When I was paying off my student loan debt I felt, “stuck” and, “broke”. I worried I’d never dig myself out of the hole that I’d made and I felt frustrated a lot. When finally submitted that final payment and received my, “paid in full letter” in the mail, I was thrilled…for a minute.
Because I’ve always been a goal setter, I tend to celebrate accomplishments then immediately re-focus on a new goal. My goal after paying off my debt was saving a down-payment and buying a condo.
Since we’re now homeowners, my main goal is saving for the future and building wealth. Full-disclosure, when I typed, “building wealth” I sort of laughed at myself. I guess since I’ve never really thought of myself as a, “big earner” so the concept of, “building wealth” has always seemed a little foreign to me.
Somewhere along the line, I’d convinced myself that only the super wealthy can, save the “big bucks” and, “build wealth”. Why? I’m not really sure. But thankfully other folks in the personal finance blogosphere have taught me that anyone can build wealth. You don’t have to be make a million dollars a year, or even $100,000 a year to build wealth.
Sure a person making 6 figures will be able to save more and save faster, but that doesn’t mean you can’t save and build wealth when you’re making less.
All that to say, Eric and I have been talking about the possibility of moving out of our condo (we’d rent it out) and into a cheaper living situation (either buying a cheaper condo or single family home in the suburbs, or renting an apartment). We’ve run the number and done a little research and it seems very possible for us to cut our housing costs (as much as in half).
Basically if we moved further outside of the city, moved to a less, “hip” neighborhood, moved to a smaller apartment (you get the idea) we’d be able to save more and save faster. Here are a few of the pros and cons we’re batting around:
Pros:
- Our mortgage (or housing expenses if we rent) would be cheaper so we’d be able to save more aggressively
- We’d probably be able to find a place with parking which would save us $300 a month in parking fees
- If we rent our heat and hot water would probably be included
Cons:
- We’d probably be moving further outside of the city which means a longer commute
- We’d definitely be moving outside of our neighborhood, which we really like
- We like our condo. It’s cozy and comfortable and has newer appliances
- I hate moving, it’s expensive and so stressful
I guess it all boils down to preferences, tradeoffs and what we’re willing to give up. The faster we save, the quicker we’ll be able to work on other goals. Some of our long-term goals include: buying a rental property (or two-why not be dream big?), starting a business (more about this later), traveling more and saving more aggressively for retirement.