Chapter 2
Getting Your Financial House in Order
In This Chapter
Assessing your budget and spending
Determining your savings requirements to achieve your goals
Protecting yourself and your assets with insurance
Remembering what’s most important in life
When you’re shopping for a home, you’re the person best suited to look out for your overall interests. The people involved in typical real estate deals (such as real estate agents, bankers, loan brokers, and the like) are there to get their jobs done. It’s not within their realm of responsibility to worry about how the real estate purchase fits with the rest of your personal finances and how best to arrange your finances before and after purchasing a home. This chapter explains how you can address these important issues.
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Now, time for a parental warning: Skip this chapter at your own peril. In the great history of home buying, many people have bought real estate without first getting their finances in order, setting some goals, and dealing with problems — and they’ve often paid dearly for this oversight. What are the consequences of plunging headlong into a home purchase before you’re financially ready? For starters, you could end up paying tens of thousands of dollars more in taxes and interest over the years ahead. In the worst cases, we’ve witnessed the financial ruin of intelligent, hardworking people who end up over their heads ...
