If you are lucky enough to one day purchase your own home, you’re probably going to say how hard you worked to get there. If you want to be one of the lucky ones, let’s start from the top. You will usually need at least some percentage of the total cost of your potential home to put as a down payment. There are additional costs as well such as closing costs, inspections, and property taxes. To be prepared for this, let’s go over the best ways to save.
Tackle Debt
Before you save, you must have the ability to do so. After you have determined how much you need to save based on your income, time frame, your target home, and utilizing this house payment calculator, you will need to look at your debt. Or maybe it would be a better idea to look at it even before those steps.
Your debt is going to be taken into consideration for a home loan and saving for a downpayment before making sure your credit is taken care of would be a misstep. It is best to pay off any revolving debt you have and close any accounts you do not use.
This may be a bit difficult as sometimes making drastic changes to your credit too close to other occurrences in which your credit will be looked at, can negatively affect your credit. If this seems like a lot to wrap your head around, it is. So technically, the sooner you read this article, the better.
With that being said, pull a credit report, find these creditors and come to some sort of payment agreement at least so that your score can reflect your determination of getting your first home.
Cut Back
It’s easy to think you need a lot more than you may actually need. As consumers in this world, we are the target of many well-placed advertisements. What tends to happen when we start to make more money, going through the ranks of various jobs and professions, more of our “wants” become “needs”.
You should evaluate your spending and find certain areas where you have some unnecessary costs. Maybe you find that you eat out a bit too much during the busy work week. Maybe you realize you spend about $30 a week on lattes from the coffee shop.
There are probably a few areas where you are spending and you should be saving. Once you can determine that, take the money you are saving, and start putting it away. After reevaluations, put in a new budget that helps you to achieve your downpayment goal.
Put in More Working Hours
Try not to shudder at the thought, although it can be haunting. For a lot of working-class Americans, it is difficult to imagine working more than we are already working. However, once again with the help of technology, there are easier ways to make money than delivering pizzas (which is still a very solid choice because cash is king).
A side hustle may not be exactly what you were hoping to do to save money, but there are a lot of creative ways to make some extra money. There are ways to freelance your skills on the internet and to your local community. Perhaps you are exceptional at writing resumes, or taking pictures. Take some time to think about what you wouldn’t mind dedicating some extra time to.
Think out of the box on some ways to make extra cash to put away. There really is an abundance of gig work if you live close enough to a small city. Some people deliver groceries or fix computers. Do some research, you may not realize your hobby can make you some money!
If Possible, Plan Ahead
If you could start early enough, invest some extra income in stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrency. The fact is, a little can one day get you quite a long way. I say one day because to make money from your investment, you need to let the investment grow.
Taking $500 from your income tax return and putting it in a balanced portfolio with low risk over time could help you have modest income growth within 5 years. I would suggest investing and looking away. Crypto is a bit volatile recently, but I have high hopes for it to really surprise us one day.
Conclusively, I would take any and all opportunities to save your money with these tips. You may need to make some adjustments to fit your current situation, but all it really takes is perseverance and you can accomplish your savings goals for a new home.