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How hard was making Your first $100K and how did you do it?

2 words, delayed gratification. Don't let your spending grow proportionally with your income. When you start making 6 figures income, ALWAYS try to max out your retirement accounts (IRA, 401k HSA) and plan your take home pay around that. Left over money, put into a brokerage if you can spare some. I just hit 7 figures net worth last year (investing 60%+ total gross me and wife combined per year) and I'll say it gets easier after your first 100k. Stay with it and try to map out where your money is going each pay period to get control of your expenses.
 

Winter John

Member
Decades. I spent most of my life scratching around, living day to day like a bum. The one thing I had in my favor was my willingness to work at whatever I could get at any time. Even at my lowest when I was strung out and blacklisted from every bar and restaurant in Manhattan I still managed to find work somewhere.
I give my wife all the credit because I got no doubt at all I’d still be living in some roach hotel if she hadn’t come along.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
My first job at the age of 15 was digging 4' x 4' x 4' holes with a shovel for satellite dish installs of the giant spun aluminum dishes in 1982 for $2.00 an hour :)

My first $100k net worth came early in my life simply because I could throw a Baseball really hard and was drafted in 1987 and cracked that $100k soon afterwards

First 1 million net came at my first big contract extension in the middle 90s

Thing is keep your eyes on the prize and never stop griding.

This last tax evaluation I am at 72 million net and it has been increasing around 10% yearly
I knew you were Curt Schilling!
 
Average net worth of Americans as of 2022:
Age groupMedian net worth (2022)Average net worth (2022)
Under 35 years old$39,000$183,500
35-44 years old$135,600$549,600
45-54 years old$247,200$975,800
55-64 years old$364,500$1,566,900
65-74$409,900$1,794,600
75 years or older$335,600$1,624,100


How about that difference between average and median? I knew it would be significant, but this was really eye-opening for me.
 
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Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Don't ever carry a balance on a credit card. Outside of an emergency - of which you should have an emergency fund - carrying a balance on a credit card means you can't afford whatever you bought.
I would change this to never pay INTEREST on a credit card (this is similar to only buying what you can afford…but doing so strategically. I have balances on several cards that never incur interest but grow my credit ceiling every three months.

I started small with a credit card with a 500 dollar limit. I have grown that over 20 years to a very high (but not maxed out) credit score which has given me a great amount of borrowing power. You can use that to make great investments (read: returns) which give you more funds to turn around repeat the cycle.

I will admit however I am single with no kids and this has given me opportunities to take calculated risks others don’t have the option of taking.

Although big houses, huge hobby collections, and “financial freedom” don’t keep ya warm at night in an empty bed.
 

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
. Max the 401K and a side IRA if you can (say 2K/mo total put away) and that usually gets you to a mill in 20 years.

I wasn't sure where this was in the general scheme of things (I don't live in the USA), but I googled the average income in the USA and it came out at $37585.

So basically "save 2/3rds the average income for the country every year for 2 decades and you'll be fine?"

How close to "stop being poor" is that?
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
Mortgages are about 6% now in Canada and US (give or take pending which bank and option). Since the 2008 crisis, mortgages should had been around 2-3% for most people. Mine was under 2% for a while bottoming at 1.2% right during covid.

The key to big shit like mortgages is also to track it as you can renew early lock in good rates. I know lots of people who saw inflation perking up and locked in a 2% rate in 2021 which they can now coast for 5 years. One guy locked in a 10 year mortgage at I think 2.3% or whatever. I didn't know you could even get a term that long as most banks promote 1-5 year mortgages. But hey, all you got to do is ask.

Car loans on TV seem cheap again. A lot of places have 1.9% I see. Then again, maybe they are just hooking people in with jacked up prices and fine line terms where they get you a different way.
Most mortgages in the US are 30 years in length. Not sure where you are getting 10 years being a long term.
 
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John Marston

GAF's very own treasure goblin
Decades. I spent most of my life scratching around, living day to day like a bum. The one thing I had in my favor was my willingness to work at whatever I could get at any time.
That's pretty much me in my late teens and 20's.
Today I focus on being comfortable without extravagance.
At this stage in my life I also don't want/need a girlfriend therefore all my paychecks are 100% for me me me 😃
 

dave_d

Member
that’s the joke
Sorry, I didn't know if a lot of people knew about that which is why I brought it up.(It's true for anybody that didn't know. I think Rhode Island is suing about that or they were. Apparently states don't understand the concept that if you invest you can actually lose money.
 
