Living the dream

Keen readers of this site will have noticed buried among my "interests" something that quite a number of people would consider as quite ambitious, and I refer to CRACKING THE SYDNEY PROPERTY MARKET. In Australia more generally, the concept of home ownership (or at least the one of having a massive debt to a bank and being able to live in a place in return) is popularly known as "the great Australian dream". Well, today seems like a good day to announce that, all going well, I am exactly one month from hopefully never paying rent again. For a while now I have looked towards a time when I’ll be paying off my own mortgage, not someone else’s. It is amazing to think that a few weeks ago, right in the thick of Easter celebrations, I found a top floor apartment in an area of similar distance to the city centre to where I am now (though in a bit of a different direction) with panoramic views of the city and of water and a lock-up garage, all at a price that I can afford. It seems nuts but yes, this is reality. You never know your luck if you go looking for something. There is a heap of packing to be done, although I have filled a substantial number of boxes with stuff already. There is also so much else to be done before I move in, including getting away from here for a week and a bit to see some family and friends.

 

In other news I have found a car to replace the one that was smashed up a week ago. Now you see why this is not a good time to be needing a new car. I’d rather be using the extra cash to offset interest on the considerable home loan that I’ve had approved, but so be it. After such a good experience with the Toyota Corolla I really couldn’t go past it again, though I did look at other models and did some comparisons. My next car was going to be the Prius but I had planned for it to be further into the future when I could afford it. So another Corolla it is, but this time considerably newer and a model closer to the top of the range with lots of nice extra features. After having someone bang into me I naturally gravitated to the presence of safety features like ABS brakes and dual and side air bags. The NRMA calls it "cheap life insurance" and it’s hard to argue with them. I had a test drive on Monday and apart from my unfamiliarity with where the clutch pedal kicks in, it was all good. I pick it up on Saturday.