In the first blog in this series, Mortgage Advice for Young Couples Part 1: How Much Do We Need to Save For a House?, I provided an overview of how much you need to save before buying a house and outlined all the costs you need to consider. In this second blog, Mortgage Advice for Young Couples Part 2: How Much Can We Afford to Spend on a House?, I outlined the process I use with all my clients to help them identify how much they can afford to spend on a house.
Mortgage Advice for Young Couples Part 2: How Much Can We Afford to Spend on a House?
One of the most fulfilling parts of being a financial coach is journeying with and helping people achieve financial goals that are important to them. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, financial goal you and I will face in our lifetime is to save for and purchase our first house. As a financial coach I also recognise that a big part of my responsibility to my clients is to give them the right advice, even if they don’t necessarily like what they hear.
Mortgage Advice for Young Couples Part 1: How Much Do We Need to Save For a House?
One of the most fulfilling parts of being a financial coach is journeying with and helping people achieve financial goals that are important to them. One of the biggest, if not the biggest financial goal you and I will face in our lifetime, is to save for and purchase our first house.
When Do You Need a Budget?
As a budget coach, I think the answer to this is always. It is an unfortunate misconception that most people seem to think that they only need to budget when money is tight. But this view of budgeting seriously understates the powerful impact a good budget will have on a person’s long term wealth. In my role as a portfolio manager, I have managed multi-million dollar portfolios. It is rarely the people with the high paying jobs that have the greatest wealth but rather those that have earned modest incomes, budgeted well, and consistently grown their savings that end up the wealthiest. Having a high income is never enough, it is what you do with what you earn that has the biggest impact on your long term wealth. It is too easy to forget that what we are doing when we go to work is trading our most valuable resource, ‘time’, in return for money. Your average Australian earns $60,000, or $45,000 after tax and superannuation. This means every dollar you earn costs you 2.33 minutes of your life. Every time you spend $206 you will need to add another 88 minutes of work to make it back. In …