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23 and looking for opinions

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Medic_Man1:
I am 23 and a full time Firefighter/Paramedic, I have no student loan debt and currently live with my parents. I am looking to buy a house in a good neighborhood for a fairly cheap price (for the area). This would allow me to bike or walk to work instead of my 25-30 minute commute.

Current financial situation:

Savings $10,700
Retirement $11,569
Separate 457 retirement account $2598

My yearly base salary is $49,500, but with overtime I’ll make around $60,000. I also work a part time job that brings in roughly $5000.

Bills:
Car payment: $150 a month but I pay $500. (Currently owe 4,200)
Phone: $110. About to be $75 as soon as the phone itself is paid off.
Car insurance: $140
Gas: $140

I am looking to buy a house in the 130,000 range that needs some updating and will allow me to make a fairly good profit if I chose to sell it in the future. Is this a good move for someone that is looking to retire at the age of 47

Bracken_Joy:
Welcome! So your costs are pretty thin there on the details. No food, entertainment, clothes, etc mentioned at all. Do you track your expenses? Personally, I like Mint, but there are many options. Tracking is a very important first step though!

Second, here's some useful calculators:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/upshot/buy-rent-calculator.html?_r=0
http://michaelbluejay.com/house/rentvsbuy.html

http://www.mtgprofessor.com/calculators/Calculator6a.html

Real estate vs investing tend to be different "camps" in the FI world =) Those of us in the "invest" camp tend to follow this investment order:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/investment-order/msg1333153/#msg1333153

Things can get hairy when you conflate an asset with a home. There are pros and cons to real estate investing, for sure. Hopefully someone more deeply informed and well spoken can chime in, otherwise I'll just sound like I'm bashing real estate ;) Be sure you're not falling for the fallacy of thinking that "renting is just throwing away money".

marty998:
I reckon you need more than $10,000 savings.

Get that up to 20% + purchase costs, pay the minimum on the loan and invest the rest. Easy as.

RWD:
Congrats, you are off to a good start! Most people are drowning in debt with no savings in their early 20s.

You didn't post a complete breakdown of your expenses, but I'll pick apart what's here:
Phone: $75 is very high. You should have no trouble cutting this in half. Google Fi is the easy option, but there are even cheaper choices available.
Car insurance: $140 seems high but it depends a lot on your driving history, location, and vehicle. Have you shopped around?
Gas: $140. Are you paying for the fire trucks' gas? This is quite high. We used to pay that much for two daily commuters, shopping, and road trips combined. I hope proximity to work is high on your priority list for house shopping. Does your vehicle get poor fuel economy?

A $130k house seems reasonable on your salary, but I would also recommend aiming for a 20% downpayment.

CrispKale:
This is a modification of a similar post I made a while back on how much is needed to start looking for a RE loan. It helps to know what to aim for (numbers will vary with area you live in):

Purchase Price:     $130,000
Closing Fees         $2,600      (about 2% of purchase price)
To be approved for my home loan I had to show down payment funds were in my name for at least three months prior to loan closing.
Down Pmt             $26,000    (hopefully 20% this will save you from PMI payments)
To be approved for my home loan I had to show a cushion after proving I could pay the down payment.
Maintence             $3,000      (about 2% of purchase price, things will always bust at a bad time)

To estimate what your payment will be- if you will be including escrow:
1. Use a mortgage calculator to find your monthly principal and interest.

2. Then open up www.zillow.com, plug in the zip of your desired area zoom in all the way and read the blurb of the houses even if not for sale. I clicked on my house to check and it had the correct 2017 real estate taxes listed they also matched my neighbors as well.

3. The annual average of home insurance is about $500-$1000 annually.

Take all three numbers [P&I]+[RE annual taxes/12]+[$1000/12(insurance)]  =  total monthly mortgage payment + the HOA fees

Good Luck!

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