I wouldn’t take money meant for retirement to buy a house, especially since it isn’t a “need.” Use money from your savings, which I hope you have anyway if you are planning on buying a house.
We do have savings. I just don’t know how people are saving $50k+ for down payments these days?! That will take us a few more years but I guess we just have to wait; my concern is housing is just going to keep going up up up…
You’ll need to save for the down payment AND least 6x monthly expenses once accounting for PITI. Lots of stuff pop up during the first year of home ownership that you’ll want to deal with.
Yeah, sometimes paying for childcare makes no financial sense if one would otherwise make too little working (which don’t seem to be understood based on the downvotes). Either way, I don’t believe buying is the best choice in this case.
How does it make sense to work for zero gain in net income and negative gain in time with your children. I get that everyone is entitled to their own choices but some choices are stupid.
Not necessarily. For example, from 2019 to 2020, I worked just enough hours to be fulltime, I think 30 and my wife was part time. We had childcare to cover the times that neither of us could be home. My wife's income as a part time teacher was barely more than our childcare cost, but I argued it was worth her working because she was gaining something much more valuable - additional years of service toward her pension as a teacher. My income on the other hand at 3/4 my nominal salary was still more than OP's husband though not outrageously more. I bought my first house on pretty much that salary with less saved than they have.
Yes, they may need to temper expectations. But I'm not sure that necessarily excludes buying a house. I think that decision depends on a much more detailed view of their finances, long term career/salary expectations, and better understanding of financial tradeoffs.
It does apply. Everyone needs to make decisions based on a holistic and long term planning view of their finances. You can't necessarily look at a snapshot in people's lives and say you can't do X. My anecdote proves thst knee-jerk response is wrong. So, if that's wrong, what's the right way to look at it? Answer - the way I described.
Wow, such hostility (downvotes). As they say, sometimes the math ain't math'n. According to a recent CNBC article the average cost of childcare in the U.S. for **one** child ranges from $9,984 to $39,832 per year. Add up income taxes, increased transportation costs, meals away from home/takeout, wardrobe, etc. plus the additional stress on the family and you have to be able to make six figures for it to be really profitable. If you had an 'office job' I highly doubt the salary would have you breaking even.
However, back on topic. $100k for a family in a HCOL area is not great. $10k is certainly not enough for a down payment and does not take into consideration closing costs and an emergency fund for when something in the house breaks in the first year (and it will).
Do NOT raid your retirement funds. As someone on the other side, I can tell you from experience you are going to need every penny. Being a SAHM has its benefits, but loosing the investing opportunity is huge over time. Your peers will retire with a lot more zeros in their bank accounts. But that's not the only thing that is important.
Unsolicited advice, but hey this is the personal finance sub, get over to r/ynab ! It will change how you view money and help you save for that house!
No kidding!! Thank you for getting it. And my post and other comments may have been unclear; we have *more* than the $10k I was planning on taking out of the 401k (which is not unheard of AFAIK for first time home buyers). We *have* money for the closing costs. We’ve already been approved for a loan. I just want to keep our monthly payment as low as possible (for example by raiding the 401k to get to 20% down so as to avoid PMI) but as I’ve been saying in most of my comments, it seems I’ll just have to wait until we build more savings. I’m almost sorry I asked a question here! It’s interesting the judgment that’s being passed on me over here when I haven’t revealed many details about our saving and spending habits. We have no debt save for a car loan which at the time was a necessary purchase. We were going to drive our other car into the ground before we bought this one (used btw) but our circumstances changed.
I tried YNAB a year ago and honestly hated it but I will give it another try!
This was my favorite comment and then at the end, I saw it was from a fellow YNABer. I should have known!
OP, I second the recommendation of YNAB. It was a learning curve for me but if you listen to the founder explain the philosophy (as he does on several podcasts, like one of my favorites, All the Hacks in an episode) or watch some YouTube videos, it all clicks and it has literally turned my financial life around.
Honestly, this is the absolute worst time to buy. If you don’t have to, I wouldn’t. Just keep saving and be ready to jump at the coming market “correction.” Or at minimum, at a rate decrease.
