If you’re thinking about moving out of your apartment, you might be dreaming of getting a house of your very own. But you might be a little stressed about your finances – specifically saving up for a down payment. Houses are expensive, as are down payments. The prospect of saving up that much money might seem daunting, but we have a few tips to help you with your plan to save for a down payment. Here’s how you can save up.
8 tips for saving money for a down payment for a house.
1. Establish how much you’re saving.
The first thing is to set up some goals. Do some research on the area you’d like to move, the kind of house you want, and how much it might cost. You also need to consider what percentage of the purchase price would be the down payment (to give you an idea, 20% is a fairly typical down payment for a house). When you have an idea of how much the down payment will be, you can start figuring out how much you can set aside on a set schedule, whether that’s every week, every two weeks, or every month.
2. Create a separate savings account.
To keep your money organized, you can create a savings account specifically for your down payment. That way you can keep track of how much money you’ve stashed away. (It’ll also keep the money safe so you don’t either accidentally or not accidentally spend it on something else.) When you set up your new savings account, consider whether you want to have the account with your normal bank. And don’t forget to think about the interest rate, fees, and account minimums.
You can also set up an automatic savings plan if that works for your situation. That way you can decide how much money you want to drop into your savings plan from your checking account each month. The only thing about doing this is that you have to make sure you have a fairly predictable income. If the money in your bank account is going up and down a lot, it might be trickier to make an automatic savings account work out. If you tend to have a less predictable income, you may want to move the money yourself when you can.
3. Don’t overlook extra money.
Well, maybe it doesn’t happen as often as we’d like, but if you come into some extra money somehow, don’t forget about your down payment. Of course, maybe that’s not the most exciting splurge you can think of, but it can help you on your quest for your house.
4. Work on paying off debt.
You might also want to work on paying off credit card debt if you can. If you work on improving your credit situation, you might put yourself in a better position when you get ready to get your financing situation sorted. Just something to think about.
5. Look for other expenses you can cut out.
You can also examine your budgeting and see if there are any expenses you can lower or cut down on. Can you manage with only one streaming service instead of three? Could you bring your lunch to work instead of eating out at restaurants every day? Take stock of your monthly expenses and see if there are things that you can cut back on so you can send that money towards your down payment savings. Think of it not as making sacrifices, but as making an investment in your future home.
6. Try using coupons.
Coupons can help you score some pretty cool savings. If you really put some time towards couponing and other deals, you might wind up with a nice chunk of money that you can use for your down payment.
7. Consider if there are extra jobs you can do.
Is there a way for you to do a bit of work on the side of earn some extra money? Of course, you don’t want to overwhelm yourself and you don’t want to stress yourself out. But maybe there’s a fun little side gig you could start that would be both fulfilling and allow you to earn some extra money.
8. Shop your insurance rates.
You can bag some quick savings if you explore your insurance options. Especially if you haven’t compared rates in a while. You might be able to save some money if you get some car insurance quotes, and then you can channel those savings into your down payment fund. You never know – you might be able to get the same coverages at a lower rate, allowing you to have more money to put towards your future house. (Our team is really good at helping people save money on their insurance. You can get in touch with us by filling out our online form, giving us a call, or messaging us on LiveChat.) If you can save money, the trick will be putting the money into the down payment fund and not spend it on something else!
So, that’s a bit about saving some money for a down payment. Being frugal can be tricky, but saving money is do-able. And, as we mentioned above, you could be saving money on your auto insurance. Our team would be happy to help. Get started with your quote by filling out our online form, giving us a quite, or LiveChat messaging us.