Savings Goal - Deposit

[travelbug]

I don't beleive you have to sacrifice everything to invest in property sucessfully. And if you do it doesn't mean I have to as well or else I won't succeed. I will just earn more money to fund both my lifestyle and investments - it is as simple as that.

I agree with that.
I've never been a wasteful spender but I enjoy my life. I've always traveled and will never stop. Unfortunately I was bought up to save and pay off your mortgage (not totally bad but could have been further ahead). After the mortgage was gone THEN we started investing.

I think you need a balance your whole life (not just after you make it). I have lost friends who never got to have a life as they were working 2 jobs to get ahead for the retirement they never reached.

My son is 21 and has been traveling the world. He has not 1c to his name. He knows about investments but I encourage him to live. He has always been insecure didn't have the drive. The change in his attitude and outlook on life is priceless. He now has goals for himself and his future. He's excited about life. He has lots of time to start and I am now confident he will succeed in anything he sets his mind too.

Start when YOU are ready. There's no right or wrong age. It's not up to us (who have seen the light) to dictate a right and wrong way or a right or wrong time.

 

[Collector]

. Remember - the Poor spend what they can and invest what's left. The Rich invest what they can and spend what's left.

Same as "pay yourself first"

Each week We (wife+me) pay myself first by saving a certain amount in a high interest bearing bank account and then with the balance we live, pay bills etc. there are times when the bills are not covered - so what they can wait a week or too.

We have turned my situation where we virtually live paycheck to paycheck - we allow $400 each per week for living and save everything else.

So that is $800 per-week and that may seem a lot, we do have 3 children under 10 and have a lot of expenses: piano lessons, swimming lessons, tutoring, sport, child care etc.

Last August we managed to pay off our mortgage (borrowed $320k in 2002), since August we have saved $1,500 per week.

We now have $100k saved (we did sell some shares as well) this was our goal prior to investing in property - we wanted a buffer.

This week we got approval for a LOC and are going to use the LOC for a 20%deposit and costs on an IP, get a loan for 80% of the IP, place the $100k saved in the offset account linked to the loan and sit back and enjoy the ride.

Our goal this year is to save $70,000 and buy our 2nd IP using the same method.

 

[Alex P Keaton]

I'm not saving at present. IP is slightly negatively geared (by 2-3 grand a year) and I'm paying off my stamp duty loan. Once that loan is paid off in January then I plan to save around 20% of my pay a fortnight. $300

Because I have promised myself rewards for every 5 kilos that I lose this will put me back a bit with my plans. Perhaps 6 months I dunno. However I think this is really important for me in order to get to my goal weight and i'm ok with that! I will need to upgrade my tv's eventually as mine are analogue so I'm thinking one of my rewards will be a new tv or perhaps a laptop as my computer is getting really old and will need to replaced at some stage. I hope my 14 year old car will see me through for a few more years. Its in good condition no probs atm.

I aim to buy again early 2012 in Perth and goal is to have saved $20,000 by March 2012. I think this amount will be a decent amount to have for SANF. By 2012 I should have enough equity to buy again and the serviceability. I think my ip will be neutrally geared by then.



How is everyone else doing?

 

[RumpledElf]

Buy a $50 set top box, keep the old tv

Our savings goal at the moment is simply As Much As Possible, either for a house deposit, for connection costs or simply to prove we can afford to get further into debt to a bank. In theory we should be able to get about $10k together by the end of the year. We'll see.

 

[65fbk]

Kim,
I admire your focus and determination