<prompt> Human: I just got out of college and was offered a position starting June 2016 giving me one year to do a masters program. The starting salary is 100k are its in the East Bay area of California. I will be 23 when i start working, just out of my masters.I was ecstatic when i heard the offer salary, especially since its not a software dev position in a tech corp like googletwitteretc though it is still an engineering position. But soon realized that even with this salary i may never be able to own a house in the area.I know the bay area is ridiculously expensive, but im not even that close to San Francisco and the area isnt even that nice really. But the housing prices average 700k according to Zillow.Moreover i did have dreams of having kids one day and raising them in said house that i buy but kids are even more expensive and require that much more money, i just dont know if i will earn enough.I do want to get married and maybe my future wifes employment will bring in some extra cash but i cant rely on that fact really.I am now learning of the adult world, i still need to learn about things like taxes, 401k, IRAs, investing, etc and have many questions about those things, but one thing that really truly startled me is the amount of money i will lose in taxes each year. As a single person working with no real allowances to grant myself not disabled, no spouse, no children, etc i only will bring home about 65k after taxes. Thats an absolutely insane amount of money lost to taxes, 35k?! Jesus christ!How do people do it? How do you save enough for a house in the bay area without being some fancy pants entrepreneur that makes 250k a year? Am i destined to rent forever?Another question i have is: Is buying a house even worth it? I mean it ties you down in so many ways and costs a bucketload aside from the house cost you have to pay property taxes, repair costs, etc. It just seems sort of impractical in many ways.  <response>: Its good that youre thinking about the future, but you have to do it without panicking.Youre 23 and about to start your first job. The thing is, you dont know where youll be in 5 years. You could be in the same area in the bay or you could be in a completely different country at that point, depending on what job opportunities arise. Rent, save, have some fun, and enjoy the new phase of life youre going to be starting.As for the 35K you lose in taxes - welcome to the real world, where the govt gets their cut too! 