I have enough money to buy a small house in another state with more affordable home prices, but I can't afford one here.
If most millionaires own a home, does that mean buying a home is a good way to become a millionaire? It seems like Ramsey is using flawed reasoning and getting cause and effect mixed up here.
If California reduced taxes and government regulations, would home prices become more affordable?
My home is multipurpose home and shop Built it a bit at a time as was possible four decades ago out in the boonies. Did it as I had the money, no debt, no mortgage. Kept it simple and basic.
Your personal situation must be taken into consideration if any financial strategy is to work for you.
We built our first home. It sat on its own little hill overlooking the pasture where my horse was turned out. We had lush grassy fields. I love to garden so I did the landscaping - flowers, scattered ornamental trees, open fields, big sky, a newly built barn and new fencing. My parents lived with us and my father had a huge veggie garden out back - he spent every day out there in his retirement years. Everyone commented that the place looked like a park and not like a farm. Very picturesque. We had a stream and two ponds, a winding driveway, a gazebo . . . I loved the place. It cost a small fortune to maintain and run. It was a lot of work - sometimes the place owned me because of it. When we sold I was disappointed in how much the place went for. No one at the time wanted a small farm to keep a horse - no one. We made a profit on the place, but nothing like what we anticipated and hoped for.
The house we own today is the 'poor man's house in the rich man's neighborhood'. We downsized. The house, while nice (fireplace, large living room with cathedral ceiling and skylights, two very small ponds we put in - one by the front entrance with a fountain, the other by the backyard patio with a water fall. . .) it doesn't match our former home. But it has appreciated in value more than we expected. It's location and the value of the surrounding homes keeps the value in our house increasing over time. The improvements we made naturally add to its value, but you really do buy location when buying real estate. We have a small principle on the mortgage, but the equity we hold in the property combined with its continued increasing value is more than enough to cover the balance of the mortgage if we should sell and to afford a nice home that we can pay for in full... nothing extravagant, but nothing shabby either.
Point being that what drives the value in a home besides location is desirability at the time you sell - and what is desirable depends on who is out there as a buyer, what they want in a property, and what said buyer is willing to pay. The real estate market can surprise you. It can fatten your wallet but there's no guarantee. And when you buy a home, you buy bills and work. There's the down side to it. You must maintain the place to keep its value, and that means money.
"Control everything, own nothing" is a strategy that is designed to protect you from liability and yet still give you the ability to live as high on the hog as your situation allows you. It can work if you play your cards right - but again, you have to play your cards right. Tax laws and so on do change, so today's strategy might not be so great in tomorrow's world.
Education has its value for sure - I do want my doctors and lawyers, etc., to be well educated. But everyone doesn't need an impressive degree to do well financially in life. A degree that weighs you down because of a huge student loan debt owed combined with poor employment prospects because the degree isn't all that marketable is a recipe for problems, even disaster. In today's world college degrees have become an industry in itself. A degree in today's world does not necessarily have the same comparative value that it did in yesteryear's world. Times have changed for sure.
Simple luck can factor into the formula. We don't have control of all circumstance and there is such as thing as hard times happening without being your fault.
You need a plan that takes into consideration your personal situation, discipline to stick to it, but flexibility to revise that plan as the unexpected happens. It can work well, but not always because there are circumstance that is beyond your control.
That sounds nice, but it's too much house work and yard work.
that your money is going into that you own and not into someone else's pocket.
When we owned the hobby farm, I did not work outside the home. My parents lived with us and my father's health was poor, we had two active daughters, and I looked after my sister's two youngest as she worked.
I never really had the time to kick back, relax and really enjoy the place. But I still loved it. Big sky too - saw meteor showers, gorgeous starry night - saw the moons of Jupiter with my telescope, comets. . . .
Good memories.
I hope you find what you are looking for if you plan on buying a place.
