<prompt> Human: Im 32 yo, married, 2 young kids living in a house with 1 bathroom. Were starting to feel like we might want to by a bigger house in 5 years, but we like where we live so we could also imagine staying here forever.Current retirement savings are public employee pension maxed HSA. I also have a Roth IRA that Im currently contributing 1,000yr.Would it be reasonable to store the savings for our potential down payment in the Roth IRA in a Vanguard target date fund or something similar? My thinking is, if we then decide not to buy a house, I will not have failed to take advantage of the IRA contribution limits for retirement savings. And even if we decide not to buy and need the money for something else non-retirement, wed be able to withdraw it with no problem due to Roth. The obvious risk is that the market does badly and essentially makes the house choice for us.What are your thoughts on this situation? Any alternatively strategies I should be aware of?  <response>: I dont see that big of a flaw in your reasoning. Roth contributions can always be taken out without penalty or additional tax, and when you get to that point that you are thinking about buying a house, you have that option available to you, among others, including waiting longer while you save cash. This opens up your possibilities, and if you end up not buying a house, as you said you have all the previous IRA contributions that will work for you towards retirement. 