It is! I've been hearing a lot of chatter that homeownership is a bad idea...I don't understand that thinking. The reasons don't seem logical to me since we have to pay to live somewhere, so we should be paying it towards building equity. Oh...that insurance though. In God's hands.

@@LaurenTGage youtube has videos on how to replace a water heater to : )

I think that makes for a great business idea! When we had our water heater replaced, the guy shared with us all about how he got started and how his company was doing. He had more work than he could handle, was getting ready to hire help, and made a great living. People need that hot water working when the economy is good or bad, so I think it has some stability there too. :)

@@LaurenTGage 🙂

Hi @cyclingphilosopher8798. Thank you for your great comment. At the end of most people's lives though, if they had bought a home, they would have some forced savings that otherwise might not be there even though a home is both an asset and a liability. Renting often has some similar maintenance costs as well. When we were traveling, we were responsible for lawn care, snow removal, carpet cleaning, bathroom re-grouting, light bulbs, general maintenance, very expensive pet fees, etc. These costs were additional, required to rent, and not taken care of by the various leasing companies. Sometimes renting might be the best choice, and that would possibly be when someone is needing to move within a short period of time. Sometimes even in that situation, keeping a home and renting it out (if possible) could still be a best financial decision as a hedge. I've learned of many people who sold their home to travel or move, and then prices or interest rates went up, and they were then priced out or left without a real estate hedged investment. If you run the interest payments, principal, and all unrecoverable costs for renting vs. buying, considering over an entire 30 years, the monthly outflow might be 4%+ less renting vs. buying, but unless it's a significant amount that is invested well with good results vs. spent, it may or may not be equivalent to the equity plus inflation adjusted price of the real property owned over time. It's my perspective that at the end of 30 years, you either have a paid off house worth something, or just more rent payments and still maintenance responsibilities and costs to look forward to. With renting, there will always be a rent payment and I haven't seen rent prices go down. When owning a home, you can someday eliminate the principal and interest portion of a monthly living expense, and I think that net will be a lower monthly expense than future rental fees because these total rental fees will have to include and pass down increased taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. which may erode any real savings from renting in the long run. Even if taxes are very high, having a property to sell in order to move to a less expensive area could also be beneficial. From an emotional perspective, while traveling, we had to rent several different types of residences and living in the rentals had a very different feeling for me from being in my own home that I didn't enjoy, so that's an important non-financial reason for me to prefer home ownership. For my family, I'm strongly recommending my children work to be homeowners, investors, savers, and business owners. It's still my preference for them.