First Home Style

Four years ago, when I started this blog, I was obsessed about homeownership. It was all I thought about. I was in contract to purchase my first home and I also recently graduated from a master’s degree program. Needless to say, I was cocky and confident. I was optimistic. I thought that everything was falling into place. But then the coop board denied my application and the job that I thought would materialize did not.  I was sad and angry for a long time. I stopped blogging and became even more depressed as I couldn’t find a home in my preferred neighborhood or my price range. I knew someone who had contacts on the coop board and I asked them to enquired about my application and why I was denied.  He was informed that I the coop board was concerned that I did not have enough cash and they wanted a cash buyer. They were also concerned about my student loan debt. As I had just recently graduated from school, I hadn’t yet started repayment. I left graduate school owing Sallie Mae appro

The other day I met up with my good friend, Tracey. These days we always seem to talk more about our careers and financial matters.  Tracey and I are in the same career field but have different kinds of responsibility. My job, for a large government agency, requires spending long hours on my feet and travel to many locations. Glamorous it’s not but it allows me a lot of autonomy. Tracey works on a yearly contract for a university in Manhattan. I live in Brooklyn with a roommate. Tracey lives in Manhattan with a roommate. Tracey complained about her lack of autonomy and job security.  Tracey, like many people, feels that she is underpaid for the lifestyle that she wants to live. I mentioned several times in this blog how totally uncool I am. I don’t hang out in trendy coffee shops and don’t spend long hours queuing to get into the hottest new restaurants. I don’t have a gym membership. Instead I take great pleasure in finding free and inexpensive things to do around the city. Wheth

I wanted to title this blog post, HSBC mortgage services sucks. But then though better of it. There have been so many highs and lows in this home buying process and right now we're at a particularly low ebb. It’s been almost two months since we went into contract on the property and yet I'm still in HSBC mortgage services limbo. I still have not been approved for a mortgage. I thought about shopping around to other mortgage lenders but I had chosen  HSBC because I was already enrolled in their first time home-buyer program (First Home Club). As part of my enrollment, for 10 months I saved $188 in an regular HSBC savings account. HSBC would then match my savings by 4. Over the 10 months, I have saved $1880 with the financial match, this becomes $7520. This program is designed to assist home-buyers with closing cost.  I also had to attend a home buying seminar at a community organization. Despite my student loans, I would consider myself to be credit worthy. I have had the s