If you want to own a house, that’s fine – but make sure you pay it off. Dawdle and you end up losing money to the bank. If you want to rent for life, that’s also fine – but make sure you save money and invest it.
For us, we’ve bought a home and worked hard to pay it off in three years. That felt amazing, and it’s probably our single biggest financial accomplishment to date.
Being a home owner and being intimately close to your house can take away some of the joy from owning it – it can actually cloud your perception of it. With the pluses come the minuses.
Responsibility means making decisions and taking action. When you’re a tenant, you just shrug your shoulders, contact the rental agent, and call it a day. When you’re the owner (either as the occupier, or a landlord), you have to think about the long-term consequences of your decisions.
On a similar note, ownership of a home comes with added worries that a renter doesn’t necessarily share. Owners are the ones who are left with the repair bill for damage to the building – whether they have insurance or not.
If you’re looking to do any decorating like painting walls (and sometimes even changing the curtains!), you don’t need to ask your landlord for approval. It’s your house – you can just go on right ahead, without needing to wait, raising eyebrows, or risk of your request being rejected.
If you’re looking for a stress-free retirement, there’s a lot to be said about not owning a home and just renting instead. There are extra worries and responsibilities that come with home ownership that as a renter you can largely avoid.