A business woman’s money-making tips just make “cents” — and lots of it.
Maureen Pound, from Melbourne, Australia, shared how she made a fortune by the time she was 40 years old.
The self-made millionaire, now 54, runs the TikTok account @howtogetlaidontinder where she advises others on dating, sex, relationships and money.
She shocked followers on social media when she opted not to use her own biggest asset, a $139,000 (USD) three-bedroom home in Melbourne, and instead rented it out for about $980 per month.
“I claimed tax benefits from being a landlord, then I rented something with mates and it was much cheaper,” she explained. “I still live in a rental to this day and I have these other properties.”
The Aussie-born business mogul used to work as a teacher and in IT operations before changing her career. Maureen Pound / SWNSThe modest millionaire has been “surprised” by the reaction online, and doesn’t consider herself “uber successful” — though she’s proud of what she’s accomplished.
“I have done this all on my own,” she told South West News Service.
The mother of two first started out working as a teacher when she was 27 before moving into the corporate world. She previously wrote IT training literature for organizations such as Tesco and the United States Air Force. She’s now a director of a virtual assistant company — as well as a successful landlord.
Pound has stated that she didn’t come from wealth, and that her father worked three jobs to support his nine children.
Indeed, she started out the way many of us do — by saving up. “Each pay packet I put money away, for a couple of years. I ended up with a $20K (AUD) deposit for my first property,” she recalled.
Pound runs a TikTok account where she spouts advice on making cash. Maureen Pound / SWNS“I invested when working for someone else, with a fixed income — and then had business and a varying cash flow,” she continued. “You can do both and it works.”
At the age of 28, she bought her first property.
She’s since earned enough money to purchase four properties in Australia and one in Vanuatu in the South Pacific, and rent them out to others — a scheme that led her to millionaire status by age 39.
She now earns about around $87,000 per year this way.
“If you want to become a millionaire you have to be brave and take action. If you take action, you work things out,” Pound said.
She’s no savvier than anyone else when it comes to finances, but knows how to surround herself with the right people, she said. “Everyone is intelligent in different ways, I have lots of ideas about how to take action.”
“If you asked me about the bank interest rates on my property, I wouldn’t know,” she admitted, “but it doesn’t matter as I have people around me.”
Pound suggested that one should be “brave” and “take action” if they want to be rich. Maureen Pound / SWNSFor her 14,600 followers on TikTok — many of them decades younger — she hopes to be that person. “I just want to encourage people and there are still opportunities out there,” she said.
“I feel very strongly about Gen Y and Gen Z,” she continued. “I feel that every generation blames the generations above them, but I think they can do it, too — younger generations can achieve a lot with their money.”
She urges young entrepreneurs to “be brave and take action.”
“If you take action you find out what works and what doesn’t,” said Pound.
“People want the perfect answer, the perfect answer isn’t out there — you have to find it,” she said.