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Days like these...

Have a Blessed Day
I remember my first paycheck at my first real job after college. I had signed up for 401k withholding. Looking at pay stub thinking “Ah man. This $27 401k contribution will never add up”.

Was able to consistently save and increase those regular contribution amounts and it has helped greatly. I’m not rich, but not doing too badly either.
How much do you reckon you've saved from, uh, not buying lunch at work?
 

XXL

Member
Find something youre good at.

Start a business, invest all of your extra money (beyond living requirements) into advertising that business, do not "ball out" when at first you have extra cash (This is where people go wrong).

Grow the business, until you can hire someone to run it, again do not "ball out" yet. Decrease advertising, invest extra money and profits from business into safe investments, use that to fight against taxes. Take small amounts of money and invest into risky ventures (crypto, etc).

Note - when you hire someone else, you'll now have purchased your time. If you don't invest, start another business that is low cost, high reward, maybe even associated with your other business, so can now directly advertising (for free) to past, current and future clients.

If you can get to the point of having a million or more, Invest it into something that can generate at least 5-7% safely YOY. It will become a 2nd revenue stream that keeps refreshing it self yearly, that is now your spending money. Ball out then.

Do not up your life style until it's has no effect or is being paid for by investments.

That's how you make lots of money.

The biggest hurdle you will have in this process is keep your wife/girl/partner out of the fucking stores. Lol.
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
I wasn't sure where this was in the general scheme of things (I don't live in the USA), but I googled the average income in the USA and it came out at $37585.

So basically "save 2/3rds the average income for the country every year for 2 decades and you'll be fine?"

How close to "stop being poor" is that?
I dunno no, take your socialist BS elsewhere though, this thread is about investing money to generate wealth.
 
Was lucky enough to get it after college with first job.

Everyone’s situation is different but ill say this - cool vacations, car, etc, general life joys are much better young versus old. Some of the vacations I’ve been on, I feel like energy level wouldn’t be there is I was in 40s. My job is soul sucking, def can’t do it forever, my free time goes towards these joys and I’m not shy about spending the money as I have very little free time anyways.

My point is, don’t wait for a magical number to start having fun in life.
 

sono

Gold Member
I would change this to never pay INTEREST on a credit card (
correct.

Not sure about rules in the USA.

To avoid paying interest (UK, may be everywhere) ?

A. Pay the full statement balance at any point after the statement arrives before but as close to the the "payment due" date as you can. Note that the statement balance isnt the same as the current balance.
B. Any purchases made after the statement made up to the next statement incur no interest if you do A. and if you do this : those purchase are not due to be paid until the following month statement due date. That can give you up to 56 days interest free on those purchases.


The "Up to 56 days interest free" thing can be a confusing - I

Let's say your credit card statement is produced on the 1st of the APRIL (and the 1st of every month). When you receive your statement, the payment due date will typically be about 3 weeks after the statement is produced - so say the 21st of APRIL for this example

You purchase something on this card on 2nd of April (i.e after the last statement) This will only be included on the statement that's produced on the 1st MAY. It you pay the balance shown on the 1st April statement in full on 21st April you will pay no interest.

The purchase you made on 2nd APRIL will only be first shown on the 1st May statement and not due until the 21st MAY , So you've had 51 days of interest-free credit on that 2nd April purchase.

If you purchase something on the 30th March it will be shown on the 1st APRIL statement due to be paid on 21st April so for that you only had 22 days of interest free time to pay it back.

So in summary:
The key takeaways to maximise interest free period every month:
1. Credit card companies produce a statement on the same date in the month every month so make a note of that date for each card
2. For any particular credit card make your purchases soon after the statement production date rather than near before to when the statement is produced. Use another card if you need to make purchases close before the statement date for a better position relative to the card statement date.
3. Pay off your statement balance in full on each card before the payment due date

If you have two or three cards with statement dates at different dates in the month, make your purchases on each card within a week of their respective statement being produced on any particular card; but pay each card statement balance in full before the due date.
 

sono

Gold Member
Seems like we are stuck in the same algorithm group.

Id like to test this. I've never seen this guy's channel or video nor even knew about this first $100k concept. But watched it for the first time a couple hours ago and now see a post on the same thing about it. You didn't happen to see the same video?


