Question

My fiancé and I’s goal is to have a house bought (on a mortgage) by Jan 2023. If we’re all still alive by then.  We are going to get a loan through the VA, it will be our first time ever buying a home. Thank you feyonceeeee ❤️ I would LOVE to have $10, 000 saved up by that point for an emergency fund for the house. I feel like that is TOTALLY unrealistic (because we have car loans, which is our only debt, and bills). BUT we are still going to try!  The question I’m trying to get at: How many of y’all bought a house with a bare minimum EF and think you did okay? I’m all for investing in my own place instead of paying rent! I just want to make sure we will truly be ready by then.  Thank y’all  

Answer 1

If you think of it in smaller terms then maybe you can see the finish line. 2023 is like 31 months away. So like $300ish a month. Which can be $150 a payday then you split that it’s just $75 every 2 weeks for each of you ☺️ . be right back gotta go check my math

Comments

Ok that number came up a little short(9300) but you get the picture  

Answer 2

Check out Dave Ramsey’s Financial freedom plan. It works wonders!  

Comments

@luis5 Okay I def will! Thank you!  

---

@westmorland8 you’re welcome! It’s helped us immensely!  

Answer 3

I bought last November. I still have student loans. But I’ve paid off credit cards, my $6k medical bill, and my car $8500. Onto the student loans now

Comments

@delamare If you don’t mind me asking, how much did you have for an EF? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to! I understand!  

---

@westmorland8 about $7, 000

---

@delamare Awesome! I hope we can reach 10K by the time we’re ready!  

---

@westmorland8 you can do it!  

Answer 4

We just bought a house through the VA loan and we didn’t have close to $10, 000 in our bank account but we still could afford it!  

Comments

@copulate That makes it all sound promising! Once we buy our first home with the VA loan, we will only have 1 vehicle payment and a boat payment (guilty pleasure lol)

---

You’ll be fine! Just don’t get too house happy. Or else you could be struggling.  

---

@copulate Yes for sure!  

Answer 5

Saving 10K is totally doable! We just hit 10k last month. We did it on just my husbands check since I’m in school full time. We have one car loan, one lease car payment, and about $4, 000 on one cc. You can do it!  

Comments

@warram I LOVE THAT FOR YALL! This gives me hope! ❤️

---

@westmorland8 we have 3 savings accounts, one for my tuition, one for PCS moves, and one for emergencies or whatever we need it for. My tuition one we don’t put into regularly because I get financial aid but the other two we deposit into every paycheck. Just put the money away as soon as the check gets there and pretend it was never in the checking  we try really hard not to touch the savings accounts unless it’s a huge amount we don’t want to take out of checking

---

@warram Yes! We do this too! I should have my last collection paid off by Aug 2020 and our only car loan paid off by Dec 2021! I’m just ready for my fiancé to graduate so he can work full-time. Once he starts working full-time, this debt is out the window FAST!  

---

@westmorland8 as soon as we PCS any money left over will go straight to debt. I graduate next week so as soon as I start working the debt will go away too! We’re going to pretend my checks don’t exist until we don’t have any debt since we’ve been living on one paycheck the last two years anyway. I did the math and if we save $250 from each of our checks we can pay off my car when the lease is over in two years and avoid me getting a car loan  

Answer 6

We are doing Dave Ramsey baby steps and you trying to follow it strictly. You need to do the debt first even the car. It will open up so much available money each month and will help your approval odds for the house. We are working on our last credit card then moving to our SUV. We aren’t saving much right now but the moment the debt is done we can fast track savings

Comments

@finicky2385 Yes! This totally makes sense! My car, the only car we pay on, will be paid off Dec 2021! I can’t wait!  

---

@westmorland8 if you can do extra payments and see how soon you can get it paid off!  

---

@finicky2385 We are throwing everything we have at it! It’s a fat car loan  

---

@westmorland8 when you pay the car off keep setting that “car payment” aside like it’s still there! That will add up and help you hit your 10k goal  

---

@roadblock Good idea!  

Answer 7

You can totally do it, but I would shift focus on getting rid of debt first while still saving. Having a lower debt ratio will be better for getting a loan.  

