New Zealand, $36k a year,
and a charm bracelet.
At 28, I moved into my father's basement. I want to be clear about what that felt like — it was humiliating in the specific, quiet way that only deeply practical failures can be. I had a successful career. Fifteen years in the travel industry. A life I was proud of. And I was sleeping in a basement in New Zealand because a relationship had ended and I couldn't afford anywhere else.
The travel industry is full of capable, dedicated, intelligent women who earn $36,000 a year. I was one of them. I wasn't failing. I was succeeding — at a career that simply didn't pay enough to build the kind of financial independence I needed.
I already owned a property in Invercargill — an investment, bought on instinct more than strategy. But I couldn't afford to buy a home for myself. I had assets and no security. Sound familiar?
Then I watched 60 Minutes. There was a feature on the mining boom in Western Australia. I grew up in WA. My mum still lived there. Within a month, I had packed up my life and moved — with a very specific objective. Drive round and round in a dump truck until I had house number one, house number two, house number three.
It didn't go quite like that. But the objective was the same. Within a few years I had three properties. And then I stopped. Not because I ran out of money or courage — but because I didn't know what came next. I had assets but no clear strategy. I didn't know how to proceed or even why to proceed beyond a vague sense that I should.
So I did what women tend to do when they hit a wall. I went and got more education. I found a property mentor. I turned up to our first session wearing a Pandora bracelet — charm bracelets were everywhere at the time — and mine had three little house charms on it among other things. I said to him, somewhat embarrassingly in retrospect: "I want to fill this bracelet with houses."
He looked at the bracelet. He looked at me. And he said: "Just do ten. When you have done ten, you will know how the system works. You will have seen everything come up. You will know how to deal with curveballs. And you will finally be using your team — your agents, your lawyers, your accountants — properly."
Ten was never the goal. Ten was a marker of education level. A little like completing a degree. He was right. The difference between three properties and ten is not money. It's confidence. Knowing what you're doing and why. That was the actual goal all along.
My husband and I now own ten properties. And we understand — intimately — every single pain point between zero and ten. The fear of the first one. The paralysis of the decision. The question of whether to live in it or rent it out. The upfront costs nobody warns you about. The moment it clicks.
She Settles exists because I wish this tool had existed when I was sitting in that basement, trying to figure out the next move. Not everybody's goal is ten properties. But every woman deserves to see her options clearly, understand the numbers honestly, and make a decision that feels — finally — settled. Literally and emotionally.