He seems to be relying on making 10% per annum on your savings by investing all of them in the stock market.
 

Raven117

Member
Barring a dramatic escalation in income, I don't really think the first 100K is much different than the first million, it's just dogged persistence and time. Max the 401K and a side IRA if you can (say 2K/mo total put away) and that usually gets you to a mill in 20 years.

The real challenge is to avoid a massive LOSS, usually called divorce or prolonged unemployment. But avoiding expensive cars & lavish vacations, small savings with groceries/household expenses, and just getting lucky with real estate certainly helps. Otherwise, unless you have a large lump sum to seed your investment, it's consistent input AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE that really gets you the big growth.
This is basically the right of it.
 

Rengoku

Member
First 100k is definitely the hardest. Saw someone post this and its a very good example of why the first 100k is so hard

To get to the first 100k, in this example, around 78% of that is your contribution through saving.
When you're going from 100k - 200k, nearly half of that comes from your returns.
KYmyTe8.png
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
First 100k is definitely the hardest. Saw someone post this and its a very good example of why the first 100k is so hard

To get to the first 100k, in this example, around 78% of that is your contribution through saving.
When you're going from 100k - 200k, nearly half of that comes from your returns.
KYmyTe8.png
It is misleading to say "harder" imho. The first years to 100k is no different than the last 100k, the person is still putting in the same amount each year. Of course for most of us we are making more at 40 than when we were at 20 so that 10k/yr is more manageable, but technically it's the same amount of $$$ in the beginning as it is at the end. Just the rate of growth accelerates due to interest on a larger amount of principle.

The real lesson is start as early as possible and put in as much as possible, small $$$ sacrifices when you are in your 20s can really show a return in your 60s.
 
Here's a general plan of how I'm trying to grow net worth. If anybody has advice, I'm all ears.

1) Link all accounts/track money with Mint.com, but now that it's shut down, Credit Karma. People tend to get overwhelmed/don't like when their money is all over the place because it's harder to manage. Services like this help solve for that.

2) Leave ~$2k in a bank account that has a wide network/good service to cover monthly expenses, the rest goes elsewhere

3) Put about half of disposable income into a 5% interest rate savings account for a safe, guaranteed return that hopefully keeps pace with inflation

4) Put other half into the stock market. Index funds and companies with high dividends or that I do research on

5) Watch US Treasury I-Bonds for great deals like the guaranteed 9% return that was going on in 2022. These are dope--there's a reason you can only buy $10K worth per year

6) If I have a big one-time expense coming up, I'll look for credit cards that have great opening bonuses like "spend X in first X months for X dollars/credit"

7) I changed companies so I can't get 401K matching yet, but once I can, I'll be maxing that out again.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Most mortgages in the US are 30 years in length. Not sure where you are getting 10 years being a long term.
Ah. Canada is different.

Typically most people do 20 or 25 year amortization mortgages, and you pick your term of length. Most people do 5 years or less. When that term is up you renew or get a new mortgage. Renewing is technically like getting a new mortgage, but for sake of ease you can get the bank to roll over your current mortgage to a new one with latest rates so you dont have to go through all the paperwork/proof of employment etc.... from scratch again..
 
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jason10mm

Gold Member
Ah. Canada is different.

Typically most people do 20 or 25 year amortization mortgages, and you pick your term of length. Most people do 5 years or less. When that term is up you renew or get a new mortgage. Renewing is technically like getting a new mortgage, but for sake of ease you can get the bank to roll over your current mortgage to a new one with latest rates so you dont have to go through all the paperwork/proof of employment etc.... from scratch again..
Sounds like an adjustable rate mortgage here in the states. It will float with, some left/right bumpers so it can't change too much too fast, as the US rate changes. Used to be popular as the rate would often go down so you wouldn't be trapped in a 6% rate or whatever forever, then when it was low no one did it (I hope, if you did an APR when it was 2.5% you deserve what you get) and now I'm sure EVERYONE is doing it again since the pressure to lower rates is high. Though I believe in the 70s the rates were in the 10-12% range, something I hope NEVER comes back cause it would CRUSH home prices or drive the entire US housing market to the big corps buying in cash.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Sounds like an adjustable rate mortgage here in the states. It will float with, some left/right bumpers so it can't change too much too fast, as the US rate changes. Used to be popular as the rate would often go down so you wouldn't be trapped in a 6% rate or whatever forever, then when it was low no one did it (I hope, if you did an APR when it was 2.5% you deserve what you get) and now I'm sure EVERYONE is doing it again since the pressure to lower rates is high. Though I believe in the 70s the rates were in the 10-12% range, something I hope NEVER comes back cause it would CRUSH home prices or drive the entire US housing market to the big corps buying in cash.
When you pick your mortgage, you can pick variable or fixed too.

