Life Stages: 'At 26 I started paying off a mortgage'
By Bianca Farmakis|
Life Stages is 9Honey's latest series that aims to find out when people made their biggest purchases and the journey to saving along the way.
- Goal: Pay a mortgage
- Time Frame: TBA
- Fun Saving Tip: Limit the amount of 'take out'
Anthea Hansen was 25 when she bought her first home with her partner George Tsoukalas, and while" avocado on toast brunches" may have had us believe owning a home is impossible, the pair were proud to start their next saving journey.
Hansen tells 9Honey she regularly received "judgemental looks" from people who assumed her parents bought the place for her.
"The short and satisfying answer that I give is 'no'," she says.?
RELATED: Life Stages: 'I bought a property at 25'
"We were both living at home at the time and didn't want to rent, so we made the decision to invest together. When you invest in a property you can't go too wrong."
Hansen and Tsoukalas, who have been together for eight years, began searching for properties in January 2019.
Like true millennials, the couple leveraged social media and the internet to help them find the home they wanted, by downloading apps that informed them of housing prices and using Google reviews to source a reliable solicitor.
"The first home we saw we absolutely loved, even though it was selling for above the recommended rate," Hansen explains, adding she and Tsoukalas "tried to talk it down to our price range."
"You always fall in love with the first few homes you see, but you have to be realistic, and they were way above our pricing."
While the pair were concerned about their price point, they decided they wanted to live closer to where they grew up.
"It involved a lot of compromising, we knew we did not want to live in an apartment so a townhouse was the next step ahead of that," Hansen recalls.
The couple eventually purchased a place in October 2019, Hansen describing it as "such a great feeling".
"We still just sit around the home sometimes and are like, 'This is seriously ours!'"
When it comes to paying off their mortgage, the couple set clear boundaries.
"We made some personal rules about purchasing a property and how to live so that we would not be paying off a home forever," Hansen says.
The simple mentality of 'living within your means' has been vital in paying off her mortgage.
"Be ready to sacrifice some things you used to be able to afford when you didn't have thousands of dollars in repayments for your home," she advises.
For example, the couple don't allocate money for alcohol (other than the occasional gift) in their budget.
"We also don't order Uber eats anymore, we've tried to cut that out and just go grocery shopping instead," Hansen says.
Modern saving strategies aside, she also admits her mother knew best.
"My mother always suggested to put in extra on the mortgage for each payment so that it is paid off quicker, as interest really does all add up."
RELATED: Life Stages: 'The invaluable savings tip Mum gave me when I was 15'