Answer 8

I bought my house with an EF of $1k I wasn’t really into budgeting then. But we did okay with having the home warranty that was included with the house. More is of course better

Answer 9

You are planning far in advance! Totally doable! My husband and I used a VA loan. We had some money saved but we didn’t use much of it! Save all that you can, but you can get buy without a ton. Just be thinking ahead of what you’ll need and make sure you save enough for that (lawn care items, furnishing extra rooms, etc. ). This is the perfect time to tackle your debt while starting a sinking fund for your house!  

Comments

@janitajanith9052 I feel like I’m always living in the future and I kind of hate it!  But I guess better safe than sorry! Sometimes I’m so overwhelmed, but I know in the next 5-10 years I will be thanking myself!  

---

It’s so hard to be patient! But this is probably the perfect scenario for you! Really thinking ahead and taking the time to get familiar with all your options and giving yourself time to save! It’ll be so worth it!  

Answer 10

We didn’t have much of an emergency fund when we bought our first home, but we bought new with warranties on everything. If we had bought an older home, I would want to have some money set aside. You can also buy a home warranty or ask the seller provide one on older homes

Answer 11

I had about $14k saved prior to purchasing. my plan HAD been to save up $12k and then pay off my car, then buy, but the right house came along  i purchased at $139, 850 & i paid all of the closing costs. i paid about $1500 prior to closing without using my savings, then closing was $6, 100. i’ve moved some money around and am spending about $2k (give or take) on “new home stuff” and still have about $7200 saved.  

Comments

I still have my student loans and auto loan obviously, lol.  

Answer 12

10k is an achievable goal for sure! We bought our house 8 months ago with ZERO Emergency Fund. baaaad idea. We’ve had to replace 2 major appliances and we desperately need to replace our fence. We had to use my line of credit to pay for appliances but managed to pay them off in 2 months and we’re saving saving savinggggg for that fence and praying it doesn’t collapse in the meantime lol

Answer 13

We didn’t have anything, including a down payment when we bought our house. If I had to do it again, I would just make sure the mortgage is less than 25% of our income.  

Answer 14

My husband and I bought a house last year. We put 0% down, but only had a small amount of student loans and a vehicle loan when we bought. After closing costs we only had maybe $2-3, 000 left in our accounts. We did buy a 4 year old house and the only issue we’ve had so far was our AC, but it was something fixable through our home warranty. So only out the warranty call fee and not several thousand for a new unit. We have been able to save up more now. We also didn’t buy a house anywhere close to the amount we were approved for. We wanted to be comfortable and not have to stress over bills while being able to save and start a family. We planned before buying to put more than our monthly payment towards the house too.  

Answer 15

My husband and I bought our first home with just a few thousand in savings (we put $5k down which cleaned out most of our savings) and I was expecting our first child and we had just bought a “new to us” car. Fast forward a year later, I was expecting our 2nd child and now staying home so we lost my income, we made it work. About 3 years in we realized we needed to some major renovations or move because it was an older home that wasn’t working well with 2 toddlers. We chose to put it on the market, made enough money to pay off student loans and put money down on the new house. Set aside all you can, but if you’re not at 10k but find the house for you that’ll work in your budget it’s worth the leap. Good luck!  

Comments

@tiebout4813 My fiancé is like “I wAnT tO sPeNd LiKe $300, 000 On A hOmE! ” I’m like, are you a maniac?!  I think the most I want to spend is $200, 000 that’s including land! So we’ll see  We started a child savings fund here recently, have $50 in it already! And we’re not even expecting or have any!  I feel like I’m always living in the future. But better safe than sorry I guess!  

Answer 16

I’m just here to say that people can tell you all day they did it with the minimum and all was okay but I bought a house in California we hired the best rated inspector we could find. Day after closing we found a kitchen leak. Destroyed the whole kitchen. Total price about 20k to get a new kitchen because it destroyed everything. A few months later our electrical box melted from regular wear and tear. Almost 4k. Of course that doesn’t happen to everyone but it happened to us and we did everything right. Good down payment. Saved as much as humanly possible and yet we have been trying to dig ourselves out. This doesn’t even include regular expenses that add up. Don’t under estimate they Costs please. Be safe not sorry. Also just to add our house we paid top dollar for because of our area and it absolutely shouldn’t have needed a lot of work. We paid over asking. Home warranties will do anything and everything not to cover the issues that arrive. Just be aware of that. I don’t regret buying but I’m so so thankful we had a good safety net or idk where we would be.  

