I had a little personal victory this week. I paid my car loan off! 2 years early! My car is now MY car, not the credit union's car that I am borrowing. And I am going to drive that car 'til she can't drive no mo'. She may not be pretty or flashy, but we've bonded, and she gets great gas mileage. It took me a while to get the guts up to pay that much money all at once. I've been pretty much hoarding money in my savings account for the last year or two, waiting for disaster to strike. It never did, and even with work being much slower than it was, I'm still able to make ends meet and even have a little left over.
A couple of weeks ago, Whammo! I got the impression that it was time for me to get that car payment out of the way. Then to keep taking the same amount every month and put it towards a down payment on a house. Totally unexpected. I always assumed I'd buy a house one day, in the distant future. Houses are for grown-ups, aren't I still more or less a kid? I'll think about it later. Much later.
I want to enjoy my single, irresponsible years. . .
Sure, I'm not all that happy in an apartment. Starting to hate it, actually . . .
but still . . . Later.
After my terribly exciting life of . . . I dunno, travel and other such fun glamorous-ness.
I tried to argue these points with the impression, but the words "It's time." kept repeating in my mind. Can't argue with that, so I guess it is, in fact, time.
Now that I've decided I'm doing this, I'm liking the idea of a home of my own. Nothing big at all, probably one of the tiny 2 or 3 bedroom houses that are common in this area and throughout Sugarhouse. Decorated with my own silly but sentimental knick-knacks. Rooms painted the way I want them. A yard I can be outside in (and not have to go to the park!) with my dog, for there will be a dog. Possibly a cat. And my parakeets, who are currently being cared for by my Mom. They can squawk and squeak all the dang day, cuz there's only me and I don't mind the noise! And I will be able to be my nocturnal self. Wander through my house to my kitchen and make myself food at any hour I want and not worry about waking anyone up. Come home from trips and have that " Ah, I'm home!" feeling, instead of "Well, I'm . . . here. Again."
See?! There I go, getting ahead of myself.
I know it's going to be hard at times. Yards require lots of work. I won't have a pool. I'll be paying bills ALL by my loners. If anything breaks, I've gotta find someone to fix it and pay for it myself. Can't just call down to the office and have maintenance bail me out. I may not be ready for all that responsibility just yet, but I think by the time I have enough saved, I will be.
Or at least I'll learn real quick.
p.s. In the meantime, does anyone have advice as to the best way to start saving? I.R.A? Dedicated savings account? Some combination of the two?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
A little victory . . and some future plans.
Posted by Val at 10:58 AM
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4 comments:
Very exciting! By the time you get a house Matt will know how to fix everything and he can come help you out. He will do all his experimenting on my house.
I would say just put it in a dedicated savings account or a CD. The good thing about the dedicated savings account is that you can keep putting stuff in. A CD is just a one-time deal. You won't earn a lot of interest, but you won't be able to spend it either.
If you ever feel that you want to practice some of that yard work, come on over. I need some serious help! (you can help me decide how to paint to. I haven't done anything yet).
That's very mature thinking. By the time you have enough saved for a down payment, you should know what you want, and how much decorating and yard work you are up for. It'll be a while, but GO FOR IT! And when that day comes that you and a spouse are needing something different, you'll have your first little house to sell for $$$.
I don't have any advice as to where you should save it but I do think you should read The Total Money Makeover. It totally goes with what you're doing :) We're doing the plan and we just have our van left to pay off. It's great to be debt free and financially secure :)
Good luck! I figure I should be able to get a house in 5 years with a hefty down payment, and my emergency savings.
Congrats, Val! It is nice to finish paying something off, huh. We are totally going to drive our cars into the ground too! Yay!
Anyway, if you are planning to save $$$ every month, I would probably go with a dedicated savings. Preston and me even had one once that took the $$ out of our account automatically, so we knew we couldn't spend it. Good luck with the savings!!!
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