My Journey to Buying My Dream Home With Cash

Today, I want to answer a question that I have been getting over the past couple of months. Not only is it a question I am excited to answer, but I also feel the NEED to write this article since it was such a significant milestone on my financial journey.

Before I begin, it's important that you realize that everyone’s financial story and journey looks different. The goals might be the same for some, but the method, steps, and timeline to obtain those goals might look drastically different, and that’s okay.

I also realize that buying a home with cash might not be your goal. Some of you may not want to wait the time it would take to save enough money to buy a home, and that's also okay.

Maybe your goal is to save a down payment or a substantial amount for your home purchase. Whatever your home goals might be, I hope this article motivates and inspires you to push yourself and to reach for the stars.

This is my story, the steps I took to reach my dream goal, and the lessons I learned along the way.

Let’s start at the beginning…

When did I know that buying a home was something I wanted? The first step that I took was realizing that I had this dream at all. After my divorce in 2016, and leaving the house and life I built behind, I knew immediately that I wanted a place of my own for me and my son.

A place to make memories, to grow old, and ultimately something that no one could ever take away from me. I knew that I never wanted to be in a position where I had to start from scratch ever again. This feeling and desire were shaped by my past experiences, and ultimately my divorce.

The truth is, during my marriage, I lost myself, my strength, my confidence, and the ability to believe in myself. I was so focused on being a good mom, and building this picture-perfect life, I forgot about everything that made me happy – as an individual.

From that point on, I made a promise to myself to do things differently. Being able to buy a home was in some small way, proving to myself that I could do it, even if all by myself. It was about discovering myself again.

This is where my dream of buying a home was born.

I started small.

After recognizing that buying a home was something I wanted, I started small.

This dream was born when I was making under $40,000, was a single mom, and was going to a full-time job working in the finance industry. I didn’t have a lot of extra resources, I didn’t have a lot saved, I was struggling with money management, and I was buried in debt. I had just started recognizing my passion for helping people with The Budget Mom as a legitimate business. Still, most months, every penny of income I made was put right back into trying to help more people and ultimately scaling my small business.

Even though I couldn’t make enormous savings contributions, I was still able to save small amounts—$ 50 here, $100 one month, $25 one paycheck. I accomplished what I could realistically within my budget.

What I didn’t realize at that time, was that even though the amounts that I was saving were relatively small and nothing significant, the action of saving & those small victories would ultimately turn out to be one of the most significant contributors to my success.

Small steps in the right direction are still signs of progress and success. It’s momentum.

My dream became a vision.

As I thought more and more about buying a home, I kept asking, “What kind of home do I want to buy?” As the weeks passed and I pondered this question, even more, I started to visualize myself in my new home.

As I started imagining and my dream became more of a picture in my mind, it was clear to me almost immediately that I didn’t want to buy any home, I wanted to buy my dream home.

I knew that I didn’t want to play the real estate game of buying a fixer-upper, flipping it, selling it for money, and then using that money to buy a better home. I didn’t want the burden of packing up all of my belongings and uprooting my son more than once. I didn’t want a house where there could be unexpected repair costs that are common in older homes. 

That was not my path.

Your dream needs to become a vision. You must see yourself there. You have to picture it and have that picture be so clear you can see every detail. You have to know exactly what type of home you want to buy.

My vision was so clear that I would wake up in tears after having a dream where I could hear my son laughing and running through the front door of our new home. I could see the smile on his face as he played with our dog. I could literally smell the food as I dreamed about all of my family under one roof for the holidays. I could see it, smell it, hear it, and feel it.

I went to bed every night thinking about my dream home, and I woke up every day, wanting it even more. That’s when it became clear.

The first financial plan.

When I first thought about accomplishing a massive goal of buying a home, my mind immediately went where a lot of people might go – a mortgage. At that time, I was comfortable getting financing as long as I had 20% down. That said, I also knew a 20% down payment for my dream home would be a lot.

