r/MiddleClassFinance

[Long text post dropping here, apologies in advance].

Hey everyone, I'm a single 26M live in a MCOL region (Minneapolis-St. Paul) and am renting a house with 3 roommates while making a pretty good salary. As a result, I have an absurdly cheap living situation, but because I don't want to live with roommates forever, I would like to target buying a house a few years from now - most likely in late 2028 or early 2029. I'm well aware that moving from a rental with 3 roommates to a solo homeowner will substantially increase my cost of living, but I do think it will be worthwhile in the long run. I want to know - are these goals attainable or am I being unrealistic?

For some background about me, I'm currently a mechanical engineer working at an architecture firm. I started working here in January 2022, and while I don't have my PE license yet, I am eligible to take the exam (I just have to file the paperwork and then get to studying aggressively). I graduated in December 2021 with about $24k in student loans (which I aggressively paid off as of July 2024), and then I bought a used 2023 Prius LE in July 2025 and finished paying that off in January 2026 (about $34k in total). I have three credit cards, but I pay the balance off every month to farm rewards (I've never once paid interested), so I am completely debt free as of right now. Credit score is about 770. Gross salary is $89,400 USD plus $3.5-4k bonus given in December.

It's worth noting that I am able to take public transit to the office (15 minute bus ride only) or work remotely (we're hybrid) - when I have to visit construction sites several times per month, my company reimburses mileage. Most of my other day-to-day driving comes from errands, music/band related things, and social outings. Between low driving frequencies and driving a Prius, I will sometimes "spend" a net-negative amount of money on gas every month.

The only major expense I foresee in the next few years (outside of buying a house) is in Fall 2027 I want to take a "Lower 48 Road Trip" to meet up with as many of my non-local friends as I can and sight see a bunch of national parks and stuff (I've notably never been to the West Coast). I still need to sort out exact details with that for how much to save for, but I would be taking extended unpaid leave from my job for this (6-8 weeks) and living off of my savings. I figured I should do this while I have nothing "tying me down" (not owning a home, having pets or a family, etc.) - since I don't think I'll ever get an opportunity like this again. Almost all my other traveling I do is to various gaming/nerd conventions a few times per year - but I'm often performing and/or staffing at those, so I'm still "working" and not really taking a mental break.

Currently enrolled in my company's health insurance, HSA, and 401k (both traditional and Roth) with a 6% match into traditional. I have enrolled in the 401k as soon as I could (April 2022), but because I was on my parents' insurance until last year, the HSA is only a few months old. And because I put so much into my company's Roth 401k, I didn't open up a Roth IRA until last month - so I'm "behind" on those two accounts. However, my overall 401k situation feels pretty good (although it could always be better). I've read through the "you should never invest in a Roth 401k" thread and don't really get it quite frankly as my Roth 401k has served me decently well and since I'm in the 22% federal bracket (and 6.8% Minnesota bracket), I figured I'd do as much post-tax contributing as I can.

I by and large like my job situation. A 15 minute bus commute, work that doesn't make me want to rip my hair out (barring a few deadline weeks every year), coworkers that are good, and a boss I like working for are almost impossibly hard to beat. However, I don't want to actively seek a promotion at this company. Despite it coming with a salary bump and ability to receive company equity (private firm), I do not want to pursue management at all. I know that with my personality type I would be miserable, and would rather maintain my mental health at the expense of my salary.

I'm well aware that I kind of have a "golden goose" living situation that I try not to take for granted (this is especially magnified by a lot of my friends being in creative/artistic fields... and they're not doing great financially - but that's not my business otherwise). One of the reasons I want to own a home is so I can build a fully decked out music recording studio room, and generally just have my own space for things. For my own private space, I currently have a 9'x 10' room which is jam packed with instruments and a lofted bed... which is not really sustainable for things long term (especially as I approach my 30s). So yeah, purely from a financial perspective, I should remain in this living situation as long as I can until I can afford to buy a home in cash - but I'm being selfish and don't care.

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The Numbers

I've posted some rough number summaries here, but if anyone wants to see a raw screenshot of my complete budget, here you go.

The way this budget works is I allocate each category a tentative number - but then use a second spreadsheet tab for tracking the complete expense. That value is almost never the same as the allocated budget, but things balance out in the end. On the last day of the month, everything unspent then goes into my "savings" tab - which is split between my HYSA and Roth IRA depending on what feels right.

