Top 5 tips for saving a down payment on your first home

By LESLEY-ANNE SCORGIEPersonal Finance Columnist

Mon., Feb. 4, 2019

My fiancé and I bought a house. As excited as I am about my discovering my inner interior design prowess, I’m trying to focus on what’s next from a practical standpoint. So, over the next three weeks, we’ll be hustling to get ourselves packed and organized with our down payment, insurance, the mortgage, parking permits, address changes, closing arrangements with the lawyer and officially joining our banking. 

Phew — it’s a lot.

Everything you spend money on has to be scaled way back when saving for a home. This won’t make you a cheapskate, but it will force you to trade off what’s not essential.  (DREAMSTIME)

What’s not keeping me up at night though is the money. We’ve spent two years working our tails off to save 20 per cent for our down payment. Rather than putting less money down (5 per cent is the typical minimum), this large down payment allows us to avoid mortgage insurance through CMHC, which can be tens of thousands of dollars, and it lowers our monthly mortgage payments. 

Have you been thinking of saving a down payment? Here are some tricks you can use to boost your savings.

Earn interest on your savings: The first step is to open a high-interest savings account, and don’t link it to your debit card. That way you won’t accidentally tap away your savings. My suggestion is that you choose the institution that offers you the highest rate of return, so shop around.

Master the scrimp and save: Next, everything you spend money on has to be scaled WAY back when saving for a home. This won’t make you a cheapskate, but it will force you to trade off what’s not essential. I have dropped my spending on groceries by $100 per month by choosing cheaper retailers, renegotiated my internet package, saving $25 per month, cancelled online memberships to various motivational clubs, said no to unnecessary travel (unless I can tag it onto a work trip for free), and given gifts at half the value of what I used to spend. I’ve also encouraged friends to host at-home meals versus expensive restaurants.

Make every other month a no-spending month until you’ve reached your goal:Going on a 30-day spending detox every other month will save thousands of dollars over the course of the year. It works like this. You only buy what’s essential — groceries, rent and your transit pass. Everything else, you DIY or find alternatives for. For example, you would pack your lunch, make your own coffee, utilize supplies and samples from your cabinets, wash and iron your own shirts rather than taking them to the dry cleaners, choose free entertainment options like local festivals, hiking, skating, watching Netflix rather than seeing a movie at the theatre. Then, every two to three days, you tally up what you saved, and pop it into your high-interest savings account. My last spending detox was in November and I saved $700.

Take advantage of nonregistered savings plans through work: Does your work offer a savings plan with a matching component that isn’t a pension or an RRSP? If so, take advantage of it. The savings will be automatically deducted from your paycheque. Make sure you’re crystal clear on any rules surrounding these kinds of programs so you aren’t caught in a position where your money is locked in when you need it.

Set aside at least 90 per cent of any lump-sum money: Getting a bonus? A tax refund? A payment from your previous freelance work? Or selling something you don’t need like a second car? Save at least 90 per cent of this in your high-interest savings account. The reason you might set aside 10 per cent for yourself is for a small reward for your efforts, like a meal out with your honey.

Ask for a financial gift from your family: Don’t be afraid to ask for money from your family. This didn’t work for us, because we didn’t actually need it. But, if we had the need, we would have asked. This option allows your family to invest in your life right now, rather than waiting for an inheritance, which won’t likely arrive until much later in life … when you probably won’t need it as much.

Use the Home Buyers’ Plan if this is your first time buying: Have money saved within your RRSP? You, and your partner (if applicable), can borrow up to $25,000 from your RRSPs without any taxes or penalties. You’ll then have up to 15 years to repay the money into your RRSP. Most people start paying in monthly amounts the second year after the year they borrowed the money, which is a sign of relief for most as they adjust to the costs of being a homeowner.

I’ll make no bones about it. Saving a down payment is extremely hard. But the majority of the time, it’s well worth the effort once you’ve moved into your new place and can call it your home. Happy saving!

