Archive for May, 2009
May 30 2009: indefinite hiatus
Filed under Life with 16 Comments
Things are not good. I’ll be away indefinitely. Email me if it’s urgent – some of you have my mobile number.
May 29 2009: Fatigued and Bleary-Eyed
Filed under Life with 1 Comment
After thinking about it on a pretty much non-stop basis for the past few days and weighing the pros and cons heavily, I’m still certain I want to go ahead and buy a house, should I qualify for a loan. For the moment however, things really can’t progress until I can go in to see the bank – and finding a spare moment in normal working hours is increasingly hard for me these days.
By Wednesday next week, I will have worked thirteen days without a break. Granted, a handful of these days will have only offered me half-day shifts, but even so, that’s still thirteen straight working days. I’m well overdue for a day of rest – yet when they call me early in the morning at the last minute for a shift, I haven’t the heart to turn it down because: a) they’re always so relieved when I agree, and effusive in their thanks; b) the money is a huge incentive – and every extra dollar will come in handy when it comes to putting down a house deposit.
Combined with the fact that I haven’t been getting much sleep (Stephanie would be proud of me, I’ve been working on fixing my problem with a lot of late night D&Ms), and that I had an epic 4500 word assignment due on Wednesday (yeah, I am actually still a postgraduate student in addition to holding down two jobs), it’s very much been a fatigued and bleary-eyed week.
My next day off is on Thursday next week (unless I’m called in for a shift at the last minute again), so hopefully I can go to the bank then and just get a definite yes or no to my dilemma.
On an endnote, regular readers will no doubt have noticed that my blogging schedule has hardly been as regular as it has in the past. Rather than posting daily, I’m reverting to something more akin to five days out of every week – the aforementioned time constraints are making it hard for me to write the type of entry that I would like. I’m used to writing entries that mean something, if not to others then at least to myself, and am reluctant to churn out rubbish that I’m not happy with.
May 27 2009: Buying A House
Filed under Money with 18 Comments
I’ve been thinking about buying a house. I know I’ve mentioned the possibility in the past, but the actual chance of going through with it is much higher this time. There are a number of reasons for this:
- If I buy, I’ll be buying before the end of September when the government’s First Home Owner’s Grant is worth $16,000AUD. After this date, it’ll drop to $12,500AUD.
- I currently have approximately $24,000AUD saved up in my account to make an even $40,000AUD deposit.
- You know the $100AUD a week I’ve been paying to my parents since my mid-teens for rent and board? Apparently they’ve been saving that up for me over the years, and that’s going to be their contribution towards my home deposit – approximately another $40,000AUD. It was kind of their version of an enforced saving for the future.
- My parents are also going to act as my guarantors, with our current family home being used as collateral. So, I’ll be eligible to take out a larger loan and buy a nicer place.
I’m looking at various three-bedroom places in the Caulfield area, 12km from the city, which is much closer than where I’m currently living (I want to buy in Zone 1 of our train system, to save on public transport costs). When I end up buying, my family will move with me and live with me in my house – my parents will pay off half my mortgage for me each month (as “rent” for living with me), and our current home will be rented out, with that money going on my mortgage as well. Therefore, while my parents will be paying off the majority of my mortgage (their rent & the rent of our current house will mean that I’ll only need to pay about 30% of the mortgage), the house will be in my name. As my parents have said, this will be my inheritance when they pass away – they’ll pay off most of my house in the inner suburbs, while my brother will inherit our current house in the outer suburbs.
The only question is how large a home loan I’ll be eligible for, as well as how long it’ll take for me to pay it all off. Assuming a loan of $340,000AUD (for a $400,000AUD home) at the current interest rate over 30 years, there’ll be monthly repayments of about $2000AUD. My parents will pay half ($1000AUD), plus the rental price of our current home (another $1000AUD). I’ll throw all my earnings at it each month (approx $2000AUD). Therefore, we should actually have the house paid off in about ten or so years – owning my own home in full by age 32 is a sweet prospect.
At the moment the only thing that’s really holding me back from fully committing to going through with buying a house are my plans to move to the UK. They’ll end up being delayed for a few years while I work my arse off to pay off as much of the mortgage as possible in as short a time (I don’t want to make minimum payments and drag it out, I want to throw all my income at it!). It’s disappointing to have to hold off on something I am keen on, but at the same time, I’m a pragmatist. This is a financial opportunity that I can’t pass up – the benefits far outweigh the negatives. I’ll be going to the bank soon to discuss my options and exactly how much of a loan I’m eligible for…we’ll see what happens. This may come to nothing – I might not be eligible at all!