Clever teen act nets Aussie $5m on the side

Property investor Jon Fulluck started saving for his first property at age 14.

A Sydneysider who started saving for his first property at just 14 has given an insight into what’s achievable for lower income earners willing to make sacrifices and be disciplined with their spending.

Jon Fulluck, now 37 and working as a software salesman, owns six properties across two countries – with his four Aussie properties having a combined value of roughly $5 million and total gross rental income of about $160,000 a year.

It’s a portfolio he said was made possible by clever timing, a willingness to take risks and laser-focus on saving as much money as he could.

Today Fulluck has six properties, including four in Australia.

Mr Fulluck said knowing how to work the banking system further helped. He learned early on how to get brokers to work for him and find financing options he may otherwise have missed.

“Banks will happily lend you to your eyeballs but I’ve always been careful,” he said. “The important thing is to get started. Do something as soon as you can.”

He added that taking action – even with a limited income – was a mentality he adopted right from the beginning.

“I started saving when I was 14,” Mr Fulluck said, recounting the beginning of an 18-year journey marked by discipline, delayed gratification, and a refusal to follow a conventional path.

“I just saved from various jobs. I worked as a kitchen hand, delivered newspaper. Lots of dead end jobs. I didn’t know much, but I knew and understood property always goes up in value.

He went travelling shortly after buying his first property aged 19.

“Both of my parents were teachers and I had seen them struggle financially. That was one of my main motivators.”

Mr Fulluck, then based in the UK, bought his first property at 19: a one-bedroom unit in Essex. He still holds it today.

Four years later, after an 18-month stint coaching tennis abroad and working at summer camps, he bought his second property — a four-bedroom house – again in the UK. He was just 22.

“That one has only got nine years left on the mortgage,” he said. “Hopefully I’ve got a nice little nest egg sitting there in a decade’s time that I can start enjoying.”

He later moved to Sydney when was 25 years old and by 29 was eyeing out opportunities to get into the Australian market.

At 30, a chance encounter over two glasses of wine at a vineyard led to his third property purchase in the NSW town of Orange – a scenic, food-and-wine-rich regional town with rising real estate clout.

“I actually knew Orange was always going to do well,” he said. “The property I ended up buying was near a highly sought-after school and was on 900 sqm with future development potential.”

He bought it for $407,000. It’s now worth $700,000 and rents for about $600 a week.

Mr Fulluck marked a turning point in his portfolio in 2021 with the purchase of his Sydney home — what he calls a “milestone property” — funded by a work bonus. It’s now worth $1.7 million and brought his property total to four.

By 2023, he’d pulled equity from the Orange property and used it to acquire two more four-bedroom homes in Brisbane. Each of those Brisbane homes is valued today at around $950,000 and they produce $1500 a week in combined rent.

He bought in the town of Orange after a chance encounter at a vineyard.

He said the Olympics motivated his purchase in Brisbane and he used a buyer’s agent to help with the deal.

About 40 per cent of the value of the total Australian portfolio is equity, with his mortgage obligations accounting for the rest, he said.

Michael Pell, managing director of Propell Property, said Jon Fulluck embodied the essence of a long-term investor.

“Jon didn’t come from money,” Mr Pell said. “You don’t need to have plenty of money if you start with the right mindset.

Michael Pell from Propell Property said Jon’s story showed what was possible for those with determination.

Mr Fulluck said one of the hardest parts of investing was staying the course through good times and bad.

“Sure, as an investor, you are living life with little disposable cash sometimes … but investing all of your cash means really good things in the long run.

“It can be quite stressful seeing how many zeros you have in minus against your name. I try not to think about it too much because I know I can always sell if I need to,” he said.

His philosophy is part austerity, part clarity of purpose. “If you don’t do it, then you are just going to be living in the system, paying high tax, never having financial freedom, never owning any property and you’ll just be part of the cycle.”

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