My FH and I are both making a lousy salary... it's hard enough saving money for the wedding, let alone putting more money aside to save for a house right now...
For those of you who were able to do both, if you don't mind sharing, how? Sorry for asking such a personal question!
IrishBride-05
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Re: How do you do it??
I bought a co-op when they were still reasonable and it has doubled in 2 years. FH lived with a friend and paid very low rent and then lived with me for the last year, so he had a bit of a nest-egg. We both make pretty good money, so we can pay for the wedding, but the money from our downpayment really came from the sale of my place.
If you can get on the housing ladder in any small way - do it!
Preshy7
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Re: How do you do it??
i am lucky b/c my company lent me a nice chunk (that i ma paying back monthly)
also, i get bonuses for christmas so i have been banking those for 3 years.
as for the payments, when split in half, its as if i were renting an apartment by myself so we can swing it.
its difficult but you can do it!
also- we only put 5% down and got a 5 yr fixed mortgage instead of a 30 yr fixed mortgage. its a better rate.
GoingNutty
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Re: How do you do it??
Whats the housing ladder?
IrishBride-05
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Re: How do you do it??
Posted by GoingNutty
Whats the housing ladder?
I just meant to get started out you don't have to get the 3 bed 2 bath house of your dreams. Start with a co-op or condo and stay there for a few years until you have a profit and then move on. My father always said to invest in property and he was right so far!
skprmiss
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Re: How do you do it??
Here's how we did it...
We had 2 seperate accounts 1) House account, 2) Wedding Account. Plus we still had our reg. checking and savings. Anytime our checking account hit a certain number anything over it would be transferred to wither the house account or wedding account, alternating everytime. Plus anything left over in the wedding account after the wedding went right into the house account.
It's definitely a disciplined way of looking at money but it has always worked for me!!! and we are almost married 16 months, and in our house 10 months!!!!
Jo Ann
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Re: How do you do it??
WE did something similiar. Before we were married we had a house account and a weddign account and each had our personal accounts. We each put a certain amount of $ in each account. I think FH put like 300 a week in the wedding account and 200 in the house account(he had no bills but his cell phone) and I did the same thing. The other thing is those two accounts were money market accounts or cd's since they gained more interest and we werent taking the $$ out all the time. We did that for about a year before we got married then closed on our house in Dec and got married in Jan. It helped keeping everything organized. Whatever was leftover from each account changed over to mortage $$.
computergirl
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Re: How do you do it??
DH and I bought a house a couple months after we got engaged. I really didn't have a huge interest in wedding planning, so we decided to just host a dinner for immediate family and a couple close friends. It wasn't a lot of money, and so all our savings went toward house stuff.
white-wolf
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Re: How do you do it??
DH and I dont make much either. We are using what we were given in Wedding gifts plus a little extra we saved. We were lucky to find a building in Briarwood (Queens) that accepts 10% down. After speaking with the broker and doing my own calculations, we learned we can afford it and hopefull gain some equity in the next few years to find something a little larger.
DjPiLL
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Re: How do you do it??
I got lucky and bought a co-op a few years ago when they were still selling rather cheap.
My co-op loan and maintenance at the time was a few hundred buks cheaper than any rent I would pay for a 1br so it was a no-brainer.
Back then tons of people still had this very negative view towards co-ops... so the people that went against the norm and took the risk are reaping the rewards right now.
Now that everyone sees how well co-ops are appreciating... its a huge hot market for the sellers.
Snowboardgirl
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Re: How do you do it??
We lived with our parents for five years before the wedding. My DH never hd an appartment, and I only lived in an appartment for two years, so There was a lot of savings.
Plus, we have no life, we just work. We go out once every two months. I never go shopping unless I need something. Basically, that is how it has to be for a looooooonnnnnggg time! All for a house! But I LOVE my house!
Novem05
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Re: How do you do it??
We put together a budget of how much we needed for the wedding & house and direct deposited a certain amount into a savings account each week. The left over is what we payed our own bills with, so that meant no shopping for me. Then we got engaged after we hit a certain amount. Its much easier to save when you have actual goals. I really found it amazing that we could save so much money-- wish i had started sooner. But now we're able to pay for our wedding and have a nice down payment.
GoingNutty
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Re: How do you do it??
Any extra money we have right now is going towards the cost of the wedding. We both still live at home and I am worried about even trying to cover the cost of rent once we get married... thanks for all your thoughts and advice-- hopefully we will eventually be able to afford something!!
swags1016
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Re: How do you do it??
We had a two year engagement. In that time we were able to save over 50k for the wedding in that time. What we did was pay off all of our debt first (except my student loans) we booked everything the first year so we got the cheaper rate. We still went to dinner every other week. We cut down on the shopping. We put ourselves on a budget and stuck to it. We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment that was less than 1000 a month. We didn't buy a new car immediately and when we did we didn't go for a fancy we one we bought a cheap reliable one! I tutored, chaparoned anything I could get my hands on and saved every extra dime we were given. DH worked OT at least 2-3 times a week and nagged at me for shopping. We then took whatever money we made from the wedding and put that right into an account. We saved for another year so between our initial savings, the money from the wedding and then keeping with the saving rhythm then we were able to buy our house.
