Oh also noting for early retirement - taxes / pulling money out of accounts before a certain age could have a negative affect like additional fees or taxes. Be sure to read into your accounts :)

My current house cost the same as my rent did (mortgage payment+taxes is equal to my rent I was paying). without taxes I would be saving about $400/mo. (I pay almost double in taxes and get a check cut to me yearly for the overpayment from escrow, but due to how taxes change my escrow plays it safe)

For example, say my rent was $2k/mo, thats $24k a year with no equity. Now say you pay $2k/mo in mortgage+taxes, thats $2k toward interest and your equity.

You can use that equity as an asset when taking out loans, or cash-out refinance it later to purchase more properties. (This is what most house flippers did).

Rent at fair market value for a house my size is already $2300/mo. In about 5 years it'll probably be ~$2600/mo(2% increase yearly). Thats $600 profit from renters who also pay my mortgage for me.

edit: clarification/cleaning it up

It's most likely a hard pull, and even if it is....Its such a small loss in credit that is usually built back up right away.

Most on this reddit will say roth because tax laws can change and its untaxed income in the future. For me I did 401k because I need the tax break and I assume I'll make less in retirement.

edit: This is for standard retirement plans (58-61)

By the age of 30 I believe you should have 1 year of salary saved up. So if you continued to make 78k until 30, you'd have 78k saved up. (Its unlikely you'd continue to make 78k by then, though.)

From my personal experience to retire early I do two things.

1. I max out my 401k every year ($20.5k before company match, or ~$854/every 2 weeks.)
2. I am slowly buying up properties, I have my first house and am working toward a 2nd.

note: with my current income I don't qualify for a Roth IRA. (income too high)

I'm 27 right now.

IMO - Take out the loan (student loans aren't bad when enrolled) and then pay it off slowly while in school. You shouldn't need to take out a massive student loan, maybe just one month, maybe two months of rent.

Student loans don't accrue interest while in school, usually. Be sure to check.

edit: Not paying that rent could cause you to lose credit, and dropping out is a horrible choice. I seen this too much while in school and most who did are jobless to this day.