Money tips for home ownership, from a grumpy old man

Cut back on junk spending and save for a home instead – it’s blunt advice from a grumpy old man, but can pay off enormously.

‘Back in my day” is a four-word sentence starter that immediately conjures an image of a crusty, grumpy old bloke telling younger generations what they’re doing wrong.

Think “back in my day, we used old newspapers for window curtains”. Or “back in my day, we had to memorise other people’s phone numbers”. Or even “back in my day, we photographed our food with a real camera”.

Sadly, I worry I’m becoming one of those grumpy old men when it comes to real estate and saving money to buy it. Back in my day, we didn’t waste money buying pointless junk then complain that we were broke. Oh wait, we did.

I also made money mistakes that cost thousands of dollars – such as failing to realise my stubborn credit card debt was charging me 20 per cent interest.

Many junk purchases I made decades ago would have been much better going towards a house deposit, then a mortgage. People still make silly spending decisions today, and have technology to help separate them from their money much faster. Think online gaming, gambling and shopping. Click, and your money is gone.

Good money tips from any source – even grumpy blokes – can be worthwhile. Picture: iStock

People pay extra money on apps to get takeaway meals delivered via pushbike, when they could just get it themselves. And don’t get me started on how normal it now is to buy lunches and dinners. Every day. Potentially costing $50 a day – that’s more than $18,000 a year.

Instead, learn to cook multiple meals and reheat them later. Or buy cans of baked beans and use the microwave – high in fibre, and Warnie loved them.

Here are some costs that can be cut and diverted to a home deposit.

• Paying too much on car and other insurance by not shopping around.

• Too many automatic direct debits for stuff people no longer use.

• Phone and internet expenses that are underused and too costly.

• High petrol prices that can vary by 50c a litre between outlets in a majority of capital cities.

• Late fees on credit cards or on utility bills.

• Extended warranties on goods that already come with automatic warranties if they break quickly.

That small sample may seem insignificant individually, but when combined and multiplied over many months the cash saved can stack up quickly.

Scraping money together for a home deposit is a huge task, but if you don’t start small and start somewhere you will never get there. Back in my day, home buyers did not have as many government incentives and grants to get into the property market. There are deposit schemes where you only have to stump up 2 or 5 per cent of the value of a home, shared equity schemes and superannuation linked savings schemes.

I now wish I had someone older – and possibly grumpy – telling me what I was doing wrong financially in my 20s. And about the importance of buying real estate to build wealth.