I became a homeowner at the age of 26 – I used the ‘stingy sister season’ method and saved £57k in a year
BUYING a home is a daunting task, especially when the housing market feels like it’s through the roof and the cost of living is higher than ever.
But one woman, who lives in Vancouver, Canada, managed to do it all on her own by using the ‘stingy sister season’ method, which allowed her to save £57k in a single year.
In one clip, she appeared in a jumper and leggings as she posed in her condo, before suddenly appearing in her bathroom a year later.
Styling her mane up into a ponytail, she shared: “I’m going to talk about that time I impossibly bought a condo.”
@andreakyton prefaced the clip by saying she’s “not a financial adviser”, but simply a Sagittarius.
“I’ve been working since I was 15 and in the tech industry since I was 18 so I don’t want to see no ‘Daddy’s money’ comments…” she said in the TikTok video.
Andrea said she was inspired to look for a home after a conversation with a friend about adulting.
The very first property that she found online is the one she ended up buying.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is so cool. They only want a five percent deposit, I can totally do it,’” she continued. “Every presale condo is different but you’d usually have a deposit structure. So you’d have to come up with x amount of down payment in x amount of time. For me, it was 20 percent of the down payment within a year.”
At the time, she only had 10 percent of the down payment available, but went for it anyway.
“That 10 percent was $70k (£57k), I was short $70k,” she said, adding that she was delusional.
“But guess what, a year later I did it,” Andrea said as she explained how her pal had been budgeting and being more financially responsible to save money.
“She branded it as ‘stingy sister season’, so we did ‘stingy sister season’ together and I was honestly able to save/invest $70k in a year,” she added.
Sharing a second video with all her tips on how she did it, Andrea said: “Flop now so you can save later. What do I mean by that? I mean living below your means.”
Admitting that this can be hard because of constantly seeing other people do incredible things on social media, she said it’s better in the long-term.
She explained that she once lived in an amazing apartment where she threw loads of parties, but it “ate up a lot of my income”.
“So I moved back home with my parents,” she continued, adding that her parents were supportive of her decision.
Her second tip of the method was to become hyper aware of daily and fixed expenses, including housing, groceries, going out.
“Tip number three: be realistic with your golden ration,” she said. “What is the amount that you could budget and put away?
“For me, I was really aggressive with it, I put away 75 percent of my income and not everybody would have the option to do that. But maybe it’s like 30 percent of your income can go into savings or investment.”
Andrea said that consistency also “trumps intensity”.
Her fourth tip was to “increase earning power” by doing a lot of research into what they want to do.
People flocked to the comments to share their thoughts on her tips as one person wrote: “I believe that if you live with your parents as a young adult you should absolutely be able to save. Good decision”.
Another said: “Thank you for sharing all this info!! I’m totally trying to save right now and need all the tips”. [sic]
“You inspired meeee,” [sic] another shared, to which she replied: “Aweee tysm love,” with a heart emoji.