My business was growing, and I found myself considering leaving my full-time day job in the finance industry to run The Budget Mom full time. I paused my debt payoff journey and took the time to save for my emergency savings to prepare for self-employment. I accomplished that goal in November 2018.

Even though I made huge progress on my debt payoff journey and accomplished paying off my credit cards, I still had a huge mountain to climb – paying off my car & student loans.

My first financial plan was to save up enough money for my emergency funds, pay off enough debt (not all), and save for a down payment on a new home before leaving my full-time job in the finance industry, which I planned to do in May 2019.

Your financial plan must start somewhere. It might change during your journey, but there have to be specific goals and steps in place.

It’s not enough to just say, “I want to save for a home.” There has to be a very strategic plan in place on how you will accomplish that goal.

Business VS Personal Income

As my business had grown over the years, I left all of the income I was making past my business expenses in my business checking account. To me, that money didn’t really have a purpose except to be there in case I needed it for my business.

One day, when I met with my accountant, he asked me what my plans were for the money I had just sitting in my checking account. I kind of just shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t really have a plan for it.

He said to me, “You need to have a plan and be more intentional with your business income. Huge sums shouldn’t just be sitting in your business checking account with no clear plan on what it’s for.”

All my business expenses and goals were being met, and now I had a fully-funded emergency fund for my business. So, I asked him if I could use it for personal financial goals rather than business goals.

Ultimately the answer is yes, with one significant distinction. If I were to use any business income for personal reasons and to maintain the protection of personal assets offered by my business structure as an LLC, I would need to use the money as an owner distribution. I would also have to pay income taxes on any money used for personal reasons since I would not be using the money solely for business purposes.

At that time felt my business was fully prepared financially, so, at that moment, I used the income that had been growing in my business checking account to establish a DREAM account. This was an account I created to help me establish the life I envisioned for me and my son.

It would be this DREAM account that would ultimately help me reach my goal of buying my dream home with cash, even if I didn’t realize it.

Things took a very drastic change.

After I had a personal emergency fund, a business emergency fund, and a tax savings account established for my business by November 2018, I finally felt comfortable focusing most of my savings efforts on saving enough money for a down payment on my home.

My business was still growing substantially, and I was finding it hard to have my heart in two different places at once.

I was also struggling with saving enough cash for a down payment fast enough. Day after day, my heart was telling me it was time to leave my full-time job. Still, I was terrified about getting financing for a home as a 100% self-employed individual, with no proof of W-2 wages, and not an extended length of time of my business being in existence. I had only filed for my business license in 2016.

I knew it would be challenging to get the financing I needed for the home I wanted, especially being self-employed. So, I was rushing the process. I felt trapped and ultimately defeated.

One night as I was crunching numbers trying to figure out my next move, a friend of mine reached out to me. The question she asked me would end up changing my entire life.

“Why don’t you just pay for your new home with cash?”

Before that second, I honestly never thought about it. In fact, I didn’t think it was possible, at least not from someone like me and my financial situation. I still had debt, I was a single mom working with only my income, and I had some house savings, but nowhere near the amount, I needed to buy my dream home with cash.

I remember her saying, “Your business makes enough income where you could reach this goal in only a couple of years. You can do it!”

I fell asleep that night thinking about what she said, and that night I slept like a baby. I woke up with a new sense of direction, and for the first time since deciding to buy a home, I felt a sense of peace.

That’s when I knew that buying my dream home with cash was the path I was meant to take. I had to follow my heart.

Sometimes making a decision isn't just about the numbers. It's also about peace of mind. That is something that you can't put a value on.

A new financial plan.

After deciding to buy my dream home with cash, I had to come up with a new financial plan. 

Any time there is a significant life change, you need to reevaluate your financial goals. You need to make sure that they still align with what you are trying to accomplish.

I spent a ton of time researching homes in my area and the costs associated with buying my dream home. Ever since I was a kid, I always had a dream of building a home on land. This would give me the flexibility to build something truly unique, and exactly what I wanted.

After doing the research on land and building costs, which took a lot of late nights and phone calls, I came up with an initial goal to save $350,000, which eventually turned into $400,000.

