Owning your own home is the BEST thing ever. But I will forewarn you, Amy, that if you could have about 3-6 months, or even more, of payments in the bank, just in case, it would be worth your while. I've never missed a beat when it comes to house payments over the time I have been in home ownership, but there have been some tight times. Any financial advisor worth their weight is going to say that you need at least 3x your income in the bank in case of emergencies. I think that owning rental property would probably double that. I have friends that have had rental property sit empty for months. I know that my husband and I had his home on the market for over 9 months and couldn't sell it. We ended up renting it out after that, for almost a year, then when we put it back up for sale, it sold immediately, but that was many months of paying two house payments with nothing to offset it.

Just don't get yourself in a ditch that you don't have to be in until you're ready. I say all of this assuming that you are not paying rent where you are (with your parents) or that it is minimal. Take a deep breath and figure out where you want to be in one or two years, or even further out than that before you jump on the home ownership bandwagon. You've got lots of time!

Logan