Does buying a house delay our financial independence?
“Buy a starter home now” ends $203k ahead of “Stay in the city” at 55.
In today's dollars, from the same engine you'd plan with. One future runs out of money.
Mateo and Chloe are 28 and 27. Between them they earn $140,000 a year and pay $2,800 a month for an apartment downtown. They walk to work, take the train, and don't own a car. They have $40,000 saved toward a house.
Their friends are buying. They'd like a yard and a spare room too, but they're afraid of being house-poor: a mortgage, property tax and upkeep, and once they leave the city, two cars. They want to stop working at 55. Does buying a house push that back?
4 futures
Each line is one future, projected year by year. Tap a name in the legend to hide or show it.
The numbers
At 55, the future with the most is “Buy a starter home now”: $2.16M in today's dollars, against $1.96M for “Stay in the city”.
In “Rent longer, buy the big house”, the money runs out at 65: from then on, the projection can't cover the spending.
| Future | Works until | At 45 | At 55 | At 65 | Money runs out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stay in the city | 55 | $1.04M | $1.96M | $2.02M | Never |
| Buy a starter home now | 55 | $1.13M | $2.16M | $2.37M | Never |
| Rent longer, then buy | 55 | $1.10M | $2.12M | $2.31M | Never |
| Rent longer, buy the big house | 55 | $695k | $1.30M | $821k | At 65 |
Net worth in today's dollars, by Mateo's age, in their plan as written. A single projection with steady returns (no market swings), run by Life Budget's engine as of October 4, 2026: income, payroll and state tax, retirement-account rules, the mortgage and inflation, year by year.
What happens in each future
Stay in the city
- At 34: Every loan is paid off.
- At 55: Last year of work; from here they live on what they've saved.
- The money lasts to 95, where the projection ends.
Buy a starter home now
- At 29: Buys a starter home for $400k ($40k down) and two cars for $35k ($5k down). Debt payments are $38k a year.
- At 55: Last year of work; from here they live on what they've saved.
- At 58: Every loan is paid off.
- The money lasts to 95, where the projection ends.
Rent longer, then buy
- At 32: Buys a starter home for $400k ($80k down) and two cars for $35k ($5k down). Debt payments go from $4k to $35k a year.
- At 55: Last year of work; from here they live on what they've saved.
- At 61: Every loan is paid off.
- The money lasts to 95, where the projection ends.
Rent longer, buy the big house
- At 32: Buys the big house for $700k ($80k down) and two new SUVs for $60k ($5k down). Debt payments go from $4k to $63k a year.
- At 35: Cash and savings run out; from 35 the retirement accounts cover the gap, with $3k of early-withdrawal penalties.
- At 55: Last year of work; from here they live on what they've saved.
- At 61: Every loan is paid off.
- At 65: The money runs out: spending can't be covered from here on, though they're worth $821k: all of it property they don't sell.
Questions
Are Mateo and Chloe real?
No. They are a sample household, written to be typical of a young couple renting in an expensive city. Their plan runs on the same engine as yours would: federal and state income tax, payroll tax, retirement-account rules, mortgages and inflation, year by year.
Why is renting not automatically cheaper?
Rent rises with inflation every year and builds nothing. A fixed-rate mortgage payment stays flat while the home appreciates, and the loan is eventually paid off. Against that, owning costs property tax, insurance and upkeep, and here a move to the suburbs also means two cars. Which side wins depends on the numbers, which is why each future is projected rather than assumed.
What does "today's dollars" mean?
Every figure is shown in what money buys now, with inflation taken out, so a number at 55 can be compared with a number at 28.
Can I change their plan?
Some of it. Under "Try it", move when they stop working or the year the waiting futures buy, and the engine re-runs their whole plan; nothing is saved. To change everything, create a free account and plan with your own numbers in the same simulator.
Run your own numbers
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