<prompt> Human: Hi everyone. I live in the Twin Cities and currently pay 850month for rent. This feels like a huge drain of money with absolutely 0 of it going towards owning where I live. I am 24 and Im trying to devise a plan to buy the smallest little house I can find by the time I am 27. A little info about me:-30k in student loan debt- Own my 2007 Jeep with 100k miles on it- 36k salary- 1k in savings I just started building this last year- 20k in physical assetsWhat should be my plan of attack on this? I understand the argument wanting to be mobile when youre young and so forth, but I feel home ownership is critical in building assets.  <response>: Well, its good that your time horizon is 3 years or so. But leasing is not throwing money away. Having a roof over your head for most people is a fundamental need. You really need to build up an emergency fund before any of this. What type of assets do you have that are worth 20,000? 