<prompt> Human: I dont have many people to talk to about this, so Im reaching out for advice, especially older people who can give their perspective from their own experience saving for their first home. This is my estimated budget.It has me living a depressingly spartan lifestyle. This forecast does not include any unnecessary expenditures except for a Roth IRA.I live in north-central NJ, cost of living is relatively high. The Extra Moneyyear cell would be what luxury expenses cut into new computer, TV, eating outside the house, day trips, occasional alcohol.edit: the 25 tax estimate is based on ALL taxes taken out of my last 5 pay stubs - its actually 25.6 average. Federal income, state income, federal social, state social taxes equate to 25 combined taxes. My short term ambition is to ownmortgage a home rather than rent.175,000 seems to be the minimum for a home in centralnorth NJ that would not qualify as a money-pit. 20 downpayment on 175k is 35k. Saving 35k would take me 10 years! If I do not put any money towards retirement, the time would be reduced to 5 years. Still living like I am in poverty in that time.45kyear is my 1st job, a salaried 40 hourweek job. I work 25-30 hours in a second job at night, but that is only at 9.90hour - it brings in an additional 11kyear pretax.2nd job cuts my downpayment saving time to 3 years. I question whether its worth working 70 hoursweek for about 60,000 gross income a year because I am miserable 80 of the time.I have no time to spend with the few people who are important in my life. I have no family and only 2 friends, and those relationships are stressed by my limited free time. I dont ever go out to eat, even with friends. I take a day trip maybe 3 times a year. I stay home with my free time.I am a huge DIY person, and it makes it me happy to learn how things work and to build or fix things. I have degree in Computer Science, which started as teaching myself - school was a breeze. I taught myself car maintenance in order to save money - its 13 years old. Owning a home would allow me to experiment and generally pursue my interests in life.I am in excellent health. I feel like the potentially best time in my life is being wasted working for a wage that is below my potential.But then I think I may be actually an entitled little shit and this is how everyone starts out.  <response>: Hey fellow Scarlet Knight! I graduated in 2006, so Im not that much older than you 29.Here are my 2 cents: Dont buy a house, at least not for a while. You should know that NJ has ridiculous property taxes. My mother pays 12k a year on her home near Somerville, and she bought the house for about 200k in the late 80s. Your property taxes are going to murder your budget. Thats just on the money side. Personally, mid-20s is way too early to know what youre gonna do or where youll end up. At 25 I worked in New York. Now Im typing to you from a condo I own, 4 miles from the beach in SoCal. I had no friggen idea Id end up here Youve probably heard this a million times, but why not work in the city? Your fuel costs would just be replaced with busNJtransitmetrocard fares. Like I said, I went to Rutgers, and I decided that if I really wanted to advance in my career advertising, Id have to work in New York. There are so many opportunities there to build a great portfolio of work and quickly advance, both in experience and salary I think your potential is being wasted at a government job unless thats what you love when the city is right there, waiting for you to seize an opportunity and build a career. Youre in your mid-20s! This is the time to put in hard work but also enjoy life, and clearly, youre not doing that Just for reference, at 23, my 1st job paid me 37k a year in the city. I commuted from central NJ, 3 hours, one way. I worked hard, switched companies when it made sense, and now, at 29, I make 150k. The point is, I couldve middled about at some meh jobs in NJ, but I dont think they wouldve set me up for the success Ive been so fortunate to have. Think about what you really want and how you can get it. With such a great work ethic, I think youre primed for an awesome future if you make the right changes sooner rather than laterIf you need an NJ-perspective on things from someone not much older than you, feel free to PM me. 