You Don’t Need a Mortgage, You Need Financial Purpose
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Avoid the tragedy of wasting good fortune
Two fascinating things happened to me in the summer of 2020.
- I decided to leave Toronto to move back in with my dad in Edmonton.
- Approximately four minutes later, I decided I needed to buy a condo in Toronto’s downtown core.
You may be curious what happened in those fateful four minutes to bring me so quickly from point 1 to point 2.
Again, two things:
- I realized that this shift would save me a minimum of $2000 per month in rent and living costs for the foreseeable future.
- Therefore, the best use of these savings is a down payment on a half-a-million-dollar condo… In the next 2 years, please.
There is the possibility that this could’ve been a very reasonable train of thought. I and a lot of my fortunate peers who work white-collar professions have benefitted financially from the remote work options and reduced social obligations that the COVID-19 pandemic has enabled. However, I’ve left out some important details regarding my individual situation.
Before those four minutes, had the thought of buying property in Toronto ever seriously crossed my mind? Not in the slightest. Before and during those four minutes, did I have a combined total of $35,000 in student loans and consolidated consumer debt? Absolutely.
With that additional context, if you’re re-reading this and realizing that none of this made any sense… That is because absolutely none of this made any sense.
So why did it happen? Why did I immediately decide that a Toronto condo was the best and most pressing way for me to utilize this fresh, new-born baby smelling, free cash flow?
It’s because these four minutes were the first time that I had to consider my personal financial goals. It was the first time that I was thinking strategically about my finances. At this moment, I immediately took the most impersonal route possible and decided to strive for exactly what it appeared like everyone else had done — a down payment in the downtown core, ASAP.
Thankfully, buying property takes more than four minutes to do. More importantly, I…
