I was prudent with how I saved my money.
A lot of people told me to invest in the stock market, or to buy bonds, but I wanted to keep my assets liquid and easy to move around.
Even though I could have afforded the down payment on a house in NE Florida years ago I kept renting, so I could keep saving my money. This was a long term plan, and required a lot of patience, but finally it paid off. I had enough money in the bank to pay cash for a property in Jacksonville. Let me tell you, buying real estate in Jax is so much easier when you can pay cash! With so much credit debt in this country, it’s very difficult for some people to secure the needed financing for real estate in Jax. There is a lot of red tape, and while Jacksonville real estate brokers are experts with the paperwork, it does take a lot of time and effort. For this reason cash home buyers get preferential treatment, and sometimes they even get a discount on the sales price. Time is money, so paying cash for houses saves everyone time, and the real estate agent will sometimes pass the savings along to the buyer. I knew all of this ahead of time, which is why I spent so long renting before I finally made a cash home purchase in southwest Jacksonville. This was my perfect home, and I was able to negotiate with the Jax real estate brokerage to knock ten thousand dollars off the asking price.
