re: Job situation. WWTOTD

$140k
less 20% 401k
less 30% uncle sam
$78,400
say you have expenses of $4k/month ($1000 rent + $750 vehicle note w/ maint and insurance + $500 utilities/bills + $2250 for food, going out, fun money, whatever.) ->$48k/year (this is crazy high but for the sake of the argument)
leaving you with ~30k/year of lagniappe after savings taxes expenses and a good bit of fun.

you could have a damn nice house down-payment in two years and buy something nice for $300k.

Assuming you were renting at $1000/month, your new cost if you finance for 20 years would be maybe $500 extra/month on top of what you were paying for rent including tax and insurance.

So starting from scratch as a single guy making $140k/year after two years you'll have expenses of $4500 and just throw away money of $25k/year.