In 2020, Anita Kinoshita, then 28 years old, started considering buying a house.
Kinoshita lives in California and was a software engineer for the Department of Defense, earning about $70,000 a year.
As a first-generation American from Mexican farming backgrounds, Kinoshita believed that owning real estate was the best way to finally realize his family’s American dream.
“I got my first big girl job and thought the next responsible thing was to buy a house,” Kinoshita told CNBC Make It. “I didn’t necessarily want to buy a house. I was actually trying to figure out how to do it.”
Initially, Mr. Kinoshita was looking for a property with the intention of subletting part of his bedroom to reduce the cost burden. She had saved about $20,000 for a down payment.
“My vision for the future was to have a family, spend as much time as possible with my family, and not necessarily have a job,” she says.
“I was 28 years old at the time, so I still cared about what my community defined as success, and homeownership was part of that. At the time, I thought it was the responsible thing to do.”
Kinoshita always believed that achieving the American dream meant owning property.
Anita Kinoshita
Mr. Kinoshita wanted to learn as much as possible about the home buying journey he was about to embark on. She enrolled in a nine-week course offered by Financial Peace University that teaches people how to manage their money.
During the online class’s retirement module, Ms. Kinoshita used a retirement calculator. This showed me that if I started contributing a little more to my 401(k), I could retire around age 55 and buy a home at the same time.
“Suddenly, the vision I had for the future and the freedom and lifestyle I wanted became possible in my head for the first time,” she says.
For two years, Kinoshita searched at least a dozen locations and made a total of four offers. She received one offer, but the seller backed out. She was also approved to purchase a single-family home, but declined the deal due to discrepancies in the appraisal.
“I ended up leaving because the only way to stay competitive at the time was to invest less and save up more for a down payment, and that wasn’t my intention,” she says.
“Ultimately, I felt it wasn’t the time for me and I didn’t want to reduce my investment. I wasn’t happy with my career and felt like I was living my father’s dream instead of my own.”
Mr. Kinoshita viewed more than a dozen properties and made a total of four offers.
Anita Kinoshita
Redefining success
Kinoshita changed his focus. Instead of saving for a down payment, she set a goal to invest $500,000 in a retirement account. By April 2022, she had invested $200,000 and reached COAST FIRE. This is a strategy where you save and invest enough to eventually stop contributing to your retirement account and let the compound growth rate continue to increase to get your traditional retirement back on track. She decided to quit her job.
Mr. Kinoshita is not the only one waiting to buy a home. The median age of first-time homebuyers has increased in recent years, going from 35 in 2023 to 38 in 2024 alone, according to a report by the National Association of Realtors.
After quitting her full-time job, Kinoshita began working part-time, creating curriculum for California State University Monterey Bay and creating financial literacy content online. Both of these positions earned her more than she did while working as a software engineer.
Kinoshita, now 34, plans to wait until he reaches the early stages of COAST FIRE. With COAST FIRE, if you have enough investments, you can stop contributing at an age of your choosing, rather than the traditional retirement age of 67.
Kinoshita quit her job and now creates content about financial literacy online.
Anita Kinoshita
Her expected retirement age is now 45 and she plans to have $1.5 million invested by then.
“I value my time and freedom a little more than I value home ownership. Looking back, I think if I had bought a home, I would have felt trapped in my career,” she says.
Kinoshita and her husband recently moved to a California suburb and hope to someday own a home. They pay $4,000 a month in rent and live in a single-family home in a gated community, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.
She estimates the couple will have about $300,000 saved up for a home when they’re ready to buy. However, it is still unclear when he will start seriously considering the purchase.
“I’m not in a hurry. I never want to use it as a financial tool. I think of it more as a luxury than an asset these days,” she says. “I’d rather have my money working in the stock market than in real estate.”
Kinoshita and her husband are currently renting in a neighborhood they hope to buy someday.
Anita Kinoshita
Mr. Kinoshita says that his definition of his dream home has also changed.
“I don’t want too many bedrooms. Lately, I’m all about attractive architecture. I don’t want the square footage to be overwhelming. I want it to be in a really beautiful neighborhood where I feel safe. I want to be able to look outside and see nature,” she says.
“I don’t see any reason to settle for anything else. So for us, that’s all we need.”
Want to level up your AI skills? Sign up for CNBC Make It’s new online course, “How to use AI to better communicate at work by Smarter by CNBC Make It.” Get specific prompts to optimize your emails, notes, and presentations for tone, context, and audience.
Plus, sign up for the CNBC Make It newsletter for tips and tricks to succeed at work, money, and life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and colleagues.