Mortgage rates were crazy 40 years ago. Looking at charts it hit around 15%. Even with a low mortgage amount people didn’t make a lot money back then. So even just a $50,000 at 15% is insane. Pretty much none of the mortgage payments went to equity. It was probably like 90% interest. And in the later 80s it was still close to 10%. No wonder it took mom and dad forever to pay off a mortgage. When rates are low equity should be about 50% of every mortgage payment.
 
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Mihos

Gold Member
I refinanced from a 30 to a 15 year mortgage about 5 years into the loan. Had the house paid off completely in 10 years total.

0 to 100k probably took about 10 years, 6 of that was military, so not much savings in the early 90s
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
When you pick your mortgage, you can pick variable or fixed too.

Mortgage rates were crazy 40 years ago. Looking at charts it hit around 15%. Even with a low mortgage amount people didn’t make a lot money back then. So even just a $50,000 at 15% is insane. Pretty much none of the mortgage payments went to equity. It was probably like 90% interest.
I think A. folks put a lot more down (none if this 90-100% financing stuff) and B. Homes were like 30-90k, not 500+

I still remember buying my first house, 220k, and I was TERRIFIED because that seemed like so much compared to what people were talking about in the 80s and 90s, then real estate just blew up around the 2000s and every expected house value to radically outstrip their mortgages and give assured equity.

I bought in 2007....so yeah, no assured equity for me :p Had I bought a few years earlier and sold before 2008 I'd probably have gotten enough of a seed to have been able to start buying homes outright.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Another tip for mortgages if you’re new to it, try to pay it off paying two payments per month. That pays off the mortgage faster. That’s 24 payments per year. Even slight faster is every two weeks which is 26 payments per year.

Depending your mortgage terms it’ll probably pay off your mortgage faster by like 3 years.

Just play around with a mortgage calculator. Keep everything the same but do two tests. One using a fast payment process like twice a month payments and the one being pay once a month. You’ll save a ton in the long run.
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I think A. folks put a lot more down (none if this 90-100% financing stuff) and B. Homes were like 30-90k, not 500+

I still remember buying my first house, 220k, and I was TERRIFIED because that seemed like so much compared to what people were talking about in the 80s and 90s, then real estate just blew up around the 2000s and every expected house value to radically outstrip their mortgages and give assured equity.

I bought in 2007....so yeah, no assured equity for me :p Had I bought a few years earlier and sold before 2008 I'd probably have gotten enough of a seed to have been able to start buying homes outright.
One of the condos I lived in cost $320k and at the time it was holy shit. Sold that and made money then bought the house I live in which I bought for about $700,000. It was the first time moving places my mortgage went up but did it since I had enough of condo life and knew I could float it. Got lucky like everyone else as properly prices rocketed up.
 
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dave_d

Member
I think A. folks put a lot more down (none if this 90-100% financing stuff) and B. Homes were like 30-90k, not 500+
That's true. I remember my mom always telling us the house we lived in was 20k and they bought that in 1970. I think my dad's yearly salary was something like 4-5k a year. The mortgage was I think 30 years, no idea what the interest rate on it was. Different times. (Admittedly my mom was the one trying to convince my brother to not put his money in the stock market. Then again mom played the lottery like crazy, not a great idea.)
 
Another tip for mortgages if you’re new to it, try to pay it off paying two payments per month. That pays off the mortgage faster. That’s 24 payments per year. Even slight faster is every two weeks which is 26 payments per year.

Depending your mortgage terms it’ll probably pay off your mortgage faster by like 3 years.

Just play around with a mortgage calculator. Keep everything the same but do two tests. One using a fast payment process like twice a month payments and the one being pay once a month. You’ll save a ton in the long run.
The freedom of actually owning my house would be awesome. But everything I read about finances says it's not rational to do. My interest rate is about 3.5%, whereas I could be putting extra cash into investments that get a higher rate of return.

