The Unreachable Dream - Short Story

She has always been dreaming about her own house but years were passing by and nothing had changed. So she promised herself that when she will finally pay off her credit cards debt later this year, she will look for a property to buy.

She was living in a rented house and reasoned that she could as well pay the money towards her own mortgage rather than to her landlord's account. Plus it wasn't a small amount of money so she hoped it would be enough to cover the mortgage instalments.

The only trick was to save for the initial deposit and that's why she needed to be free off her cards debt first so she could actually start saving some money. She lived in the current place for more than three years now. ‘Next time I will move it will be to the place I own’ she promised herself.

In following months, while paying off her debts, she kept dreaming about this new home. She wanted at least two bedrooms, so she would have a spare one for guests. And a big living room - she was fed up with two tiny rooms she had in her current house, if she was designing it, she would destroy the wall between those two rooms so people would have a space to breath. She also wanted big windows so the light could easily reach every single corner, unlike here where the place was dark most of the time. She dreamt of beautiful location, full of trees and flowers, far from the noisy streets, with a wonderful garden for romantic evenings with her lover or for barbeque nights with friends in the summer.

She had it all mapped out in her head so when the month of last payment for the cards arrived, she started to look for properties and mortgage offers.

And that was her wake up call. World was in the middle of financial crisis so she had no chances for a 100% mortgage. She needed minimum 10% of a house price for the deposit. She checked the property prices and it made her feel even worse. If she wanted to follow her dream and buy two bedroom house, then she needed at least 20 000 pounds for deposit only!

It was ridiculous amount of money to save and there was more to it. There were additional costs like the stamp duty, costs of various searches and also mortgage and lawyer fees - another 5000 pounds at minimum. She was devastated. Where on earth she was going to find 25K? With her current saving power it would take her 4 to 5 years of rigorous saving - what a waste of time and money! But the worst was that prices of houses could easily go up during that period of time as they were at their lows at the moment so she might never reach her 10% target!

She was very upset for several days when she was thinking it all back and forth and she couldn't find any solution to the situation. Her parents weren't rich so there was no chance they could support her financially. Some suggested she could move to a rented room and save more money this way but such an idea was so repulsive to her that she was not giving it a second thought. She needed her space and her privacy - those needs were core to her personality so she was not capable of giving them up even temporarily. ‘Looks like my only chance is to win a lottery’ she thought bitterly. Unfortunately it wasn’t something she could control.

On one evening, after third or fourth glass of wine, she finally accepted the fact she won't be buying her dream house and that she will be renting for many years to come. It was very upsetting but such was a reality and once she agreed to it she could start living a normal life again without this turmoil and emotional storms.

She started to save the money but not too rigorously as she also wanted to live here and now and the house wasn't within her reach anyway. After several months she attended a free life coaching event and she fell in love with its principles. At the end of two days event, participants were offered places on the life coaching course and she was dying to go for it, but the fee was horrendous. She didn't have so much money but the more she was thinking about it the more she was convincing herself that she could find a way. If she topped up her savings with her credit card, she would be able to pay the fee, so the only question was if she could justify to herself spending so much money on a course.

After chats with her family and some more thinking, she went for it. She booked a place on the course and was in debt one more time for several months to come. The house buying thing was a dream of the past and now she was training to become a life coach. It was a wonderful experience, she learnt so much about motivating and supporting others in achieving their goals while at the same time her own life changed. She became very busy with her own goals; her motivation and energy levels increased dramatically and she started to believe she could do anything she liked.

One day she has got a text about an event organised by a home association for first time buyers with free financial and legal advice. She mentioned that to her friends who were thinking of buying a house and they went together to the event just to see what is new in house buyers world. They were waiting in a queue to get inside and the conversation that followed changed her life forever.

They were discussing different options and her friend mentioned that some house builders had offers with 5% deposit. It was quite interesting but still one would need to find this money anyway. Her friends had some savings already so they were only 5 K short. Because of that her friend started to wonder if it would be legal to take a short term loan and borrow the missing money for deposit. ‘What a brilliant idea’ she shouted, too excited to stay calm and quiet. It was a light bulb moment for her – why hasn’t she thought of taking a loan earlier!

The financial adviser confirmed it wouldn’t be a problem and that the mortgage lender would take the loan into consideration in terms of limiting the amount they would offer but that it would not jeopardize their chances. So finally she had her solution. She calculated everything thoroughly and was convinced she would be able to manage both – the mortgage and the loan payments.

Suddenly she became very busy and within few months she could move into her brand new, wonderful house. The dream came true even though she didn't believe it was possible. The words she read once came back to her now - “follow your dreams and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” - ‘so true‘, she thought holding the key to her new home in her hand.