Posted by: Jessie Bruyn
NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - Where the hell did you get the money?" That question has been popping into my head as more of my friends tell me that they're buying a house.
Social graces and feelings of inadequacy stop me from saying it aloud, but come on, I think to myself. You work for a nonprofit and your husband's a teacher. You're telling me you scrounged up 50 large for a down payment by eating out less and clipping coupons?
Their parents probably helped (not that there's anything wrong with that) or they got an inheritance (that either), I think to myself. Or maybe they're part of the increasingly - and disturbingly - high number of first-time home buyers who put no money down (43 percent, according to the National Association of Realtors).
But recently, another possibility struck me: What if they really did save it up themselves? What if they actually made some smart moves to rack up a down payment quickly?
At first, this possibility caused me some dyspepsia - the closest thing my wife and I have to a down payment is whatever's in the coffee can on the dresser.
But after that feeling passed, I had a wonderful revelation: My God, it's possible! Now that I - and, I hope, you - are seeing that coffee can as half full, where to begin?
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