Planning

Well, I think I can tick this month's task off the list. We saw our financial planner the other day to see what he thought about our plans to purchase a property. We have a decent deposit saved (or so I thought!) and I had met with a mortgage broker who outlined our borrowing capacity for an investment property or a home to live in. I was starting to get a bit excited, reading finance and property books from the library, spending way too many hours on real estate websites perusing properties for sale, sold and rent and dreaming about what it would be like to finally join the 'I own property' gang.

So I was a little disappointed when our planner suggested waiting and saving for another 18 months. This would give us a bigger deposit, ensure we don't pay mortgage lender's insurance, and cover all those pesky real estate transaction costs. However, he also made me feel quite proud. He said most people need a mortgage in order to force them to save, but we are such good savers we are better off just saving for a bit longer!

My partner and I have agreed that we will continue renting for the foreseeable future, as we love our house and suburb, and could never afford to purchase a house in the area. So in a few years we'll probably purchase an investment property elsewhere, mostly so that we have something to either move into or sell when we retire (we don't want to pay rent in retirement).

The planner was also impressed with my recent dabble into the share market. I think I'll continue to put a little bit into that as well which will hopefully set us up for the future.

We still have a few things to get sorted planning-wise: we still need to finalise our wills, organise power of attorney, and see someone for an income and death insurance review. I'm going to give us a deadline of the end of next month, and will keep you posted!