A young Aussie woman who owns two investment properties -buying the first one aged just 18 – says it all came down to one basic rule she followed meticulously.

Megan Tester, now 22, has done something other Aussies can only dream of after securing the two properties that are now worth about $800,000.

The Gold Coast resident picked up her first property four years ago before using the equity from that one-bedroom unit in Surfers Paradise to fund the second.

Ms Tester said her ability to get into the market early wasn’t about having a huge income or the backing of a wealthy family.

Megan Tester owns to investment properties at the age of 22. Picture: Supplied

“It was all about spending as little as possible and saving as much of my income as I could,” she told Yahoo News.

For Ms Tester, that savings process began at the age of 14 when she got her first job at Subway.

Because she was living at home without huge household expenses or bills, Ms Tester was able to save most of her casual wage and eventually put it towards her first property purchase.

“From an early age, I developed the mindset that when I got paid, that money wasn’t there to be spent; it was there to be put away immediately,” she said.

“Developing that mindset early can make a huge difference and set you up for long-term financial success.

“It’s pretty common for young people to regularly buy new clothes and shoes or spend money on beauty treatments like getting their nails or hair done, but I chose to put that money towards my savings instead.

“Looking back, the biggest habit that helped me wasn’t making more money; it was consistently prioritising saving over spending.”

Ms Tester said she saw a lot of her friends viewing pay cheques as weekly spending money but challenged whether new clothes and new phones really added value to peoples’ lives.

Ms Tester puts her success down to a strong savings philosophy. Picture: Supplied

Eight years on from that first job at Subway, Ms Tester’s career has changed but not her philosophy about money. She works in customer sales but still prioritises her savings account.

Ms Tester’s experience is certainly not the norm in Australia as many struggle to break into the property market.

Westpac data revealed one in five first-home buyer loans issued nationally in 2025 went to purchasers aged over 40.

The average age of first-home buyers has also steadily risen, now sitting at 34 across the bank’s network – up nearly two years since 2020.

Broker networks suggest the figure may be even higher, ranging between 34 and 37.

The challenges facing today’s first-home buyers are starkly different from those of previous generations.

Research by property group SuburbTrends highlights a dramatic increase in the age at which Australians are paying off their mortgages.

In 1981, the median age for mortgage freedom was 52. By 2016, it had climbed to 62.

The 2021 Census revealed that nearly one in four Australians aged 55 to 64 (22.8 per cent) were still paying off home loans – almost double the rate from two decades earlier.