Buying a home is a long and exhausting process. However, saving for a new home can take even longer and be even more frustrating. Saving up for your dream home is a much smarter move than impulsively buying something as major as a house when you know you can’t really afford it.
Here are a few tips that could help you along your savings journey to get you to where you need to be as soon as possible.
Be Patient
First of all, you need to realise the benefits of being patient throughout the process.
Especially if your monthly budget is relatively tight, you’ll want to make sure that your down payment is big enough that your monthly expenses aren’t too high.
Once you’re close to your savings goal for your down payment, then you can begin looking for homes for sale in Agincourt, Toronto, or whichever area suits you and your family.
Taking the time to save what you need will benefit you financially in the future, so don’t rush this step out of excitement or desperation.
Create a Plan
Creating a plan for your savings is important both for accountability and motivation.
Setting a monthly savings goal (and even creating an automatic transfer) will help you to ensure you’re staying on track.
Setting small goals or milestones on your journey is a great way to keep you motivated to reach the main target.
You can even give yourself rewards for reaching these mini-milestones, such as purchasing a piece of furniture or décor for your dream home once you’re halfway to your savings goal.
Try to Over Budget
No, this is not a tip to spend more than you planned, but rather a tip to plan to spend more than you expect. To over budget in this case means to set your savings goal higher than you think you need it to be.
This is because it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll run into unexpected expenses and if those aren’t in your budget, you’ll find yourself in trouble.
If you happen to get through the journey without exceeding your spending targets, or even spending less than you planned, you’ll then have extra money to add to your decorating, renovations or save for your next project.
Reduce Spending Wherever Possible
In order to reach your savings goal as quickly as possible, you’ll need to make sure you’re not wasting money.
Check out a few different ways to reduce spending each month, and add this extra cash to your savings account instead.
Create a Separate Savings Account
You may not realize that having multiple savings accounts is actually a great way to help you save more money.
First of all, seeing the number in that separate account growing closer and closer to your goal is very motivating.
Second, you’ll be far less likely to reach into that savings account for any other reason (even emergencies) if it’s not in your day-to-day checking account.
An even better idea is to put that money into a 30-day notice account so you can’t access those funds even if you wanted to.
I completely agree that creating a separate savings account it key to saving for your dream home. My husband and I did this and opened a Wealthfront high interest account that wasn’t connected to any debit cards and took 2-3 days to transfer money as a way to deter taking any money out of it. Our plan has thankfully worked out and our new home is currently being built right now. 🙂