mtown boy wrote:
how does everyone else feel about emergency reserves??
Big fan. I would recommend saving 6-12 months.
It does depend on your job(s) security, but don't overestimate that - it's a strange world, and a lot of unpredictable things can happen to good companies.
On downpayments: housing market is out of control right now with people taking on huge mortgages at low rates. A lot of these people are going to house-poor for a long time when rates go up in years to come. I'm no expert, but some combination of downpayment increase/amortization decrease is in order. It can't be too steep a change however.
My own downpayment was 20%. In the 18 months between graduation and when we bought our house here in Milton in 2005:
-I paid off 30k student loan and saved 15k for downpayment by working all across Canada for a contractor. Wasn't fun being apart, but it allowed me to save for the future. Lived like a pauper in this time with all my belongings in the car, going from job to job.
-Wife lived at home, and banked most of her 30k annual salary, on top of the money she'd been able to save working an internship between 3rd and 4th year. She's always been a saver, and was saving her entire life for a house.
Bit of sacrifice, average incomes, and there you have it.
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1.25 is a beauty , too bad all the savings go to tim hortons and starbucks every month, i still gotta work on that part 