saving for a house/condo? For a person in their 20's, how should you go about allocating funding for 401k (assume 25% company match) vs. saving/investing for a future down payment?It is hard to turn down the company match, but maxing out a 401K when you are early in your career (i.e. low salary) won't leave much money for savings.

I've made this mistake so don't repeat it. While tempting to take the cash now, and worry about savings later, you will soon find that there is never a good time to start saving. So - max out your 401k if you can. The 25% match is free money. No regular investment, even Bay Area real estate, returns 25%. Whatever you have left over, save for a down payment. Or if you ever get a bonus or a Xmas gift, save that for a down payment. I thought I was going to be a millionaire by my 30's so I didn't save anything in my 401k and missed the late 90's stock boom in my 20's.

One trick that I use to build savings is by setting up an automatic transfer from my checking to the savings account once a month. I set the transfer date to coincide with my paycheck direct deposit. In doing so it just goes straight to the savings account without me even knowing it was there. It's sort of a psychological thing, but it helps with budgeting if you don't even consider that you had the money to spend.

When I first started working, I would put 5-10% of my paycheck towards my 401(K). I was in the same situation, where my pay was low, so maxing out my 401(K) would have meant no money left over for short-term savings. Once I bought a house I started maxing out my 401(K). In my situation, because of the mortgage I'm paying and how it affected my taxes, my take-home pay didn't decrease by much even though I was maxing out my 401(K).