in the most recent December quarter.
While 4.4 per cent sounds great, it was only just a touch in front of where inflation was at the same time at 4.1 per cent.
However, the consumer price index peaked at 7.1 per cent in the December 2022 quarter, meaning price growth raced ahead of how much people were being paid and WPI has been playing catchup ever since.
Yahoo Finance contributor Stephen Koukoulas said Australia is in desperate need of more interest rate cuts from the Reserve Bank (RBA) to put more money in consumers' pockets and give them more financial breathing room.
"Inflation has fallen due to the extended period of subdued economic growth, moderate and sustainable wage increases, an easing in inflation around the world, the ending of supply chain pressures and the effects of persistently high interest rates set by the RBA," the economist wrote.
"The inflation data, along with the myriad of other economic news, show that the current 4.10 per cent cash rate set by the RBA is inappropriate.
"Grossly inappropriate, in fact, if we are to hope for decent economic conditions, including sustained low unemployment and inflation overshooting to 2 per cent or less and strong private sector business investment."