If your parents didn't pay for your college

[Anonymous]

I bought my first condo at 30. But I lived in NYC before, no use to buy in that town

[Anonymous]

My parents didn't pay for college, grad school or law school. I worked full time through school, which meant I didn't have to take out many loans, and bought my first house when I was 24.

[Anonymous]

My parents did not support me except for the $300 deposit in May to assure my return to college the next year.

I bought my first place (it was among a row of flats that were located below two-story TH's) before the bubble at age 24. I think to buy now at age 24 is way more impressive, the place I got is probably $200-$225k or so now (it was $118k for me.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

OP, you sound like a whiner. No one owes you anything.

Plenty of people worked full time or more and still maintained an A average and sent themselves to school and bought their own house. Sometimes you have to be patient. Americans pay at least 33% in taxes, plus property taxes every year once you own a home. It is part of living here. You had never heard of taxes before you lived here? Every country I have ever traveled to has taxes.

Sometimes you have to consider a different commute or a different area. Start looking and see what is possible. But a self entitled attitude will not help anyone.

DON'T FORGET, in VA you we also pay CAR TAXES...that is right!

[Anonymous]

What does having graduated with honors have to do with buying a home?

[Anonymous]

I'm one of the buyers at age 24 posters and I was thinking about the differences. When I was 24, my income was 20% of the cost of the house and I was working as a social worker. I don't know how that compares with today, but maybe it was easier for me than it would be for some today. I don't know, but just putting it out there so that the OP has more information as she/he evaluates her/his own situation. It was a struggle for me. I never went out to eat or out to the movies. All out activities were the free ones or ones where you could buy one drink and spend the evening. Much of my social life came through volunteer work. The only alcohol that was ever consumed was when someone brought it as a gift. I watched only videos that could be borrowed from the library and then only because someone gave me a video player. Other than utilities, things (appliances, TVs, clothes, shoes, etc.) are cheaper today than when I bought my house. I did, however, have a car and car insurance, which were not much cheaper then as compared to what I drive and pay for insurance today. I guess when I was thinking about this I realized that it's so easy to look at my life and that of the OPs. But these are things to consider when thinking about how others make it work.

[Anonymous]

I didn't finish college, but worked hard, and I purchased a house at 29.

[Anonymous]

It has absolutely nothing to do with honors, or college for that matter. Nice try, OP. It definitely has nothing to do with mommy and daddy. At least not in the real world!

[Anonymous]

There is no need to buy a home at this time. None at all. I would strongly recommend focusing on doing what you can to save as much money as possible while you rent in the best and most affordable neighborhood on your budget.

Sometimes you can leverage your "good renter" status, if you are in fact good renters. There are people out there who have decided not to put their homes on the market just yet, and who want a nice, solid, reliable family to move in.

We leveraged our good-citizen standing toward this end, ourselves. We have a nice place (out of the DC metro area, since we just moved) that we couldn't afford otherwise while we also are able to save. We landed this because we advertised and followed through with the promise that we would keep the owner's home in good condition: plant flowers, report upkeep problems, be in good standing with neighbors, etc. We are not young-adult trashers, partiers, or "junk funiture" collectors. And when it comes time for the owners to sell, they won't have to hold their breath when prospective buyers come for viewings.

[Anonymous]

I grew up poor. Parents did not pay for college, or help me get a drivers license, or a car. I still graduated at 23, got my drivers at 24. Never lived on campus.
Married a man from a similar poor working class family. He was older and had a business and was doing OK and had a condo of his own.
Owning a home was never my priority, but we bought a house when I was 26

[Anonymous]

I don't get why the focus of your question is about parents paying for college? Is your point that you don't have saving because you had to pay for school? I think you are a little ahead of the game because you don't have loans. Our parents paid for college but we paid for grad school and still owe over $60,000 in loans. We refinanced at a very very low interest rate so chose to continue to pay these back over time and used our savings to buy a home, also when rates were very low. We bought a small place in our late 20s, early 30s, then used the equity to trade up to a slightly larger place in our mid 30s, early 40s.

Also, I suspect a 40% tax rate is pretty common in this area so I'm not sure what the complaint is about.

