Don't feel like you have to put 20 percent down before you buy a home

That financial rule of thumb (still believed by many) is, frankly, a lousy rule of thumb. If you can easily afford to make a 20 percent down payment, fine. But don’t do so just to avoid Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). And note: unless you have very bad credit, in which case you should likely think long and hard about buying a home since you are likely to get poor mortgage terms, there are scores of mortgage programs available (both for first time home buyers and not) that require much smaller down payments (in some, limited cases, as little as 0-3% down.)