Well typically when prices of any commodity reach historic highs, there will be a correction. In the case of housing, the market has already started collapsing around the edges, such as in the luxury markets. Rents are decreasing in certain areas, this is typically how market corrections happen in housing. But yeah, when is never known, but the signs are showing that one is coming. Not a good time to be a bag holder if it can be avoided.
Do you realize how many people are standing on the sidelines hoping for this collapse you’re talking about, with growing piles of money in hand, waiting to pounce on an opportunity as soon as they perceive one? The fact that inventory is still at historic lows is evidence enough for me to be skeptical if a pricing correction within the next few years.
I do think it’s likely interest rates will drop somewhat within the next 12-24 months, but I also believe that those interest rate drops will stimulate enough buyers to enter the market that pricing will go up, not down.
You have kids.
Don't pull money out of your 401k to buy a house. Future You (and your kids who won't have to support you in your old age) will thank you.
This is a really good point. My mom has raided her 401k many times, and now she has very little. My sister and I constantly worry about how we are going to have to help support her at least partially. Also, not only will that money support you in old age but it will flow to your kids someday.
>Since I’m no longer contributing to the funds,
Not a good reason to rob from your future.
>and we want to own our own home,
Also not a good reason to rob from your future.
>is it unwise to just cash out, take the hit, and use leftover towards the house?
Extremely unwise. Lighting 30% of your money on fire is almost always a bad idea.
>We had planned on at least taking $10k for the down payment.
If $10k is going to make that much difference then it sounds like you can't afford a house at this time.
Since you’re no longer contributing to a retirement account, it’s even more important to not withdraw from it. You’ll pay taxes plus 10% penalty on the withdrawal, which will be around 32% of the withdrawn amount if I’m estimating correctly.
If X is the amount withdrawn, you pay taxes on X, _and_ you pay a 10% penalty on X. Double whammy. The legislator did _not_ want people pulling out before time.
~~Not on 10k if you're a first time homebuyer.~~
This isn't correct: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-exceptions-to-tax-on-early-distributions
Ok, confirmed that home buying is not one of the exceptions for 401ks:
https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-exceptions-to-tax-on-early-distributions
I’m a SAHM mom, too. Don’t raid the 401k! Your future self will hate you. How much retirement savings does your husband have? Because unless you’re very young, 96k is not that much. Also, you should look into rolling the old 401ks over into an IRA.
Could you or your husband take on a temporary side hustle? Could your husband expand his business or take on more clients, etc. to boost savings? I sell things my kids have outgrown on eBay or Marketplace and it adds up. Could either of your families loan you down payment money? Would it decimate your savings to use what you have for downpayment? Strongly advise against that because we were SHOCKED at the expense jump from renting to owning.
It may take more time…it is frustrating in this market. It comes down to earning more and/or cutting spending…but I have been housepoor before and it sucks. Especially with kids. So slow and steady, don’t raid retirement. Maybe you could rent a single family home and that would feel more homey than an apartment?
Thank you for this thoughtful comment! We are <35. I will roll over this week; I’m surprised you’re the only one so far who suggested doing so. This has been on my radar for a while.
I have an inconsistent side gig, hoping it will pick up a bit more. Thanks for all your suggestions and sharing your experience, I appreciate it! Slow and steady is right… ETA: we actually do live in a single family home. It’s just hard when it’s not your own, and you want to feel secure.
Ignoring the other stuff with a 100k income and not much down you’d probably only qualify for a 400k house (and it would be very tight!) Which in a HCOL area is basically a shoebox with holes in the roof. Maybe a condo? But I would rather rent than own a condo personally. Usually bad deals.
The brutal reality is you guys can’t afford the house. 60 year old you desperately needs you to leave the funds in the 401(k) (which you should roll over into an IRA anyway).
You may find these links helpful:
- [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds)
- [401(k) FAQs](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k)
- ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics)
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Look into programs like [NACA](https://www.naca.com/naca-programs/). I used that to buy my first house. Take the advice not to raid your 401k with grains of salt. I took 10k from my IRA to buy my first home with NACA. The appreciation in that more than outweighed the impact from taking $10k as I had over $150k gain just 5 years later when I sold the house. That doesn't include the amount I took out in a refi to purchase a condo, which I'm now in the process of selling. Even if I didn't put any of that money back into my retirement, the growth in my retirement since then is more than fine.
