No one tells you how hard it is to buy your first home

No one ever tells you how hard it is to buy your first home, and if they do, it doesn't really sink in, writes Matty Holdsworth.

No one ever tells you how hard it is to buy your first home, if they do, it doesn't really sink in, writes Matty Holdsworth. Picture: Marc Stapelberg

OPINION:

NO ONE ever tells you how hard it is to buy your first home - if they do, it doesn't really sink in.

In 2019, it's arguably harder than ever, or at least it feels like it.

Growing up, your parents try their best to drum it in, but, for me, I didn't appreciate their advice until recently.

I always thought, 'what would they know'?

It turns out, a lot.

My father joined the workforce at 15 and built his first home at 21.

At 21, I was enjoying too many nights in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley with my mates to care about a home.

I'm a single bloke rapidly approaching the dreaded three decade mark and while I'm close to affording a first home, it won't be a dream home.

More likely, I'll be confined to a one or two-bedroom unit or a small house in an undesirable suburb.

I'm prepared to do that, begrudgingly mind you.

But if only there was some way we could be taught about saving, taught about investment, taught about banking.

Why isn't it taught in high school?

Instead we're subjected to poetry, religion, algebra, chemistry - which to me, aren't exactly every-day, real-world topics.

If you desire to go down that path in life fine, study that in tertiary fields.

Mental health subjects should also be included in the high school curriculum - how to deal with stress and anxiety, relationships, how to see warning signs of depression.

They're important, life-saving topics, ones that should be taught to potentially vulnerable minds from an early age.

But instead, we get Hamlet and The Crucible. Why?

Originally published as No one tells you how hard it is to buy your first home