Down Payment Savings: Goal Met

I'm going out with friends tonight to celebrate meeting my down payment savings goal!

I've been looking forward to having a place of my own for many years. When I was in my early twenties, all of my friends seemed to work for builders and mortgage banks so we spent a lot of time talking about home ownership. Thanks to free flowing capital, help from family, spouses and trust funds, and relatively affordable new housing in Ladera Ranch and Talega, it seemed like everyone soon had a beautiful new place to call home. Meanwhile, I was living in an apartment saving for law school. Oh, the envy!

It wouldn't have been possible to meet this savings goal so soon, while also paying off my student loans and meeting retirement savings goals, if it hadn't been for the opportunity to work in Tokyo on an ex pat package. The generous currency supplement and company housing enabled me to send a large amount of cash to my down payment savings account each month. This (together with relatively frugal living) is how I was able to meet this savings goal with no help from family or a partner in less than two years.

Today, I am filled with gratitude for the earning power that law and business school provided, the good fortune that enabled me to obtain and maintain a big law job in a tough economy, and my financial discipline. There were a lot of sacrifices along the way and I always imagined I'd be buying my first home in a different context, but I want to keep the focus on the positive. I've been enjoying the process of working with a realtor and loan officer and am so excited to find a place to settle down and call home.