Woman shares money-saving ‘system’ that allowed her to buy first home aged 23

A New Zealander has unveiled the money-saving method she employed to be able to purchase a house at the age of 23.

Hannah Koumakis, now 24, began pocketing her pennies when she was just eight years old.

The content creator said: “Introducing you to the pocket money system created by my father... My parents wanted to teach us how to be really good with money.

“Instead of just buying us stuff that we wanted like a new Barbie doll or clothes, they taught us how we can do it.”

At the time, she was receiving $150 (£73) every month from her parents and was advised to split the funds between four accounts.

After being gifted the pocket money, Koumakis divided it into long and short-term savings pots, as well as accounts set up for spending and tithing.

In a TikTok video posted earlier this year, Koumakis said that the $150 would be shared between four accounts, with 30 percent of the funds heading straight into to her long-term savings account.

“So at the age of eight, I was saving for my first house,” she explained. “I got so excited watching it grow in my bank account.”

10 percent of her pay was then donated to the church every month. As a Christian, this act of giving to a religious establishment is more commonly known as ‘Tithing’.

According to Tithe.ly, the Bible refers to regularly giving 10 percent of your annual earnings, productions or possessions to support a church or religious organisation.

“So that gives us 60 percent left. With that 60 percent, did we get to use it? No, we still had to save,” she said.

30 percent of Koumakis’ leftover money was then paid into her short-term savings, which she explained as being for ‘big ticket items’ such as a car or a laptop.

“So that brings us to a whopping 30 percent of our income that we were allowed to spend.”

Despite her parents paying for groceries and bills, the woman and her three siblings were expected to pay for cinema tickets and toys themselves.

“We had to buy our clothes. If we needed a new top, we had to buy it ourselves.

“Fortunately I was the third child so I had a lot of hand-me-downs but my sisters decided to make a bit of money from me and they’d sell me their clothes.

“I think my eldest sister found it the hardest because she had to buy new clothes herself,” she explained in her video.

As well as being advised to log expenditures in a finance book - a practice she has kept up for the last 15 years - Koumakis says she was banned from spending via her long-term savings account.

“We were not allowed to touch any of our other accounts so this meant from the age of eight, I was looking for sales and making sure that I could get more bang for my buck.”

After five years of pocket money, the woman claims her parents stopped dropping her $150 per month.

At 14, she was employed by Domino’s Pizza and began earning money on her own.

Koumakis said that in 2021, she earned NZ$30,000 (£14,700) by working various side hustles while studying.

“I was able to make $30,000 through pet sitting, babysitting, extras work (playing non-speaking roles in film and TV) and a part-time job at a small business, literally anything that actually requires you to get out and do work.

“It was definitely manageable and achievable,” she added, before stating that the grind was ‘hard work’.

Due to having a ‘great appreciation for money’ and the pot-saving system her father put in place when she was eight, the New Zealander bought her first home - which was an investment property - at age 23.