Saving for first house while building my stache

[Philbert]

My fiance and I want to start saving for our first home, however I worry that saving up for the down payment will limit what we can put into our FIRE fund. That money we are saving won't get to grow in the market, though we hope whatever house we buy grows in value. I'm curious what saving strategies others have used when buying their first homes. I am self-employed, so my earnings can fluctuate month-to-month, year-to-year. (This is my first year of self-employment, so I don't yet know by how much) My fiance makes less, but it is a steady job.

[GrowingTheGreen]

Pick whichever is more important to you :)

Have you run any calcs to see if it makes more sense to rent v buy? I'd suggest doing this at a minimum. If it does make more sense to buy, then start stashing away money for a down payment. I think the absolute lowest I'd want to let me retirement savings rate drop while I'm saving for a house would be 10% (which would go into the 401k).

One final thought: your home is not an investment. It costs you money. Pure and simple.

[Philbert]

Thanks for the reply!

One final thought: your home is not an investment. It costs you money. Pure and simple.

It's funny you should mention that. The fiance and I have always been told how great it is to buy by our parents. My dad is a big proponent of buying because of the tax benefits. But I've been reading more and more about the downside to buying. Meanwhile, my parents have been trying to sell their house for over a year with zero bites, all while having to keep paying the mortgage and taxes and bills and general upkeep.

I think we will do a cost benefit analysis. It will take some work to get the fiance and myself un-brainwashed from the benefits of homebuying. One thing we like about buying is that we can do with the house what we want without running it by a landlord. We wouldn't have to worry about them raising the rent. We wouldn't have to wait until something is broken to update it. We also want a yard. I wonder if we'd be able to have that with a rental.

If you have any interesting articles or forum threads about rent vs buy that have stuck out to you, feel free to send my way. Thanks for your input!

[clarkfan1979]

You list many good "wants" in your justification for a house. These are all valid, but they are "wants" and not "needs." Make sure that your "needs" are met and then just prioritize your "wants"

If owning a home is really important to you, but it might take you longer to reach FI, you can still do it.