[Anonymous]

At 25, bought a vette instead of a house... What a stupid move that was. It's on the driveway as a lawn ornament. Bought the first house in Vienna, VA at 30, bought the second house in Alexandria, VA at 31, the 3rd house in Arlington at 32, the 4th in Old Town, Alexandria at 35, and several more to age 38. Rented all and sold most in 2005-08 for real cool profits. I was on the 10-year college plan, bought and paid for whilst all this was going on...

[Anonymous]

OP, I personally did not find you to be a whiner. One thing you'll find out here is that there is a large "misery loves company" contingent. If they had to work for it then you should too.

Lesson 2: these folks will scrutinize every word and piece of information in a post. They will ignore the fact it was, likely, hastily written. Then, they will point out your grammar mistakes and analyze the information to determine if you are a princess, entitled or a whiner (3 of the regular labels thrown around here).

To answer your question, I was 29 and my DH 28. My parents paid for 2 years of college at a state college (that I agreed to go to SOLELY b/c they asked me to as it was cheaper). They then dropped me after two years. I footed the rest of that bill and my law school.

Here's the only way I did it: I had help. My DH had no school loans. We had two decent incomes and no kids at the time. And, my DH had a small inheritance that helped with a down payment. We also moved outside the beltway to an older neighborhood with pretty modest houses.

I admit we could have prob bought sooner and/or inside the beltway (and w/o the down payment help) had we lived more frugally in the few years before we bought our house (which is not to say we lived outside our means; we did not. But, we did have cable, ate out a couple times a week and visited Starbucks, that sort of thing. We didn't "save" like we could have). In the end, we are happy where we are so it worked out.

HTH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I personally did not find you to be a whiner. One thing you'll find out here is that there is a large "misery loves company" contingent. If they had to work for it then you should too.

Lesson 2: these folks will scrutinize every word and piece of information in a post. They will ignore the fact it was, likely, hastily written. Then, they will point out your grammar mistakes and analyze the information to determine if you are a princess, entitled or a whiner (3 of the regular labels thrown around here).

To answer your question, I was 29 and my DH 28. My parents paid for 2 years of college at a state college (that I agreed to go to SOLELY b/c they asked me to as it was cheaper). They then dropped me after two years. I footed the rest of that bill and my law school.

Here's the only way I did it: I had help. My DH had no school loans. We had two decent incomes and no kids at the time. And, my DH had a small inheritance that helped with a down payment. We also moved outside the beltway to an older neighborhood with pretty modest houses.

I admit we could have prob bought sooner and/or inside the beltway (and w/o the down payment help) had we lived more frugally in the few years before we bought our house (which is not to say we lived outside our means; we did not. But, we did have cable, ate out a couple times a week and visited Starbucks, that sort of thing. We didn't "save" like we could have). In the end, we are happy where we are so it worked out.

HTH.

I like you a lot! ITA with the labels. DCUM is so predictable, right? I still come back because I know for sure that I'll always find one or two very helpful posts among the hate and bitterness people like to spread around here.

We've been debating what makes more sense - to buy here and sell when we go home or to buy it at home and rent it until we go back. The whole "sacrifice" thing is kinda different for us since we don't do the Starbucks thing that is pretty common among Americans. Our "extras" are different i.e. buying ingredients from home for cooking instead of substituting, keeping a plan on our phone to call home often instead of having a calling card to use once a week, cable with our language's channels and such. We're cutting back on these things as much as we can. The fact that our credit history is recent is killing us! I think it's the biggest factor along with the high taxes we have to pay, plus all the fees we pay every 6mo to keep our visa current, the attorney to do the job for us... I only wish there was a way to cut on this kind of expenses.

I don't mind the idea to live a little far from the city but I'd feel terrible for DH to have a long commute. He hates driving in this area and gets sick riding the metro so we don't have many options. Anyway, thanks a lot for your suggestions.

I guess we'll have to stick to the plan to buy it at home and rent it until we move back.

Thanks for your

[Anonymous]

In Maryland, they have the HUD program or Low Income Housing Program.
You can check to see if you qualify for it.

This is for people who really need help:

http://www.hocmc.org/Housing/Affordable.asp