[jiwonstr]

Hi everyone,

I'm 24 year old regular employee making 50+ a year. I'm thinking about start saving for housing in 2009 but doesn't really know where to start.

I have loans of 6K all together and have other bills like rent/utilities.

I was thinking about opening a saving's account and do a monthly deposit. Hopefully by when I'm 30, I can at least have enough money to pay down-payment on a nice condo or something.

Is there a better way to start saving for housing? Is there a special savings account for housings? I'm really not sure where to start.

Your help would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[jakester]

Joshua -

here's my advice. Try to get a handle on your monthly obligations and create a budget for yourself. You must separate your bills: (your obligations: rent, utilities, car insurance, loans) from your spending (like CDs, clothes, going out, etc.). You have to be able to quantify how much it costs you each month to survive. Once you understand what the dollar amount of your obligations is, you can then decide how much you can stash away in savings. Budgeting will help you see where you tend to spend a lot of your money in the non-obligation category. Then you can decide to scale back on your spending and put more money aside for savings.

Additionally, it's a good idea to open a high-yield savings account through WaMu or E*Trade... Capital One Savings is good too. They offer 3.30% which is really good compared to your local savings bank. Also, under certain economic conditions, banks can sometimes raise that rate (it's variable so it could go lower too). Have your HR department set up a direct deposit for you to a savings account like that and you'll never see the cash so you'll be less tempted to spend it. Set a goal for yourself... decide on an amount to save like $10,000 over the next two years and figure out how you need to arrange your budget to accommodate that goal.

This is what I have done personally and it has worked for me.