Mike Moon Studio/Mike Moon Studio
In just two years, Hannah Sieczkowski, 24, went from dreading her job and living with her parents to landing a role she enjoys — and becoming a homeowner.
In November 2023, Sieczkowski and her husband, Kyle, 27, purchased a $435,000 four-bedroom, 3.5-bath home in Woodstock, Georgia, a suburb north of Atlanta. A variety of financial factors made homeownership feasible, including their dual incomes. Together, they earn about $130,000 annually. She works as a vendor management specialist, and he’s a cybersecurity analyst.
“We’re the only ones we know at our age that actually have a house,” Sieczkowski said. “It’s only by the grace of God that we have all of this and our jobs.”
The couple is part of a cohort of Gen Zers who graduated before 2024, when US businesses began hiring at nearly the slowest pace in more than a decade — a trend that continues today. That timing left them better positioned to land jobs, build savings, and start thinking seriously about homeownership. More recent graduates, by contrast, have generally faced a tougher market and a more difficult path to affording a home.
Business Insider has spoken with dozens of Gen Zers navigating the early stages of their careers, working to improve their finances, and confronting economic challenges. We want to hear from job seekers, recent hires, and those working toward homeownership. If you’re open to sharing your story, please fill out one or more of the linked Google Forms.
Read more on these topics below:
- A recent Gen Z grad with $25,000 in student debt says his job search has made him accept he may never work in his dream field: ‘I know that life isn’t fair’
- The milestone that divides Gen Z’s career fortunes
- A Gen Zer swears by a LinkedIn trick that helped him be among the first to apply for roles. Experts say he’s onto something.
- This 24-year-old Gen Zer just bought a $395K home with his fiancée. They have this key piece of advice.
Renting out the basement and refinancing have helped their finances
To save money before their home purchase, the couple lived with Sieczkowski’s parents for a few months after getting married in 2023. When they moved forward with a purchase, they used a Veterans Affairs loan — a benefit tied to Kyle’s prior military service — that allowed them to avoid private mortgage insurance despite not having a 20% down payment.
They decided to still make a roughly 9% down payment of $40,000, in part by repurposing a college fund Kyle’s parents had set up for him. Since his education was covered by the Post-9/11 GI Bill, the savings went toward the house instead.
Hannah Sieczkowski
When they first bought the home, their mortgage rate was 7.5%, but they refinanced to 5.75% last October — lowering their monthly mortgage payment from $3,224 to $2,873. To help cover their housing costs, they rent out their basement to a family member.
Between their combined income, rental income, and strategic budgeting, Sieczkowski said they feel financially comfortable, despite her carrying about $30,000 in student debt.
Figuring out what to prioritize in a job
Homeownership might not have been possible for the couple if they hadn’t both been employed — a situation many Gen Zers can’t count on. While layoffs remain low by historical standards, the hiring slowdown of recent years — driven by factors ranging from tariff uncertainty to the early effects of AI adoption — has left many recent college grads especially vulnerable.
Sieczkowski began looking for work around March 2022, about two months before graduating from the University of North Georgia with a degree in business management. She initially targeted event planning roles — her dream job at the time — but said she soon received a “dose of reality” about the pay levels for early-career professionals in the field. She recalled going through multiple interviews for one event planning job, only to learn it paid $12 an hour. In another case, she was told she’d have to start as a bartender, despite applying for an event planner role.
“I realized that if I wanted to make any money as an event planner, it was going to be a very long road,” she said.
Sieczkowski decided to focus on higher-paying roles that more closely aligned with her degree. She said she sent out dozens of applications on Indeed and used her social media and internet “stalking skills” to track down people connected to roles of interest.
In one case, she emailed the founder of a startup expressing admiration for their story and interest in the role. That outreach helped her land an executive assistant job at the company in April 2022, a role that paid significantly more than the event planning roles she’d interviewed for.
A few weeks before graduation, she started working part-time at the startup in a hybrid role, expecting to move to full-time afterward. Working while finishing school wasn’t easy, but she said it felt necessary.
“It was like, ‘You got to do what you got to do,'” she said. “I was finishing college, and I wanted to have a career lined up.”
She worked this job until June, about a month after graduation, when she decided the role was too stressful, despite its financial benefits.
“I took that job because it was really high-paying, and that’s why I was so excited about it,” she said. “But I learned that the grind is not worth it if my mental health is nonexistent.”
Finding the right “practical” job
Sieczkowski’s brief stint in the workforce helped her reassess what she wanted in a job. In just a few months, she’d gone from chasing her dream role to prioritizing salary — and finally, to seeking stability and a steady paycheck.
“I had a new mindset of, ‘Okay, let’s get a job that’s practical,'” she said.
Over the course of her job search, Sieczkowski said she interviewed for several roles that sounded great in the job postings — but once she spoke with hiring managers, the reality didn’t match the description. That disconnect led her to cast a wider net. While a job that sounded ideal on paper might disappoint, one that seemed like a stretch could turn out to be a great fit.
She said this strategic shift paid off when she applied for an administrative assistant role that didn’t initially excite her. She was even more skeptical when she learned the company was connected to the oil and gas industry, a sector she’d previously avoided due to environmental concerns.
But during the interview process, the role started to sound like a better fit. She’d have the flexibility to shape her responsibilities and even help plan some company events. She accepted the offer and started in August 2022, later earning a promotion to her current role as a vendor management specialist.
Looking ahead, Sieczkowski said she hasn’t ruled out pursuing event planning again someday. But for now, she’s happy with her job — and the home it’s helped her afford — even if it’s not the role she expected when she began her search.
“If I had kept my original, ‘I’m never going to do oil and gas’ mindset, I wouldn’t be in this job right now, which I absolutely love,” she said.
The post How this Gen Z couple with $30K in student debt afforded a $435K home in Georgia appeared first on Business Insider.
