I am 50 years old and starting my life over with nothing but the shirt on my back. (Bad divorce) I am finally getting on my feet and have about 1,500.00 to pay off in debt. I have 18,000.00 cash and 5,000.00 cd I have no health or life ins, I do not own a home, and have no retirement. I have someone who will lend me 35,000.00 for a home at 8% interest. I am self employeed with no steady income - commission only
I plan on putting 15,000.00 down on a home I currently pay 550.00 a month in rent and cant stand where I live(need to get out)
I am thinking of taking on a roomate after I purchase the home. with loan, taxes and ins I am looking at 520.00 per month. So I will be taking on (in utilities) about 300.00 more a month.
Is this a good idea?
my thinking is a roomate at 500.00 per month.
Please help - I am confused on what to do.
I have to leave where I am at because of her boyfriend. Rent with utilities would be more than I can afford.
Does anyone have an anser?

Hi BA12, welcome to LnF.

I am so sorry to hear about your divorce, I totally understand the hurt that a divorce causes.

You have provided a lot of information here, will it be ok if I tackle this at a 30,000 foot view and then we can dig down deeper through some discussion?

It is good news that you have $18k cash in hand. If it were me, starting out fresh, first thing I would do is pay off the final bit of $1500 in debt. You don't have any other debt correct, no car payments, medical bills, college loans, etc? How much is your take home pay on your worst month?

With that said, being self employed with "no steady income" I would put at least 6 months of living expenses in a solid savings account for my emergency fund. Regardless if you have a mortgage or rent, even when monthly income is low, living expenses must still be paid. Living expenses consist of housing, utilities (including insurance health/life), food, & transportation. This way if you have multiple months of low income you will be able to tap into the emergency fund to maintain life and on high income months you can replenish the fund.

Do you have a budget setup? I realize it is a little challenging to work a budget with inconsistent income - the best way to do that is work your budget off the average of your three lowest paying months over the last 12 month period. That way you are setting yourself up financially to be living below your means so during the "lean" times you can still make your monthly bills. (the goal is to set yourself up so even on a low month or two you would not have to touch your emergency fund)
I was a little confused with what you said

"I am thinking of taking on a roommate after I purchase the home. with loan, taxes and ins I am looking at 520.00 per month. So I will be taking on (in utilities) about 300.00 more a month."

Are you saying you are planning on your home plus utilities, tax/ins to be $820/mo? How much is the total purchase price of your home, is it only $35,000? That seems extremely low for a home purchase price, at least for a home in good livable condition.

Taking a loan of 35k at 8% is NOT a good option. I believe mortgage rates over this last week were in the 4.3 % range for 15yr fixed - even worst case 5.5% is still better than 8%, that is just not a good path to take.

A home is a huge investment and by that I don't mean just the mortgage, there will ALWAYS be something that needs to be fixed in a house, A/C, hot water heater, plumbing leak, you name it, in a house it will break. It is very important to insure you have enough in savings to handle those fixes....and I can assure you, the repairs will come only when you have had 3 or 4 months of low income and you are already tapping into your emergency fund for savings.

Also, "planning on a roommate" to help meet your expenses is usually something that will not consistently workout well. There are exceptions, but but more times than not, those who are the "roommate type" are usually "roommates" because they do not have good enough credit to rent an apartment on their own, meaning they already have poor money management habits and they will most likely not pay you on-time or consistently. The plan should be knowing that your income alone will consistently meet your monthly expenses....rely on income from a roommate to help fund your retirement fund.

Since you can meet a rent payment know and have to move, is it possible for you to move to another apartment with maybe a 7mo lease? Also, health insurance is a must, a gallbladder attack or appendicitis could easily wipe our your emergency fund in a 24hour visit to the hospital.

Like I said above, this was a 30,000 foot overview. To be honest, I have a lot more questions and really want to help you walk down your new financial path, I am hear for you and want to help, I look forward to hearing back from you.