Should I max out 401k or purchase a slightly more expensive property?

[Moonwalkr]

Originally Posted by lmh182

Not really sure what to do about this... I can't do 15%. If I go to 15% I'm over the maximum ($18K/yr).

401k is just one piece of your retirement puzzle. Make sure you max out Roth and look into taxable investments as well. HSA is great if you have that option. $18k is not the maximum you can save every year, that is fine if you want a decent retirement I guess.

[galaxyhi]

OP, a couple things.

1) i would save at the least 15%. Open a ROTH IRA for yourself, and put at least that 3% into it, above your 6/6match. At minimum that extra 3%, more if you can.

2) my mortgage went up, so its not just rents that go up. Our property taxes went up, and they shorted the estimate for escrow for current year, so mortgage payment went up 6 % easily. Also HOA fees ... a given for a condo, will also go up and you may be stuck with big improvement fee if they do something like replace the roof or install new elevator or pave the commin areas. Dont fall into the trap if thinking your condo payment is stable over the life of the condo. It wont be.

3) save whatever is left after retirement and emergency fund towards your eventual purchase, if thats what you would like to do. No one says "i wish i bought a bigger house" ( or few do) but many will say "i wish i had saved more for retirement ". So dont let " bigger and better" cloud your judgement. Buy only what you need, nothing more. We bought a small house, because we dont need 3,500sqft for just the 2 of us.

4) there is no shame in renting. If renting suits you, stick to it. You can always easily move to cheaper apartments, but hard to move to cheaper condo if your "bigger and better " one gets to expensive, andyou have to sell it.

Always remember: we can offer advice, act as a sounding board, but YOU need to be comfortable with what you are doing.

Id open a ROTH, put 3-5% in it in addition to the 6% put into 401k, cut my expenses and buy a smaller cheaper condo if i were you, but thats ME. you may wish to do different.

As mysticaltiger pointed out, like me you could get very ill and need to go on disability, as she noted "life happens" while you make the best laid plans. Have a large amount of savings to fall back on is better than a larger condo in my book. Btw, it took me til age 52 to buy a house.

Best to you.
..

[reneeh63]

Just be sure in the midst of all this planning you don't forget that some savings needs to go in non-retirement accounts for emergencies and long-term items like your next car, etc. Just like you don't want to be "house poor" by pouring all your money into a house payment you don't want all your money tied up if you really need it for another reason - that just puts you at risk of going into credit card debt.