With the recent release of the May budget and an article by property mogul Tim Gurner, the topic of housing affordability has once again been brought up, and we have an onslaught of articles, Facebook posts and Twitter rants from the millennial population crying poor! And while Gurner made some controversial claims that you need to give up avo on toast and $4 coffee to be able to afford a house, he isn’t entirely wrong.
We are in a constant consumer cycle of “buy, use, dispose”… We are envious of what everyone else has, and we want, want, want. We need, need, need; and we spend, spend, spend… on stupid stuff. Things like a bigger TV, even though the one we have works perfectly fine. A new lounge, even though the one we have serves its purpose. Sure it might look average, but it does the job.
Buying a home is not the same as buying that new iPad you picked up last week – you have to work towards it. You can’t just decide one morning that you want it and go out and get it that same day. You have to be disciplined and you have to work your ass off! It might take 2 years, it might take 4 years, but it will be worth it… We constantly compare ourselves to our parents’ generation and how affordable housing was in the good old days, But we also need to consider what they went without…. Things like the latest iPhone, regular outings for meals, store bought coffee (yes! coffee), clubbing, cab fares and excessive drinking. They also made do living at home much longer and settled in to relationships earlier, meaning more time to save as a couple. You can bet your bottom dollar they didn’t do yearly overseas holidays and I can guarantee they weren’t up to their eyeballs in credit card and “interest-free” debt. Sure, house prices were cheaper, and the cost of living has inflated, but so have our salaries and our expectations. That’s life and you have to accept it and move on… We can all get to owning our own homes with some discipline, and going without… reduce your lifestyle. Give yourself an allowance for the non-essential items (I’m talking the fancy smashed avo, and $4 coffees here). Stop holidaying and buying things simply to keep up appearances. Give yourself a budget and stick to it. Take advantage of the new First Home Super Saver Scheme and reduce your tax while you are at it… Plenty of people are buying houses, so it clearly isn’t impossible. If you find you aren’t getting anywhere, ask for help…
