Mortgage, and home buying brochures

Last night, my parents arranged for me to speak with their financial adviser to get an idea about my mortgage options. In a nutshell: for a single person earning comfortably but not that much, not a lot. If my parents weren’t helping me out, I wouldn’t even consider buying a house.

That’s because I am not looking to buy a cheap place that I can rent out, and I’m not looking to build a place that’s bare minimum for now and upgrade later. If I am to buy a property now, it’d be a place that I’m gonna stay in and which pleases me aesthetically.

So I’ve figured that for me to go down this path, I will need to manage my disposable income a bit better. A lot of little things that I take for granted will all have to be re-evaluated. These include:

  • $6-7 lunches every day, with a $3 coffee or energy drink in the afternoon,
  • going out twice a week spending about $80-100 each time,
  • having an annual holiday which cost about $2000 or more

Within limits, I have never minded spending on food and drinks, and intangible things like going out and on holidays. I will have to consciously wind down this area of spending a notch and maybe more.

Conversely, I am a bit more tight when it comes to material goods. I buy clothes at most 3 times a year, I buy CDs and DVDs only when they’re cheap, and any other frivolous purchases are mostly funded by my blogging. Plus I take public transport to work so I don’t spend a lot on running my car.

In documenting my spending, I realise that it’s the mandatory things that take a big chunk out of my finances. These are things like medical and car insurance, Snoop’s veterinary bills and pet insurance, mobile phone bill, and when I start living in my own home, home insurance, electric/water bills and council rates and taxes. All of this plus the monthly mortgage payments will eat up most of my pay, leaving me very little as savings.

And oh, then there’s the cost of the furnishings and appliances for the new place. Yeah, bye bye disposal income indeed.

When I voiced these concerns to my parents, my mom as usual uses the matrimonial angle. “What woman these days would want to marry a man who doesn’t own a house?” Funny that, because I won’t be able to afford to date anyone when I’m paying off the place by myself. Hahah!

That said, I suppose if I keep dissuading myself from buying a place I probably never will because I’m so comfortable where I am. This is a good push by my parents. And you all will be here to watch how I progress through this. :)