4 ms·

What? If you're really saving a bunch for retirement and able to buy a Mac without hesitation, then you are doing well! Cost of living isn't an issue then is it

• closeparen 9y ago
  You're doing well as long as you're a childfree renter. But no amount of abstinence at the Apple store will put you anywhere near affording homeownership, a bedroom for a child, access to decent schools, etc. You'd need to put down $50k to mortgage a 3-bedroom house in a good school district normal housing market, or $250k to mortgage a 2-bedroom condo in a distressed urban neighborhood. That $200k gulf is 10 years of maxed-out 401k plus a new top-of-the-line Mac every year. Hardly anyone has that much to cut. But if they did, after 10 years, the gulf in necessary down-payment would be much wider than $200k and they'd still come up short. That's why people are comfortable entering these situations as new grads (you can have a comfortable life as a young single renter in a small or shared space), but feel a need to leave them eventually (starting a family is basically off the table as long as you live there, and you're always at risk of being priced out if your rent rises faster than your salary).