Comments

@eventful77661 Yeah we live in Oklahoma, so it’s not NEAR the cost of living and/or expenses in CA! We are still going to save as much as we possibly can! And I have already told myself I will have it inspected by 2-3 different inspectors, because I’ve heard horror stories like yours! Better safe that sorry FOR SURE! I hope y’all got it figured out! I’m sorry it was such a mess for y’all! At least y’all live in a beautiful state where there’s beaches and palm trees!  

---

@westmorland8 inspectors are $600 a pop here. We didn’t have a bad inspector just bad luck. As long as you save as much as you can you will be okay! I have friends in Ok and yah totally way cheaper lol but I just think it’s always best with buying a home to be over prepared. 10k is a great goal! You can do it!  Plus if you don’t need it you can do all the fun stuff like decorating and making it your own! I hope 2023 is your year!  

---

It is a beautiful state!  Too bad we can’t go to the beaches right now though  

Answer 17

My boyfriend and I are completing this challenge! Might help you!  

Comments

@penology Thank you!  

Answer 18

Just pay off your debts first. We didn't have any emergency fund and we are still here 17 years later and we had a lot of bills besides the mortgage. I wish we wouldn't have had any other debt when we moved in.  

Answer 19

We used all our savings for the down payment/closing/etc. $11k. I racked up credit card debt buying stuff for the house. I wish I would have had Atleast $10k saved up separately so I wouldn’t have had to put so much on credit (appliances, mower, water softener, etc). Save up as much as possible. Don’t do it with no emergency fund! My boyfriend lost his job 3 months after we closed on our brand new house. It really really sucked not having a savings

Answer 20

Owning a home is a huge undertaking. And the “inspection” is frequently useless unless you hire your own plumber, electrician, roofer etc and ask for their honest professional advice KNOWING you’ll not be hiring them for repairs (otherwise they can tell you to fix everything). Save a ton before you buy (for down payment ) and also have a decent EF and money for repairs. It’s doable but please allow yourself enough time to save up. There will always be houses for sale be it in 2023 or 2028. Oh, and no more than 25% of your take home pay in mortgage/insurance/escrow!  

Answer 21

We didnt have anything saved when we purchased our home. also dealing with the VA. We have lived here for 2 years now and have had to fix maybe $1500 worth of things.  

Answer 22

We had very little saved after buying due to different costs associated. We saved back up after buying. I think we did fine because even though the house was about 18 years old, a lot of things like the roof, kitchen, and siding had been redone fairly recently. I wouldn’t have been comfortable buying something that needed a lot of work unless we were way under budget. I honestly don’t know what we were “approved” for because we never asked. We just said what we felt comfortable paying monthly and were told we would be approved for that amount. Our house fell below that by a little.  

Answer 23

We had no emergency fund. We also had no debt. We put 28k down. We’ve had a few expenses over the past 7 years but nothing crazy.  

Answer 24

All of our savings went into buying our house. I do wish we had a savings to do all the repairs and upgrsdes at once but instead we're doing them check by check as we have extra money to do so.  

Answer 25

We didn’t know much about budgeting when we bought our home. We just had a good income and able to pay the down payment. If I have known better I would probably prepped and budgeted and saved. We got lucky because we bought a townhome. It was newer with not much needed to happen to it. But again we were lucky and did have good and stable income that if we needed to we would stop blowing our money and paid for any repairs. You are aware of budgeting. So budget for your home and for the needs that might come up. Less stress that way.  

Answer 26

We bought a house & sold an apartment last year. We had a 16% deposit which was 53k. Budgeted 14k for fees. Ended up spending 7k on essential work that needed to be done on the apartment we were selling. Left us with absolutely no savings left. No EF. Only our sinking funds which were essential for upcoming bills. We gradually built up some savings since then. We've had to take things slower with buying furniture &appliances, although we did already have some items. Our kids slept in mattresses on the ground for a month until we could afford their beds. Still, all in all, happy enough with how it turned out. Costs about 25% on monthly income.  

