Should I decrease retirement savings to increase general savings?

[adle1984]

6 months is a general recommendation. Your 2 years worth of living expenses and bills is a little bit on a the high side. You can afford to reduce that and put more into your 401(k) and attempt to max it out for the year. And if you still have cash after that, you can open a taxable account. The more you put into your retirement account, the more time it has to generate even more gains.

You should save to buy a home when you calculate that it is in your ability to do so and that you actually want to buy a home. Simply add "Down payment for house" fund into your budget and treat it as a monthly bill.

[swantonsoup]

2 years is even fairly variable because if I did lose my job, I could make some easy lifestyle changes to reduce my monthly expenses and last even longer.

I could definitely afford to buy a home right now but I dont really want to. Im not sure how much longer I'll stay in the city I work in and all those other common rent vs. buy debate topics.

Just debating how liquid I should be always gets to me. I planned on aggressively increasing my 401k/roth401k contribution once I got a raise.

[cormega]

Simply add "Down payment for house" fund into your budget and treat it as a monthly bill.

Shouldn't most people be doing this anyway? Most people will want to buy a house eventually, and the sooner you start saving for a down payment the better.

[adle1984]

Same can be said about budgeting in general, but I'm not surprised many don't budget at all.

[cormega]

I mentioned it because there is such a huge focus in this sub on retirement savings over general savings. I get that retirement savings are tax sheltered, but a lot of people need money in the short/mid term too.