Saving money to purchase a home may seem big, daunting, scary, unattainable, or always just out of reach. Don’t let your fears or apprehensions stop you from getting closer to the dream of owning your own home. Once you take those first steps it won’t seem so scary and might even feel like that savings goal is not so far away.

Here Are Some Tips to Begin Your Savings

Set Some Goals

Think about what type of home you have always wanted to live in and about how much you are willing to spend on a home. It’s time to decide just how much money you want/need to save up to make dreams a reality. It is also good to set a goal deadline so you are not tempted to keep putting things off. You will want to save cash funds for:
Down Payment: this is the big component that most people think about when saving up cash for a home purchase. This is what a buyer is willing to pay upfront toward the purchase price of the home. Down payment requirements are different according to the type of loan and the individual lender, as well as your personal qualifying factors. Some lenders ask for as little as 3% while others look for 20%. Checking out a down payment calculator online can help you determine an estimate of how much to save.
Closing Costs: Sometimes buyers forget about factoring closing costs into a loan. These are the fees that come with processing the loan to finalize and close on a home purchase. These fees are typically 2-5% of the total loan amount.
Moving/ Decorating/ Maintenance/Etc.: Even if you buy a brand new home and move everything yourself in borrowed pick-up trucks, there will be expenses to moving. You will need to purchase boxes, labels, tape, markers, gas, etc. to move. When you get to your new home there will be things you want to do to make the home your own.

Look at the Budget and Seek Ways to Save

Go over your daily, monthly, and yearly finances with a fine-tooth comb and determine where you can cut back on expenses to put cash into savings for a home. Some great places to look into saving money are:
Car Insurance: look at your current rates and shop around to see if you could be saving even just 20- 100 dollars a month.
Look into your cable and internet bills, if you are not currently bundling these services you might save some money doing so.
How long has it been since you updated your cell phone plan? Do you really use all of the data and services you are paying for?
Refinance student loans or even your auto loan to get payment requirements lower
Cancel monthly niceties you are not using like magazine subscriptions, gym memberships, entertainment memberships, etc.
Track your spending for a month to see where cash goes and determine what you can cut back on or cut out.
Pretend like you are making mortgage payments and try to live off of what money is left. Are you still living comfortably? Put that extra money over your current housing payment in savings.

Set Up Auto Transfers

Set up an automatic transfer to your savings account for your new determined amount when you get paid. This way it is harder to go out and spend that money.

Tuck Away Bonuses, Raises, and Windfalls

Transfer your tax refund, bonuses, monetary gifts, raise money, and other financial windfalls straight to your savings before you can even think about how to spend it. This will put homeownership into reality faster.

Consider a Side Hustle

Many people take on part-time extra work or one-time jobs to help them boost their income while saving for a house. A side hustle can be anything from freelance writing to becoming an uber driver to working for Grubhub.

Look at Your Progress

About once a month peak into your savings account to see how you are doing on your goals. Seeing that number go up will be the encouragement you need to keep going.

How to Start Saving Money for a House