My life as I have known it has changed forever. Well, ok, not forever but it certainly feels like that. Just to provide a little background on the reason for the change. I have decided to purchase my first home. It’s a major decision and should be a happy one but so far that joy has been shrouded by all the different costs that have been assailing me. So yes, while there have been moments where I think YES!! my own damn space, cool, and think how I’m going to add all these wonderful fixtures so that 5 years time when I’m ready to sell, it would have appreciated considerably, for most part I’m thinking “Shit, what have I gotten myself into?, is how ah going to pay for the house, Lawd help me.”
So anyway, I’ve already committed big time to this goal, paid down over one million JA$ on the place which is under construction, sign the oh so oppressive sales agreement, and all that, so there’s no turning back.
This morning I went to my building society to formally apply for the mortgage and almost fainted (I wonder if that’s what caused my heart-attack scare today -more about that in another post). Now construction is due to be completed in February 2007, and I’m thinking ok, I won’t have any major cost to pay until that time, I have a little time to squeeze some savings out of my salary plus bonus in December so for now I’m cool. Come next year I’m going to have escallation costs to deal with (could be another million), pay my lawyer who has, bless her soul, provided the service for likkle and nuttin’, pay some other costs to the teifing developer- another $100,000 odd, plus my monthly mortgage would have kicked in. Now these costs don’t include all the other little things that I have to do as the owner like put in air-condition unit(s), and getting utilities in. Ah well.
Can you imagine my shock when my mortgage agent calmly advised me that my closing costs will be $350,000?(Dam, that’s like US$5,300). And this is in addition to the above-mentioned costs. Even more distressing, was the fact that all this needed to be paid NOW! Not next year. Listen, you could have hit me down with a feather. Mortgage application won’t be processed, approved until payment has been made.
I’ve always heard of how individuals buying their first home are usually broke, have to be scrimping and all that but experiencing it is another matter. First of all, my monthly mortgage which amounts to a little over US$1000 is the same as my mother’s mortgage and she has a big-ass house in Florida, with walk-in closet, his & hers face basin & jacuzzi, plus shower in bathroom, two-car garage and all that jazz. My apartment isn’t going to be even half as big as her house and yet the mortgage is roughly the same. Anyway, that’s life on the rock.
So as of now, all the little indulgences that I’ve taken to be the norm will come to an abrupt end, until about 5 years time when my salary has caught up a little and given me some breathing space.
No more professionally done mani-pedi (I was looking on the fingers of the mortgage agent and thinking her nails, acryllic and polish free, look quite nice), I’ll learn to do my own eye-brows & shampoo my hair, no more frequent travel to the States and certainly no more shopping expedition - I’ll just wear what I currently own until they disintegrate, my tentatively considered Europe vacation next year is definitely off, no shopping online (note to self - write to v/secrets asking that they not send me anymore catalogues), no more long conversation on the phone, and yes it’s summer time and hot as hell but I’ll certainly have to ration the use of air-condition at home, no more driving around because I’m bored since I will be barely able to afford the gas in my gas-guzzler, and I’ll just have to curb my gluttonous ways to lower my food bill.
But. Others have done it and survived the difficult times and I will too. And I still feel blessed.
