Dear Dave,
How much do you recommend budgeting or how much money to set aside to maintain and repair your home, especially in the case of older homes? Our house is in good condition, but you never know when something goes wrong or at this point you need to solve different frequencies.
Brent
Dear Brent,
I like that you want to plan ahead. Some home repairs aren’t very expensive, but others can take a large portion of them from your bank account. Whether you are directly budgeting something like this or setting up a sunken home maintenance fund, financial preparation is always a good idea. You have to protect your home.
Honestly, I really don’t have a specific formula to determine such a thing. But, I will make sure I always look at it from a realistic perspective. For beginners, you may have peeked at the checkbook over the past few years to see what you spend on maintenance and repair issues.
Caring for a home is like caring for a car. It depends largely on the age and overall condition of the house. If you drive an old model car, you want to spend more money on it over time, right? This is the same principle as a house. The older the structure, the more likely you will have problems. Of course, that means pumping money into it.
Houses are the largest single investment in most people’s lives. Therefore, I also recommend that you give your house a good inside and outside every six months or so. Such preventive steps will be of great help in evaluating what may be needed now and what may pop up in the future.
Great question!
– Dave
