In my last post I briefly touched upon some of the goals I have for myself. I would like to one day, hopefully sooner than too much later buy a house, get married, buy a new (used) car, purchase furniture for the house, and still be able to pay my bills and have a bit of a life.
Let's break down the cost of those items:
House - or I should say downpayment. Now the downpayment can vary. But if you can pay 20% or more then you can avoid purchasing the high-ratio mortgage insurance (which can range from 1-3.5% of the principal amount of the house). Let's say I want to purchase a $250,000 home with a $50,000 (20%) downpayment, that would work out to be (at 6% interest) $1288 per month, or $595 bi-weekly after the downpayment and we are living there.
Wedding: I would like to have an average wedding. Nice but not too over the top. Still either way, weddings are expensive! Considering everything involved (minus honeymoon and engagement ring) I think $15,000 would be reasonable.
Furniture: Seeing as though I currently have almost nothing except what I had as a student, almost everything would need to be purchased except kitchen supplies. How do you estimate the cost of that? Let's say $5000 to begin with, I am sure if we needed things that family would be willing to give us some of their things.
Car: I would definitely buy used, not too old but not too new either. I think $12,000 would be reasonable for a good running vehicle. I bought mine for $2000 and it's working well but it has some issues and will need to be replaced eventually.
Let's say I want to get married, move into a house, have furniture and a car in three years...That would mean saving a total of $2278 each month starting now. Which is NOT going to happen. Let's say all of those in 5 years, well that is $1367 per month. Much more reasonable, but by then I will be 29 and wanting to have kids, which are another major expense....does it ever end? Compromise, and say 4 years, that is $1708 per month. Split between myself and my boyfriend that is $854 each per month but neither one of us will be able to start that for several months at least. However when he graduates this June he will also owe about $35,000. So that means that we either have to push back plans or decrease the downpayment, find a cheaper house, or make more money. How do you do it?
I do eventually want to move out and live in an apartment with my boyfriend which also costs rent, furniture expenses, and everyday household expenses. I do not like not knowing what will happen because I am a planner...Still, I look forward to the future!
Lots to comment here. I'll make a few to begin with:
ReplyDeleteif you spend $12,000 you can get a new car but a low end model. I just bought a used 2008 pontiac wave for $7,900 and it only had 20,000 km plus 2.5 years of full warranty left. It's like a new car but cheap! No, it doesn't have many options (no power anything!) but it does have cd player, mp3 jack, etc. So, it's all I need to get from point A to point B and because it's under warranty I don't have to worry about unexpected expenses for a while.
I think $15,000 is reasonable as long as you don't have a huge wedding or go overboard.
If you get married you will likely be buying a house with Mr. Right. If that's the case then you won't need to save up for the down payment or furnishings by yourself.
For me, I'm 28 and still live in a condo. It's all we could afford to get into. So, maybe you can start with that and move up? Hopefully I will get the house next year.
So, all still good goals and do-able but like Gail says...you can have it all, just not right now!
I struggle with that myself sometimes.
Thanks for the comment. I would not buy a new car, I would buy a used car (new to me). I put $12,000 as a high end of the cost. Hopefully I will be under on all my estimates. That's great you got such a new car for so cheap and still with so much warranty left! I don't require much of a car, just working heat and radio! My current car has nothing special, no power anything, no CD player, no AC and it does the job.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely be splitting the costs with my boyfriend. I showed what that would be each month for the next 4 years ($854 each person) which is still a bit high to be saving at this point in our lives.
I would love to move into a house once we get married, and no sooner. Always been a dream of mine, something different about dating and being married is living in your home. So I would like those two to happen together which likely means being really strict with our savings for it, or putting it off longer....likely the latter.