Hey everyone!

 

If you're on this page, you already know who I am - either a really awesome friend, or a really awesome relative. :) But if you have any burning questions about myself that you want answered, feel free to contact me and ask me. 

 

As most of you probably know (and have experienced personally), buying a home in southern California is pretty difficult between coming up with a down payment and having extra money on hand for furnishing the place or fixing things. Some of you have been able to do it by living at home with your parents for at least a decade and saving tons of money that way. I chose to live a somewhat nomadic life in my 20's and was not ready to come back to SoCal until my 30s. Others have been able to do it by living with a significant other to save money and combine your buying power to purchase something pretty rad. If you ever followed me on Facebook in recent years, you would know that I had a hell of a time trying to find someone to settle down with in DC. (There is a ton of commentary I wish I could add to this, but this it neither the appropriate venue nor time lol!)

 

For those of you who don't know me well, I lived abroad for several years after graduating from college, and actually saved about half my paycheck over the period of two years. I ended up with quite the nest egg, but due to the 2009 financial crisis, I actually gave that nest egg to my father, who is self-employed as an engineering consultant, so that he could continue his business. That nest egg was about $15,000. Looking back, I really could have used that money toward the down payment of a house, but I wasn't ready to settle down anywhere, and my dad needed the money at the time (as opposed to months or years later). So I don't regret giving him the money, but I do wish I could have done better at saving money since then.

 

After returning from living abroad, I was in graduate school for a couple years and wasn't working (and was still living abroad for brief stints). When I finally graduated from my program, I spent 3 months unemployed because I couldn't find a job due to the still-crappy economy, though I had been applying to tons of jobs for 6 months prior. I finally threw in the towel after 3 months and accepted an unpaid internship, and it was during this time I finally landed my first job in the U.S. (besides an assistant coaching job at my high school for a few summers in college). The salary was really low, and I was living in DC, which has a really high cost of living. During my 5 years in DC, I struggled to save money. I could barely afford flights home to visit my parents, much less a down payment of any sort. 

 

Fast forward to now, I've returned back to my native SoCal and am very happy about that. However, what most of you don't know is that I took a $20,000 pay cut, and I pay more for my apartment now than I did for any place I rented around world (except for Geneva, Switzerland)! Between rent, driving expenses (that weren't an issue in DC because I had no car and my job paid for my commute), bills, and utilities, it would be impossible to come up with a down payment in the next 5-10 years. And I don't plan on changing jobs any time soon, so I'm stuck with my low salary for quite a while (yay pension!).

 

This brings me to why I'm crowdfunding my down payment. I am trying to gather about $10,000 toward my down payment for a 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom condo in northern Orange County, which is about equidistant between my aging parents in Orange County and my job in Pasadena. I would like to have this together by October/November 2017 so that I can get myself a place for my birthday that is at the end of March 2018.

 

No, this fund doesn't go toward raising money to cure cancer or saving the earth. But since I'm not getting married any time soon (if ever), I figure this is my wedding registry. And if I am lucky enough to get married later, I will not be asking for gifts (monetary or otherwise). So think of this as putting money towards a wedding registry, except that there will be no wedding at the end, but rather a housewarming!

 

Thanks for contributing toward The Best Nest to Rest (In)!