<prompt> Human: Hello rpersonalfinance!I need to move next month, and am currently trying to decide between two apartments. One is in the area that Id like to live in, has all of the features that are important to me, has just been remodeled, and is generally a nicer place. It also has an excellent gym on site, which would decrease the odds of me getting a gym membership during the winter I live in a very Northern state, where running outdoors often is impractical from November through March or so. With all utilities, internet, laundry, and parking costs, it comes out to close to 40 of my gross pay. The other apartment is somewhat outdated, slightly outside of the area that Id prefer to live in, and has no gym, but has the features that are prioritiesnecessary for me. Its also in an apartment that mostly caters to the 55 demographic, and I am in my early 20s. When I toured the unit, the leasing agent specifically pointed out to me that the complex has quite a few activities, but that most of these would not be, of interest to my generation. This first apartment, with rent, utilities, laundry, and parking added into my calculations, this apartment would be about 36 of my gross income. I know the general rule of thumb is not to spend more than 30-33 of gross income on rent. However, I have been tracking my expenses through Mint for several years and am confident that I would be able to continue my current savingsretirement contributions 20 of gross income between 401K and HSA contributions without spending more money than I have. I would expect to still have a couple hundred dollars left over at the end of each month to put towards short term savings. I live fairly frugally other than my apparently expensive taste in apartments, have no student loan payments, and paid for my car in full. I do not have any friends who are financially-stable enough to trust as roommates, and would not feel comfortable signing a lease with someone who I do not know, so a roommate is not a great option at this time. If the general feel of the subreddit is that neither of these apartments are a viable option, my next go to option would be to search for something cheaper and accept that I would be less happy with my living space without the couple of features that I care about.I would appreciate any feedback about this decision!Assistant: I may be the unpopular opinion, but I think its perfectly reasonable. Quality of life is a big factor and it sounds like you have your finances in order and can put a decent amount of money away and grow your savings.Quality of life is also something I take into account. I live in an insane cost of living area and spend about this percentage. I commute 5 min to work and am near everything I want and got a backyard for my dog priority for me. These things were worth the extra 200month for me. I think the key to staying comfortable with money is to be putting money towards debtsavingsretirementinvestments every month and still be able to pay all your bills and be happy. These things shouldnt be sacrificed for a nicer home. Human: Thanks for the input! I think Im mostly just struggling to determine if a peaceful and nice living space is really worth the cost. Ive previously lived in various cheap and unsafe areas, usually with roommates who wound up being a financial drain due to inabilityunwillingness to consistently pay their part of the rent. I appreciate your thoughts on the value of a higher quality of life.  <response>: I completely agree on the no random roommates thing. I havent had to have a random roommate myself after freshman year of college, at least, and he was great, but Ive heard plenty of roommate horror stories. For that matter, my friends girlfriend just moved, and her old roommate still owes her about 1500. Even if you avoid that shit, constantly fighting over home maintenance tasks cleaning, doing the dishes, restocking shit, and so on is just a pain. Seriously, if you can viably avoid that shit, then why subject yourself to it? 