<prompt> Human: I make about 18K a year, working 1 job and going to school.Im about 8K in debt for student loans; my mom has promised me shes going to pay off all my student loans with the proceeds from selling off my childhood home in about 2 years. Im still going to school, but now that Im on my own I get grants instead of needing to get student loans.I get about 1,500 every 6 months, which usually goes towards car maintenance and taking care of any expensive problems I have. I also have about 400 in credit card debt, and a credit score of around 710.My current bills are 250 in rent, 40 for internet, 50 for electricity, 50-60 for trashwatersewer, and 40 towards my credit card. I put 10 a month towards the principal on my student loan; I dont have to, and its not really making a dent, but I figure every little bit helps. My parents are still paying my car insurance and phone bill.I get paid minimum wage 11, and paychecks come weekly; every week, I send 100 to a bills checking account I have set up at a credit union, 10 to my savings account I have at the same credit union, and the rest goes into my general checking account with Bank of America.The idea is that I use the BoA account for daily needswants, the credit union account for things I physically need to pay like bills, and the savings account should only be touched on rare occasions when I physically need something usually a large purchase. I recently bought a new laptop for school, so I have about 200 in savings right now.My girlfriend works 2 jobs, both minimum wage. She pays most of the rent -- she puts forward 775 a month towards it, while I cover the other bills. She is also about 400 in credit card debt, and she does have to pay for her phone bill and car insurance and such. I think she makes roughly about 24k a year on the low end; shes told me several times before, but I always forget.---We live with 2 roommates in a 2-bedroom 2-bath apartment. The rent is about 2k a month, split down the middle. Our lease is up in May.Im okay with the way things are right now, but Im not the happiest renting an apartment. I want to paint the walls and decorate without worrying about getting my deposit back. I dont want to stress out about having roommates and finding parking. I build model railroads as a hobby, but since I cant put anything permanent in an apartment, I havent done anything related to my hobby in a long, long time.Im just wondering -- when do I actually start living?Theres houses nearby going for about 110k or so. If I wanted to live out in the woods and have about a 15 minute drive to civilization, I could even get a house for about 18kI feel like thats doable -- were paying 1025 in rent right now, so wed have that house in the middle of the woods paid off in a year and a half! Even if I went for the expensive house, over a 15-year term at 6 interest, wed only need to pay 928 per month, which is 100 cheaper than were paying now!Sure, the houses are small, but my girlfriend and I dont have kids or anything. We only even really need 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom; a guest bedroom would be nice, but our couch has a pull-out bed that works fine.Theres gotta be a catch. Right now, Im paying about 150 in utilities; the only catch I can think of is that going up a little. Sure, wed need to invest in appliances and such, but my mom would be more than willing to help out for that sort of thing, since shes always dying to get new appliances anyway and would gladly give me her hand-me-downs which is where most of my apartments furniture came from.I plan on staying and finding a job in this general area after graduating; I know my girlfriend would like to move up north someday, but I would want to secure a decent-paying job up there first, and thats at least 3-4 years away. Even then, a lot of the companies Id want to work for are based near where I live now, and Im okay with staying here -- its my girlfriend thats not.  <response>: First of all, your real life is going on right now. As for buying a house, Id say after you graduated, have worked for a few years, and have build up a decent sum of money to be used as down payment and emergency fund?These are the reasons why you shouldnt rush into buying a house: The cheaper a house is, the more likely it is that you will have a lot of maintenance costs. Many of those will occur the first months you live there. Ive been living 3 months in the home I bought and, without buying any furniture, I already spent 2k on it. Even something as simple as paint is very expensive. I assume your earning potential will increase when you graduate. You want to have a good deal of flexibility then to be able to find a decent paying job. More specifically, if an employer offers you a great starting job 1000 miles away, you want to have the luxury to go for it. A house might be a good investment, it can also be an anchor. 