This story was submitted by Wong Shak Kong
The year 2004 marked the second year of my career. My mom passed away one year ago and my dad suffered from a serious accident happened in the year 2001. He was unable to work after that and was nearing his retirement age anyways. We stayed together in a rental house, together with my four younger sisters, of which three are still schooling.
My parents did not own a house and was renting all the while. As for me, I focused more in getting myself a proper education instead of buying a car or house. Even when I started working, I still rode my old Yamaha motorbike to work.
One fine day, the landlord asked us to leave the premise out of a sudden, as he was more interested in renting the house to students for a higher rental. As my dad has reached his retirement age by this time, we were able to withdraw his EPF savings for a house.
However, his savings only amounted to RM11,000. But that was more than enough for the deposit. I started looking for a completed house and finally decided to buy a Bumi-released house from a developer. It was a three-bedroom single-storey terrace house which was sold for RM95,000.
After buying the house, I made simple renovation to the house with the remaining cash. I extended the kitchen a little, added fans and lightings and awning at the car porch which costs about RM7,000. We also took our old furniture and electrical appliances with us.
We were thrilled to move into our very own home. The house was quite small for us, but we never had any complaints on it. All that matters was we have a solid roof above our heads and no landlord can chase us out again. My mom would have been very happy if she was still around.
When buying a house, it’s not necessary that we have to start huge. We can also start with a small and affordable home, which don’t add to the burden. And I’m thankful that I had made the right decision for us. Now instead of paying for someone else’s house, I can pay for my own house.
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