In my mind, that would be enough to buy the land and start the building process, and then I could continue to save during the first couple of years of that process to finish the build if I needed it.

My new financial plan meant going back to a 100% debt payoff effort. In my gut, I felt like I couldn’t give my all and put every extra cent of income towards my home goal until my debt was gone. So, that’s what I did.

I was lucky enough at that time that my business was still growing. What once started as a hobby and passion, unexpectedly turned into a full-scale successful business. For the first time in my business history, I was making quadruple the amount I was making from my full-time job in the finance industry. I was able to use some of my business income to help me reach my debt payoff goals, and ultimately, I became debt-free in January 2019.

Where to put your savings.

In February 2019, I made the ultimate decision to use an investment account for my house savings. Up until that point, I had a separate savings account at my credit union.

When deciding where to place your house savings, you must determine a couple of things first.

1. How long do you plan on saving? Will you need the funds within 1-5 years?
2. How do you handle risk and the turbulence of the stock market?
3. What does your financial picture look like?

When I decided to invest, I knew that I would not need the money for 1-2 years. This is considered a short-term investment, so I had to make sure I was fully aware of the consequences of investing before making my decision.

I also knew I was comfortable taking on some small risk to get higher returns during that time, possibly. I ended up investing my money in an Individual Investment Account (Individual Taxable Brokerage Account). This type of account can hold a variety of financial assets, which include stocks or bonds. It is also a type of account where the dividends or growth that you earn are subject to taxes in the year you receive them. This is NOT a type of retirement account.

I decided to invest with American Funds in very safe mutual funds, which my financial advisor helped me establish. Ultimately, it ended up working out to my benefit. When I had my house savings invested, I made an average of a 6% return, which is a lot better than what a bank, credit union, or even a high-yield savings account could offer.

It is imperative that before you decide to invest, you speak to a licensed advisor. Here are some articles that will help you choose where to place your house savings.

• What You Need to Know Before You Invest in Mutual Funds
• Where to Invest Your Money for Short-Term Savings Goals
• How to Start Investing with Little Money
• How to Find the Best Financial Advisor for Your Needs

How I stayed motivated.

As my business continued to grow, I could no longer sustain two different jobs. I was working full-time hours for both jobs for the past three years, and I ended up leaving my full-time job in the finance industry in February 2019.

Even with all the accomplishments and progress, the thought of saving $400,000 was absolutely terrifying. I knew that it would be the biggest goal I set out to accomplish during my entire financial journey, next to paying off my debt.

The hardest part of saving for my dream home wasn’t the actual saving itself. It was knowing that I could be living in my dream home, something I so desperately wanted, immediately. 

Here’s the truth. I could afford a mortgage. I could afford the payments, and I was 100% financially stable enough to afford home ownership costs. I could do it at that exact moment. The hardest part was being able to restrain that feeling on instant gratification because I knew that what I was fighting for was so much more important.

I wasn’t just fighting for a home. I was fighting for my identity. The identity I lost during my marriage and divorce. I was fighting for a future that I envisioned with my son, where debt was no longer part of the picture. I knew that my decision to wait and to stay dedicated to my plan of following my heart was worth fighting for.

Find you confidence.

One way I stay motivated on my journey was being confident enough to know that I was making the right decision for me and my family.

After I revealed to the world that I wanted to buy my dream home with cash, I received emails and messages telling me I was stupid. They were calling me unrelatable and unrealistic. I was told I was a horrible financial expert for choosing to rent over buying a house as an investment. The list goes on.

But here is the thing. It didn’t matter what other people thought about my dreams or goals. I had the confidence to believe in myself, my decisions, and my abilities to reach for the starts.

The journey to home ownership is about YOU, and no one needs to understand it. It’s not for them. It doesn’t matter if you are reading this article because you want to buy your home with cash, or you want to save a large portion for a down payment. It is your dream, own it!