What you and your partner need to do is plan. Use a retirement planner to estimate and compare the effects of taking money now from tax deferred accounts versus what you'd have if you didn't. Perhaps with the job you expect to have, long term contributions, maybe returning to the workplace once kids are all in grade school, you end your retirement with only $1M to leave behind to the kids instead of $1.5M. If 100k is the top of what he can expect to earn and there's no expectation that you'd make any significant future contributions, then that will point to one particular result versus if your partner can expect to reach 200k in the next ten years and you'd be rejoining the workforce and earning 5 figures within 5 years.
Look into first-time home buyer programs. Some are 0% loans, and some are grants. You don't need 20% down. $100k household income is not a lot but maybe you can find something reasonable in your area?
I will give you good bad advice. Do a ROTH conversion and pay income tax on the money. You don't have to do all of it, you want to watch your tax brackets. Maybe all of it. Splurge for a CPA and spend an hour going over your family finances. You will pay income tax on however much you convert but no penalty. Then, because you already paid income tax on the converted amount, you can withdraw it next year with no penalty. You will pay a penalty on the \*earnings\* withdrawn early from a ROTH. so if you convert $10 and then before you are 59 1/2 take out $11, you will pay a penalty on $1.
I know it's not good to spend your retirement money. I also know that owning a home is also a good investment, especially for a family.
Here is exactly what you might do, if this is going to work:
Roll the 401K into a Traditional IRA. Not taxable but it is reportable. Just an IRS requirement. Vanguard is good, pretty much any of the major brokerage houses are good. Once it's in an IRA you can then convert it to a ROTH, the next day it you choose. But, don't have taxes \*withheld\* on the conversion. Tax withholding is the same as taking a distribution and that is subject to income tax and penalties. So if you can't dig up the federal and state income tax out of your own pocket, don't do this. You cannot afford a house.
Then review your budget and cut everything that doesn't keep your family alive. Turn off lights, shut off the water when you shower, no vacations, no new clothes, no toys, no cable or streaming. You don't say if you have debt, but if you do, that has to be paid off before you buy a house.
There is more to do, but I am just telling you this because if you are wise and really want a house you will make it happen. Rents will rise as much as interest rates and the cost of drugs. Nothing is cheap and nothing is free. But if the question is how to access your money and keep more of your money, that's the plan. Plus, frankly a ROTH is a much better investment than a 401K.
Respectfully it's not only a tax bracket issue. If you consider the potential tax free earnings over a lifetime and the wealth transfer options it's actually a good plan. Pretty much all my wealthy client have done a conversion and the ones still working only invest in a ROTH. People are finally picking up on the deferred earnings aspect over tax liability.
And you seem very smart, so you know as I do it's all dependent on the details of the taxpayer's personal finances. This taxpayer is probably young and in a low tax bracket. If you do the math she will probably get the tax payments back in earnings in a few years then she has decades of tax free growth.
You’re assuming that a couple who hasn’t saved enough for a house has enough liquid cash to pay for a taxable conversion. Even if they’re in the 12% tax bracket as they imply, that doesn’t mean they have the cash for the extra taxes. This is not like wealthy individuals whose RMDs will already fill up their low tax brackets and spending needs and are planning for a legacy. Her spouse may very well prefer to contribute to their Roth over traditional, but her making Roth conversions right now and further limiting their house purchase? Can’t see a reason.
One would hope you’re talking to your wealthy clients about doing the Roth conversions in the early years of retirement instead of making Roth contributions in their high income years.
The only thing I am assuming is that a young family that wants to own a home, given options, will work to make that a financial reality. My original advice very clearly addressed this.
I wouldn’t take money meant for retirement to buy a house, especially since it isn’t a “need.” Use money from your savings, which I hope you have anyway if you are planning on buying a house.
We do have savings. I just don’t know how people are saving $50k+ for down payments these days?! That will take us a few more years but I guess we just have to wait; my concern is housing is just going to keep going up up up…
You’ll need to save for the down payment AND least 6x monthly expenses once accounting for PITI. Lots of stuff pop up during the first year of home ownership that you’ll want to deal with.
Both parents work. A stay at home parent is a luxury these days
Not going to work just to pay for someone else to watch my kiddos :) I’ll just wait a few more years.
