In a world that seems to get more expensive faster that we can make more money it doesn’t feel worth the extra stress to try and save right now. If you find yourself in a similar situation how do you think about retirement or home ownership? Have you given up? I’m having a tough time stomaching the idea of living even tighter now so I can maybe have a retirement.

To me, giving up on saving is simply not an option. Unless you’re planing on dying, you will retire. Given that retirement is not a choice, so is saving for retirement because CPP is not enough to sustain my current standard of living.

That doesn’t mean you have to tighten right now, because your partner is already making an investment in the form of education. When that’s done you can evaluate if it makes sense to get back to investing in the regular kind of investments. Investing in your kids is also something, though be careful to not dump a world of expectations on them - too many people think of their kids as their retirement fund. But back to saving, in my humble and ill informed opinion, you can afford to do a tactical retreat for now and get back to saving later, but do get back to it even if it’s only after your kids leave home.

I did give up on buying property in Vancouver. I’ll probably buy something in a small town after I retire, like @Affaires de Piasses parents lol that’s my kind of role model.