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Sounds about right for living in Denver. Perhaps a suburb might offer a better value.

I have a feeling it will be tight to live. Have you considered scaling back retirement contributions to employer match, maxing our IRA, and maybe a bit more to 401k but not quite a 30% contribution?

Especially because you're aggressively contributing to your retirement (and the Roth can be culled back in a pinch) I'd say you're fine. You make enough to be approved, but I would just try to get a better general idea as to what your utilities and other fees will be to see how much else you'll have leftover each pay period.

I am fortunate enough to have $80k ready for a downpayment, but housing prices seem intimidating. Plus I'm just about to graduate college and know next to nothing about Housing

I thought about it, but suburbs don't seem ideal for a young single guy

The 30% is 401k and Roth combined. about 20% is 401k, and 10% is roth + index funds in a brokerage. I probably could scale that back a bit if needed

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Are you trying to FIRE? If not, 30% monthly retirement could be considered overkill

The nice thing about being young and single is you have the opportunity to try things out and if they don’t work out, it’s not really a big deal. You can make changes easily. You’re not responsible for anyone but yourself. Keep in mind rent prices do fluctuate, and so does your income. As you make more money rent will become a smaller piece of the pie. Great move prioritizing retirement this early btw.

It's something I'm fancying the idea of. Just started my career a few months ago, and already thinking about retiring early haha.

Yeah this is overpaying just for location. I bought a new-build townhome in the Denver metro this year and have 3br/3ba mortgage for under $2k. Even in Denver proper rent can be found under that pretty easily, it may just not be in a hip area.

You'd probably need to break out your entire budget in order to know if this is OK or not. On the plus side, you indicate you're already contributing a lot to retirement. So $2k in rent against $4261in net income could work. But what do you spend on food? Car payment? Insurance? Gas? Cell phone? What will utilities be? Do you have any other loans or debt? With no other debt and reasonable expenses? It's probably affordable. If you have a $600 car payment, $150 car insurance, spend $500/month on gasoline, and have student loans? And you might spend $1000 on groceries and going out to eat? Suddenly it's not so affordable.

How much rent should I be looking at then? If I want a 1br in a decent area?

Depends what you determine as a decent area. You should be able to be reasonably close to downtown/RiNo for ~$1500 though and could probably do fine even cheaper off of Federal or further south.

I'll try my best to estimate, since this will be my first time living alone. I had 3 roommates in college, so I'm basing some stuff off of that.

• No car payment, though my car is at 200k miles, but still going strong (knock on wood)
• No debt
• $800 annual car insurance
• $70 gas per week commuting 60 miles at the moment
• On parents cell plan at the moment, but I'll start helping them pay that
• Utilities is hard to say. I was paying ~200 for my share with 3 other roommates, who all used utilities like mad (gaming, 4 separate private bathrooms, stuff like that)
• Groceries was about $200 a week, and eating out was about $50 a week

Yeah writing this out makes me realize how prices can add up quick. Getting a roommate would make that a lot more comfy, especially if I wanna travel and stuff

You’re within the rule of thumb 20-30% of your gross income, but it really depends on CoL in Denver. I spend $3K/mo for a 1bd/1ba in Boston (ann salary ~210k/yr), but I wouldn’t spend this much in many other parts of the country.

Good for you - no debt! Download a budget template spreadsheet online and start putting in your costs to make sure you’ve covered everything and use as a reference whenever changes to your spending/income changes. Works well.

I would into FIRE more closely for strategies. I know very little about it, but one thought would be wanting to diversify your saving strategies since you may end up wanting to withdraw from your retirement before you reach retirement age. Plus a large savings could help with things like buying a home down the line.

Seems like you could afford it since you can scale back your retirement if you find it pinching the budget too much.

However, I'd suggest going with the roommate situation if you're in your twenties and moving to a new city. This will let you live in a nicer area and split a lot of costs (internet, heating, cleaning supplies) that don't become twice as much when you get a roommate. If you don't get along great with your roommate, take a part time job, or start taking classes etc. Worst case scenario you feel out the city and can weigh the cost vs location etc while saving up more money. Best case scenario, the roommate situation works out and you renew your lease.

Thanks! Yeah life seems like it would be a bit more cozy financially with a roommate. How does finding one work tho? My college apartment had 4 separate leases, which was amazing. So if one roommate left, you didn't have to worry about finding another.

Do you just meet someone who wants to sign the same lease at a place you like? Or sign the lease for a 2 bedroom and then look for a roommate?

You really have to look at your finances and the location and time of year:

I would start with your friend group to see if anyone in the area is looking for a place. I think it's ideal to co-sign and start the lease together. Equal footing etc. From there, it's just like normal apartment hunting, but the other person has to agree.

Second choice is finding someone who already has an established place and a free room. Either you jump on the lease at the renewal or your sign a subletting agreement. Friend of friends is better, but craigslist, or local college boards can help. If you have any hobbies, also check in with any groups/clubs/message boards in the denver area.

Your last option is to go in an get a place on your own, and then find a roommate to sublet to. Make sure the landlord is okay with it. Upside is you can establish the apartment how you want it, and your potential roommate can see how you live. Downside is you'll be eating the cost for at least a month or two most likely.

If you go the craigslist route (or any sort of message board): Some things I've learned. Write like a goddmann human being. So many postings get jotted off with spelling errors and no information. Don't write a book, but give information you would want to know when looking. When you get responses, don't bother responding to one-liners "I'm interested" etc. Only engage with responses from people who sound like humans. And remember, if it's too good to be true, it's a scam. If you think "is this a scam" - it's a scam.

While you don't have a car payment today consider making a payment to yourself. Within a few years you will have cash for the next car and will never be stuck with a payment other than the one to yourself which you can vary if you ever get in a tight spot.

Regarding rent, I'd lean towards a room mate for the next year, make sure you enjoy the part of town you think you want and then can decide after that regarding location, roommate, etc.

Yeah, my numbers were intentionally a bit inflated. I was more or less making the point that when you sit down and really add up everything you pay for, it can be shocking. But when you're thinking of moving out, you have to account for all those "other" costs. Too often, when asked "what are your bills", people only think of rent and loans. They don't think about gas, or car insurance, or food, or whatever.

In your case, if we just assume utilities stay at $200, and you spend the same on food/eating out, you have about $3506.67 in bills with the rent. So right now, you're at $600 extra per month. But that also doesn't have your cell phone in it. Or any car repairs, or potential car payments. Or saving any money, outside of your existing retirement contributions. Or saving money for travelling. So it feels like it'll be a bit tight w/o a roommate.