3 Things Nobody Tells You To Do After You Buy a House

Here are three stupid easy things that you need after you buy a house. Number one, and I wish somebody told me this 20 years ago. Create an email address just for the house. Something like 123MainSt@gmail.com. Send every appliance warranty, repair, renovation invoice, utility document, anything house related to that inbox. It's a free digital filing cabinet, easily searchable. It could save you thousands in the future. Number two, open a high yield savings account just for the house maintenance cost. A good rule of thumb is to save about 1% of the home's value per year, divided by 12. And that's what you need to deposit monthly to that account. For example, if it's a $300,000 house, you'd deposit 250 bucks a month. So when the HVAC breaks or the water heater goes, you already have money sitting there. Number three, if anyone's income depends on the house to keep the house, you need a term life insurance policy with enough coverage to pay off the mortgage. If something happens, not whole life or universal life, a simple term life policy that covers the home loan. One organizes the house docs, one prepares for things breaking. One protects the people living in it. Save this before you buy or to a friend.