When Alex Carver and his wife Désirée went house hunting in Sydney recently, they gave up the idea of buying after just one weekend.
The 30-something couple, who have a 17 month old son Fredrik, were renting in the city’s Eastern Suburbs but quickly realised that there was nothing on the market they could afford to buy.
“We’d built up a reasonable deposit, which is hard to do while renting, and we also had some help from my parents in the UK,” says Alex, who came to Australia at the age of 22 and has decided to stay.
Alex and Désirée Carver
“So we look at our options. We could go West with a big capital “W” or we could go north, up to the Central Coast.”
The couple chose the latter and were able to purchase a three bedroom home north of Gosford.
Its affordability was based on Alex’s income as a sales manager for a surgical equipment supplier, giving Désirée the option of not returning to work after her period of maternity leave had expired.
While the couple are “very happy where we are at the moment” they have no plans to sit still.
They have a long term plan to build their wealth and, with the help of a financial adviser, have recently consolidated their superannuation accounts, sorted out all their insurances and their wills.
They are also building a personal savings buffer of three months’ wages in the bank, to tide them over in the event of a work emergency, of if they suddenly need to fly to Europe for family reasons.
Désirée is from Sweden so the couple both have family roots in the northern hemisphere.
“It seemed like a time to get everything sorted out,” says Alex.
“But we are always looking for the next opportunity, but we understand that at our stage in life you have to go long with your planning.”
Having recently settled into their family home, Alex and Désirée are now marshalling their funds and looking around to purchase an investment property.
The idea is that at some point in the future it can be sold to help them trade up the family home.
Alex is also interested in investing on financial markets, and had a glimpse of how professional investors work in a previous job in financial industry IT recruitment.
“I wish I had bought some gold before Trump was elected!” he says.