As he went down on his knees to propose to his girlfriend, happily-ever-after images, fresh pastel flowers and fluttering beautiful butterflies flashed in their mind. But this fleeting fairytale glimpse was quickly overtaken by realistic thoughts of the future beyond their wedding day.
While our special someone may have some little quirks which we would need to accept, we look forward to having the comfort of a place of our own.
Having our own home will mean having to pay our own property tax, utility bills, service/conservancy charges and groceries, and cook our own meals. These costs which used to be taken care of by our parents will soon become additional costs in our personal expenses every month.
To maximize the joy of marriage and minimize potential hurdles, we realize that having an open communication and deciding on important matters like how much money should be saved for our wedding and future, what housing options do we have and what other things in life that we aspire, will better prioritize our needs.
With dreams of travelling the world while providing for our children’s future, we are conscious that our decisions made today and the financial commitments we take on will have an impact on the quality of our future.
Buying a flat of our own has been our dream. However, to find and build that love nest is not just about finding twigs and branches. We will have to find out:
- the housing grants from the HDB that we are eligible for;
- the housing loan amount that we can secure; and
- how much CPF and cash savings we have for our first flat purchase.
We work out our sums together and discuss on what is the mortgage loan amount that we would be comfortable in sustaining. No doubt it is not a fun-filled session, but buying a flat is a long term financial commitment. Our first stop is to visit HDB’s InfoWEB at www.hdb.gov.sg to get help in our financial planning through an application of the HDB Loan Eligibility letter and obtaining other information on buying a flat.
When we are older, we want to look back contently, smiling at the decisions we made for ourselves and our children.
While thoughts of buying a car crossed our minds, we reflect if it is more of a want than a need to own a car. May be it could be delayed while we focus on growing our savings for the rainy days?
We believe that time should be spent in building up our marriage life, instead of in worrying over financial woes. While we are still in search of our auspicious day, we value our togetherness in this decision-making process and look forward to planning our future together as one.
For more information on buying a flat, please visit the HDB InfoWEB at www.hdb.gov.sg. Used with permission; for reprints, please contact HDB.