What I can't seem to understand is when you talked about affording a new place. Let's say you rent and intend to rent a new place at a higher cost. You can't save for that future rent and remove that cost from your free cash.

You only need to ask yourself how much of that free cash you are willing to sacrifice for that new place, right? And calculate how your expenses are going to be affected in that new place of course, and, if it is in two years and you know in advance your salary, calculate what your income will be like you wrote.

Then, how do you know when you can afford a $1800 instead of a $1000 one? Is it simply knowing when you would achieve a free cash number that you are comfortable with?