When I Was 30 I Bought a Beach House at the Jersey Shore
This is how I did it
My husband and I were always big goal-setters thanks to our sales backgrounds. One day we are driving home to Baltimore after leaving the Jersey Shore.
“Let’s write a goal to buy a beach house,” I say.
I know my husband will be on board because he has grown up with a house at the shore.
“Okay,” says my husband. “Let’s make a five-year goal.”
“Nah,” I say. “That’s not motivating enough for me. I know it’s not quite realistic but let’s make it a two-year goal.”
I enlarge a picture of us in front of a horse and carriage in Cape May, New Jersey. I slap it on the refrigerator where we can see it every day.
I find a part-time job to start an extra savings plan.
A few weeks later we are back at the Jersey Shore.
We are renting a group house for the summer in Avalon with some of my husband’s friends from high school. I sit on the beach with one of my best friends. She and I are some of the few girlfriends in this large friend group.
“We aren’t going to go in on the group house next summer,” I say.
“What??” she exclaims.
“Well,” I say. “Two summers of chipping in on a group rental is almost enough for a deposit on a house. I want to save that money so we can buy a beach house.”
“But you will miss being down here with us for two summers,” she says.
“I know,” I say. “But we will have a beach house.”
The goal I am reaching for is still not entirely realistic.
My husband and I are 28 and 30. No one our age owns a beach house. But the goal setter, optimist, and business side of me believe that it’s within our reach.
Our plan is met with more skepticism at home.
“You live in a townhouse,” say a few friends. “Don’t you want a single-family home?”
“I love our townhouse,” I say. “I love our neighbors. I am in no hurry to move. Plus, we will always aspire to buy a single-family home. But we may not always aspire for something like this.”
My rationale is pretty simple.
We grow up expecting certain things of ourselves.
Our parents own a home and two cars so we expect to own a home and two cars. We don’t question it. It may be a struggle, it may be difficult, and it may take years but we aspire to it. Why can’t we have the same expectations of ourselves in other areas?
My husband and I commit to our goal.
We make the occasional trip to the Jersey Shore.
No one is more shocked than us when we reach our goal.
Not the fact that we did it, but that we met the unrealistic two-year mark.
In all fairness, we did not have a lot to spend but I was determined. We put in a contract on a condo in Stone Harbor and lost. We then put a bid on a house in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. It was the least attractive house on the block but it was six houses from the beach.
And we were young.
Beggers can’t be choosers.
“You can’t put in an offer that low,” says my father-in-law.
“Yes, I can,” I say. “Because we can’t go any higher and we don’t need a beach house. If we get it we get it.”
We had enough money saved for the deposit and six to eight months of the mortgage. The rental income was good but we knew we couldn’t count on it to kick in immediately.
We got the house.
I suspected we might because it didn’t show well.
“Most people couldn’t see beyond the cigarette burns in the comforters,” says the realtor.
“I know,” I say.
“But this house is in great shape it’s just cosmetic changes,” he says.
“I know,” I say.
This is long before the days of HGTV and fixer-uppers.
Not long after, my girlfriend and I are sitting on the beach.
“I can’t believe you actually did it,” she says.
“I know,” I say. “I can’t believe we actually did it in two years.”
“I want to do it,” she says.
“You can,” I say.
“I’m not sure we can afford to do it,” she says. “Can you show me how to do it?”
“Yes,” I say.
A few years later she had her own beach house. She needed to take a slightly different path to get there. But I knew it was possible. It’s just about figuring out how to reach that goal.
It’s about setting an expectation for yourself.
It’s about believing it’s possible.
It’s about writing the goal down, giving it a visual you look at every day, and giving it a definitive date. It’s about working out the steps necessary to reach that goal. It becomes concrete at that point.
It’s no longer intangible.
It’s no longer a hope or a dream.
It’s an objective with a completion date. And it’s why you are able to ultimately reach that goal. We were young. We made decent money, but not a lot of money at that point.
The best part was having my best friend at the shore sitting next to me.
Both of us were on the beach wondering what we did right.
We just made different choices and wanted it.
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