Nicole Haddow

I mean I had broadly but the reality of paying some of those sums at the time of settlement and all of those sorts of things and lender's mortgage insurance which I used because I didn't have a 20% deposit was

which has its pros and cons, but that was sort of built into the cost of my loan.

And for me, I chose to have that expense because had I waited another 12 months to enter the market, it would have made less financial sense to do that.

So it was smarter for me at that time.

You've really got to be reading the market and understanding whether that's a smart decision or not.

So I did a couple of things.

I actually bargained the price of the house down by the exact amount that the lender's mortgage insurance was.

So in my mind, I'd cancelled out my lender's mortgage insurance.

But also, if you buy, and again, I'm just going to use some random numbers here.

If you want to buy a house that's priced at $450,000 and your lender's mortgage insurance is going to be $10,000, but if you wait a year and that property is then worth $500,000, then you're actually ahead by $40,000.

So even though you've had to put up that $10,000, if the value of the property is going up at a reasonable pace, in my mind it makes good sense to use it if that's right for your circumstances.

I had several side hustles.

I had a side hustle while I was saving.

I had a side hustle in my first year.

I'm really lucky as a writer.

My skill set lends itself to doing side work.

So I'd have a full-time job and write freelance features on the side.

The biggest challenge in terms of doing that power save period is you either have to drop back your cost of living, so reduce your cost of rent and all of those sorts of things, or increase your income.

So I would encourage people to think about a side hustle.

My disclaimer on that is it is really time consuming and also stressful if you don't enjoy that work, and I know it's a luxury to enjoy a side hustle, but it's