[anamax]

> More generally, this whole conversation has become one of minutia.

Getting ahead is often minutia.

> First, you're rather fudging the conclusion that cutting expenses to the bone has bought you a house

Actually, he didn't cut anyway near "the bone". Write down everything that you spend money on for a month. (Yes, including vending machines.) You'll be amazed, and you'll save a lot of money because you'll find that the benefit of many purchases is less than the cost of writing them down.

> You will have a hard time convincing me, or anyone else paying attention, that this trend is due to some sort of society-wide age-related motivational shortcoming, which seems to be your argument.

We're not claiming that you're lacking motivation. We're claiming that you're spending lots of money that you could spend on something else.

If you're anywhere near "hacker news typical", you're spending 2-3x as some of your neighbors.