8 Smart Ways to Save Up for Your Dream Home

*Collaborative Post

Most of us have a dream home in our heads, even if we don’t realize it. Think about it – when you were a kid, you probably dreamt of living in a mansion, or a penthouse apartment, or a little cabin in the woods (dream houses look different for everyone!). Sadly, most of us accept the fact that we will likely never be able to live in this dream house. After all, so many people can barely afford their own house, let alone one of their dreams! There are a lot of ways to save up for your dream apartment and not all of them are obvious. Check out apartments at mercato grove lake oswego or check out a few of these smart ways to save up for the home of your dreams.

Invest

There are a few ways that investing can help you save up for this house. The first thing to remember is that, once your money is invested, it becomes harder to access. Of course, this depends on the type of investing that you do. But, generally, investing your money means you’re much less likely to spend it on other, unnecessary things. The second thing to keep in mind is the fact that the entire point of investing is to grow your money. When you are then able to get money back, such as with dividend stocks, you’ll have more than you started with.

Try to get a second income

Many people have talents that could be converted into some type of income. The problem is that people never take this step because they know that it won’t be enough to live off of. This is the wrong mindset. If you have a talent – such as painting – that you can use to make some extra money, why not do it? It doesn’t have to be your main source of income, but any profits made can go directly into the savings account for your home.

Pay off your debt

We all know that in the finance world, debt is a really bad thing to have. Often, though, it’s unavoidable. However, just because you have debt, doesn’t mean you’ll always have debt. If there’s any way to pay your debt off sooner than expected, you should do it. Make it a priority. Put holidays and luxury expenses on hold for a bit, until you’re debt-free. This will mean that your money will be able to go towards your dream house instead of towards paying off your debt. Not to mention that, if you have too much debt, you may not even be approved to buy or build your dream home!

Make some sacrifices

A popular trend that you’ll see in this post is the fact that to save, you often need to stop spending as much on certain areas of your life. This means that you’ll have to sacrifice certain things. Think about how much money you can save towards your house if you stop taking holidays for a year or two. It might not be fun, but it’s temporary – once you’ve got your new house, you can reevaluate your financial situation and maybe things can return to normal. It’s all up to you: do you want this bad enough to sacrifice what you need?

Budget

Budgeting won’t directly help you save money, but indirectly, it can make a huge difference. We often don’t realize how much of our income is going towards something unnecessary. It’s only once we lay out our income and expenses that we get a clear picture of where we’re spending too much money. Once you have this information, you can make the necessary cuts and use that money towards saving for your dream home. Setting up a budget will hopefully also help keep you accountable. We often think of budgeting as something we need to do only if we’re struggling to cover our bills, but the truth is that everyone can benefit from budgeting. Just make sure to avoid these common budgeting mistakes.

Sell some items

Once again, you need to look at the lifestyle you’re living, and the lifestyle you want to live, and see what you can do to get there. For example, if you have two cars but your family strictly speaking only needs one, you may want to consider selling the second car and using that money towards a house. If that sounds like too big a commitment, you can start selling anything you have no use for online. Do you have a treadmill that you haven’t used in years? Sell it. Even smaller items like clothing or books can be sold. You may not get a lot of money in one go, but if you do this consistently enough, you should see your money growing, especially if you put it into an account with a high interest rate.

Quit expensive habits

Are you someone who uses shopping as a method of dealing with your emotions? Do you eat out more than you eat at home? These are both examples of habits that end up eating away at your money. You don’t need to completely stop doing these things, but try to limit how often you do and how much you spend each time. More examples of common habits that can end up costing you quite a bit of money in the long haul include smoking and drinking. You can click here for tips on curbing your cravings while trying to quit smoking.

Cancel unnecessary subscriptions

We fall into traps so easily when it comes to subscriptions. We think, “Oh, that’s not a lot, I can afford that each month!”. And, sure, you can. But if you have that mindset over and over again, it ends up making a deep dent in your finances. Do you need three subscriptions for three different streaming services? Or that gym membership that you haven’t touched in years? The answer is that you probably don’t. Cancel these, and you may just be surprised at how much extra money you have every month.

*This is a collaborative post. For further information please refer to my disclosure page.