19-year-old Olivia Shone has achieved what many Australians spend decades trying to get: ownership of a four-bedroom investment house. The Warragul, Victoria, native started saving for property at age 16 after discussions with her father Luke, who bought his first home at 18. Real Estate (dot) com news site reported that she purchased a plot of land in her hometown and built a house on it three years later. The total investment was estimated at about $600,000. Even more impressive is that Shone was also juggling military service and university studies while managing much of the construction from thousands of kilometers away. According to the report, hard times helped shape Shone’s resolve. Her mother died when she was 11, which changed her childhood significantly. She grew up helping her father with jobs around the family farm, before finding work mucking out horse stables at an equestrian facility at Drouin West when she was about 14 or 15. Later, she worked in retail at Horseland and found other ways to grow her savings. One unusual investment was in cattle, where she bought a cow and her twin calves for about $1,200 and later sold the younger animals for about $2,500. And while saving meant sacrifices that many teenagers might find hard, Shone eschewed expensive social outings, big shopping trips, buying a car and overseas travel, choosing instead to work or find more work.
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