I can afford Hajj but keep putting it off. Is that a problem?

The starting point is that this only applies to someone who actually meets the conditions: “In it are clear signs such as the standing place of Abraham. And whoever enters it i.e., the Ḥaram shall be safe. And due to Allah from the people is a pilgrimage to the House - for whoever is able to find thereto a way. But whoever disbelieves i.e., refuses - then indeed, Allah is free from need of the worlds.” (Qur’an 3:97)

If you do not have surplus money, or are not physically able, none of what follows is about you.

For someone who is able, the schools differ on the timing:

• Immediate obligation. One position holds that Hajj must be performed in the first year in which a person is able, and that delaying it without excuse is sinful.
• Obligation with latitude. Another holds that it may be delayed within a lifetime, provided the person intends to perform it and does so before death or before losing the ability.

Both agree on the outcome that matters: someone who is able, keeps deferring, and then dies without having gone has left an obligation unfulfilled. The practical advice from both directions is therefore identical — go while you can.

What counts as a legitimate reason to delay:

• Illness, or caring for someone who is ill.
• Genuine unavailability of a place, which is now common; quota systems and waiting lists in some countries run to many years.
• Safety of the route.
• Debts that must be settled first.

What does not count: intending to go “when things settle down”, waiting for a more convenient year, or preferring to spend the money elsewhere while treating Hajj as something to reach eventually.

A practical note. If you are on a waiting list, you are not delaying — you are waiting, which is a different thing, and the intention is recorded. And if you are able but have not begun the process, beginning it is the step: the application, the savings account, the passport. Intent that never becomes a date tends to stay intent.