You seem to know your finances...could you please help me justify paying my house off quicker lol
 

Raven117

Member
Another tip for mortgages if you’re new to it, try to pay it off paying two payments per month. That pays off the mortgage faster. That’s 24 payments per year. Even slight faster is every two weeks which is 26 payments per year.

Depending your mortgage terms it’ll probably pay off your mortgage faster by like 3 years.

Just play around with a mortgage calculator. Keep everything the same but do two tests. One using a fast payment process like twice a month payments and the one being pay once a month. You’ll save a ton in the long run.
This assumes even owning your house is a good idea. You are dumping a ton in one asset that you could be getting better returns.
The freedom of actually owning my house would be awesome. But everything I read about finances says it's not rational to do. My interest rate is about 3.5%, whereas I could be putting extra cash into investments that get a higher rate of return.

You seem to know your finances...could you please help me justify paying my house off quicker lol
You definitely want to be trying to get higher returns on that second payment.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
The freedom of actually owning my house would be awesome. But everything I read about finances says it's not rational to do. My interest rate is about 3.5%, whereas I could be putting extra cash into investments that get a higher rate of return.

You seem to know your finances...could you please help me justify paying my house off quicker lol
If you have a locked rate of 3 5% there us, at the present time time, ZERO REASON to pay more than the absolute minimum mortgage (so long as it isnt an interest only, if they are still allowed to do those anymore) because you can make more in a 5% HYSA which is virtually 100% safe. More money in a savings account and not in a house means you can start over if your house burns down, you gotta flee a disaster, etc cause you can walk away from the home and let the bank deal with it.

Paying down the house faster is really just piece of mind if you are not disciplined enough to see money in an account without tapping into it. Functionally it's the same if you retire with no mortgage versus having enough savings to pay the rest of the mortgage over time from money earning interest at the same rate the mortgage does.

Now if you got one of those 6+% mortgages then throwing in extra to pay down the principle is a prudent move since it's unlikely you are gonna beat that rate with stable investments.
 
Sounds like it comes down to a rational vs emotional decision like I was thinking. It'd be rational to never go on vacation, only eat basic nutritional foods, and never watch porn while smoking sticky buds to break up the eight-hour video game sessions, but is that really a life? Hm...I guess I'll hold off contributing more to the mortgage for now. Thanks, you two.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The freedom of actually owning my house would be awesome. But everything I read about finances says it's not rational to do. My interest rate is about 3.5%, whereas I could be putting extra cash into investments that get a higher rate of return.

You seem to know your finances...could you please help me justify paying my house off quicker lol
This assumes even owning your house is a good idea. You are dumping a ton in one asset that you could be getting better returns.
Canadian mortgages are different, so I can only go but what I know here.

In terms of what Raven and Jason said about weighing the opportunity cost of paying off a mortgage fast or paying it off slower and riding any excess cash into investments, that's one of those things everyone is different. When mortgage rates are low, it's way more tempting to ride it in other things. When rates shoot up, it's going to feel safer paying down the mortgage. One benefit of the US is that it seems primary residence mortgage expense can be a tax deductible of some kind which is great. In Canada, we dont get that. Interest expense deduction is totally lost unless it's from an investment property. I know people on both sides of the spectrum. You got the couple who scrape up as much loose money possible and want to be mortgage free asap. Then you got guys who dont give a shit about carrying a mortgage in their 60s because they know on the side they are using that money for investing or other properties. They'll cash out all their shit later in life and maybe pay off the mortgage when they are 70. Who knows

In terms of helping pay off mortgages faster if you go that route (some people like to be more conservative than others) or simply savings some costs, all I can recommend are the following. And this goes for anyone not just you:

1. Variable vs Fixed rate.
This comes down to how much you can stomach fluctuating rates. Some people can, some hate it. Traditionally variable rates are better, but in skyrocketing rates like now there is safety to lock in a good rate. It gets to a point if rates drop a lot like before, locking in a rate under 3% seems pretty good. Your rate of 3.5% is solid. Ok, it's not as good as before covid, but way better than the 6% going on now. With the current sentiment being interst rates should drop soon, locking in a high rate isnt a good idea.

