EXCLUSIVEI have five investment properties after managing to buy my first one when I was 24... this is the bad habit you need to ditch if you want to get a foot in the door Sam Shennan owns five investment properties He revealed bad habit young Aussies need to ditch By STEPHEN JOHNSON, ECONOMICS REPORTER FOR DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA Published: 01:39 GMT, 17 March 2025 | Updated: 01:39 GMT, 17 March 2025 A Gen X dad with five investment properties says too many young people are wasting their money buying lunch instead of saving up for a mortgage deposit. Advertising entrepreneur Sam Shennan, 48, was 24 when he bought his first property - a newly-built two-bedroom unit in Bondi in Sydney's east - for $640,000 in 2001. Half a life ago, he was earning a six-figure salary working for Telstra, which was more than double Australia's average full-time salary of $44,127 at the time. But despite being a high-income earner at a young age, Mr Shennan said his investment property journey was only possible because he saved hard for a 10 per cent mortgage deposit by not eating out or buying lunch. 'This generation - they're just different. They all order their lunch, they all buy their lunch,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'Back then, we always took our lunch to work, we always saved, we might get a coffee but definitely not buying breakfast. 'You had to budget and you had to save for the first deposit - it's watching your expenses, it's not having big weekends and spending it all going out, not having lavish holidays. 'It's been dedicated and putting your money away, you need to have discipline.' A dad with five investment properties who bought his first home at 24 says too many young people are wasting their money buying lunch instead of saving up for a mortgage deposit (Sam Shennan is pictured, second left, with his wife Helen, second right, and their daughters, aged 12 and 14) But unusually for a landlord, Mr Shennan said young people should put off renting if they could and live at home longer with their parents. 'When you're paying rent it's dead money,' he said. Mr Shennan continued living at home with his parents in nearby Randwick until he could save up for a mortgage deposit, instead of spending his income on rent. By the time he turned 24, he had graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney, with a Bachelor of Business degree and was in full-time work with Telstra's former internet connection division, BigPond. 'Most of us lived at home to help save that deposit,' he said. 'Let's be honest: it's a bit of a sacrifice but if you move out early into your own apartment, it makes it harder to save. 'To think that you're going to pay rent and save - unless you're on a gigantic salary in order to do that, I think you need to stay at home and live with your parents; week in, week out, you're saving that money on rent.' He argued that moving out of home earlier and renting would in fact make it harder to buy a property. Advertising entrepreneur Sam Shennan, 48, bought a two-bedroom unit in Bondi (pictured), in Sydney 's east, for $640,000 in 2001 Tradie saved up to buy 15 properties sparks outrage with brutal advice for Aussies 'It just gets harder and harder every year to get in, the longer you leave it, the longer you're moving out paying rent,' he said. 'You need to focus at a young age to get that first deposit and really stretch yourself - that's the hardest challenge; being able to put a large chunk of your salary, week in, week out.' Even when he managed to buy that Bondi apartment, Mr Shennan said he lived there and sublet out the other bedroom. 'I couldn't afford to live in it at the start, I couldn't afford the mortgage repayments so I had to have a tenant in,' he said. A little more than two decades ago, Mr Shennan even struggled to find a tenant who wanted to sublet that bedroom. 'Bondi wasn't high end back then,' he said. 'I couldn't get a tenant back in those days whereas now, there's so many people who want to rent down there. 'I struggled to get a tenant probably for the first two couple of months.' But despite being a high-income earner at a young age, Mr Shennan said his investment property journey was only possible because he saved hard for a deposit by not eating out or buying lunch Baby boomer sparks outrage over his money advice for young Aussies: 'It's called greed' After working at Telstra, he joined Google in 2008, as a manager in charge of getting big retailers to advertise with the search engine tech giant. But he left in 2011 to start the Incubeta advertising agency and is now in charge of the Asia-Pacific operations, working long hours to cover different time zones. Since then, he bought a three-bedroom townhouse at Middleton Grange in south-west Sydney in 2014; a four-bedroom house a Noosaville on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in 2014; a two-bedroom unit at Zetland in Sydney's south in 2016; and a four-bedroom townhouse at Rochedale in Brisbane's south in 2018. Mr Shennan, his wife Helen and their two daughters, aged 12 and 14, now live at beachside Coogee, after moving from Waverley in 2020. But he admitted it would be a lot harder for young people to buy a first home now compared with 24 years ago given how expensive property is now compared with incomes. 'I feel sorry for kids now because it's much, much, much harder than it was back then,' he said. 'Maybe some of them think it's so hard, "Why bother? It's so unachievable I may as well enjoy myself". 'There's a lot more stuff they have in their lifestyle they're paying for.' He helped his childhood friend Jeremy Martin, who has a background in property development, come up with the Landlord app, which enables landlords to sack bad property managers As a landlord, he has encountered awful situations, including a Noosaville tenant who turned the house into a massage parlour frequented by bikies. 'I found out I had a massage parlour was set up in the Noosa one - the bikies were coming and collecting cash so then I had to get them cleared out,' he said. Mr Shennan likened bad property managers to 'an abusive relationship'. He helped his childhood friend Jeremy Martin, who has a background in property development, come up with the Landlord app, which enables landlords to sack bad property managers. 'In just a few taps on your computer and instantly switch to a top-tier property manager who cares,' he said. 'What's more, you get a 100 per cent satisfaction guarantee. If you're not happy with your new property manager, you can switch again at no cost. 'The property management industry has finally been dragged out of the dark ages, which is why service is often appalling and why landlords and renters are often at each other's throats.' Despite the problems of bad tenants, Mr Shennan said property was a better bet to get stable capital growth than shares, and is hoping to retire by 60 with the rental income from his investments. 'You get them up and you set them up correctly, and you've got a good income stream, it puts you in a better position - it's steady income,' he said. 'In a perfect world, I would love to retire by 60 and it wouldn't be a bad life playing golf three days a week and spending time with the kids but you've got to be making sure that financially it's viable.' Share or comment on this article: I have five investment properties after managing to buy my first one when I was 24... this is the bad habit you need to ditch if you want to get a foot in the door Add comment