Things are slowly starting to settle for me with the new job. Some really nice things are coming up that ought to help put into place my long term goals. But the major point for me is that I’m really looking to ease up and just find a nice rhythm as opposed to working at a crazy start up environment where my life gets thrown up into chaos.
Right now, I would say that if I can survive for at least a year and the company manages to do well then I can really start planning long term. I figure if the company can grow for two more years then we’ll be in a really good spot and I’ll have enough confidence to look into property.
Recently, I sat down with a friend and was looking at spots near me. The two condos that I’m situated between at the moment are selling for $375k. I did some number crunching and with a 20% down, I would be paying less than what I’m currently paying in rent. The great thing is that I’m close to that 20% mark but I’m waiting to see if my current place goes on sale. I doubt I would purchase it this year if it opened up, but I am keep my eyeball on it.
Of course, I’d prefer to move outside of this state just to get something bigger. I doubt I’ll have a choice in the near term future but at the very least if an opportunity for property opens up, then I could start building equity up in something that I would own rather than just rent. Perhaps, with some luck (as in getting shares in my company with future IPO plans) I could buy out of state down the road with some good planning on top of having my current place. In that manner, I might be able to rent out my spot in the future.
If that doesn’t work out and my place ends up being far more than what the other two spots are going for, then I could still make a move to either of them knowing their price. They might not be perfect but at least the move wouldn’t be difficult compared to moving closer to where I’m working.
In either of these scenarios, the thing I’m thinking of is that I would be able to start saving up for a new car. It would take some time before I could rebuild the basic capital for putting a reasonable down payment on say a hybrid of what I currently drive, but I’m looking at 2-3 years down the road. By then a hybrid model of what I’m driving hopefully will come down in price a bit and/or me making a significant increase in pay (and hopefully job title as well).
I suppose the unfortunate aspect in this will be that I still won’t be able to own a pet at least for now. I would’ve preferred moving closer to work but the apartments around there are simply far too expensive. Also, I’m not exactly certain if I would want to move in that direction. There’s some negative aspects as well namely that the area is much harder to navigate, especially when it comes to shopping. I suppose that’s all theoretical but I have to wait a bit until things stabilize enough where I feel comfortable to make some permanent decisions.
If anything though I really hope this job continues to do okay. It’s been good thus far but I’m super paranoid. I take things one day at a time and things can change on a whim. At least for now, I’ll enjoy what I can and see how far I can take it.