I've been investing in real estate for 25 years, and I think buying a house is for suckers
Getty Images / Jerry Cleveland
Should you own a home? Unless you have 20 million bucks in the bank, in cash, you have no business buying a house.
People think the only way to save money is to buy a house. Suzy Orman thinks you have no way to earn any real money for yourself, so she advises you to buy a house as the only way to get your money. You will get your home paid off when you are old. Who wants to wait until they are old to have money?
A home is not an investment because it doesn't pay you every month. In fact, you have to pay it every month.
That's why a house is not an asset, it's a liability. Nothing is a good deal if you have to feed it constantly.
People ask, "Why would you pay rent when you could buy?" Because you can't leave. Who wants to go to jail for 30 years? You can be mobile and nimble if you rent. Mobility is a great thing in today's world. Why settle down? Invest the money in yourself or your business. Your money needs to be free!
I have been investing in multi-family real estate for over 25 years. If you want a great opportunity to create income for yourself, realize that America is becoming a nation of renters.
How many reasons do you need to buy multi-family real estate? Apartments offer high cash yield, build equity, give tax advantages and let you use leverage. A $400,000 purchase can be bought with 25% of the price allowing you to leverage $100,000 to control four times the value in physical property. Stocks or gold can't touch that!
The house, much like a college education, has been fed to you as the American dream. Really, it's a middle class myth perpetuated by outdated thinking, politicians and mass media. Buying a house may have worked for previous generations but old ways of doing things aren't viable in 2016. We are not in the 1950s, things have changed and people refuse to adjust.
A house is not an investment.
I want to give you three tips to making true investments.
1. Invest in yourself
I do a weekly talk show called Young Hustlers where I talk to millennials about all things money, career and sales. I always emphasize the need to invest in yourself, no matter what your age. When I was 25 I made a $3,000 investment to buy a sales program for the purpose of becoming better at my job. Becoming a better you will never fail you.
Related: How to Live Rent-Free While Building Your Business
Getty Images / Jerry Cleveland
2. Focus on income
Whether you have a house or not is irrelevant to how well you are or, will be, financially. So many people are concentrated on savings but their real problem is they just don't make enough money. I encourage the millennials on my Young Hustlers show to spend their energy on this one thing — getting their incomes up high enough where they can actually make a real investment.
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3. Invest in something that pays you
Only after you have enough income can you start to think about investing. As I mentioned earlier, buying a home to live in is not going to pay you. Whether it be multi-family real estate or something else, a true investment will not cost you money. There are so many real estate agents out there giving false information. A home needs to be fed, it won't feed you.
If you start investing in yourself, focus on growing your income. Put that growing income into an investment that will pay you, then you will be living like the rich do, not like the middle class.
Most Americans have been made to believe the myth that getting rich is almost impossible or not important. If you look at the world you will see that the only group of people that are safe are the rich. The rich didn't get rich "buying a house."
Getty Images / Jerry Cleveland
Blame them, hate them, resent them, but they are safe and everyone else is at risk. They will be able to survive inflation, housing busts, tight credit, high unemployment rates and whatever else is thrown at them. They have investments that pay them.
The middle class idea of just "being comfortable" is a risky venture in 2016. If your hope is in a house, you will be disappointed. I'm all for education, but how many people have gone to college and into massive debt and found themselves unemployed? How many of them are paying that debt back for 10, 20 and 30 years?
Don't get caught in the idea that a house is your ticket to wealth. A house, along with a college education, has been fed to this country as the way to financial prosperity. It may have been true in the past, but today it's all a myth.
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