<prompt> Human: Im 23 years old making 75kyear. Im not going to get into a detailed breakdown of my budget, but I generally spend about 3k a month, and I max out my 401k and roth IRA which ends up being 30 of my pretax income. At the end of the month Im usually left over with a small amount of 100-300. With this leftover amount, it would take me 33 years of saving 100 a month to have saved up a 40k down payment.I realize that Im in a better position than many people, and even I see it as almost impossible to save up enough money for a downpayment on a house with the money I have leftover. Sure, maybe I could cut that 3,000 monthly spending down to 2500 or so, but I have certain hobbies and activities that I enjoy spending my money on. Since Im only 23 years old I can safely assume I will get raises and make more money, but what about the many people who max out at or below 75,000 a year and on top of that have families to support?What are some general strategies for saving enough money for a downpayment? Is it really to the point where you either have to cut out all fun in your life, or stop contributing to your retirement accounts to be able to manage it?  <response>: Thats great that you are funding retirement so heavily this early. At some point you are going to have to back that off if you want to save up for a down payment for a house, unless there is somewhere else in your budget you have room to cut back.Cut the retirement contribution in half and you have a 40k down payment in around 4-5 years, while still putting 15 away towards retirement. Since you arent giving your budget I have no way to know if there are other areas that might be able to be cut. Car payments? High rent? Large entertainment or other expenditures? 