Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor. None of this is financial advice. I encourage you to do your own research.

Could I still achieve financially independence and embrace minimalism as a first-time homeowner? Or would the stress of mortgage payments and ongoing home maintenance affect my finances and mental health? I was about to find out.

At the end of August we got the keys to our empty house and guided an oversized beeping truck up the slanted driveway. Movers carried our every possession into the living room, bedroom, kitchen, basement and two small bedrooms that we converted into an office and a gym. It felt like we had a lot of stuff, but once everything was set up the house looked clean and tidy. We bought a few more things to tie it all together (I know, I know…), like a new TV, couch for the basement, dining room table and side table. Still, most of our furniture was from Victor’s earlier days in Winnipeg, my apartment in Toronto and our condo in Hamilton. I felt we had struck a good balance between holding onto old things that still worked, adding a few more pieces and not accumulating a bunch of useless junk. Still, I believe the more space you have, the more stuff you will inevitably end up buying to fill it. I was grateful that we had not bought a bigger house than this one.

I was also very grateful that we had not taken on a large mortgage to buy the most expensive house we could. Being from Toronto where houses cost north of $2 million, I had always thought of a mortgage as a chain around my neck that would take multiple lifetimes of nonstop corporate servitude to pay off. As the housing market comprises one third of Canada’s GDP, our banks, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and individual home sellers are all invested in getting young people to take on as much debt as possible to buy the most expensive house they can, which at the time was up to 8 times a person’s salary. During Covid mortgages were lower than ever. New rock-bottom interest rates enabled banks to trap unsuspecting young homebuyers by saddling them with million-dollar mortgages, a tasty piece of cheese in the great mouse trap of life.  

While it would have been all too easy for me and Victor to borrow a million dollars to buy the most expensive house we could, if interest rates had gone up our monthly mortgage payments would have as well. And because we would likely be selling the house in three years’ time after Victor’s posting was over, a more expensive house could have turned into a risky investment should we not be able to sell the house in the future. So to cover the 450k cost of our house, we took on a mortgage of 360k, which ended up being about $675/month each before property taxes and utilities. Our total monthly carrying costs were right around what we had been paying to rent a one-bedroom condo in Toronto, which meant our grocery budget didn’t need to change, and I could afford to continue saving the same amount I had been, which was now about $4,000/month.

Still, some personal finance experts believe that a house is a money pit that bleeds you dry and prevents you from building wealth in the stock market. This is certainly what I had believed since I learned to invest. But now that I had left the big city for the fresh northern air and traded our rented condo for more space and a plush green lawn, I began to see the benefit of having a place to call my own. I could pop into our exercise room and cue up a YouTube yoga video on a rainy day. Or spend time watering the lawn and digging up weeds, my blood pressure easing after just 30 minutes in the sunshine. And our large kitchen made cooking healthy meals a breeze. Our home was a safe haven from the outside world. A place that no landlord could evict me from. A home that, if paid off early, could house and support me even if I were to lose my job or the markets were to take a dive.

I began to see that owning a home can be an integral part of a financially independent life.  

One cool September morning I was drinking coffee in bed, the echoed sound of a single hammer carrying from the newly built subdivision down the street, when I began to dive deep into Mr. Money Mustache’s blog. Mr. Money Mustache whose real name is Pete Adeney, achieved financial independence in the early 2000’s on an engineer’s salary and moved to Boulder Colorado where he and his wife at the time bought a house with cash as a sanctuary to raise their son. Over the years Adeney has discovered a passion for carpentry and DIY around the house and can often be found sharing a beer on a roof with friends after a long day installing solar panels. Meanwhile his investment portfolio has continued to outpace inflation over 20 years and three bull markets, easily covering his monthly bills with plenty to spare, so much so that in 2016 he gave 100k away to charity (source)! Owning a modest, energy-efficient home in walkable or bikeable distance to amenities like schools, parks and grocery stores, allows Adeney to put his “favourite values into action” like living frugally and environmentally, performing “good old fashioned hard work” and spending more time in nature, while allowing him to keep a good chunk of money invested in the stock market (source). “When you’re living a frugal and natural life, you spend a lot of time at home,” Adeney writes on his blog. “By having a comfortable house, you can be happy and entertained at home…enjoying staycations instead.” (source).