Answer 27

We bought our house using my VA loan and we didn’t have anything in our savings. But I was still in the Air Force so I knew for the next 4 years we were going to have a paycheck. The house we purchased didn’t need much other than some updating. We did end up buying a new washer and dryer as soon as we moved in though and I think that was a $600 cost. We then just saved a as much as we can from our paycheck each month after that to have savings and to pay for remodels and DIY stuff. I think having $10-$12k saved is a start. More than better because you just never know. And to be honest. It wasn’t until last year we were able to have a decent savings and we have been living in this house for 8 years. So we did fine on barely any savings and our house.  

Answer 28

I bought with VA in the past 4 years. only needed about 4K in fees. That being said 10K is smart. things always come up. you may want blinds or whatever. Good plan and you can fosho do this!  

Answer 29

In September 2007 I bought a house with a down payment and a 30k emergency fund (our prior home had sold for a nice profit). 4 months later we had our first child and the entire economy crashed. Hubby’s job was bought out and he had to commute from New Haven, CT to Newport, RI (90 miles each way, when gas was $4/gallon) for about 5 months before we decided to rent a place closer to his job and tried to rent it out then sell our home, which had dropped in value by 100k. I couldn’t find work. Then he was told he’d be out of a job. We moved back to our home and I got a job back with my former company and he ended up out of work for 2 year. We went bankrupt and foreclosed on. Lost everything. So if that could happen with all we did correctly, I always suggest having an emergency fund before buying a house. The day we moved into our current home we had 2k worth of repairs to do while we were bringing in our furniture.  

Answer 30

I think 2023 is a great goal, you’ll have your car paid off by then easily! plus plenty of time to save for emergency fund! with the price of the house, I know Oklahoma is lower cost of living than CO where we are, but we decided to pay a bit more to build in a neighborhood, and I absolutely love my house. We plan to raise our kids in this house as it’s way too big for us right now. So when thinking about prices, do you want to move again in a few years or do you want something that can be more of a forever ish home? Do you want something newer or something you may have to spend more money renovating/ fixing up. To me, it was worth having a brand new home. We are building up our joint house emergency fund still (at $6k now) but I have my individual emergency fund of 5 months of bills worse case scenario when we bought and still have. We also used the VA loan so that is clutch for first time homeowners with no closing costs. And now 11 months later, we are refinancing to 2. 75% interest since the market is so low. Girl homeownership is scary but SO worth it. We bought a lot of the lawn stuff/ maintenance overtime when we were still renting, but knew we were going to buy so it wasn’t overwhelming when we moved in. I love finally calling A home OURS . ❤️

Answer 31

10, 000 seems like a huge goal, but when you break it down it’s completely manageable in your time frame. If in June you start saving $335 a month you will have it plus some by January 1, 2023. You can do it!  

Answer 32

Honey yes you can totally save 10k! Bulk save those tax returns! That'll be a big chunk!  

Answer 33

Following! I'm also going to use the VA loan. I'm purchasing my house summer 2021 (my parents are building it for me and I'll be purchasing it from them) IM really motivated and decided to save $20k by 12/31/2020. Even though we don't (veterans) don't have to put much down, I want to have a low mortgage so I'm okay with putting $12-15k down. I printed Mikos visual tracker that she offers for free. it has 100 lines and divided that by my goal. I GET SO excited about saving for my house and coloring the boxes in. I started 3/11/2020 and this my progress. I would highly recommend the visual chart. it motivates the crap out of me. I did pay off my car first though and all my CC debt.  

Comments

@canteen Get it girl! You’re freaking rocking it! Y’all are giving me so much hope! ❤️

---

@westmorland8 Thanks ! Keep in mind, I'm purchasing the house solo dolo and I'm a police officer. so I make an okay salary lol So having TWO incomes to put forward is even better! I honestly believe yall can achieve this goal and honestly pass this goal too!  

Answer 34

I’m using my va loan and purchasing a brand new home. I feel better about it because I know I won’t have any issues and a lot is under warranty.  

Answer 35

In the last two months we have spent $400 on a new window. $350 to fix our air conditioner, and $60 for a service call on our dishwasher. You need a good sized emergency fund. Crap breaks all the time.