Corporate IT worker Jack Chen, 32, and his wife Margaretha have spent the past eight years buying properties across Sydney and Brisbane.

But their ultimate aim isn’t to reach 100 properties or live a life of luxury. Instead, they want to be able to start a family and stay at home together.

The Hills District couple already have enough equity and rental income from their nine properties to be able to retire provided they keep their living costs in check.

“We plan to start a family very soon and want the flexibility for [us as] Mum and Dad to be full-time, stay-at-home carers,” Jack said.

Already, they have managed to take off seven months of work to travel and Jack recently reduced his hours to part-time to look into other interests, including mortgage broking.

I fully expect that the Monopoly board game will be a family favourite.Jack Chen

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When he graduated university, Jack looked into managed funds and share trading as ways to increase his wealth.

“The only thing that really stuck was property,” he said.

In his second year out of university in 2007, after saving a deposit, Jack bought a two-bedroom walk-up flat in Marrickville for $307,000.

This was his first foray into property investing – he sold it in 2012 for $456,000 after some renovations and used the proceeds to pay down other debt.

“In hindsight I should have kept it, as it would be easily worth $800,000 today,” he said.

The rest of the couple’s portfolio-building began in 2009. Margaretha bought an apartment in Eastwood for $352,000 as her first home and claimed the $14,000 grant before living in the property for a year. Together, they painted and renovated with a $2500 budget.

While they lived in the home, they saved as diligently as possible.

“Every time we built up enough of a deposit, we bought the next [property],” Jack said.

A year later they bought and moved into a Belmore apartment for $217,000 with a 20 per cent deposit. They kept the Eastwood unit, renting it out as the first step of their investment portfolio.

This buy-and-hold strategy is at the cornerstone of their financial planning.

“Once we got married and combined finances, we were able to buy much more frequently and at the same time aggressively pay down debt in our principal residence,” Jack said.

While living in the Belmore apartment and spending about $1000 on cosmetic improvements, they managed to buy a Homebush West unit in March 2010 for $343,500 that they renovated with a $4500 budget before putting it up for rent.

By the end of 2010, they were ready to upgrade into a house – buying in Baulkham Hills for $658,500 and spending $9000 on renovations – and put their Belmore apartment on to the rental market.

After a few years of saving, by 2013 they bought their last Sydney investment property – an apartment in Guildford for $345,500.

Sydney then became too expensive for investment, as prices began to soar and rental yields fell.

Their portfolio was growing significantly in value, but to expand they had to look elsewhere.

Queensland quickly came on to the radar due to its relative affordability, strong rental yields and likely prospects for growth. Using a buyer’s agent to scope out opportunities, in 2014 they bought two houses in Zillmere, Brisbane, for $430,000 and $374,000, undertaking undertook minor improvements for $5000 and $5500.

After another two years of Sydney property market growth, they no longer had to save but rather could use the equity from their portfolio. There was “no looking back”.

In February 2017, they bought a house in Boronia Heights, Logan City, south of Brisbane. They are currently settling on a house in Loganlea, also in Logan City, bought in April.

With this portfolio, and dabbling in some shares investing, the couple have high hopes they will be prepared to give their children a very different life experience.

“Around the time the kids hit toddler age, we plan to rent out [our home] and travel the world together as a family for years on end,” Jack said.

They have close to $2.5 million worth of equity in the portfolio, which cost them about $3.4 million to buy. Jack estimates the value of the portfolio at about $5.2 million. This means they still have around $2.7 million in property debt.

When including their shares portfolio into their debt calculations, this brings it up to $3.1 million.

They’ve also started converting some of the loans to principal and interest to start paying down this debt – part of a risk management strategy they’re putting in place. They also have insurances and buffers in case of vacancies and are prepared to lower their rents significantly if needed.

Having tracked their living expenses together, which total $40,000 a year, Jack said they could take equity out of the portfolio and turn it into dividend income through shares. He estimates that would provide $75,000 a year – enough to stop working.

But until then, he’s going to continue to build his portfolio and pay down debt, anticipating they’ll be able to pay off their non-deductible debt on their Baulkham Hills home over the next three months.

Jack hopes to teach his children about property investing: “I fully expect that the Monopoly board game will be a family favourite.”​