Saving for your first home can be hard. Here are some tips for making it easier:
- Plan
Put together a plan that allows you to budget, have a surplus (no matter how small) and pay your bills on time. Putting it all down on paper really helps. - Budget
Put together a household budget and stick to it. There are lots of online budget tools that will help. If you still can’t make ends meet, then contact a free budget advisory service to help. - Kiwi Saver
You can use your contributions and your employers towards your first home. It’s one of the best ways to get money together, and it comes out of your wages, so you can’t spend it first. You will be surprised about how quickly it builds. - Low income options
If you earn under a certain threshold then you might qualify for a lower deposit mortgage. Talk to your bank about the amount you might need.
Consider building - Many banks require a smaller deposit for building, talk to yours.
- Healthy credit rating
Make sure you have a healthy credit rating. You can do this by paying your credit card, hire purchase, power and phone accounts and personal loans on time. Even being a few days late can negatively affect your credit rating. A poor credit rating can be fixed by paying accounts on time.
