Am I ready for home ownership?

Waving financial matters to the side, home ownership for a single girl, is it a good idea?



Last week, my toilet broke and wouldn’t flush, I had to go into the cold water tanky thing and manually move the big black blob to flush it. Well, I called my super and half hour later he was there with a cart full of interesting instruments and 10 minutes after that my toilet was doing the happy flush dance. He had to replace the whole mechanism back there, because it basically deteriorates in water over time. He gave me a quick, serious lecture on the thing, but in one ear out the other.



Yesterday, I tried to turn on my cold water tap in my kitchen and it just spun and spun without water coming out. Again, I called my super and they will go in and fix it.



Over a year ago, I couldn’t unplug my bathtub drain, no matter how much I struggled with the plunger and how many different unplug-drain liquids I poured. They had to send a plumber in to put a giant hole in my wall in order to get to the pipe that was plugged by…get ready for it… my kitchen sink. Apparently it is very rare that the bathroom and kitchen drain into the same pipe, but of course if it will happen it will happen to me. There was drilling, and cutting and basically a giant hole in my wall, which was fixed within 3 days without any scares to the wall to indicate the mad hole. If you can’t tell, I was very disturbed by the hole, as I had strange images of monsters coming out of there or loosing my cat in it. Yes, over exaggerated it in my head, since it was an internal wall and really no monsters live there, but you get the idea.



This got me thinking this morning, what if there was no super? What happens when I don’t have access to someone to fix the un-flushing toilet, the dry tap or unplug my bathtub drain? What do I do then? I don’t have easy access to a know-it-all dad, or any other kind of handy man friend. Does this mean I will have to either call a super expensive plumber for something as small as the change of some rubbery thingy-majic inside a tap, would he laugh at me as he hands me an outrageous bill? Or would I be certain that I can learn how to fix it from a book and try my hand at fixing it? Suddenly, I have a strange vision manifest itself of water gushing like a fountain out all of my taps. Cold, freezing water that cannot be stopped…



This is what my mind is pondering today.

2011 Goals!

You cannot make goals about achieving something if you are not completely honest about your lack of financial security even if it is to yourself.
I don’t think I am ready to spread the news that my lovely debt load is over the better half of my annual income and as a young certified professional (some may argue certifiable) that income is far above the that of the average Canadian family.
I have set up a fancy shmancy spreadsheet with the balance owing, interest charged, payment etc, this spreadsheet not only tells me what I owe where during the month, but also how long it will take me to get to freedom.

Included in my goals for 2011 are the following:

1. Contribute to my RRSP enough that by May 2012, I will have approximately $22,000 which will be used for a down payment on either a Condo or Town home. Let’s hope the bubble bursts by May 2012! By March 2011 there should be $6,250 in that account. Lofty goal, yep. Does it have to happen: YES. This also includes my 2012 bonus.
2. Decrease outstanding debt, which includes student loans, consumer, loans to family and an ex, by about $7,525. This is calculated on the balance owing less payments less interest that accumulates like it’s going out of style. Yes you think that’s a lot, but honestly that is a chip in the iceberg I am fighting. This will also put me in a position to be a favourable candidate for a mortgage.
Here is the problem, the above repayment plan/ savings leaves me with little when it comes to Emergency fund/ Travel etc. I am doing something extremely wrong when I say that my RRSP contributions will be in a way emergency if something was to happen. I don’t have a choice at this point in time.

3. Create a sustainable budget and perhaps revisit the numbers above to ensure that they are not as lofty as they appear at this point. The problem is that I have a budget but my ‘life’ expenses usually drain it by the middle of the first week after my paycheque. And so it has to be revisited, so that I make progress paying off debt instead of increasing it.
Once I have a SUSTAINABLE budget, it will be cash only. Oh the call of the reward points… it’s a siren call that is hard to ignore. I will ignore it, I will be strong. I may end up punishing myself by setting up the budget jars as per Gail Vaz-Oxlade's budgeting solution on "Til Debt Do Us Apart".

Hmmmm I will work a little deeper into the goals in the upcoming month and restate where needed. But I really wanted to get myself thinking about it and just going forward.
Also, in order for these goals to be achievable I will further break them down to monthly and perhaps bi-weekly goals so that they are a little more friendly looking.

And of course the goal of writing it all down, publicly, is so that I can really hold myself accountable for my actions and actually have a record of my progress and certain unavoidable failures.

Oh yah:
4. Shopping ban from Dec 24th 2010 to Jan 29th 2011. How can I forget this, it truly did skip my mind.