
Chandel Brandimarti started saving for a house when she was 14.
She didn’t tell her friends or discuss it much, she just quietly opened a dedicated savings account and started contributing to it.
At the time, she didn’t think much of it. She’d always been money-driven and had grown up hearing her mum speak about how owning property was a good way to set yourself up for the future.
Aged 22, as a young, single woman living in Sydney, Chandel bought a two-bedroom home with a (small-ish) backyard, in the city’s inner suburbs.
Everyone was shocked.
WATCH: Chandel and Jess think women need to change the way they talk about money. Post continues after video.
“It was a huge deal… people still are surprised to this day,” a now 29-year-old Chandel told Mamamia.
“I genuinely think as a young, single woman – who saved up a deposit and bought a house – it was really surprising. It wasn’t something people ever expected… and my gender I think, was the biggest part of the surprise,” she said.
Money, of course, was the other surprise.