<prompt> Human: Most people buy their first house around 28-30 years old in the US. By this point you should have settled into your career and had at least 5 years of salary. Most good college degrees mean youre going to make at least 40k starting, and unless youre really frivolous you can easily live on 25k if no kids or debts.So it would make sense that a good chunk of people should have saved at LEAST 80k by age 30. So why is everyone in a huge 40 year mortgage? Like where is their money going that they have been earning the past 5-8 years?  <response>: It seems you arent considering taxes at all. Or retirement savings. If a person makes 40k, and contributes 10 to retirement, and pays various medical premiums, there take home pay is only like 2000 a month. Its very easy to spend 2k a month just on rent, car, food, and minimal entertainment. Theres not much left over. If they are ultra frugal, maybe they can save 500month, which after 7 years age 30 would give them about 40k. 40k would get them about 5-10 down payment on an average house more on that later.Mortgages are not 40 years. Most are 30 years. Theres no real benefit to buying the house in full for a young person.On the other end of the spectrum, many older people as in 55 with grown kids do buy houses in full because they have plenty of cash and want to minimize risk. Of course 80k wont even buy you a studio apartment in most of the country. Median home price is 190k, and thats with all the cheap ass rural places dragging the price down. Most college grads are probably working in an area where home prices average more like 250k-300k.You also have to remember many people get married around the age of 30. So that 40k the ultra frugal person saved is now being split between the competing goals of having a good wedding and buying a house. The average wedding is currently 26k. So do you want to put a payment on a house or get married? How much will your parents help? How prissy is your spouse? Bottom line, a lot of shit happens, and all your stacks can fly out the window. 