How to Save for a House

This is a guest post from Fred Schebesta who writes for Savings Account Finder, where he helps people to save money and choose the best savings account.

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Saving for a house is a big job and the only way to get there is to start saving as soon as possible, because the sooner you start, the sooner you can reach your goal. However, there are also a number of saving and budgeting strategies you can employ along the way to help you save faster and more easily for the home of your dreams.

1 Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Firstly you never know who will be able or willing to help you save for your new home and even a small boost of funds from a family member can get your savings on the go, and motivate you to keep adding to them. The Government is also very willing to help first home buyers save for their new home too with specific savings accounts offering preferential interest rate and tax deductions

2 Tell people

Telling your friends and family that you are saving for a house means that you are able to adjust your lifestyle more easily to fit your savings budget. If your friends and family know you are budgeting for a house savings plan, then they will be supportive in having BBQs at home instead of eating out at restaurants, and can scale back present buying budget for Christmas and birthdays.

3 Have a separate emergency fund

If you are using a traditional high interest savings account for your house fund, rather than a first home saver account which doesn’t allow withdrawals, then you may be tempted to withdraw funds from your account before you have reached your house goal. Therefore, it is important to have a home savings account and an emergency fund account so you can contribute a little to emergencies and more to your home savings, and be able to cover any unexpected expenses without your house deposit going backwards.

4 Make a budget and keep to it

It is easy to write down your expenses and your wages and decide on an amount to contribute to your house savings account, however, it is entirely different to be able to stick to it. This is why it is important that your budget is realistic and accurate, and that you really are motivated to stick to it, because saving for a house is a long term goal and you have to be committed and stay committed to reach that goal.

5 Pay yourself first

You are unlikely to reach your house savings target if you leave your contributions to your savings account until the end of your pay week. By that time your other bills have been paid and you’ve perhaps been out to dinner or gone shopping and it doesn’t look as though you can afford to contribute to your home savings. Instead, pay yourself first by making sure you automatically transfer funds to your home savings account. In this way your savings will grow without you noticing the contribution being moved each week.

6 Save any wage increases or windfalls

Any money which you had not budgeted coming in, can go into your home savings account to give it a boost. This could be money you received as a gift, a pay rise or bonus, or even a lottery win however small. Because these funds are in addition to your regular income, you won’t miss them if you transfer them straight to your home savings account, but the regular windfalls for your savings will all add up in the end.

7 Pay off debt so you can borrow more

An important factor in your borrowing power is how much debt you already have against your name. If you are applying for a home loan and you have credit card debt or a personal loan, you will not be able to borrow as much as if you were debt free. Therefore, aim to pay down your debt as you save for a house too because the more you can borrow, the less deposit you will need to save.

8 Make sure you can afford the loan

You may have created a budget to save for a home loan, and be looking forward to when you don’t need to be as tight with your spending because you have reached the goal of a house deposit. However, it is important to remember that the expenses don’t stop once you’ve bought a house, in fact they increase. Home loan lenders prefer to lend amounts which will cost you 30% or less of your income to repay, so keep this in mind when you are saving for a house because home loan interest rates, power bills and council rates will also raise your costs in the future too.