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One of the biggest fears I have in our personal finance journey is that we're saving for the wrong things.

My wife and I are both young, but have been filling up our Roth IRAs since we opened them and I drop in 10% of my salary into my 401(k) at work (with the additional employer match and "profit sharing" dollars). But if we're saving so much for retirement, how are we ever going to be able to afford to buy a house?

We live in an expensive town with an expensive cost of living where it's tough to break into the real estate market. We rent, partially because we can't afford to buy and partially because we're pretty sure that we won't be here for the rest of our lives.

I've always read that when it comes to saving, saving for retirement is a priority. "You can't take a loan out for retirement" is the advice, and it makes sense.

So how is it possible to save so much for retirement AND save money for a house? It just seems like too much.

Now that we've got our emergency fund set up, all extra pennies are going in a high-yield online savings account earmarked for home ownership. With our retirement automatically funded every month, we're living without the extra cash. Now we've just got to do it some more — but for home ownership.

CNNMoney answers my question (though I wasn't the one who submitted it), with an answer I wasn't totally expecting.

I don't necessarily see a problem if you plan on directing your saving effort over the next two years or so toward building a down payment even if it means compromising your retirement-savings effort.

I think you still ought to try to contribute at least enough to your 401(k) to get the employer match, since not doing so is giving up free money. You could then sock away every other cent you can manage for the home down payment.

Wow. I didn't see that one coming.

Does the power generated by owning a home outweigh the power of compound interest? I don't have all the answers, but it seems like a shaky argument, especially given the extra costs of owning vs. renting.

How can we save for both retirement and a house? Share your tips n a comment below!