I loved owning our house, especially during the pandemic when there was nowhere else to go except for weekly masked trips to the grocery store. We had so much space compared to our tiny one bedroom in Hamilton! So much light shining through every room. I felt so lucky to have this house, and so glad that we had chosen this one, and had not gone over budget. I truly felt like we had discovered the balance of having enough. I loved setting up the sprinkler on the lawn, watering the flowers in the garden, going to bed on a chilly autumn night to the smell of our neighbours’ wood burning fireplace. Our home became a refuge on cold winter nights, a place to relax after a long day, read on the couch in the morning, watch Netflix at night. When my family visited, they brought our family dog with them. She tore through the backyard, zipping back and forth, stopping only to yelp desperate barks of happiness after so many months apart from us. I finally understood why so many people love owning their own home, and now I was one of them.

I did love the house. But not a month after we moved in things started to break. One by one, each shiny kitchen appliance failed. First the microwave, then the dishwasher, then the stove locked itself and refused to open like a stubborn canine with a stick in its mouth. Then the dryer in the basement needed a new vent. Then it needed a new drum. Then the dishwasher died again. Then our fire alarms started clanging one night at 3 a.m. Then our security system needed new batteries. Then a trip to Home Depot to replace the flapper in the toilet tanks. Then back to Home Depot to exchange the first, incorrect size of flapper for the correct one. This was the trade-off between a rental and a place you owned. When you rent, if anything breaks, your landlord is responsible for fixing it. When you own it, you are responsible. You have to break out the multi-language instruction manual, listen to the same three songs on replay as you wait on hold with a customer care centre to see if your appliance is covered under warranty. After learning that it’s not, you have to call a local repair centre to book an appointment. And then finally, you have to come up with the $400 to pay the guy.

On the bright side, Bob, the man who fixed our appliances was very chatty and nice to talk to. As I got to know Bob, I came to suspect that he may be on his way to financial independence himself. He told me that he owned his own home out in the country where he fixed his own appliances. He wore the same t-shirt every day, and never bought anything. He didn’t even have a dishwasher! “I have one plate, two bowls and a spoon,” he shrugged. “I just don’t have a need for stuff”. Bob was a frugal, DIY homeowner, just like Mr. Money Mustache.

With the money we were paying Bob to fix our every appliance, if he was paying off his modest home, investing the money or simply just saving the cash, there may very well have been a multi-millionaire immersed in our dishwasher’s cavity, tightening bolts and screws. Bob inspired me to take matters into my own hands and DIY my way around the house wherever I could. I wasn’t about to get up on the roof or take the furnace apart with my bare hands, but I made sure to query Bob and any other tradesperson so I could learn to manage the house over time. I would ask to shadow the plumber who showed me where the external water valve was, the guy who maintained our furnace at the start of winter, the Enbridge guy who replaced our gas meter outside in a snowstorm. I thought about my Mom who manages her family home with the precision and skills of a well-paid CEO, while staying cool as a cucumber.

“Handymen aren’t born, they’re made sweetheart,” she assured me when I called her in a panic for every issue. “You’ll learn over time. Just keep at it.”

And so I did, cleaning our bug-infested filters that I found in the air exchanger and leaving them to dry in the sun. I got up on a ladder to screw in soft white lightbulbs in every room, bright white ones in the garage. I replaced the broken garage door opener, changed our central vac bags. I cleared snow away from our gas and dryer vents outside, replaced the downspout that had fallen off in a spring thaw. Soon I was the general manager of our household, walking from room to room with a notebook and pen, my never-ending list now fitting nicely on one page.

“You’re amazing!” Victor would say. “I could never do this on my own.” He was right. His work schedule demanded that he physically be in the office during the week while mine allowed me to tackle home emergencies between conference calls. I wondered how anyone else handled home emergencies without work-from-home flexibility. Did at least one person have to constantly be at home and stand guard in case the pipes burst? I would eventually find out.

Repeatable steps I took that you can too!

  • Consider NOT taking out the largest mortgage to buy the most expensive house. Make sure you have some wiggle room and extra savings if interest rates go up.
  • Ask yourself if home ownership is important to you. Would you enjoy gardening and BBQ-ing in the backyard? Do you need extra space for your dogs or family? Or would the freedom and flexibility of renting appeal to you more? There is no wrong answer, but there is a right one for you.
  • Learn to DIY your way around the house. For minor issues like a leaking faucet, can you find a YouTube video and learn how to fix it on your own? For more serious issues like a furnace or plumbing, call around for a few different quotes before committing to the most expensive one. And chat up the tradespeople. They are often very friendly and willing to share how things work around the house.