Who Owns Your Dreams?

“I heard that you are finally buying your home?” Beryl said to Suzette as they enjoyed their weekly Saturday brunch at Carol’s Cafe a few miles from their homes.

“Finally,” Annie to her right said, after swallowing a bite of her French toast.

“Thought you weren’t going to borrow any money to buy your house,” Beryl reminds her.

“I am not,” Suzette informs them, chewing small bits of blueberry pancake.

They both stared at her with popped eyes.

“I meant what I said more than ten years ago when I told you that no bank or mortgage company was going to own my dream for ten, twenty, or thirty years!” She reminds them.

“What?” Annie asked, after sipping her pomegranate juice. “You won the lotto and told us nothing.”

“I didn’t win anything,” she informs them while giggling, after swallowing a mouthful of orange juice. Then resting her half-filled glass on the table beside her plate.

“You robbed a bank!” Beryl teased. “Because the area you are going to buy your house in is more expensive than ours.”

Suzette removed the napkin from her lap, stared at them, and then hauled them down Reflect Road, “You,” Suzette pointed to Beryl, “have eighteen years left on your mortgage. You Annie,” she pointed to her, “Has eight years left on yours.”

“Don’t remind us,” they said together.

“Well, I decided to do a test. Beryl’s mortgage is lower because she took thirty years. I use Annie’s mortgage of $2,756.00 monthly because she took twenty years. I fight, sacrifice, and scrimp to save that exact amount every month for twelve years.”

“I paid, $350,000 for my home twelve years ago,” Annie recalls.

“And in twelve years of paying what you paid, monthly, you have already paid that mortgage company $396,864.00!” Suzette educates her, waving her phone at her after calculating everything.

“You mean I have already paid them for the cost of my house and still have eight years to go?” her shock asked.

“Why do you think I don’t have credit cards, nor do I buy anything on credit?” Suzette asked as Beryl began crunching numbers on her phone.

“You saved up all of that money in twelve years?” Annie asked.

“Are you aware that when you are buying a home, if you have cash, you will pay less than what they are asking for?”

“I didn’t know that,” they sang in unison.

“Yep,” she said, sipping her orange juice. “Smart people want their money now. They refuse to wait on your bank so they will go down.”

They stared at her, mouths agape.

She reached over and closed it pushing their chins up.

“I think I should refinance,” Beryl said, staring at the numbers on her phone in shock.

I borrowed $800,000 to buy my home because I didn’t have all of the asking price. The building Society that loaned us the money, gave us a 32% interest rate. I took out a ten-year mortgage because I hate owing anyone. Plus, no bank should own my dream. In eight years I have paid back Jamaican $2.8M. I also paid something in the mortgage that they saved in case I wanted to renovate along with insurance. I claimed no insurance even when the storm damaged my property. They would increase my mortgage.

I did a lot of renovation. What they gave me wasn’t enough to cover all of what we wanted to do. So, I probably paid them back about $1.6M in profits after borrowing only $800,000. Lots of information was withheld from us denying us the knowledge and ability to make better decisions. This is normal and common in my country. Vital information is withheld, preventing you from making your best decisions at a cost to you.

They owned 48% of my dream in the eight years it took me to pay them back.

I made a vow, to purchase nothing more on credit. I also own no credit cards. If I don’t have cash, I don’t buy.

If your heart could speak, what would it say?

Learn and teach your children money management early. When purchasing your first home, get every piece of information that you can if you are going to borrow money. Or do what Suzette did. Lol.

How much of your dream does the bank or mortgage company own?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.