Sticking to the plan

When we made the decision to move to New York last year, I put together a high level financial plan for us. The idea was that we would go to New York, enjoy our time, but at the same time look to aggressively save. The idea was that in 3-5 years time, we would likely move back to San Francisco and look to buy a house. The plan was to start looking perhaps next year casually and hopefully find a place to settle the family into long-term.

So far that plan has been great for us as my wife and I have been consistently putting cash into the market while still largely having fun being new parents.

The big curveball that was thrown into my said financial plan was that I was not expecting San Francisco’s housing cost to rise over 50% in this short time. Thank the AI boom for houses going for 50-100% over market price right now. This obviously makes buying a house at the moment nearly unattainable.

Knowing how markets and booms work, I’m mostly keeping a level head about this as things likely will settle and come back down to earth. At the same time, I’d be lying if this didn’t give me a bit of angst as it’s currently just somewhere between unattainable and non-smart financially for us to buy right now in SF where I grew up.

Stresses aside, I’ve been telling myself to just stick to the plan. Putting money to work in the market is never a bad thing, and owning a house isn’t the end all be all. We’re all on different timelines financially, and my plan is different than others. Furthermore, situations like these do create opportunities and it’s good to be patient.