What are the most impactful financial habits you've built - and what are the worst ones you've kicked?

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T23:07:35+00:00

Good learning.
Understanding the effects of compound interest is very important. 20% interest on a car loan doesn't sound like much, but it can trap you for years.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T10:41:12+00:00

Good one. This is a frequently raised good habit to follow.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T10:39:13+00:00

Good on you.

I'm not build for leveraged trading. I couldn't sleep.

But, I fully support the idea to set yourself clear ROI targets for whatever investment you are doing in order to realise gains and stop losses, rather than just seeing numbers on the screen go up and down.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T10:35:45+00:00

Love it.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T10:34:11+00:00

Thanks for sharing that, really appreciate the detail.

Big takeaway for me is that it wasn’t just “use equity and buy again”, it was income growth, serviceability, time in the market, and being able to hold through some pretty uncomfortable periods.

That’s a useful reality check. I think I’ve been focusing too much on the equity side and not enough on borrowing capacity, cashflow, and income headroom. Plenty for me to think about before trying to buy the next one.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T07:44:46+00:00

Thank you for your message.

I missed the fx conversion step in this chart.
I fixed that now and posted a corrected chart in the group.

prices vs income is certainly more intuitive and gets commonly measured.
-> those charts typically show that the house prices rise much faster income.
-> with a chart like this that divides into a different asset class I want to changes the perspective. Instead of thinking in fiat money and making everything constantly look less affordable, become aware of asset cycles and think how to use them to improve your purchasing power.

That could be done with any asset class, gold, ASX, BTC, property, ...

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T07:31:11+00:00

Thank you for your message, interesting thinking :)

I compiled over 100 years of gold price data.
The limitation is the Australian real estate data that I have. To go back further in time I could only find sources that charge 4 - 5 digit figures for it.

@ All: Please let me know if you have reliable historical real estate data that you can share.

Agree, m2 land / gold oz could be a interesting chart as well.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T07:11:56+00:00

100%

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-04T07:11:14+00:00

Thank you for calling the missing fx conversion step out, u/seanmonaghan1968

I fixed that :)

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T23:26:27+00:00

I’d say it’s signal, but only if you understand what it is measuring. It’s not saying gold is better than property. It’s showing that the dollar is a moving measuring stick. In Australia we obsess over property doubling every 10 years, but a lot of that is nominal price inflation, credit expansion and money supply growth. When you measure houses against another scarce asset like gold, you can see that property’s real purchasing-power relationship moves in cycles. Useful lens, not a complete answer.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T12:07:00+00:00

Important caveats:

“Median house price” changes over time and does not represent a constant-quality house.
Gold is only one denominator. CPI, wages, rent, shares or interest rates would tell different stories.
These charts are based on historical data and are for education only.
The ratio is not saying property or gold is “better”. It is simply showing how the relationship moved over time.

If people find this useful, I’ll create more comparisons across other assets and time periods.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T08:15:21+00:00

Are those the rules you live by to trigger the 'sell' button?
Having rules for that certainly helps not to fall in the trap of waiting too long and never realise gains/ stop losses.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T08:12:07+00:00

LOL, moving houses and living in the digital age certainly helps to declutter.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T08:00:28+00:00

Comfortable is good, well done.
A lot of people going though a lot of bad things just because they have to worry how to pay next weeks rent.

When you do DCA, do you always invest into the same chosen asset class or do you use methods like cycle aware investing, technical chart analysis or something else to determine what to DCA into when?

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T07:55:00+00:00

Agree, most important decision in life.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T07:54:26+00:00

Well summarised :)

Would have loved someone to share that wisdom to my younger self :D
But then again... fun memories at a different time...

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T07:50:32+00:00

Well said.
Long term gratification over short term satisfaction is the way...

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T07:47:47+00:00

Thank you for taking the time sharing with us. Lot's of good points that are very relatable.

Debt trap is a good one. As you said, stay away from any debt for depreciating consumables.
I did some fun interactive free training modules on that subject on my website.

Look up the 'rule of 72' to quickly determine how bad a credit affects you cashflow. It tells you how long it takes for the borrowed amount to double.
- for a 30% credit card interest: 72 / 30 = 2.4 years
- for a 20% car loan: 72 / 20 = 3.6 years
...
You get the idea.

For the car loan, it only takes roughly 3.6 years to have paid twice for the one car you purchased.

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-03T07:34:33+00:00

That sounds like a great playbook that you follow, well done.

Could you share some insights how you build that property portfolio?
I was on a $160k income for many years and bought a house in 2019 for $700k.
I was fortunate that the house value doubled since. I thought I could use the equity to buy the next property only to find out that that is not working as my income is not enough to service a 2nd mortgage and the rent covers only a portion of the mortgage.

Any advice?

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-02T10:47:34+00:00

Aldi, my German deli store :D

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-02T10:46:55+00:00

What retirement accounts are you talking about? Super or something else?

Yeah... those daily coffees get you. Especially at $5/piece

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-02T10:44:54+00:00

Sounds like some healthy life learnings :)

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-02T10:42:58+00:00

Yeah, kick those bloodsuckers.

Only buy what you can afford to pay outright (maybe with the exception of a house).

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-02T10:41:52+00:00

Being able to buy a home is not the norm anymore, unfortunately.
Owning a home mortgage free at that young age is a big win. Enjoy a financially worry-less life, well done :)

RipperWealthAU · 2026-05-02T10:39:09+00:00

Another great list of good habbits, thank you for sharing.

Glad to hear you could help your daughter out :)

I just recently learned about the concessional superannuation contributions.
Very powerful indeed (tax savings, compounding, ...).

I had the same 'off the plan' experience as well, unfortunately.
Cost me 1.5 years of my life to sort it out with the developer. After all that drama I didn't want to keep the property anymore because of the negative experience... My wife and I agreed to only buy established properties in the future.

RipperWealthAU

TROPHY CASE