I’m a 30-year-old salaried woman living in the capital of a tropical country. And at this age, people, even I in the past, would expect that I have a house or at least plan to build or buy one soon. However, reality hits hard. Today’s reality would feel unfamiliar to people who lived in the productivity era 30–40 years ago. Getting yourself a house surely is a luxury. For people who are striving not to get hungry each day, how could they even think of owning a house?
As for me, based on the budget breakdown I shared in my previous posts, it would take me 21 years or more to save up for a house with $167 saved each month (and that doesn’t even account for inflation or other economic changes).
That’s 21 years focused on one goal—without much room for anything else, not even traveling.
As a mortgage, I personally have a kind of trauma with anything related to debt, and I really don’t want to take any debt in the future. But if you want me to put that aside, in my opinion, it feels like exchanging years of my future (time and income) for a place to call my own. In most cases here, you don’t fully own the house during the mortgage period—the bank does until it’s fully paid off. It means committing a large part of your life to repayment, along with interest.
For me, trading a significant portion of my time and income—and still having to pay more on top of it—doesn’t feel like the right choice.
So, for now, I would rather rent a small room as it is enough for me. Even though social expectations might pressure me to at least plan for owning a house, who am I to live up to others’ expectations? I do have my goal; I aim for it, and I don’t need society to shape how I live up to it. And I hope you can, too; you can still be a good part of society without beating yourself up to fit in others’ expectations. Whether you aim to own a house or stay renting a place like me, let’s do our best to live the best life possible in any part of the earth we live in.