You have set a lofty goal. You want to own your own home. Good for you! There are so many benefits to owning your own home. You are building equity and of course that very nice tax breaks every year. However, this goal comes with some pretty important financial responsibilities. The first being a sizeable down payment. But for most people, a 20% down payment is not just a drop in the bucket! It can require months if not a couple years of planning to have that money in the bank when it is time to sign the papers.
There are several steps you can take to get your finances in line before you start looking for your dream home. The first of which is figuring out how much of a monthly mortgage payment you can afford which will tell you the price of the home you can buy with a certain down payment in mind. Don’t worry, you can have a loan officer help you crunch those figures.
Once you have those numbers worked out, you need to make a timeline for when you want to have your down payment saved. This will tell you how much you need to be putting into a savings account each month to get you to your end goal. By now you can see that you are going to be taking this big goal and slowly working your way back so that you know how much you need to save, starting today!
Saving your hard earned pennies is never the most fun way to use your money, but in the long run, when you have finally accomplished your goal it will all be worth it! You will be able to celebrate the holidays and share a beautiful life with your loved ones in your very own home. What could be better than that? For a more detail breakdown of steps you can take to save for that down payment we recommend this article from Money Under 30.