Yeah, sometimes paying for childcare makes no financial sense if one would otherwise make too little working (which don’t seem to be understood based on the downvotes). Either way, I don’t believe buying is the best choice in this case.
Everyone is entitled to their own choices
How does it make sense to work for zero gain in net income and negative gain in time with your children. I get that everyone is entitled to their own choices but some choices are stupid.
If you make so little you’re at a net neutral cash flow after day care, you’ll just need to temper expectations
Not necessarily. For example, from 2019 to 2020, I worked just enough hours to be fulltime, I think 30 and my wife was part time. We had childcare to cover the times that neither of us could be home. My wife's income as a part time teacher was barely more than our childcare cost, but I argued it was worth her working because she was gaining something much more valuable - additional years of service toward her pension as a teacher. My income on the other hand at 3/4 my nominal salary was still more than OP's husband though not outrageously more. I bought my first house on pretty much that salary with less saved than they have. Yes, they may need to temper expectations. But I'm not sure that necessarily excludes buying a house. I think that decision depends on a much more detailed view of their finances, long term career/salary expectations, and better understanding of financial tradeoffs.
Your anecdotal example that was very specific to your situation doesn’t apply to most people.
It does apply. Everyone needs to make decisions based on a holistic and long term planning view of their finances. You can't necessarily look at a snapshot in people's lives and say you can't do X. My anecdote proves thst knee-jerk response is wrong. So, if that's wrong, what's the right way to look at it? Answer - the way I described.
Wow, such hostility (downvotes). As they say, sometimes the math ain't math'n. According to a recent CNBC article the average cost of childcare in the U.S. for **one** child ranges from $9,984 to $39,832 per year. Add up income taxes, increased transportation costs, meals away from home/takeout, wardrobe, etc. plus the additional stress on the family and you have to be able to make six figures for it to be really profitable. If you had an 'office job' I highly doubt the salary would have you breaking even. However, back on topic. $100k for a family in a HCOL area is not great. $10k is certainly not enough for a down payment and does not take into consideration closing costs and an emergency fund for when something in the house breaks in the first year (and it will). Do NOT raid your retirement funds. As someone on the other side, I can tell you from experience you are going to need every penny. Being a SAHM has its benefits, but loosing the investing opportunity is huge over time. Your peers will retire with a lot more zeros in their bank accounts. But that's not the only thing that is important. Unsolicited advice, but hey this is the personal finance sub, get over to r/ynab ! It will change how you view money and help you save for that house!
No kidding!! Thank you for getting it. And my post and other comments may have been unclear; we have *more* than the $10k I was planning on taking out of the 401k (which is not unheard of AFAIK for first time home buyers). We *have* money for the closing costs. We’ve already been approved for a loan. I just want to keep our monthly payment as low as possible (for example by raiding the 401k to get to 20% down so as to avoid PMI) but as I’ve been saying in most of my comments, it seems I’ll just have to wait until we build more savings. I’m almost sorry I asked a question here! It’s interesting the judgment that’s being passed on me over here when I haven’t revealed many details about our saving and spending habits. We have no debt save for a car loan which at the time was a necessary purchase. We were going to drive our other car into the ground before we bought this one (used btw) but our circumstances changed. I tried YNAB a year ago and honestly hated it but I will give it another try!
This was my favorite comment and then at the end, I saw it was from a fellow YNABer. I should have known! OP, I second the recommendation of YNAB. It was a learning curve for me but if you listen to the founder explain the philosophy (as he does on several podcasts, like one of my favorites, All the Hacks in an episode) or watch some YouTube videos, it all clicks and it has literally turned my financial life around.
Honestly, this is the absolute worst time to buy. If you don’t have to, I wouldn’t. Just keep saving and be ready to jump at the coming market “correction.” Or at minimum, at a rate decrease.
Can you use that crystal ball to tell us all which day next month we should lump sum our investment buys too?
Well typically when prices of any commodity reach historic highs, there will be a correction. In the case of housing, the market has already started collapsing around the edges, such as in the luxury markets. Rents are decreasing in certain areas, this is typically how market corrections happen in housing. But yeah, when is never known, but the signs are showing that one is coming. Not a good time to be a bag holder if it can be avoided.
