A Boring Dystopia

Millennial here. Doing alright. SINK tech worker with no pets.

Was sort of on a track to retire at as early as 45, though recent inflation has made me rethink how much I need saved.

I bought my condo, 1 bedroom + office, in 2016, and it was within my budget and was slightly bigger than apartments I had rented in the past. Back home though I could use my parents garage when needed.

Now I feel somewhat trapped because to get even a small place with a garage (I miss working on my car myself), is prohibitively expensive given how interest rates and house values have changed. Sure my condo is up quite a bit in valuation (something like 50% increase in the past 8 years), but homes have gone up quite a bit more, like 100% increase in some cases. Also my HOA dues just keep going up too, and we don't have a pool or anything crazy. Not to mention developers in the area grab up small starter homes before they can hit the market, bulldozer them, and drop a mansion on the same land that is completely unaffordable for me.

So my options are stay where I am (and it's fine for now I guess), or move and expect to have to work much longer, and have a longer commute.

Pretty much checks all the boxes you said. No debt except mortgage. Emergency fund. 401k. HSA. I'm not house poor. These days I can afford pretty much anything I could want in life except for a slightly bigger house :p

But I look at how prices are changing and I'm still worried for the future. Ideally I live another 60 years. Statistically another 40 or so. That's a long time for high rates of inflation and greed to change things.

Edit: also with all the tech layoffs happening, there's just an underlying sense of gloom. I've been laid off twice throughout my career. Once it took me something like 6 months to find a job. The other time a little under 2 months. Not fun though.