I Made Some Mistakes Buying My First Home. Here's How I'm Making Sure It Doesn't Happen Again

A dog sits in an empty moving box surrounded by other boxes on moving day.

Buying a home is an emotional roller coaster. You learn a lot about yourself, your needs, and a whole lot more along the way. So, let's set the scene.

It was the summer of 2021. We were growing tired of renting, so we decided to try buying a home. However, there was a problem: Where we lived in Florida, we couldn't get a shack for under $500k.