How I saved up money and bought my own house, mortgage fre, in 5 years

[lorihadams]

We have an option at our bank now that allows us to transfer money automatically to our children's accounts on a preset day every month. It's only $25 per month per child but by the time they are 18 they will have a nice little wad of cash to invest.

When we were on 2 incomes (before we had kids and I stayed home) we put all of one income towards paying off any debt we had and living expenses came strictly out of the other income. We were able to pay off one car and several stupid credit cards I accrued while young and stupid and all of my student loans that way.

We also put 10% of every paycheck into savings every week before we pay anything else. If we have a true emergency then we know we have a little cushion in savings if TSHF.

People don't teach their children how to save/spend anymore....I think that is one of the biggest responsibilities we face as parents.

Good job Kyle!

 

[TanksHill]

Yes I have the money for the kids taken out on the 1 st of every month. Your right Lori, 3 kids 25 bucks per kid. It does add up nicely.

The grocery budgeting thing is hard for me. If I see a sale of items I know I will need, I buy it. Trust me I am not spending huge amounts at all. I just have "freezer weeks" to balance things out. I shop from the freezer and buy only a few things. Then spend almost nothing on that weeks groceries. It all balances out.

I guess for us the problem in the cost of living vs the income. I had a great savings but had to use it last year. It's just tight right now. Whats killing me is the home owners ins. , car ins, and vehicle registrations.

It's expensive for these things in Ca. My Auntie from Mo called and told me her property tax bill came. It was like 150.00, mine is 7800 per year.

Vehicle registrations are outrageous as well. Cars, trailer, quads, motorcycles. It all adds up. I feel like I am being punished for owning these things.

Grrrrr.... Sorry for the ramble.

 

[hwillm1977]

Congrats Kyle!

We're trying to get our budgeting under control now (we're big fans of the show 'Til Debt do us Part') and are starting to use Mason Jars to hold our money for each week. If you take money out, there better be a receipt in there to explain where the money went

It seems really hard at this point, because to afford to be able buy a house we bought a fixer-upper WAY out in the country so in order to get to a grocery, feed, hardware store etc. we have to drive 50 kilometers... but it's also where we work, so shopping isn't as tempting when it's 40 minutes away.... every single shopping trip is planned out. (we're in New Brunswick, Canada)

Our mortgage will be paid off next year (we had a 5 year mortgage, but we're older than you too). I wish I had had your determination and knowledge when I was your age, I'm 33 now.

 

[kyle]

Great news owning a house by 34 is still quite nice! better than most people i know of...my parents are in their 50's and they still have a biggish mortgage.

i think the cost of living vs income is the biggest art of it all. I have been crunching numbers lately about moving back to canada, and it is quite frankly a ridiculously expensive country. I travel around quite a lot and see a lot of places and how they do things, and am also exporting from taiwan. i see how other countries accomplish the same standard of living for WAY less money. But canada is tax land,thats the price we pay for such a lovely land i suppose.

Last month our total bill for everything (2 adults) was $700cdn. We eat out every meal of every day, dinner is often a nicer restaurant.we have a car, and a motorcycle.rent 2 houses (one for us to live and one for our business). I worked out the bare minimum for us in canada with our current land and such with one car and cooking at home, and came up with approx $1800. Its just not as easy in canada as other places around the world, and i assume the price differences are simply taxation things, and people getting used to charging more/paying more. I jsut went back this summer, and i was shocked to see small bottles of pop there for almost $3 :/


I like the idea for saving up every month for the kids. such a simple way to give them a great kickstart my parents did that as well, but it was strictly for colleg/university...as i never bothered to go to either, they got a nice kick start

 

[Niele da Kine]

Before I got married, it was just me and I always kept three to six months operating expenses tucked away since I was a sole proprietor business person and hadn't a clue when the next invoice would get paid. After we got married, the whole budgeting system changed. For awhile we were having lots of trouble making ends meet. The plan was to put the extra left over from paying bills each month into a savings account. That just never happened for one reason or another. We switched with the direct payroll deposit so that it all went into savings each month and an amount which would cover the monthly expenses was plopped into the checking account. I'd send out all the money in the checking account to pay bills - but the money in the savings account just sat there and continued to grow. We didn't make any more money than we had before, all we did was put it in savings first and drop enough into checking to pay the bills. Now our problems are what to invest in instead of how to pay the bills.