“One day, I will have my dream house, and I will pay for it all with cash and know what true financial freedom feels like. When I walk up the stairs to my beautiful porch, I will kneel, thank God, and cry with my son happy tears. It will be on that day that I will thank the heavens that I followed my heart.”

Track your progress.

Whatever your goal is for purchasing a home, it’s a long journey. During that time, it can feel like you are not making any progress at all. If you are noticing progress, that progress isn't happening fast enough.

Nothing gave me more satisfaction than visually seeing my progression. I used charts that I would color every time I saved money. I tracked monthly numbers to show that I was making progress even though it didn’t feel like it.

Remember, saving money for a home is not an overnight event. It’s going to be a long journey full of ups and downs. By continually tracking your progress, you have the visual proof that you are moving in the right direction, and sometimes that’s all you need to see to continue.

Take one small bite at a time.

One of the things that I implemented on my journey was breaking down my large goal into small, realistic bite-size chunks. I did this because, in our minds, smaller goals are more attainable.

When we can believe in the possibility of reaching our goals, we find new motivation and hope. 

Sometimes it’s better not to focus on the end goal itself, but the small goals & action steps we must take to get there.

I stopped thinking about my end goal of $400k and focused on only reaching $100k. Both of those numbers are huge, but in my mind, reaching the smaller number seemed more doable, which gave me the confidence I needed to push forward. I would create smaller goals throughout the month, like saving $1,500, and even smaller goals for the week, like saving $300.

It’s an amazing thing that happens when we reach a financial goal. Not only does it feel good, but it creates momentum. All of a sudden, we know we are capable of doing something, so it gives us the motivation to push even harder.

Every time I reached a goal and saw my visual board on the wall, I thought to myself, “Well, if I can do all of that, I can do anything!”

Consistency is key.

When I look back on my Dream Home Journey, I realized that what lead to my success wasn’t the times I was able to make enormous savings contributions, or the times I went above and beyond and put in the extra effort. Those are only the outcomes of something smaller.

The action steps you take daily, no matter how small, lead up to the huge signs of progress. Every decision you make with your money affects your end goal. I had to remind myself of this consistently.

The two questions I asked myself daily were:

1. If I spend money now, what am I giving up in the future?
2. What am I doing today that will get me a step closer to meeting my goal?

There will be days where you aren’t going to save money. There are going to be pay periods where you aren’t able to accomplish what you want to. That doesn’t mean you should give yourself permission to do nothing.

I learned that there was always something I could do every day to help me reach my goal. I could track my spending so I could make better decisions with my dollars in the future. I could plan out my budget for the following month, so I could look for areas where I could cut back so that I could save more. I could create a saving challenge for myself to make my journey a little more fun. Every day I pushed myself to do things that positively impacted my finances, even though they didn’t seem directly tied to my financial goal.

A savings journey isn’t just about the dollars you save. It’s also about developing lasting habits that change you as a person.

My dream home became a reality.

In November 2019, I hit my savings goal. On that day, I took every penny that I had saved from my business throughout the year and everything I was able to save from my personal paychecks, and I used it for my house goal. At that time, I also decided to keep my dream account intact, and I didn’t include it in reaching my 400k goal.

Reaching that goal was one of the best days of my life. I felt like slowly, but surely I was finding my strength as an individual, and I could see that my hard work was paying off. That said, revealing that I reached such a massive goal with the rest of the world on my Instagram caused me to receive some negative comments. I was told I was unrelatable, and my journey was unattainable to most.

By sharing my journey, I wanted people to see that it doesn’t matter how much you make. Making a lot of money isn’t what makes you rich. Having a lot of money doesn't allow you to accomplish or obtain the things that matter most to you in your life. It might give you the opportunities, but money doesn’t make you turn those opportunities into reality. 

Wealth is not gained by how much income you make. Real wealth is achieved by the lifestyle you choose to live. Learning how to manage the money you do have well is what creates wealth. It's finding happiness, not in money, but in the things money just can't buy. It's learning to be grateful for what you have, the people that surround you and having the mindset of not always wanting more.

I made an offer on land and then discovered something.

