Money Talk: Growing Up means Saving
I'm done being a grown up. Who's in charge of this whole getting older thing? Because we need to have a little chat. Can I go back to kindergarten and actually enjoy the naps?
Side note: I think I say this at least once a week. Oops.
Lately, I've been doing some thinking. Ok, more like stressing. Shocker there. I'm going to be honest with y'all, so bear with me if this is a little all over the place. I'm talking about money. Yikes. I try to stay away from these because really who likes reading about #firstworldproblems and rants with no pictures. So sorry not sorry in advance. We all have things we worry about. For me, it's future--mostly involving money.
It's like as soon as I hit 23, I'm just expected to grow up. I mean I don't want to be this grown up stuck acting like a teen going out and getting drunk every Friday (we all know THOSE kind of people, ick). But still. At 23, I've started thinking about actively putting a down payment on a house (OK that's like 20 grand), saving for retirement (ugh), and more annoying grown up stuff. I've literally been driving myself crazy trying budget and try save every penny and stretch my paycheck as far as it will go. Hint: it's not very far.
Add in the mounting pressure (mostly that I'm putting on myself) to get married, and I'm surprised I haven't broken out in hives. Oh and don't forget trying to exercise and stay healthy and lose ten pounds. Now, you've got Allison the Giant Stress Ball. Hi, nice to meet you.
No wonder the number one thing couples fight about is MONEY. I totally get it. Here's the thing, I just want to be financially safe and secure. Who doesn't? Basically, I want to continue living at the standard I'm living right now and still be able to save A LOT. Impossible? Maybe. It's good to have goals, though right? I have ALWAYS been super goal oriented--even with things like "ok I'm going to clean my room before I get a snack" (lame I know)
So, let's break it down: a down payment on a future house for our future life together when we finally get married in the future. They (experts) say that a good down payment is $20,000. Holy balls that's a lot of zeros. How do people afford this? Also if that's good, I want to be better. I've never been good at being average--over achiever probs.
My dad's advice: MAJOR SACRIFICES. No eating out. No shopping. No trips. SEVERELY cut back. No Lilly. No Starbucks. No more Jacks.
My mom's advice. Eat out LESS. Less expensive clothes (buh bye Lilly). Less expensive vacations.
Baby Carol's advice: You each only need to save $10,000 so that's not so bad, right?
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So the question of the day/week/month/year: How do you save all of the money and still be able to (kind of) get what you want? And end rant.
I know exactly what you mean! Being married to somebody a little older than me makes it even harder. But the real estate agent in me has to come and tell you that there are tons of down payment assistance programs out there right now! So you don't have to save so much for that. Some loans don't even require a down payment anymore! :)
ReplyDeleteWant to know a secret, I had a major freak out about this exact same thing the other day. Only it's really crazy for me because I'm no where near close to getting married because I've never even had a serious boyfriend that I'd even consider being with for longer than a year much less forever. I'm horrible with sticking to a budget, so I really don't have any advice for you other than to say you're not the only 23 year old freaking out about how to put a down payment on a house in the future. Also I like Carol's advice best, breaking it down that way makes it way less scary
ReplyDelete1st -- Don't stress so much. I'm 28 and I still don't have the whole money thing together. And I'm an accountant (I'm fine with everyone else's money, just not my own. Shocker.).
ReplyDeleteAs far as downpayments, for $20k, you could buy quite a nice house. Most people aren't doing the whole 20% down payment anymore. Most are using FHA loans, which require anywhere from 3%-5% down. So for a nice starter home in the $150k-$200k range, you should figure a downpayment of at least $6,000. Hopefully that seems less scary! :-D
Eeek I need to save money too. I woke up at 4 am the other day stressing about finances. I need to give up Starbucks probably. But I love it.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain girl! When I went to college, I went to a local 4 year school, so I lived at home and worked the whole time. I bought my first care at 19, got a loan for it, then paid the loan off about 1.5 years early. I started a retirement account when I was 19 too. Apparently that's when I thought I should grow up lol. I've always wanted to financially stable too, so I know how you feel. It's stressful. I'm 27 now, but over the years, I've gotten married and we bought a house. When we were looking for a house, we based it off of ONE of our incomes, not both, just in case something to happened to one of our jobs, we wanted to make sure we could still afford our house. That down payment thing sucks, but lucky for us, we got a special loan where we only had to put 5% down which was great for us broke, first time home buyers haha. Buying a house based on one income has also helped us be able to save a little and do the things we want because all of our money isn't going in to the mortgage. But then we got life insurance and bla bla...it never ends! I think you are being super smart to even think about this stuff at age 23. I mean, there aren't a lot of people your age that are even thinking about those kinds of things, so way to go girl :)
ReplyDeleteI understand your pain! I had a pretty nice savings, but then decided to go to college for three years to become a teacher...It destroyed me financially because let's face it, grad school is expensive and I couldn't really work that much through the program. I need to cut back if I'm ever going to pay off the debt!
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