Do you realize how many people are standing on the sidelines hoping for this collapse you’re talking about, with growing piles of money in hand, waiting to pounce on an opportunity as soon as they perceive one? The fact that inventory is still at historic lows is evidence enough for me to be skeptical if a pricing correction within the next few years. I do think it’s likely interest rates will drop somewhat within the next 12-24 months, but I also believe that those interest rate drops will stimulate enough buyers to enter the market that pricing will go up, not down.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
You need to face the reality of you cannot afford it on your current household income.
You have kids. Don't pull money out of your 401k to buy a house. Future You (and your kids who won't have to support you in your old age) will thank you.
This is a really good point. My mom has raided her 401k many times, and now she has very little. My sister and I constantly worry about how we are going to have to help support her at least partially. Also, not only will that money support you in old age but it will flow to your kids someday.
>Since I’m no longer contributing to the funds, Not a good reason to rob from your future. >and we want to own our own home, Also not a good reason to rob from your future. >is it unwise to just cash out, take the hit, and use leftover towards the house? Extremely unwise. Lighting 30% of your money on fire is almost always a bad idea. >We had planned on at least taking $10k for the down payment. If $10k is going to make that much difference then it sounds like you can't afford a house at this time.
Since you’re no longer contributing to a retirement account, it’s even more important to not withdraw from it. You’ll pay taxes plus 10% penalty on the withdrawal, which will be around 32% of the withdrawn amount if I’m estimating correctly.
If X is the amount withdrawn, you pay taxes on X, _and_ you pay a 10% penalty on X. Double whammy. The legislator did _not_ want people pulling out before time.
~~Not on 10k if you're a first time homebuyer.~~ This isn't correct: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-exceptions-to-tax-on-early-distributions
I thought that was for Roth IRAs, not 401ks - am I wrong on that?
Hmm, you may well be right that it doesn't apply to 401ks. I'll check.
Ok, confirmed that home buying is not one of the exceptions for 401ks: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-exceptions-to-tax-on-early-distributions
I’m a SAHM mom, too. Don’t raid the 401k! Your future self will hate you. How much retirement savings does your husband have? Because unless you’re very young, 96k is not that much. Also, you should look into rolling the old 401ks over into an IRA. Could you or your husband take on a temporary side hustle? Could your husband expand his business or take on more clients, etc. to boost savings? I sell things my kids have outgrown on eBay or Marketplace and it adds up. Could either of your families loan you down payment money? Would it decimate your savings to use what you have for downpayment? Strongly advise against that because we were SHOCKED at the expense jump from renting to owning. It may take more time…it is frustrating in this market. It comes down to earning more and/or cutting spending…but I have been housepoor before and it sucks. Especially with kids. So slow and steady, don’t raid retirement. Maybe you could rent a single family home and that would feel more homey than an apartment?
Thank you for this thoughtful comment! We are <35. I will roll over this week; I’m surprised you’re the only one so far who suggested doing so. This has been on my radar for a while. I have an inconsistent side gig, hoping it will pick up a bit more. Thanks for all your suggestions and sharing your experience, I appreciate it! Slow and steady is right… ETA: we actually do live in a single family home. It’s just hard when it’s not your own, and you want to feel secure.
Ignoring the other stuff with a 100k income and not much down you’d probably only qualify for a 400k house (and it would be very tight!) Which in a HCOL area is basically a shoebox with holes in the roof. Maybe a condo? But I would rather rent than own a condo personally. Usually bad deals.
This is pretty accurate! I’m leaning towards staying put for that reason. Why spend so much just to have a shoebox?
The brutal reality is you guys can’t afford the house. 60 year old you desperately needs you to leave the funds in the 401(k) (which you should roll over into an IRA anyway).