I looked at four potential land options. Before I searched for a place to build my home, I set a $35k budget for the land purchase. I knew that I could afford that price and still be left enough cash to start the building process.

Throughout my entire journey, I followed my heart, and I listened to my gut. All the land options I looked at were entirely out of my budget. Some by over 90%, BUT they were exactly what I wanted.

After many restless nights, I knew that spending so much on land was not the right move. So, I waited. I was patient. Here’s the thing, when you want something so badly and have the money to obtain it, it’s tough to step back and be a patient spender.

On your home buying journey, listening to what your heart is telling you, trusting your instincts, and being patient are crucial. Sometimes the excitement can get the best of us, and we end up making financial decisions that don’t give us the best benefits.

Being patient paid off, and in December 2019, I made an offer on land with a contingency based on feasibility studies.

The land I ended up falling in love was raw land – no sewer, no electricity, no water, and no driveway. So, I started researching the cost to turn the raw land into buildable land. I made phone calls and had different experts come out to run tests. Boy, was I in for a surprise.

The estimate – over $250k. Not only that, but experts were also telling me that it would take years to complete. I was absolutely devastated.

Sometimes you must make a change, and that’s okay.

It’s important to know that what you set out to do and accomplish might look very different by the time you reach your goal. Why? Because you learn things along the way that change your course of action.

After learning about the unknowns of building a custom home on land, I quickly realized that was not the journey I wanted to take. With the land I wanted, and now with what the experts were telling me, I would have to use almost all the money I saved to get the dream home I wanted.

I had no guarantees of finding water, no guarantees that the county would approve my private driveway, and so many other variables. I decided building wasn't for me, and I retracted my offer.

It was at that moment I decided to buy instead of build.

Any time there is a change to your financial goal, you need to reevaluate your finances. 

Could I still afford to get my dream home with cash by buying an already built home? Was it even doable with the cash that I had? I was planning on using the cash I had saved to get me through some of the building process, leaving my savings account intact during that process, and saving money as the building developed. That would no longer be the case if I bought a home outright.

It was possible for me to do with cash. I just had to make one major decision. Instead of only using my house savings, I would also have to utilize my dream account savings. Instead of paying for the build as we went along, I would now have a considerable purchase upfront. That was the reality I faced.

If there was one major lesson that I learned during this time of my home journey, it’s this:

If you are debating on buying vs. building, make sure BEFORE purchasing land that you know exactly what you are dealing with. Get experts, do your own tests, and get estimates. Never make an offer on land without a feasibility study in your contract.

One of the most emotional days of my life.

In February 2020, my 4-year dream home journey came to an end. I revealed to my son for the first time, our new home.

To be completely honest, I still don’t have words to describe that moment in my life, just tears.

If I can put into words what I felt or experienced that day, it would be that I discovered just how strong I am. I realized that I was truly capable of anything I wanted for my life, just as long as I fought for it every single day.

People say all the time that your home is where you make it. Your home isn’t what dictates whether you are happy in life and where you choose to hang your hat isn’t what makes it a home – it’s the people who live there.

Though I do agree with this statement to a degree, for me, this was about something much deeper. I NEEDED to do this for myself and for my son. I think having this emotional connection to reaching such an enormous goal was a big reason I was successful in the end. I didn’t want to go the rest of my life without ever trying to reach my dream.

I don’t own a successful business; this isn’t doable for me.

When I first set out on this journey, my business was barely making enough money to sustain itself. Not only that, but I also had debt, I didn’t have a lot of savings, and I was working with one income.

Will your journey be exactly like mine? Will you reach your goal in the same timeline I did? No. Your journey will be very, very different. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it.

After everything I have accomplished so far in my life, I believe that you are capable of anything. This life, the one you are given is too short not to fight for it. Don’t set yourself up for failure before you even give yourself a chance to try. Trust me; you will surprise yourself.

Passion, dedication, purpose, consistency, and motivation. If you have those things, reach for the stars.

Where you are right now financially DOES NOT determine what you are capable of. It also does not dictate how big you're allowed to dream.