081: From living in his mother’s house to paying off a $450k home in 3 years (w/ Sean Cooper)
Summary: Sean Cooper made news headlines across global news channels when he paid off his mortgage in a record 3 years at the tender age of 30! Sean did all of this while working a normal job in financial services in Canada and freelancing as a personal finance coach and writing as a personal finance blogger. Sean is the author of his very well acclaimed book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Burn-Your-Mortgage-Financial-Canadians/dp/0995202907">Burn Your Mortgage</a>.<br> <br> Sean's story was very polarizing when it came out on Canadian news outlets and actually got him a lot of hate mail and articles online and offline because of how quickly he paid off his mortgage which goes against standard accepted beliefs around home ownership and the 30 year loan repayment time frame that most banks give home owners. The negative feedback centered around Sean being portrayed as a privileged child with wealthy parents or as Sean living in this basement without a life outside of work and stashing away every cent he earns.<br> <br> Born and raised in Toronto Ontario, Canada Sean grew up in a middle class family with parents who instilled in him the importance of home ownership so from age 10 Sean had the vision of owning his own home. He started working various jobs at a young age and started saving for his down payment even before he graduated university. Sean bought his first home when he was 27 and he paid off by age 30, a remarkable achievement - all on his own savings and his own aggressive focus on beating the mortgage debt!<br> <br> Lifestyle choices - no car!<br> <br> Sean made the decision of not owning a car during his period of paying off the mortgage as it amounts to the second largest payment in most people's budgets and he found a practical way to make sure he lived near public transport and lived a car free life.<br> <br> This was a very bold and mature decision for Sean to make a young age, when I was 20 all I was thinking of was owning my first car, and the first loan I ever took out was to buy my first car, a white Toyota Mark II. It requires discipline and laser focus to follow through with a car free lifestyle. Admittedly it may not be entirely possible for everyone due to your professional work, if you are a trades person you may work from different sites each week and need a personal car, so you may need a find a way to get a reliable cost effective car that doesn't cost you too much to buy or maintain. There may also be opportunities for you to car pool or ride share with colleagues from work where you reduce your car running expenses with the goal of saving up for your first home.<br> <br> Saving strategy at a young age<br> <br> Sean found a way to work through his university days which paid off tuition and helped him graduate debt free. He also started saving for his down payment during his college days and after graduating continued on this path and saved 80% of his income after graduating which helped in save up a handsome down payment of $170,000 by age 27.<br> <br> Advice for saving up for your down payment<br> <br> * Firstly work out whether they want to own a home in the first place.<br> * Work out how much you need to save in order to fund your down payment or home loan deposit.<br> * Calculate how many years you would like to give yourself before having a fully funded down payment and this will determine how much you need to save each month.<br> * Open a stand alone savings account and 'pay yourself first' before you do anything else with your salary put aside your nominated savings amount.<br> * Automate your savings process so that it automatically comes out of your salary account into the savings account, and make sure you have very limited access to your savings account so that you can 'save and forget' without the temptation to spend it other 'emergencies'.<br> <br> Resisting the temptation to spend<br> <br>
