Housing costs don't really make it practical in WA to put away $4k/month when you're pulling in $6-7k/month after taxes. A mortgage on any decent-ish place is going to be around $2500-$3500+ a month. If you just bought a place recently your savings were probably tapped out out to come up with the $100k+ down payment. It's definitely possible to save a lot of money, but $1 million in the bank is pretty tough IMHO.