While this blog reflects nothing but a tiny microscopic snippet of who we are, there would be something missing if I didn't share the story of our home. The very best decisions we've made have come from pure instinct and heart. The practical stuff usually follows after the decision has been made. One beautiful June day, Frankie and I were talking about how wonderful it would be if we had an extra 10K in our savings so we could buy a house. 2 weeks later we each received cheques from our tax return getting $5000 each. It just so happened that we both failed to claim our student loans while doing our taxes in university and when we graduated school dear old CRA realised the error and sent us a big fat cheque. Best brain fart ever!
So we went house hunting one evening. Looked at 5 different places, this was the 5th and made an offer right away. We've never really been the sort to shop around much (I did after all marry the first boy I ever kissed). The path that brings us greatest joy usually just magically presents itself. I still remember the moment we set foot in this house. It will forever stay alive within me. We both felt an immediate rush of happiness and a sense that we were home. And that was it. Later that evening I asked Frankie what that feeling was and he said it was all the happy memories rushing back to us from the future and that we felt it the second we set foot inside. This was in 2009 and we were 24 years old, just starting our married life together. It was fantastically romantic to say the least.
Frankie and I are both planners. Our life is pretty much mapped out on an excel spreadsheet. Our strategy with our first home was for it to be a single income household. This meant we could give ourselves way more options, a great deal of financial flexibility and the ability to save a crazy amount of money; which is exactly what we did. So when I decided I hated working in a cubicle; we had the money to invest in my business. When we decided that we didn't want Maya in daycare 5 days a week, we had the money to transition to this new life - one where I get to pour my heart into photography and raise our darling daughter. This perfect little home has allowed us to grow our equity (still don't know what this means entirely), follow our heart and live in a safe and beautiful little place.
This place of ours fills us with so much joy and buying it is one of the best decisions we've made for ourselves.
Single income strategy people. Single income!