<prompt> Human: Hi Reddit,My husband and I both 30 will be starting new jobs in July and trying to plan for life! I have been working for three years and my husband just finished school and will be starting a great government position. We have been very fortunate in life and think can achieve our short-term goals but would like an unbiased, outsiders perspectiveWe would like to buy a house within the next 6 months and one of my big life goals is to take a year off to travel, targeting 20212022. Before going into numbers, some important factors: We have no debt We will be living in a high COL area and looking at getting a 700K house. Our current rent for a 2 bed apt is already 3200. Have a great mortgage deal through husbands employer: 2.75 interest, no PMI, 10 down required One car fully paid off. May or may not buy another car, if we do, itll be 15K We dont want kids, would like to get a dog when things are settled Parents will be helping us with the downpayment, 20K from each set. Itll be a gift from them. Edit: Husband will be paying me back 20K for the downpayment half of 40K that I will front for now. Husband has already agreed to covering mortgage when I travel, basically it equals to me covering downpayment right now, hence the paybackBelow is an approximate distribution of expected income and expenses for us. Income CategoryMeHusband:--:-- :--Yearly Salary 140K 130K Max monthly take-home After 401 etc 6358 6000Bonus 14-28Kyear 65K distributed over first 3 years, starting 2019Savings 60K 15KRetirement 75K 15KESPP 42K 0KStocks 13K 8KFuture ExpensesMeHusband:--:-- :--RentMortgage Utilities 1750 1750Joint expenses Groceries etc 500 500Travel 500 500Personal expenses 400 400Other random stuff 150 150Balance for savings, retirement, other life goals 3058 2700Not including bonus here, that will be emergency for us. Also not accounting for any salary bumps, though those will also come through, 5year.Questions for PF: Can we afford this house will do a downpayment of 70K, 40K from parents and 30K from my savings? Can I take a year off to travel in 20212022, costing 40K can just use my ESPP for this? Flights will be mainly covered through credit card points. I am pretty employable but plan to have 20K sitting in the bank after I return. Husband will be covering mortgage on his own then and may get a room-mate.Would love to get all of your feedback! Thanks!EDIT: Thank you so much for the help PF. We appreciate it!  <response>: Financially this is affordable.Financially. 