The average income in my area is less than $35k / year. ~80% own homes. I find it funny when people tell me "this is misguided" and they have no idea what they

The average income in my area is less than $35k / year. ~80% own homes. I find it funny when people tell me "this is misguided" and they have no idea what they're talking about. I've lived off <$35k / year for about a decade; really not that hard. You don't take trips, you limit purchases. It's the way most of America works. Let me breakdown the math: - $600 taxes / month (often get decent returns at year end, put that into emergency fund) - $600 food / month - $600 rent / month (1 - 2 bedroom) - $200 gas / month - $500 emergency fund / month - $220 house fund / month In 2 years, you'll have $5,000 saved for a house and $12,000 in an emergency fund (assuming nothing happened). That's for one person, and I assume you can either take public transit OR you already have a beat up car (you can often get those for free, I had a couple cars for <$1000 that worked fine) If you're married (ideally, you would), you'll have $10,000 for a house and that's enough for the 5% down on a $200,000 property. Alternatively, you can drain some of the emergency fund (provided you have some) and you can put that down. Now, with inflation and increasing gas prices; yeah these people are going to be screwed for the time being. That means, either multiple jobs, cutting rent costs, cutting the emergency costs, what have you.