Saving money to purchase a home is tough. Additionally, the affordability of housing across many markets in the United States continues to feel more unattainable. Especially for first-time homebuyers, trying to save cash and buy a house requires organization, effort, and persistence. Existing homeowners have a slight advantage because they can leverage their existing assets to help them purchase their next dream home. For some, this means selling a house and using the funds to buy a new one. You can reference this resource if you’re trying to sell a house fast in a competitive market.
Here are 3 actionable tips on how to save more money to buy your first home.
Eliminate Unnecessary Subscriptions
Subscriptions are the demise of many people’s wallets. You can easily fall into the trap of subscribing to multiple services that charge you monthly retainers – and then forget about them. Consider reviewing your monthly credit card statements to identify which subscriptions you can cut out from your life. Even though ‘$9.99/month’ may not seem bad, it can add up, especially if you subscribe to more than one thing. With high interest rates, it’s important to save as much money as you can for a down payment. Every dollar counts.
First-time homebuyers are getting creative and unsubscribing to everything they can in order to save. Shaun of Watson Buys stated that “Many property owners that I see are cutting costs to save for a larger home. Not everyone has money to buy a new home or even fix up their existing one. People will sell their houses without making repairs in order to save on upfront costs.” Here, you can learn more about how someone can sell a house as-is from Watson Buys. Getting scrappy with your finances is important to saving money and purchasing a new home.
Set Aside a Percentage of Your Income
If you don’t save a portion of your income each month, saving up for a house will be an uphill battle. Determining how much to save is unclear for many people. Additionally, saving ‘as much as possible’ also doesn’t always work. Instead, calculate an exact percentage of your income that you want to (and feel comfortable) save, and put that directly into a savings account once you get paid.
Make a commitment to yourself that you will not touch that money unless it’s for an absolute emergency or for your next home. Eventually, these monthly savings efforts will become a subconscious habit. Adapting to this lifestyle will get easier. Naturally, you will adjust to spending less and saving more. This mindset is influential in helping you save money for your next home. Soon enough, you’ll be searching for your next home to buy on Zillow or Redfin. Your future house is out there waiting for you to become the next owner.
Research Side Jobs
At this point in time, there is a giant market for side jobs. Also known as the gig economy, people can join certain job platforms and find small gigs to earn side income. For those that have a car, DoorDash and Uber are potential side jobs that you can do to earn extra money. You can work these side jobs completely at your leisure, having the ability to turn them on or off whenever you’d like. This enables people to fill the gaps in their traditional workdays and make money while doing it. New homebuyers are working tirelessly to save money in creative ways in order to purchase their first property. Working different side jobs helps people save money faster, which can be put towards their next house.
