When you’ve been working your way through a couple provinces, living in different places along the way and encountering new challenges, you’re bound to learn a few things about the way the real estate world works.

Now, I leave all the real expertise to the gang in the office at One Stop – I just write about their world the way I see fit.

One thing I’ve learned about moving, buying homes, and borrowing money, is that it’s rarely a constant steady flow of cash going out.  And that’s a good thing.

When you start to grow up (I’m still waiting for this to happen to be honest – aren’t we all?), you’re a lot more likely to spend large chunks of money all at once.

Last year I bought a house. And a vehicle. And a PlayStation. And two dogs.

It comes in waves. Large expenses seem to group themselves together.

For instance, after buying the house, I committed to renovations. New floors, new paint, a new wall here, one less wall there. For a small family, the place is great. However, down the road when space gets tight?

Actually, I don’t want to go there just yet.

Where I did want to go at the end of last year, however, was a very deep hole somewhere in Antarctica. I had a tough time with my buyer’s remorse. Here I was, a successful professional chasing his dreams surrounded by a rising sea of debt.

Payments for the house, the vehicle, and the dog food quickly started adding up.

It was downright frightening.

And then something happened.

Time
When you spend a year or two upgrading your life; your living situation, your wheels, and your family, it’s perfectly natural to feel a small dose of panic from time to time. And when you don’t plan out your expenses ahead of time properly? Well, that small dose can snowball in a hurry.

But even if you’re tactical and you know what your payments are going to be once everything is purchased and all the walls are painted, you still might feel a pang of guilt from time to time. I know I did.

In the year that followed, however, I was able to tackle that guilt and defeat it. I paid off my credit card. I stuck to my monthly payments. And I didn’t really buy anything else of major consequence for an entire calendar year.

Actually, come to think of it – I hardly bought anything at all. I’ve got this new house, why leave and spend money, right?

It’s a funny thing, time. It flies by when we’re not paying attention. After a year in which I thought I’d broken the bank for the rest of my life, all of a sudden, I’m sitting on a pretty cool situation with a few bucks saved in my back pocket.

And it feels good.