Lesley-Anne Scorgie is a Toronto-based personal finance columnist and a freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @lesleyscorgie

The Top Smart Home Tech You Never Knew Existed

Paul Lamkin

Contributor

Cool new smart home techVARIOUS

The smart home revolution is in full swing. By 2020, it is estimatedthat the number of connected devices is expected to grow to a staggering 26 billion. At the end of last year, UK retail giant John Lewis revealed that people searching for smart lighting had increased by 207% in a year, and that overall searches for smart home products were up 670%, with increased demand for smart air purifiers, heating systems, cookers and fridges that can be controlled by a smartphone.

But while the likes of Nest, Amazon Echo and Philips Hue dominate the smart home headlines, there are some killer devices that you might not have heard of, from some unlikely brands.

Read on for my pick of the top 5 smart home unsung heroes, all of which play a big part in my connected abode.

Smarter Coffee

Smarter CoffeeSMARTER

The beauty of the smarter coffee is its simplicity. It lets you grind and brew your coffee beans on demand, with you using your smartphone to kick things off. So long as you remember to top up the water and coffee beans, you can make up to 12 cups of filter coffee at once, with a choice of brew strength on offer as well.

There are also 'Welcome home' and 'Wake up' modes, which can be edited to begin the process based on your geo-location or set timings and, using IFTTT skills, you can create a set of recipes to match your mood or the conditions. For example, if your fitness tracker records a bad night’s sleep, you can have a stronger brew automatically made up when you wake.

Smarter Coffee costs $231. In the UK, you can get it from Firebox.

Nuimo Home Controller

Nuimo Home ControllerSENIC

German company Senic wants you to forget the smartphone and instead opt for something more tactile when controlling your smart home. Its controller, named Nuimo, is a small disk-shaped device that can be synced with your connected tech. With its touch-sensitive scroller you can control your Sonos music, adjust your Nest heating, brighten your Philips Hue lighting and so on.

Sometimes faffing around with finding the right app just to dim the lights or turn the radio volume down is more hassle than it's worth. I’ve got my Nuimo set up in the bedroom, sitting on my bedside table, and it’s just so useful.

After an initial successful Kickstarter campaign, Nuimo has gone on sale through Amazon's Launchpad, where it can be picked-up for $199.

Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Link

Dyson Pure Hot Cool LinkDYSON

Sure, you know all about Dyson’s awesome coolers and heaters but did you know that the latest generation models are smart? No, they won’t read you the news headlines like an Amazon Echo, but they will let you heat or cool a room, remotely, using a synced-up smartphone app.

I have my Pure Hot + Cool Link in my office at the end of my garden and it’s brilliant to be able to see the current room conditions from the house before venturing down there. Within the app you can set the device to automatically monitor, react and purify based on your own preferences too. Alexa or IFTTT integration is sadly missing though, which is a bit of a shame.

A Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Link costs $599.99.

Xiaomi Mi Vacuum

Xiaomi Mi VacuumXIAOMI

The Xiaomi Mi Vacuum sucks big time. It has a higher suction rating (1800Pa) than iRobot's Roomba 980 (1670Pa) or Neato's Botvac D8500 (1000Pa) and comes in at a fraction of the price. Like any good robot vacuum cleaner (and they are pretty good now, not like the disaster first generation devices) Xiaomi’s effort boasts plenty of room recognition tech, including a laser distance sensor and real-time mapping and positioning.

But the key feature for me is the companion app lets me check the live status of the Mi Vacuum, switch between three cleaning modes (normal, quiet and active) and set schedules for automatic cleaning.

Available from Gearbest, you’ll pay around $360.

Nanoleaf Aurora

Nanoleaf AuroraNANOLEAF

Smart lighting is a no-brainer in this ever-connected security-conscious world. But that doesn’t mean it has to be boring. Nanoleaf’s Aurora modular smart lighting system not only lets you display lightning panels in a huge array of designs, but also lets you create custom scenes on the companion smartphone or tablet app. It’s a panel system made up of triangle shaped lights and up to 30 can be connected in one group.

Aurora also takes advantage of the HomeKit and Alexa compatibility with voice commands for dimming, turning on or switching hues. It’s the lava lamp for the IoT revolution.

You can get the starter kit from the Apple Store for $199.95.

Paul Lamkin is the editor-in-chief of Wareable - the authority on wearable technology and the co-founder of The Ambient - a new smart home focused site.