[Lindsey]

Janet, you make me wish I was a lot older than I am now lol. My 20 year old cousin got engaged over Christmas and is getting married this summer. She has no idea about finances or bills or anything because she still lives with her parents and they pay everything for her, including her tuition. She's trying to convince her boyfriend to buy them a $300,000 house for them to move into this summer. She doesn't realize it's not just that easy, especially on one income. She still has 3 years left of college.
My dad always says "Don't worry about it, I didn't buy my first house until I was 35!" But they bought the house for $69,000. It was a big investment then but compared to now that's nothing. You can't buy anything for that much now.
Our rent has went up $200/month in the past year. The landlord likes us, so he said he doesn't want to drive us out by charging too much but he has to raise it. He has signed a contract not to raise it again for another 12 months, but I can't imagine how much it'll be raised then. It will for sure be somewhere between 1500-2000 a month. I'm so sick of paying rent and throwing my money away, but I really have no other choice.