29, single and living at home

What you need is a plan and budget. How much do you plan on spending, is it achievable at the top of the payscale and then reduce you outgoings as much as possible.

If your living at home with no girlfriend or kids your outgoings should be the bare minium. If you have any finance, loans or credit cards look at clearing them. 32k should work out about 2k after tax minus the money you give to you parents leaves you with €1500 which at minium you should be saving half of that. That will give you 45k (55k) after 5 years of saving and if you reach the top of the payscale in that time you will be able to buy a property for around 240k. Theres a good few on daft in Dublin and Meath around this price so it is achievable. If your not happy with this figure you will need to look into completing a course, going for a promotion or changing jobs. Do something that will increase your wages, at the very least look at a Springboard course as it will cost you nothing and improve your future employment oportunities. Doing overtime is another option to increase yor savings but is only a short term solution.

Not everyone gets married these days. Couples can be in decades long relationships. Plenty of 'boyfriends/girlfriends' out there with houses together.

On the flip side, there are also plenty of marriages dissolving and houses having to be sold off. Nothing is certain.

Obviously don't be buying a house with someone you've known two weeks. But if you're two people living together 5 years with no sign of changing you should probably look into buying somewhere if you have the funds.

Some folks would prioritize buying a house over a big wedding. It's just far more practical IMO.

Defo cut the car spending a car to get you a to b should be enough for a few years. Continue saving and try to increase that while living at home. Have you any skills that would allow you earn money on the side? Try maybe signing upbto wrkwrk formally known as gettheshifts. Its an agancy that books staftbfor events be it bar staff, stewards , ticketing staff etc for gigs sporting events etc.

Also go through all your ourgoing . Subscriptions to streaming services are killing some people. I only sign up to 1 service at a time. Let shows build up and then sign up

Are your tax credits correct. Do you claim ur refunds every year? Reclaim medical expenses, uniforms etc you can go back 4 yrs.

What absolutely dreadful, ridiculous nonsense.

If we'd followed your advice we'd now be paying rent 2.5-3 times that of our mortgage, with zero security for our family, no savings, and nothing whatsoever to show for the six figure rent that would have been paid since the time we bought. Yes in 2006. Yes, in Dublin.

Even though we're on a tracker and payments have gone up, it's not enough to bother switching with 9 years and <100k owing. Meanwhile of course rents have exploded and finding a property at all is impossible for many.

Such dreadful, dreadful advice.

OP a salary of 32k at age 29 is not crap money if you are happy in the role. You are completely right in that renting is dead money despite what some people are telling you here. Paying rent is one of the reasons some people will never own their own home. It's like throwing your money away.

Have you told your parents that your goal is to buy your own home - if they are in anyway decent they will drop the 500 you are paying them monthly. Put this into savings and save everything you can for the next few years. There are houses in Meath Louth in your price range.

Don't go down house share or renting route as that will just leave you further behind in the property game.

Have you looked at renting with HAP (if you can get a place that accepts it of course) it really helps with the rent.

I'm not seeing the utility in giving advice to someone living in Ireland and considering renting or buying in Ireland on the basis of property market conditions in other countries.

Well no, so likely moot in his case, but you made some very sweeping generalisations there unsupported by any evidence and contradicted by the direct experience of me and many many people like me.

OP can you not aim for what most folks do? (as in, it works!)

Move out of your parents house and rent for the time being. Continue to grow that 10k savings pot. Don't touch it if you can.

Hopefully meet a partner along the way over the next few years.

Then use your combined income to buy a place together.

Seems fairly straightforward to me. Yes, renting is money you won't see again, however few people go straight from living at home to buying their own place. At 29 on 32k I doubt that's going to be an option any time soon, so your number 1 priority should be moving out to get on with your life.