Interview with a Goal-Setter: Ava G.
My favorite thing in the world might be when I get to talk with someone who is working hard toward a big, inspiring goal. Read on to meet Ava Giesbrecht, a college sophomore who has a goal to purchase a house before her senior year.
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C: So tell me about your goal!
A: After my junior year of college I’m going to buy a house. I’m 19 right now and I’m going into my sophomore year of college at TCU. I worked all this summer (2020), while living at my parents’ house, and I’ll work all next summer (2021). By the end of the summer I should have enough saved up for the down payment. Once I buy the house, I’ll go back to school for my senior year and graduate a semester early (in December 2021).
C: What inspired you to become a homeowner so young?
A: This summer I started working 55 hours per week with my family’s sod company, keeping the books, scheduling orders, answering phones. Really anything that needs done. We do most of our business during the summer, so it’s all hands on deck. After a few months (so far this summer) of working extra hours and getting paid overtime, I realized that it’s not unreasonable for me to buy a house fairly soon. When I graduate college I want to keep working for the family business, but I don’t want to live with my parents, so I figured I should buy a house in the area when I graduate. But then when I realized I would graduate early, I decided to shoot for the summer between junior and senior year. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn’t out of reach.
C: But aren’t most of your peers planning to rent an apartment after they graduate?
A: I just don’t really understand the point of renting an apartment when I could buy. If I decided to pay rent after college, I would spend around $1,000 every month. that’s $12,000 per year that I wouldn’t get back. It makes more sense to buy a house, even though I’ll be paying the interest on a loan… I’ll most likely buy a house at some point in my life anyway, so why not just skip to that part of the equation?
I realize that my situation is unique because I have a pretty clear idea of what my life will look like after college. I know where I’ll work (the family business) so that gives me a lot of certainty. I’m not planning to move around after college, looking for jobs, so buying a house makes sense. I also acknowledge that I have some privilege in that I can plan around the security of this job. It makes the idea of taking a risk (buying a house) a little less scary.
C: Do you feel like you’ll miss out on anything taking on a responsibility like this right after college?
A: Just because I’m responsible and I’ll have a house doesn’t mean I’m missing out on my twenties. I won’t be working during the winters, so that will be my time to live like a 22-year-old. Beginning a financially stable life at a young age will bring a level of opportunity and joy that my peers might not have access to. I know that I’m in a stage and having experiences that my peers might not have, and I probably will have more in common with people in a later life stage, but I know I can grow from those experiences rather than focus on what I might be missing out on.
C: What advice would you give someone who is a couple years younger than you?
A: Haha I don’t know!… I think keeping the big picture in mind is important because when I decided to make this goal I realized, “Wow, I should stop spending money on random stuff!” Financial decisions are hard at a young age because your life can be very near-sighted. Most 16-year-olds aren’t thinking about buying a house, they’re thinking about about buying a new pair of leggings, so that’s a big purchase. But when you think about how much you spent on things that are not meaningful to you, like the t-shirt you wore two times, if you think about how little that contributes to your life, it really makes you second guess your buying choices, and it puts a much higher value on money. If everyone asked themselves, "What will this $100 shirt do for me?” everyone might have a little more money saved up. I just like to think about how much money I could have saved if I never bought coffee!
C: That sounds so crazy coming from a 19-year-old!
A: I don’t think it's crazy to be financially intelligent at a young age. It’s not normal, so kids aren’t expected to do it, but that creates a cycle where kids aren’t taught about finances. And then of course they won’t be financially intelligent.
If you start implementing responsibility at a young age, it sets you up for the rest of your life.
So yeah, I guess the advice I would give to a younger person is to keep the big picture in mind. Making goals is a good idea because it helps you keep the big picture in mind. Make purchases that will benefit you down the line rather than just throwing money away.
C: Do you have any smaller goals that will help get you toward your house purchase goal?
A: The first thing I did after making this goal was to set aside $500 as all my spending money for the entire next school year. That won’t be as difficult as it sounds because I’m on a meal plan and my gas money is already covered. So $500 is all I have to spend on clothes and random stuff for the whole school year.
C: How much are you planning to save up for your down payment?
A: This is kind of funny, because up until this summer I had no idea what a house loan was. I first had to learn about house loans and I did some research and talked to my parents. My goal is to have $45,000 to $50,000 saved up for the down payment. That will give me enough money for a couple month’s mortgage payment too. I’ll be working at that point, but I want to make sure I have a couple months’ cushion.
C: In your research, what resources have you unearthed that have helped you?
A: My parents have been a really good resource. They’re very intelligent and conservative about how they spend their money. I’ve always been finance-focused. I’m studying business finance, I’ve always had a job. It’s very much my personality to save rather than spend. I have this book that really helped me a couple years ago by Dave Ramsey, called The Total Money Makeover.
C: Ah!! I love that book! Dave is like a guru at our house
A: Haha yeah it’s a good one. I’ve just always worked, so always having paychecks from my jobs has helped me learn about smart personal finances. I see my friends who never worked in high school the way I did, and the second they get a paycheck, they spend the whole thing. It’s like depriving yourself of food, you’ll be starving and then the second you see food you’ll go crazy and eat everything in sight. I had to learn to manage a little bit of money well, because it didn’t go very far. Now that I’m making more money, I still have that habit, and I manage it the same way.
Oh you’ll like this…. This past summer I invested in the stock market which was kind of cool! I put $2,000 in. I bought 1 share of lululemon, some Disney, some Microsoft. My whole portfolio value has gone up by $342 since buying, so that’s pretty cool.
C: Haha you definitely bought at the right time!
A: I know! Maybe if I’m really good at investing I won’t have to work next summer for the rest of the down payment…
