Video ID: wdstqPqZI5k
YouTube URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdstqPqZI5k
Added At: 28-06-25 23:55:15
Processed: No
Sentiment: Neutral
Categories: Finance, Self-Help
Tags: investing, financial literacy, house buying, wealth creation, lifestyle choice
Summary
["The author argues that buying a house is not an investment, but rather a lifestyle choice.","Owning a house comes with significant expenses, including mortgage, real estate taxes, and maintenance.","The author suggests that building wealth through investing in assets like VTSAX (a Vanguard index fund) may be a better option than buying a house."]
Transcript
You wrote a blog post called Why Your House is a terrible Investment and then you hit publish. Half the internet turned on you. Two questions. Number one, why do people get so worked up about this issue? And number two, why is my house a terrible investment? Your house is a terrible investment because it's basically is not an investment. Right? You shouldn't think of your house as an investment. Sometimes it works out. It goes up in value, but it's a place to live. It's a lifestyle choice, right? So you need to separate in your mind uh what an investment is and and what a house is. So you know when you invest in a house you're taking on enormous expenses. You've got your mortgage which everybody thinks of and they say oh you know I can buy this house and the mortgage is no more than my rent. And they're forgetting conveniently about well there's real estate taxes right and then there's all the maintenance and repairs on it and you going to buy the house and not remodel the kitchen. You're never going to remodel the kitchen in your apartment, but you know, very few people buy a house and don't start immediately changing it. You're going to buy furniture for it. You're going to buy appliances for it. It's never ending. And all that's fine. You know, money's can be used for a lot of things. I've owned houses most of my adult life. I'm not saying don't own a house. Saying don't confuse yourself thinking it's an investment. Your house and my house are both actively trying to return to dust in the earth, right? And we have to spend copious amounts of time and money preventing that from happening. But what about I'm building equity. Why should I give that money to a bank? And what about the idea that what are you telling millennials to do? Just own nothing. Millennials and zoomers should own nothing and let Black Rockck have all that money. Oh, I'm not saying you should own nothing. I'm saying you should own assets. You should own VTSAX. You know, my daughter, you really believe you're telling everybody on the internet right now that's my age or younger VTSAX and rent? Yes. And that's what I tell my daughter. And that's what she's doing. She's in her early 30s. She just quit her corporate job uh last fall. I don't know if that's permanent or or if it's just a temporary IAS, but she at least has you money the way we defined it earlier that she can make that kind of bold decision cuz she didn't make any silly decisions like buying a house and becoming house poor and being dependent on a paycheck to pay for all of those things. So yeah, if building wealth is your key goal, then no, owning a house is is not going to contribute to that. If on the other hand, you want to own a house because it'll provide a certain lifestyle that you're you find desirable, maybe a yard for your kids or whatever, then that that's great. That's a lifestyle decision. It's not a financial decision.