20 Years in Australia: 6 Money Mistakes That Cost Me Millions [APS122]

I've been living in Australia for twenty years. If you ask me which investment made me the most money, I'd have to think about it. But if you ask me which decisions I regret most, I can tell you right now. I can even rank them by how much they cost me.

Why do I remember them so well? Because they're burned into my brain. Making money feels good for a while. But falling into traps, losing money, missing opportunities — that feeling sticks with you for years. The worst part is knowing you could have avoided it.

No fancy theories today. I'm walking you through 6 real traps I fell into myself. Some of these can destroy ten or twenty years of hard work. I've done the math. These 6 mistakes cost me seven figures. If you're building wealth through property and planning for retirement, watch this to the end. I promise — at least three of these traps are ones you're in right now. You just don't know it yet.

One. Your Circle Shapes Your Future

The first trap might surprise you. It's not about money. It's about people.

When I first got to Australia, I was scared of being alone. I wanted to fit in so badly that I said yes to everyone. Friends of relatives, people from hometown groups, random contacts — I kept them all. Twenty years later, I learned something painful. The people around you decide how far you go.

I knew this guy from my hometown who always complained whenever we met. Australia's no good, the government's useless, the economy's dying. After hearing this enough, I started feeling anxious too. Eventually, I cut him off. Guess what? My head cleared up. My decisions got sharper.

There's another type that's worse — the ones who flatter you constantly. "Alex, you're brilliant." Feels good, doesn't it? But these people dig holes for you when it matters. A "friend" talked me into some investment. Painted a beautiful picture. I lost over $100,000.

The worst type? I call them "gymnasts." Always flipping. Today, this is great; tomorrow, that's better. You never know what they really think.

My advice? Cut ties. Bad information — stay away. Bad people — stay further. This isn't about being cold. It's about putting your limited time where it counts.

The quality of your circle sets the ceiling on your wealth. It took me ten years to really get that.

Two. The Deepest Traps Hide Close to Home

The second trap is about work.

When I landed here, my English was rough. So naturally, I looked for Chinese bosses, Chinese landlords, and Chinese shops. Nothing wrong with that. But some people target newcomers who don't know the system.

My first job had a Chinese boss. Two months in, my wages were short by hundreds of dollars. I asked about it. The boss said they deducted this and that, totally normal. I didn't know Australian labour law. Never heard of Fair Work. So I let it go.

The Grattan Institute reports that 16 per cent of migrants who arrived in the past five years earn below the minimum wage. For locals, it's only 3-9 per cent. Migrants are 40 per cent more likely to be underpaid. International students have it worse — 32 per cent earn $12 or less per hour. Remember the 7-Eleven scandal? Wage payouts topped 150 million dollars.

Here's what everyone who just arrived needs to understand. Your workplace rights are exactly the same as citizens. Your boss can't cancel your visa — only Home Affairs can. Reporting to Fair Work won't hurt your visa. If you're being underpaid, call 13 13 94. Services in your language are available. And it’s free.

If I'd known this back then, I could've gotten thousands back. This trap — I'm filling it in for you.

Three. Golden Handcuffs

Speaking of bosses, there's a sneakier trap. Consumerism.

Some bosses act like they care. They encourage you to spend, enjoy life. They even help you calculate — "Your salary can totally cover a car loan." Sounds supportive? Wrong. They're putting golden handcuffs on you.

Once you're carrying car payments and credit card debt, you won't quit. You need that paycheck for your bills. Even if the pay's bad, you're stuck.

A friend making eighty thousand a year bought a sixty-thousand-dollar car on finance and got credit cards. Most of his salary went to payments. He wanted to leave, but couldn't.

My old boss told all the salespeople the same thing. "Your watch needs upgrading. Your car's outdated. No cash? Just sell more properties." The boss got rich while the staff drowned in debt. Like a spell cast on everyone.

If your boss preaches spending while personally saving and investing — watch out. I’d encourage you to resign and find a better job.

The Australian household debt-to-income ratio sits at 190 per cent — the fourth-highest in the world. Average credit card debt is 3,540 at nearly 21 per cent interest. Over half of Australians have savings of under $5,000. Most people mortgage their future to look good today.

Now I have a rule. Before buying anything, ask three questions. Will this help me make money? Will I still use it next year? Will my life actually suffer without it? One "no" and I don't buy.

Consumerism tricks you into thinking spending brings happiness. But real happiness comes from financial freedom.

If you have any questions about property investment, please book a free 15-minute discovery call on our website. If you want a team offering one-stop service to help you build a property investment portfolio, achieve financial freedom and retire early, join our VISION Membership by booking a 30-minute obligation-free discovery session to start with. Or to keep it simple, our data-driven buyer's agency service can help. We buy and manage properties for our clients anywhere in Australia. Links to the service are in the description below.

Four. The Apartment Mistake

Fourth trap — my biggest loss. I bought the wrong property.

About ten years ago, I bought an apartment. My thinking was simple. Apartments are cheaper and involve less deposit stress. Good location in a Chinese suburb. Brand new, looked nice. And, someone mentioned negative gearing saves tax.

The result? I held it for years. Value barely moved. If I'd bought a house for the same price, the difference today would be four to eight hundred thousand dollars.

