Tomorrow we're giving a check to a lawyer and getting keys to a home of our dreams. It only took 5 years to save up for a 20% downpayment. And now we'll be paying less than we were paying in rent, have a larger, newer, and classier place, have all the space in the world, and real peace of mind.

No more landlords, no more restrictions, and proud home owners.

And the best part is that our emergency fund is still there untouched!

That's fantastic. Congratulations!

We're super stoked. Looked around the empty place yesterday and it felt great. All that money shoved under a mattress, every single sandwich I said no to, every single dollar we tried to save - all came to this. What a great feeling.

That's awesome. Congratulations! Don't forget to setup a home maintenance account because you will need it. Welcome to homeownership!!

Congrats! I'm envious as I've been throwing my money away for too long now. Hope to be where you are in 4-5 years.

That's funny, if you bought a house in the past 8 years you would regret it, your money really would be "thrown away". Renting is actually cheaper in some cities. Having the freedom to do whatever you want to your house etc is what you get when you buy a house.

Not true. we bought a second home in 2008 and don't regret it at all. We got a good price and a great interest rate. The house is worth more than we paid based on comps, we get cash flow from renting it out, and we get a large phantom income from deductions that we can use to shelter passive income from stock dividends and bond interest. Why would anyone have regrets? Even if we weren't renting it out we would still have saved more in rent than the interest we have paid so we'd be ahead.