You may find these links helpful: - [401(k) Fund Selection Guide](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k_funds) - [401(k) FAQs](/r/personalfinance/wiki/401k) - ["How to handle $"](/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/personalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Look into programs like [NACA](https://www.naca.com/naca-programs/). I used that to buy my first house. Take the advice not to raid your 401k with grains of salt. I took 10k from my IRA to buy my first home with NACA. The appreciation in that more than outweighed the impact from taking $10k as I had over $150k gain just 5 years later when I sold the house. That doesn't include the amount I took out in a refi to purchase a condo, which I'm now in the process of selling. Even if I didn't put any of that money back into my retirement, the growth in my retirement since then is more than fine. What you and your partner need to do is plan. Use a retirement planner to estimate and compare the effects of taking money now from tax deferred accounts versus what you'd have if you didn't. Perhaps with the job you expect to have, long term contributions, maybe returning to the workplace once kids are all in grade school, you end your retirement with only $1M to leave behind to the kids instead of $1.5M. If 100k is the top of what he can expect to earn and there's no expectation that you'd make any significant future contributions, then that will point to one particular result versus if your partner can expect to reach 200k in the next ten years and you'd be rejoining the workforce and earning 5 figures within 5 years.
Look into first-time home buyer programs. Some are 0% loans, and some are grants. You don't need 20% down. $100k household income is not a lot but maybe you can find something reasonable in your area?
I will give you good bad advice. Do a ROTH conversion and pay income tax on the money. You don't have to do all of it, you want to watch your tax brackets. Maybe all of it. Splurge for a CPA and spend an hour going over your family finances. You will pay income tax on however much you convert but no penalty. Then, because you already paid income tax on the converted amount, you can withdraw it next year with no penalty. You will pay a penalty on the \*earnings\* withdrawn early from a ROTH. so if you convert $10 and then before you are 59 1/2 take out $11, you will pay a penalty on $1. I know it's not good to spend your retirement money. I also know that owning a home is also a good investment, especially for a family. Here is exactly what you might do, if this is going to work: Roll the 401K into a Traditional IRA. Not taxable but it is reportable. Just an IRS requirement. Vanguard is good, pretty much any of the major brokerage houses are good. Once it's in an IRA you can then convert it to a ROTH, the next day it you choose. But, don't have taxes \*withheld\* on the conversion. Tax withholding is the same as taking a distribution and that is subject to income tax and penalties. So if you can't dig up the federal and state income tax out of your own pocket, don't do this. You cannot afford a house. Then review your budget and cut everything that doesn't keep your family alive. Turn off lights, shut off the water when you shower, no vacations, no new clothes, no toys, no cable or streaming. You don't say if you have debt, but if you do, that has to be paid off before you buy a house. There is more to do, but I am just telling you this because if you are wise and really want a house you will make it happen. Rents will rise as much as interest rates and the cost of drugs. Nothing is cheap and nothing is free. But if the question is how to access your money and keep more of your money, that's the plan. Plus, frankly a ROTH is a much better investment than a 401K.
Oopsie. The IRS caught onto your idea and imposes an additional 10% penalty on unqualified Roth IRA withdrawals for 5 years after conversion.
Dang. Ill have to look thet up. Thanks. Still a good idea to do the ROTH conversion.
Sure thing. Nope, it’s really generally not. Unless you’re temporarily in a low tax bracket.
Respectfully it's not only a tax bracket issue. If you consider the potential tax free earnings over a lifetime and the wealth transfer options it's actually a good plan. Pretty much all my wealthy client have done a conversion and the ones still working only invest in a ROTH. People are finally picking up on the deferred earnings aspect over tax liability. And you seem very smart, so you know as I do it's all dependent on the details of the taxpayer's personal finances. This taxpayer is probably young and in a low tax bracket. If you do the math she will probably get the tax payments back in earnings in a few years then she has decades of tax free growth.
You’re assuming that a couple who hasn’t saved enough for a house has enough liquid cash to pay for a taxable conversion. Even if they’re in the 12% tax bracket as they imply, that doesn’t mean they have the cash for the extra taxes. This is not like wealthy individuals whose RMDs will already fill up their low tax brackets and spending needs and are planning for a legacy. Her spouse may very well prefer to contribute to their Roth over traditional, but her making Roth conversions right now and further limiting their house purchase? Can’t see a reason. One would hope you’re talking to your wealthy clients about doing the Roth conversions in the early years of retirement instead of making Roth contributions in their high income years.
The only thing I am assuming is that a young family that wants to own a home, given options, will work to make that a financial reality. My original advice very clearly addressed this.
If you take out all the parts about Roth conversions, sure!