A few days ago I was in Washington Mutual Bank and they had a 15 year loan for about 4.5%. It shouldn’t be hard getting a 30 year loan for about 4.95% if you have good credit and 20%+ equity.

Do not take out loans and pay them off to increase your score. It works against item 1, building the DP.
Rather, have a couple credit cards that you use to pay for things you buy, but religiously pay them off, completely, every month, well before due date.

Avoid buying cars or other big ticket items that ‘require financing’. If you buy any of them, do it on your credit card, but again pay off the credit card that month.

Avoid those sales that allow you to make no down payment, or no payment this year. You can always negotiate a cash reduction. They really do prefer cash, they really do prefer to make a sale rather than have you walk out.

As your savings grow, you should be investing, not just buying bank deposit notes.
If you do a good job of investing, even living in rented accommodation can be a sound economy.

I went to a 2 year college, too. I worked my way through my Masters only because my parents had a business and I was able to make 7 times the minimum wage. I financed my doctorate. I don’t ever plan on defaulting, but I find it inhumane to boast corrupt Sallie Mae practices.

We should all aspire to be like Bill Gates and drop out of college?

You are using the extremes of rare examples of success.

How about the statistics for prisons? Guess how many drop outs are sitting in prison. Those with college degrees are rare in prison.

Piece of paper?

those would be really interesting