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So as I said yesterday, I’ve decided that I think this year isn’t my year to buy a home. I know this seems sudden, but it’s something that I’ve been thinking about.
My reasons are varied, but the primary reason is my job. I currently have a job – it’s not a career by any means. So I’m looking for something new. And that might mean a pay cut. It might also mean taking a job that is a significant distance from where I am now. While I don’t necessarily want to choose my home based on where my job is, it seems silly to buy a place that ends up being on the opposite side of the city than where I am working when there are equally good places to live there.
There’s nothing wrong with waiting. This way I can save more money. Plus, renting has a lot of perks. When something breaks, I call maintenance. And getting it fixed is free! My apartment is in a great location, much better than any place I could afford to buy. And I can leave at any time (well, I would have to break my lease, but the penalty for that isn’t all that bad).
So now I just need to find a new roommate. I have a line on someone who is looking and who I think would be a great roommate. She’s my sister’s friend, loves cats, and most importantly, is someone I know and trust. I’m just crossing my fingers that it works out.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
