Put it this way,
Heres a typical situation.
a $225,000 loan for an investment property,
repayments of $1400 per month, equal to $16,800 per year.
If you rent this preoperty out, you will of course owe that per annum [unless you use an offset account to tame repayments.
You rent it out for say.. $270.00 per week, after management fees you make $900.00 per month, that means youre negatively geared and can reap big tax benefits/deductions.
after 1 year, youve paid out a total of $6000.00, from your own pocket, the tennants have paid most.
THEN, tax time comes around, youve been smart and had a depreciation report done and are claiming that each year, plus the initial costs of getting it written up, [will pay for itself within the first year] you would recieve approximately $3500,00 back from your investment, not including your personal work stuff, if you did lots of repairs then youll naturally be entitled for more.
After 1 year, youve only really paid $2500.00, thats not much considering your property may have grown in value by say around... $40,000, could be more, could be much less, it all depends on what youve chosed to buy and as to how much demand there is at the time.
Your borrowing capacity will rise and you can "withdraw" money/equity from your loans over time to reinvest [thus recieving more tax deductions] or simply spend it on whatever you like [youll be paying tax]
Investment is a great road to wealth, I wish you all the best and hope you do decide to go ahead with investing.