I'm done waffling over buying a house I can't afford. I have a better plan — it starts with renting for life.

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• I had been saving to buy a house, but prices in Southern California have made that unlikely.
• I decided to stop focusing on trying to buy a house, which means I can put more toward retirement.
• I'm okay knowing I might be renting for life, as it means I can streamline my finances.

I waffled over buying a house for a long time. I live in Southern California, and purchasing my first home as a single person without any family assistance would be a monumental endeavor. I've gone through the preapproval process as a freelancer, talked to a few realtors, and casually visited a few open houses in Los Angeles.

But with the median price of a home in Los Angeles at $750,000 and current mortgage interest rates being as high as they are, I've put a big "pause" on buying a house. This has allowed me to take another look at my retirement goals.

I'm focusing on my emergency fund and retirement accounts

When debating whether homeownership was the right move for me, I would sock away a portion of the money I earned into a savings account for a house. Now that I've decided that getting an abode of my own in Los Angeles is off the table, I can focus solely on my emergency fund and retirement accounts.

I have a Roth IRA and solo 401(k) to tuck funds aside for retirement. Instead of using my HSA contributions toward health-related expenses, I'm investing my HSA funds. I don't plan on touching that money in the investment brokerage account until retirement.

This year, the maximum contribution for IRAs is $6,500 (and $7,500 if you're 50 and up). With a solo 401(k), a type of retirement account designed for self-employed folks with no employees other than themselves, I can contribute both as an employer and as my own employee. On the employee side, I can stash away up to $22,500 in 2023. It's 25% of my net self-employment income on the employer side.

I set up auto contributions to my HSA and IRA so that I can hit the maximum limits by the end of the year. As for my solo 401(k), it's not a perfect science, but I try to contribute funds as much as I can. I might squirrel away some money one month and nothing the next.

I'm planning a retirement where I'll be renting for life

There's always a chance that I might uproot and move, either because I want to go to a more affordable part of the US or because of the climate crisis. In the meantime, I can more tangibly think about how much I would need in my retirement if I rented for life.

While it would be nice to own a home outright by the time I hit retirement age, currently, it's not feasible for me to own a single-family residence in my area. So I'm folding in housing expenses as part of my retirement expenses.

Before, I felt like I was trying to straddle two paths. It made me feel scattered. Now that I've nulled out savings to buy a home, my financial goals feel more streamlined. That means I can focus on hitting my savings and long-term milestones.

This article was originally published in August 2023.