My 2024 New Year's Resolution Is Homeownership. Here's How I've Spent 2 Years Preparing

As I write this, we have less than two weeks left of 2023. And by the time you read it, 2024 will be even closer. As the days go by, I feel antsier and antsier, because with any luck, my days as a renter will soon be behind me. My 2024 New Year's resolution is to buy a house, and I spent 2022 and 2023 working toward this goal.

When you consider my history (35 moves and counting) as well as my less-than-rosy experience with homeownership in my 20s, it's perhaps not surprising that I want this so badly. I was not ready to buy a house that first time, and yet I did it anyway -- only to run into major financial difficulties and spend several years getting out from under a house I couldn't afford to keep (in a state where I no longer lived). This time, things are different. Here's what I did for the last two years to get ready for this milestone.

I got out of debt with some encouragement from a professional

My personal finances have never really been in great shape. Thanks to constantly moving and needing to re-establish myself in a new part of the country every few years, as well as never really earning enough money to be able to think long term, I have basically always lived paycheck to paycheck. Going into another home purchase in those circumstances would have been a grave mistake. Becoming a homeowner has a major impact on your finances, after all.

I started meeting with a Certified Financial Planner in early 2022, and having a neutral third party look at my finances without bias was incredibly helpful. I also got the cold reality check I desperately needed -- no, it wasn't a good idea to buy a house if I still had high-interest debt. So getting out from under that formed my 2022 plan. I was fortunate enough to be able to take on a side hustle, and I brought all of my energy to the situation. I snowballed my debt payoff, and owed exactly $0 to my creditors inside of just seven months -- three fewer than I had originally predicted. Once I was out of debt, it was time for phase two of the plan.

I spent more than a year saving money

Homeownership is expensive. There's no way around it. Not only do you have to make a down payment to a mortgage lender to get a loan in most cases, but you'll also encounter a lot of other expenses along the way. You'll need to pay various fees to get the mortgage loan in place (called closing costs). And then once the house is yours, you'll also need to pay to move (hiring movers will make my own next move more expensive, but it'll be worth it). And you'll be officially responsible for anything that goes wrong with the house. So having a solid emergency fund is even more important.

With all of these various costs in mind, I vowed to save $50,000 in 2023. This was the bare minimum target that would allow me to make a solid down payment on a home in my area, as well as cover closing costs, hire movers, and leave me with cash left over for future repair bills. I was lucky in that I could quit my salaried job in early 2023 and fully lean into freelancing.

Freelancers work on our own schedule, and can often increase our income as needed. If you've got a major goal to save for, not having a fixed income can definitely help. As it turned out, I made my savings goal ahead of schedule, and then turned around and decided to increase it. The more I can save ahead of calling the mortgage lender and real estate agent I picked out, the more peace of mind I'll have going into this expensive process. Plus, mortgage rates are higher than we've seen in a few years (Freddie Mac says 6.67% as of this writing; compare that to rates around 3% in 2021). That'll make my costs even higher.

Achieving a huge financial goal requires a lot of preparation

I have a long history of being stubborn, and my approach to getting ready for homeownership is no exception. It worked out well that my personality makes it easier for me to laser-focus on the important things and then do whatever it takes to achieve a goal.

Since buying a house is the most expensive purchase the average person is ever likely to make, taking this much time and energy to truly get ready to jump in is a good idea. Becoming a homeowner for the wrong reasons, or before you're ready, or when your finances are already on shaky ground is a bad idea. Instead, take a page from my book -- focus on laying the groundwork first for the best chance of success.