Millennial here. Doing alright. SINK tech worker with no pets.

Was sort of on a track to retire at as early as 45, though recent inflation has made me rethink how much I need saved.

I bought my condo, 1 bedroom + office, in 2016, and it was within my budget and was slightly bigger than apartments I had rented in the past. Back home though I could use my parents garage when needed.

Now I feel somewhat trapped because to get even a small place with a garage (I miss working on my car myself), is prohibitively expensive given how interest rates and house values have changed. Sure my condo is up quite a bit in valuation (something like 50% increase in the past 8 years), but homes have gone up quite a bit more, like 100% increase in some cases. Also my HOA dues just keep going up too, and we don’t have a pool or anything crazy. Not to mention developers in the area grab up small starter homes before they can hit the market, bulldozer them, and drop a mansion on the same land that is completely unaffordable for me.

So my options are stay where I am (and it’s fine for now I guess), or move and expect to have to work much longer.

Pretty much checks all the boxes you said. No debt except mortgage. Emergency fund. 401k. HSA. I’m not house poor. These days I can afford pretty much anything I could want in life except for a slightly bigger house :p

But I look at how prices are changing and I’m still worried for the future. Ideally I live another 60 years. Statistically another 40 or so. That’s a long time for high rates of inflation and greed to change things.