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| Sunday, August 10, 2008 |
| Money Makeover: Katie Helke and Greg Dokshin |
The Boston Globe Money Makeover: Students learn pros and cons of ownership profiles Katie Helke and her MIT grad student boyfriend Greg Dokshin who are wondering if they should buy a home instead of paying $1,300 a month in rent for their Somerville apartment. As their real estate debate continued, Helke and boyfriend Greg Dokshin decided they needed help figuring out if they could make the numbers work on their annual income of $60,000 a year. So they applied for a Boston Globe Money Makeover saying, "We don't know exactly where we should be allocating our funds, especially when it comes to real estate."
The couple got high marks for their frugal lifestyle when they sat down with fee-only financial planner John Perkins in the Boston office of Compass Planning Associates. Neither Helke, 23, nor Dokshin, 22, owns a car, making use of Zipcar every few months to drive to Ikea or run other big errands. By watching their pennies, they're managing to save more than $800 a month, putting money into Helke's 401(k), her savings account, and an account Dokshin has earmarked for paying off his $26,000 in student loans.
"You are doing a really good job of living within your means," said Perkins, who is based in Compass's Northampton office. "Boston is an expensive city."
Still, were the two ready to jump into the real estate market? To come up with the answer, Perkins walked Helke and Dokshin through the numbers. Although Boston area home prices are down 9 percent in the past year alone, Perkins estimated the starting cost of a single-family home in Somerville was still about $400,000. That amount puts a single-family home well beyond the couple's reach. Labels: Money Stories |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 9:07 AM *
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| 3 Comments: |
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FIRST of all, a 22 year old and a 23 year old should not be purchasing a home and creating a legal entity together when they are both so young and not even married.... dumb premise to begin with... what should happen is that ONE of them should purchase the home (preferably the girl), and have the other pay rent... plus, i don't know if there is a common-law property law in Massachusetts... because if they lived together X amount of time, and the guy decides to leave, he could technically force her to sell half the house and hand half the proceeds over to him...
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I think it is bad advice from the planner to sell her shares now. I would wait till either market valuations are higher or she really has an "emergency" when she needs the cash. Cash yields are really low in the US and I doubt the market will go much lower. Looks like they'll be in Boston till 2013. Plenty of time to save more and let the market bounce back.
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Considering my DH and I were in the exact situation and not married and did it in 2002 in San Diego, I think it's fine. But they should buy a condo not SFH. We bought a condo that cost less than renting, which might not be possible for them.
It depends on the situation.
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FIRST of all, a 22 year old and a 23 year old should not be purchasing a home and creating a legal entity together when they are both so young and not even married.... dumb premise to begin with... what should happen is that ONE of them should purchase the home (preferably the girl), and have the other pay rent... plus, i don't know if there is a common-law property law in Massachusetts... because if they lived together X amount of time, and the guy decides to leave, he could technically force her to sell half the house and hand half the proceeds over to him...