2. Open or Closed mortgage. Unless you are rocking a lot of money or know you will pay it off soon with an influx of money, just do a Closed mortgage. It will be a lower rate. It should still give you some flexibility to pay off additional money towards the mortgage like 15 or 20% per year, which should be plenty for most people. Compare rates, but Closed should be cheaper

3. Get a mortgage broker to do the work for you, tell you all the best plans out there and get him to explain things. I've never been able to get a better rate waltzing into a bank myself trying to bargain with them. It makes no sense since you'd think I should get a lower rate since the broker gets a pay out by the bank, but thats how banks work I guess.

Another benefit of brokers is if your property mortgage requires an appraisal, a mortgage broker shoud cover your fee. It's like $300, but a broker probably makes a couple grand off you. For sake of long term business relationships, get your broker to cover it. What should happen with a cool broker is you pay the fee upfront, the mortgage gets approved through your broker so its a done deal, send the broker your bill and he'll pay you back in a week. Out of all properties I've had needing one, I've never paid the fee at the end of the day. Regardless, always ask to get the appraisal fee covered by the bank or broker.

Never get a mortgage through your current banking just because it's easier to process. Look for the best deal. If it so happens the best deal is your bank thats awesome. But dont be afraid to shop around. Out of all the mortgages I've had for where I live and investment condos I dont think one was ever through my own bank I use for chequing.

4. As I said above, paying every two weeks (should be called Accelerated Bi-Weekly or something like that) pays off your mortgage faster as you dump in the equivalent of 1 extra month of payment per year. The interest savings you get long term should be good and a 25 year mortgage should be paid off in like 22. The drawback is you got to budget the extra payments and it will have an irregular payment schedule. So instead of a predictable May 1st Monthly payment or a May 1st and May 15th Standard Bi-Weekly (different than Accelerated), it's now every two weeks. So you will get payments pending the calendar year, not the 1st and 15th kind of thing. If someone is tight on money or how they get paid by work, you got to keep this in mind. So if the mortgage starts on May 1, you'll now have another payment on May 15, and then oddly May 29 and June 12 so you can see it gets weird. But assuming someone doesn't have payment issues, you dont even think about it. Make sure not to pick the standard bi-weekly or semi-monthly plan. All that does is chop up the Monthly payment into installments so it's the same thing end of the day. The Accelerated bi-weekly is the one you pay more so it helps pay off the mortgage faster.

Make note there is a difference between Semi-Monthly, Bi-weekly and Accelerated Bi-Weekly. Everyone can do what they want, but IMO Accelerated Bi-Weekly is best.

5. Aim for a mortgage with as few fees as possible. There might be options regarding Porting a mortgage. Get one that has no porting or lawyer fees involved when porting

6. You'll be offered by the bank to accrue more money off you every mortgage payment which they will accumulate and pay off your property tax for you. Unless you need help budgeting and cant pool together funds yourself to pay it, scratch that option off and tell them to fuck off. Control your own money. Save money to pay off your own tax. If you are conservative and dont want to risk it in the stock market, then put money in a 5% savings account bit by bit yourself

7. When buying a brand new property from the ground up and you got to pay deposits down, the schedule they give you means jack shit. I've wheel and dealed with them to scratch that chart out and my payments are given extended deadlines in writing. You'll typically get a payment schedule like: Now, 30 days, 90 days, 120 days, 180 days, Closing. I got them to extend the 120 to 180, and the 180 to 360 (or 365). Make sure to know the details in it that can be big ballbusters later on like fees for levies. You want them to be as low as possible and capped at reasonable limits like $5,000 tops or whatever. You dont want some kind of open ended or sky high limit they can grill you later when the building is complete.

Investment properties I've always bought are condo units. You can get an idea if it'll be a good valued unit or not based on location alone. But other stuff is very important, at least in my experience. Aim for a mid or high floor, aim for a unit with a good view (like at the water or open spaces and not looking at another building. Get a sense if the open view is going to be a forever open view or possibility of it being blocked in the future if a another condo pops up blocking). End of the day, the property will be more valuable if you got a good view. And corner units go for more too as people will pay more to get double views in two directions. Always buy an optional parking spot. Some will come with the spot, but if it's optional buy it. I made the mistake in 2010 buying a unit with no parking to save money thinking all the downtowners wouldnt give a shit, ride bikes and take transit, and fight for my unit as it'd be priced cheaper. It was the opposite, it was a tough slog to sell at a good price as people want a parking spot. Trying to go back to building management hoping there is a spare parking spot to buy and link up to your unit got denied in my case since they had no spare spots to sell. So I was fucked
 
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