I’m a 23m who lives with my parents, I don’t have to pay rent and only expenses I have are purely leisure(eating out, games, PC parts, Gas etc), I don’t have any “bills”. My current job is hybrid and I only have to go in 2 days a week (more or less depending on certain factors) and my workplace is around 25 miles away.
My parents have two cars and I use them for my personal use or commuting to work when needed, there is never a "conflict" for not having a car available for me to use except rare instances. My parents are advising that I should save up for a home instead of a car as I don't really need my own car at the moment and start a new bill (insurance, gas etc) which they aren't wrong about....
I started my job last year in September and been able to save a lot of money, 21k just in my savings account last month (and maximized my contribution to Traditional IRA and make contributions to my Roth 401k). It would've been more but I gave money to my parents who bought a new car last year and they have offered to give it back to me but I declined. I don't have any plans of moving out anytime soon and will continue to live with my parents for a long time. Original plan was for me to buy a new car last year as one of my parent's car was old and stacking up costs but I couldn't find a good deal for my preference for car so my parent's ended up upgrading.
My plan for a home is saving up till $200kish (more or less) and use that as down so that my mortgage rate isn't high and I have more money leftover each month to save/put towards bills. I'm not really in a rush to buy a home as my career has just started and I don't know where I may end up going, I would ideally like to stay in my current state but If I get a good offer I wouldn't mind moving and plus home prices/interest rates are crazy high right now.
My plan to buy a car would be to save till 45k ish and then buy a car in cash and not have any debt remaining, I love cars and I would really like to call one my own. I like to take road trips/camping and if I had my own it would be easier to do as I can't take one of my parent's car for multiple days. I feel like being 23 (24 this year) and not having my own car I'm doing something wrong but then again that's just dumb societal standards.
I'm sure the financial sense thing to do would be to just save my money and enjoy the bill free life I have until I really need one but would love a second opinion.
original posted by KnightNight00 to r/personalfinance on Wed, 03 Apr 2024 15:50:52 GMT.