New Year, New You?
We all know that New Year's resolutions are wildly unsuccessful. And New Year's Day is no different than any other day - today, or tomorrow, or June 6, or 2 years from now. They say "the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is now," to send us the message that instead of kicking ourselves for not doing something sooner, or instead of waiting for next week or next month, that we should use whatever moment we're in to set new intentions and goals to move forward in life in a new and improved way.
And yet, there's something so refreshing and optimistic about the clean slate of a New Year that it inspires many of us to seize the opportunity to make some goals.
Some of my goals for the year:
Sell over $6M worth of homes
Recruit at least 10 agents to my branch of Unity
Go on at least 6 vacations, but shoot for 12. With at least one of those being to a new country.
Be more intentional with my time and my relationships.
Read 50 books.
Start actually investing my money.
By no means is this an exhaustive list of my goals, and most of them weren't even inspired by the new year. In fact, I just made #5 last night on a whim, as I'll likely already finish my second book of the year today. And most of them were made well before the new year. But the romantic in me will happily grab on to the momentum that 2022 brings with it to push my further along that road.
Numbers 1 and 6 hit on a very common goal that most people have - to gain more financial stability and freedom. A worthy goal for sure, and regardless of the specific details, one that almost everyone shares.
I'm sure this next part will come as no surprise, being that I'm a real estate broker, but it's something that I believe to my core because I've experienced it first hand on a number of occasions, and that is also supported by mountains of data:
The most impactful decision you can make for your financial health is owning a home.
"In 2019, homeowners in the U.S. had a median net worth of $255,000, while renters had a net worth of just $6,300. That's a difference of 40x between the two groups." And that gap is steadily widening, so it's smart to become a homeowners sooner rather than later so that you can ride that wave up, instead of waiting. Because as difficult as it is for new homeowners to break into the housing market right now, the reality is that it likely won't get any easier in the near future, and will probably continue to get more difficult.
So if one of your New Year's resolutions is increased financial stability - let's talk. Home ownership probably isn't as far off as you think, and I'm committed to helping you make that goal a reality; whether that means we go shopping for a house next week, or in 6 months, or 2 years from now. It's never to early to get informed and start making moves to make that goal possible.
And if you don't believe the data, believe the people in your life. I bought a home in 2015 by the skin of my teeth, barely qualifying, and buying the best house I could find from the bottom of the barrel. But the mortgage payment was about the same as what rent had been at my previous one bedroom apartment, and with rising home values I ended up selling it 5 years later for $135,000 more than I paid for it. So I wasn't paying any more money per month, but I made a boatload! There's no amount of putting money in savings, or investing, or pulling myself up by my bootstraps to work harder that would have gained me that kind of cash in that amount of time (short of some insane stroke of luck).
I am definitely not the outlier with my story, either. I watch homeownership change people's lives in a real and measurable way every single day. So why shouldn't it change yours?