<prompt> Human: I am 30, graduated college in 2011 after 5 yearsAugust 2011 to March 201219 hourly, no benefits. No retirement savingsMarch 2012 to March 201537-45k salary Saved 10.5 of salary to 401k up to match19,742 current account balance from this periodMarch 2015 to present 60-70k salary Saved 12 to 15 of salary towards 401k 32,764 current balance And I am currently interviewing for a new job which will be in the high 80s. Im only at 53k in my retirement accounts despite doing most of what I could. I missed the 1x salary rule at 30 by a pretty big margin and seemingly will do the same with the 2x ruleI only had 30k in student loans too, plus decent employer matching at my jobs 4.5 and 6, some people are much worse off then me. Seems to me like this rule is borderline only achievable to those who had college paid for or get a high paying job right out of the gate. Any thoughts? How concerned should I be here?Assistant: Im not sure why you think youll miss the 2X target by age 35.If you get a raise keep your lifestyle the same and divert the bulk of that extra cash towards retirement savings. Lets say thats an extra 15k a year going into retirement. At that contribution level my math shows that in 5 years you would have around 220,000 in retirement savings. Not only would you be caught up but youd be on your way to early retirement. Why is this not an option?Human: Real life is happening to me though. Gonna have to buy a 400k house and have kids within the next few years. May bump up to 18 401k savings, but thats all I can do for now. Will eventually start Roth IRAs, but not until house is bought and we are settled in. Right now we are saving post tax income for buying house fall 2020spring 2021 is target.Saving all the extra income in 401kretirement from potential new job isnt realistic for me.  <response>: Ok, then this is less about an inability to save for retirement, its more about prioritizing other goals ahead of retirement savings. You certainly dont have to buy a 400k house, you could buy a 300k house, maybe less depending on where you live. You could delay the purchase a year or so to get on firmer financial footing. Even if you only divert an extra 10k a year towards retirement you would still be pretty much caught up by age 35. If you get a 20k a year raise you should be able to divert half of it towards retirement and still save for a house down payment. Personal finance is all about deciding what works for you, you cant have it all though.Also, unless your wife is contributing to the house purchase thats over your budget, even with the raise. 