Take a timeout before deciding to buy your first home

The year was 1995. I was about to buy my first property. I was 23, renting, and working in the bank.

I qualified for a preferential loan which was about 5% at the time and I thought renting was a complete waste of money. Why should I pay someone else’s mortgage when I could be paying my own, I thought?

I had mortgage approval in place and just before I started looking for a property, I was telling a gentleman who worked in the same bank as I did, only for a lot longer than me, what I was about to do. Without doubt he gave me one of the best pieces of advice I have ever received — and it was to simulate the total monthly cost of having a mortgage before I actually took the plunge. And it was lucky I took his advice because I clearly wasn’t ready — in fact it took me another two years before I knew I was.