Millennials, if you want to make money ‘get out of your comfort zone’ and live like me: Work six days a week, stay with your parents, buy a house 1hr 20minutes out of the city and get absolutely roasted by your mates

A millennial lorry driver who built a property 60km outside Sydney after working 60 hours a week and living with his parents says he was ruthlessly roasted by his friends.

Josh, 33, said his friends mocked him, claiming they needed a ‘passport’ to visit his new home in Narellan, about 1 hour 20 minutes’ drive from the city’s CBD.

But the truck driver now thinks he has the last laugh.

He is one of the few millennials who bought a house in their twenties and used it as the base of a real estate empire, with two investment properties.

Now Josh attacks his fellow members of his generation, telling them that, like him, they have to get out of their comfort zone if they want to make money.

“I bought into a place where I was bullied a lot,” Josh told SBS Insight. ‘(They said) ‘we can’t come and see you, we need a passport, there’s nothing there’.

“It was such a farthest edge from Sydney that it’s developed well over the last eight or nine years I’ve been there.”

Josh worked grueling hours as a truck driver to pay his mortgage, often toiling fourteen hours a day, six days a week.

At one point, Josh was forced to work three jobs to make ends meet, which he said wasn’t always “comfortable.”

“I went from studying finance to becoming a lorry driver,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

‘I used to think that this kind of work was below my level. You won’t always feel comfortable, I had to leave my comfort zone to make money.’

Josh, who is now married, was forced to adjust his work-life balance after his long hours began to cause problems in his relationship.

“I worked six days a week from 5:30 am to 6 pm, all to have a fun day out shopping and buying designer stuff,” he said.

‘I spent a few weeks of overtime on a handbag. But (my wife and I) would still miss each other and get grumpy because we didn’t see each other.

“So we’ve been communicating about what we want from life and from each other.”

Josh currently works 60 to 70 hours, six days a week, but plans to reduce this to 40 to 50 hours in three to four days.

Josh and his partner recently decided to buy a new home in regional NSW. They hope to move next month and eventually retire in a few years.

The couple has plans to spend some time working and traveling before pursuing Josh’s dreams of growing his own fruits and vegetables and brewing beer.

“Realistically, I should be able to pull the plug within a few years,” he said.

Josh was asked by SBS Insight host Kumi Taguchi if he thought his attitude towards home ownership was unusual for his age group.

“Somewhat,” he replied.

‘I don’t know if it’s because I studied finance or because I have a number mind. I’m also really bad at feelings and things like that.

“So I’m really good at taking feelings out and just looking at the bottom line, how things are going to be and figuring out what I need.”

University of Sydney economist Gareth Bryant said the homebuying battle isn’t a boomer versus millennial issue.

He said it comes down to home equity – whether someone already owns real estate.

Mr Bryant said that even if young people work an extra job or two and spend frugally, it is still nearly impossible to save for a meaningful down payment.

The lucky millennials are those who got into the real estate market early and reaped significant rewards or members of their family already own real estate.

Mr Bryant said the majority of young people buying a home in Australia’s competitive housing market did so with the help of the ‘bank of mum and dad’.

As a result, Australia has a very unequal income-to-wealth ratio.

“Historically, the path to buying a house was to get a job, save money, buy the house and pay it off when you retire,” he told Daily Mail Australia.

“House prices are now so much higher than incomes. Homes used to cost two to three times more than the average income, now it is seven to ten times as high.

“If you look at boomers, two-thirds had bought a house in their early 30s, but now less than 50 percent of millennials of the same age can afford a house.”