I worked at banks for most of my career and was engaged to the lead mortgage lender, and together we hosted quarterly free events for our community to show people how to get into homeownership. I suspect you’re lying in bad faith to try to scare people out of homeownership and push the agenda that Millennials and Gen Z can’t own a home. I encourage anyone reading this to do their own research and contact their bank’s mortgage team to determine if its feasible for them.

Over half of millennials are already homeowners, and I’d love to see that number go up.

PMI would be $1200 in your example, not $2500.

In what reality is PMI close to a rent payment? It doesn’t seem like you know what you’re talking about.

I think you’re dramatically overestimating how much it will add to a mortgage to use this strategy. For example, let’s look at a $250,000 home - the average for my area.

If you put 20% down, your payment will be $1242/mo plus Property Taxes. Certainly cheaper than rent, but most folks don’t have $50,000 sitting around.

So let’s say you put $0 down and roll $9000 closing costs into your mortgage. Your monthly payment will be $1,843 of which only $214 is PMI. Still cheaper than the average rent in my area.

Even if you’re buying a $1mil home with this strategy, the PMI would only be $850/mo. Where are you getting that PMI would be close to a mortgage payment?? You seem to be regurgitating bad faith advice that keeps people scared of homeownership when the reality is that it’s an excellent move for many folks.

Reach out to your bank. If they have nothing, call your local credit unions.

I went thru USDA for my first home and they had similar constraints. Talk with your bank’s mortgage lender. It’s possible that an FHA loan would do you better.

In the US, if you’re a first time homebuyer you can buy a home with zero cash in hand. You can roll closing costs into the mortgage and have no down-payment. You’ll pay more out of pocket for a few years but in many areas it’s still cheaper than rent - and rent just keeps going up while a mortgage stays the same. Many states also have free programs where you can take a class and they’ll give you a grant towards buying a home.

Credit unions tend to have the best rates. Get into a credit union even if it’s just a secondary account that you toss $5 into each paycheck.

Also, there are programs through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for first time homebuyers that prioritizes them over investors. This is the easiest way to get into homeownership but the houses are usually fixer uppers.

The CAPS is brilliant

Don’t sleep on the potato soft taco.

You seem to have misunderstood the assignment

Buy a prepaid visa with cash. Not technically a credit card, but it may be what you’re looking for.

Homeless at 18. First apartment at 20. Put myself through college going part time while working 2 jobs, 21-25. Bought my first home at 29. Hit 6 figures at 33. Now in the top 10% of earners in my city.

I had no one, no support network. Just me and a goal and strategic hard work every single day.

The tough part is I’m now in my mid 30s and have had very little life experience because all I’ve been doing is working. Never been on an airplane or have been on a vacation. No passport or friends or social life outside of 2 internet friends. It’s been tough to sit down and figure out what will actually make me happy now that I’ve achieved my life goals.

Yeah, we have similar sensors at my job. I work in a highly secured facility and smoke/vape detectors are installed in all the bathrooms. It makes the fire alarm go off if detected.

Agreed! “Keys-Wallet-Phone”. Say this every time you go somewhere. Been using this for decades and it always works.

Honestly it might be worthwhile to just get a month of Microsoft 365 and use the web client. You can upload all of the files to OneDrive and open them in the web version of Word to do what you need. Nothing beats native compatibility in a project of this scope.

Late response, but Goblin Mode is wrapping yourself in a blanket and being entirely useless. Munching on snacks, gaming, watching shows, etc. Basically just winding down for the day.

I think I just got confused, sorry.

Yeah my company doesn’t care when I come and go as long as I work 40 hours and don’t miss meetings. 4 day workweeks are generally frowned upon but you can do it now and then.

Mood.

Anyone who works an office job should be able to set their own hours. I choose 6:30-2:30. I can still hit up local shops after. My colleague chooses 10-8 and shops before work. There’s no reason we can’t make this work.

Denying putting work stuff on your phone is absolutely valid. The company should provide a company device in that case. And if you do agree to put company data on your phone, they should give a monthly stipend towards your phone bill. That’s how every org I’ve worked at has approached it.