Why? Land goes up. Buildings go down. Houses have land. Apartments don't. You're buying a box in the sky. Maintenance costs rise while the land value has nothing to do with you.

Off-the-plan apartments are the trap within the trap. Sydney North Shore research showed 84 per cent of people who bought off-the-plan between 2016 and 2018 got bank valuations at settlements lower than the contract price. Some paid 800,000 for apartments valued at only 640,000. Twenty per cent gone instantly. The NSW government found that 53 per cent of apartment buildings have serious defects.

Why did I fall for it? My research wasn't deep enough. And, I had a dodgy boss who packaged off-the-plan as his special investment philosophy. And I believed him.

Here's what most people miss. Negative gearing isn't the goal. Capital growth is. If the property doesn't grow, the tax savings won't cover your losses.

Don't touch industries you don't understand. Don't invest in things you don't understand. Do your homework. Find people who've actually achieved results — not bosses pushing their own stock. The best lessons come from other people's mistakes. Learning from your own costs too much.

Five. Moving Made Me Poorer

Fifth trap. Moving too often.

I've bought and sold several properties. The problem wasn't buying the wrong ones. I just didn't stay long enough. Moved every five years on average.

Know how much buying and selling costs? Buying a million-dollar place in NSW. Stamp duty — close to forty thousand. Conveyancing, inspection, and loan application fees — another few thousand. Only a 10 per cent deposit? Add twenty-eight thousand for LMI. Total: over seventy thousand. That's 7 per cent of the price. Selling a million-dollar place. Agent commission, advertising fees. Nearly twenty-eight thousand. Close to 3 per cent.

One buy, one sell — seventy to a hundred thousand gone. Almost 10 per cent of the property. Compare that to buying and selling a million in ETFs. Cost? Almost nothing.

All my moves lost me hundreds of thousands in transaction costs. If that money had been invested twenty years ago at 7 per cent returns, it'd be worth nearly eight hundred thousand now.

The real power of property? Long-term holding. Compound growth. Tax advantages. Inflation protection. Buy and sell constantly? All those advantages vanish.

Before buying now, I ask: can I stay for 10 years? If not, don't buy. Or buy it as an investment property instead of a home.

Six. Not Knowing Tax Burned My Money

Sixth trap. I overpaid my taxes for years.

Australia has plenty of legal ways to reduce tax. But I relied completely on my first accountant.

When I asked what I could do to save on tax, my accountant never mentioned extra super contributions, negative gearing, or common deductions. Eventually, I found a strategy-focused accountant and started researching how wealthy people make money and keep it.

Your accountant doesn't decide how much you save. Your structure does. If you don’t understand taxes, then you’ve probably been overpaying for years.

Here are some tax-saving opportunities you might not know about.

1.Super contribution cap is thirty thousand per year. If your marginal rate is 37 or 45 per cent, every $10,000 in super saves $ 2,200 to $ 3,000 in tax. Haven't used your full allowance the past five years? You can catch up.

2.Investment property depreciation. A schedule costs a few hundred dollars but can save thousands each year for up to forty years. New properties are much easier to depreciate, but you don’t hear that from buyer's agents. Why? Yes, conflict of interest. They don’t sell new properties.

3.Home office — seventy cents per hour. Car expenses — eighty-eight cents per kilometre, up to five thousand. Many people skip claims they're entitled to.

Strategy accountants cost more but save way more in the long term. That trade-off is worth every cent.

The Big Picture

After all these regrets, you might notice something. On the surface, they look totally different. Some are about people. Some are about investing. Some are about tax. But dig a little deeper, and it's the same root problem: I lacked big-picture thinking.

Property, shares, tax, super, business — these things don't live in separate boxes. They're all connected. One system. If you only focus on one piece and ignore the rest, you will mess up. It's like chess. Think only about this move and forget the next ten? You're going to lose.

New things, new information, new opportunities — don't shut them out. If you hear someone's doing better than you and your first thought is "they're just showing off" — congratulations, you've stopped growing. If you hear about an investment opportunity and immediately think "that's definitely a scam," you might be walking past something real.

Here's something I've learned the hard way. For anyone who actually wants to achieve something in life, feeling comfortable is the biggest danger sign. Comfort means you've stopped moving. And if you stop moving, the world keeps going without you.

Got a colleague who's always targeting you at work? Don't complain. Get stronger. Then jump ship and get paid more somewhere else. That's exactly why I walked away from a 300,000-dollar salary to start my own business.

Is Melbourne property moving too slowly for you? Why are you still staring at Melbourne? Look at Brisbane. Look at Perth. That's why we've been recommending those markets for the past two to three years.

Australian tax crushing you? Why stay stuck? That's exactly why we launched UAE Smart Invest. High growth. Strong cash flow. Zero tax.

The world is big, and opportunities are everywhere. But here's the thing — they only show up for people who open their eyes and actually go looking.

I hope today's video saves you from some painful lessons. The traps I walked into? You don't have to. The money I lost? You can keep yours. If you found this useful, share it with someone you care about. Help them pay less tuition to the school of hard knocks.

Watch the video version of the blog on YouTube.

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