Naomi Armenta: buying her first home

Growing up, Naomi and her mother never lived in their own house, but a series of apartments and rented houses as her mom struggled to make ends meet.  “I think it was hard as a single parent with a disabled child, but my mom was always there for me.”  That stability of her mother’s support and sense of responsibility served Naomi well.

Naomi’s first steps toward economic independence started at the University of California, Berkeley in 1990.  As a freshman with a work-study award, one of her first goals was to find a part-time job to help make ends meet.  She quickly found a job in the career placement center performing administrative tasks and assisting a visually impaired staff member.  The experience not only helped her build a resume, but also helped her become more familiar with the process involved in obtaining employment following graduation.

“It’s all about research and making good decisions,” she says.  Her research led her to a human resources opportunity with a civilian contractor.  Her first location: Texas.  Falling back on her mantra of research and good decisions, Naomi was off to the bookstore to read up on El Paso.  A few weeks later, while talking to her soon-to-be boss, her new employer said, “We sure hope you’re going to like Omaha.”

“Omaha?” Naomi asked. “So I was like, whatever,” and it was back to the bookstore for information on Nebraska.

 “One of the hardest things about relocating is figuring out the whole attendant thing,” she says.  Through college there was an established network of experienced and willing attendants; she would be leaving that network behind. The position she was offered was as a management trainee with potential career advancement. Naomi didn't want to pass up a great opportunity, so off to Omaha she went. Again, her mother helped with the move and transition to a new city.  It took about a month to arrange attendants and get into the swing of a new place.

Over the next two years, Naomi learned about human resources, hung out with new friends, and completely ignored her financial life. “I was young and stupid,” she says.  Naomi had accumulated some credit card debt and student loans while in college, and used the same cards for living expenses in Nebraska.  Her salary insured there was money to pay her attendants, and credit cards covered any potential monthly shortfall.  “I had a two bedroom, and used one of the rooms for an office she says, “I kind of would just throw bills into that room and forget about them.”

Naomi did well at her job. Within eighteen months, she was promoted and transferred back to the Bay Area.  Her new job in San Francisco’s Presidio district provided more responsibility and a raise.  She lived in Oakland and braved the complicated commute to the army base in San Francisco.

Naomi spent five years working in the Presidio before changing employers and accepting a new position with a local college.  Finally making a bit more money, she started to research financial planning and get her accounts in order. “I found one of Sue Orman’s books, and that really started the research,” she says.

One of her first goals was to pay down her debt.  In addition to her mounting credit card obligations, Naomi had accumulated some student loan debt that she wanted to pay off. 

She really became addicted to spreadsheets, modeling the amount of time it would take to pay off her debt given varying repayment scenarios.  “I could look at the spreadsheet and see that if I spent $400 on a new TV, it would extend my time in debt by (X) number of months.”  Feeding her self-described latent Virgo tendencies, the spreadsheets even allowed her to include friend’s birthdays into her budgeting calculations. 

More research and good decision-making lead Naomi to recently “buy back” several years of service in a state retirement plan.  This extended the time she remained in debt, but that decision has secured more than eleven years in a well-funded retirement system. 

In addition to eliminating her debt, and funding her retirement plan, Naomi wanted to become a homeowner. 

Last year, as part of a class action, she received a small settlement which allowed her to finish paying off her retirement buyback and start saving for a down payment.  She started her research by reading Home Buying for Dummies and branched out from there.  She also realized that with a larger house, she could consider having a live-in assistant, potentially lowering her monthly attendant bills dramatically.

As the real estate market in the Bay Area began to plummet, Naomi’s dreams of homeownership became more attainable.  Thanks to more affordable prices and her research and planning, she entered into contract last month to purchase her first home.  The four-bedroom house provides her additional flexibility.  “If I want to move to having a live-in attendant, now I can,” she says.  “Heck, I could have two live-ins, and save a lot of attendant dollars.”

Through it all, Naomi has always received support and assistance from her mom and family. “They have always been there for me; my mom helped move me to Berkeley, then Omaha. She even drove me back to the Bay Area for the job in the Presidio.”  In fact, the day of this interview, Naomi was soon off with her mother to meet with an accessibility specialist to estimate modifications to her new home. 

One thing for sure, Naomi will research the options and put herself in the best position to make a good decision.