All values posted here are monthly except car insurance (semiannual). All prices in USD.

Main Flat Expenses

• Rent: $612.50/person
• Water and Trash: Included with Rent
• Internet: $25/person - but might change when switch providers later this month
• Car Insurance: ~$700 paid every six months

Variable Required Expenses

• Electric: Variable, but generally $75-125/person per month
• Natural Gas: Variable, but generally $75-125/person per month
• Groceries: $350-400
• Gas/Parking/Wash: $60, but can go negative if I'm reimbursed with work a lot that month

Non-Required Expenses

• Hobbies (eating out, music/instrument related expenses, gaming, artwork commissions, conventions and traveling, etc.): $650 but actual number varies depending on what I'm doing that month
• Subscriptions: $30 to $100 variable, as I pay in 6 month increments that don't always line up
• Miscellaneous Expenses: $250-400 depending on what is "leftover" on my spreadsheet

Sinking Funds (These are not separate accounts, but are a tab I track on the spreadsheet to replenish with my HYSA; expenses higher than this would qualify for my Emergency Fund).

• Medical/Dental: $3000
• Auto Repair/Maintenance: $1500

Savings: $500 to $1200 depending on how much I actually spend that month. Sinking funds get replenished before I fund my HYSA and/or Roth IRA. I notably have had a ton of medical related expenses in the past 12 months, so that hasn't been fun to deal with.

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Here are my current account balances. I have been enrolled in my 401k for about 4 years now, but the other accounts are newer than that. I started off with 6% Roth 401k and 2% Traditional 401k contribution, but have stepped those up as I finished paying off my other debts (student loans and car purchase). I like to think I haven't fallen victim to lifestyle creep yet, but I can't view my own situation in an unbiased manner. One reason why I prioritized the Roth 401k instead of a Roth IRA is because I don't see it hit my bank account at all, so I can't spend what I don't have access to.

Current Account Balances

• Traditional 401k (My contributions): $16.3k (4% of paycheck)
• Traditional 401k (Employer match): $26.8k (6% match)
• Roth 401k (My contributions): $40.9k (15% of paycheck)
• HSA: $1150 (100% FXAIX)
• Roth IRA: $1000 (75% FXAIX, 25% FZILX)
• Emergency Fund: $5.2k (Sits in a Fidelity money market account and collects SPAXX - I don't touch this at all otherwise)
• HYSA: $10.5k (American Express 3.1%)
• Checking/Savings: $3.6k

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I did a quick search, and single-family home prices here in the Twin Cities are roughly $350-400k. And I don't know how things will look in a few years, but 6.5-7.0% interest rates going around right now make me want to puke. I'd want them to wait to go below 6.0% at least.

One thing I could do is try to find a new job to increase my income, but I know the job market is abysmally bad in 2026, and leaving a stable gig like this seems like a dangerous gamble. The objectively right decision to do is get my PE license and then see what happens from there, but I'm not sure beyond that at this time. I've also had grad school in the back of my mind for the past few years - but I will only do that if I find a company that pays for it for me (my current company doesn't pay for grad school) - but that is another thing I will have to do some heavy thinking about (my long term goal is to be an acoustician/consultant).

Because I want to build a music studio (noise levels/restrictions), buying a condo or a townhome is off the table for me entirely. And because I want to do a lot of DIY work, I'm wondering if it would be better to forgo buying a "starter" home and instead jump immediately to a "forever" home. The studio would serve as a passion project and/or side business LLC for me which could theoretically become my retirement/coasting job.

Another big thing I've seen around here is "don't buy a home until you get married." I've never been in a relationship before, so I don't want to bank on this happening since finding a partner is not something that's 100% in my control. If it happens, it happens of course (and that would be a deep conversation with my partner), but I want to ensure I can handle everything on my own for planning purposes, without a second income supplementing it. Because I don't know if I'll ever get married, having kids is not a certainty for me either.

So yeah, I need a reality check if people here think owning a home by 2028/2029 is doable for me. And if yes, what do I need to do to attain it? Should I reduce my retirement contributions to the absolute minimum (6% traditional for match, 0% Roth 401k)? Should I abandon the road trip plan to maximize my savings? Do I need to job hop for an income increase? Should I reduce my hobby spending? On paper it looks like I'm saving a lot (over 30% of my gross income typically - for June 2026 it notably was 43%), but I feel like I could be doing better. Any advice here would be greatly appreciated.