Investment properties are great, but let's get PERSONAL.

[Forrest Faulconer]

According to the classic Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki says your home is not an asset. This makes sense considering your home is not making you money but demanding repayment from the get-go. Appreciation is no guarantee and the tax write-offs are not great compared to investment properties.

However, a primary home is an essential part of life (no offense to my van-dwelling vagabond friends). But why not plan and approach this very large purchase from an investment-minded approach? 

As our family grows, we are about a year or two away from out-growing our current house, inciting us to start planning for the next homestead. I would love to hear how some investors approach purchasing their primary homes? Do you utilize the low down payment options? Do you put 20% down to keep your monthly payments lower? Is renting a better strategy for you? 

**We do not want to house-hack unless it's a detached mother-in-law suite type of situation, so chances are that will not be the strategy that is best for us.

Forrest Faulconer

[Jim K.]

@Forrest Faulconer

Reading between the lines, Forrest, you keep on trying to flip Kiyosaki's dictum right around. I could be wrong, but it sounds like you and wife are caught in the classic American trap of wanting to live in a "NICE" place.

Your family is "outgrowing your current house," you say. I have a friend who live in a 5,200 ft2 place with four kids. He grew up on foodstamps right along with me, but found his ticket to the middle class through his job as a software guy and his decidedly middle-class-minded wife. He's concerned his McMansion just isn't big enough. He's actually pumping $50K into the place to turn his house's greatroom (yes, his place has a two-story greatroom) into a two-story addition that adds three more bedrooms and two more bathrooms, 1000ft2 of living space.

"A primary house is an essential part of life," you say. Is it? There are billions who don't have one. Ah, you mean an essential part of the life YOU want to lead. That's a whole different story. A centerpiece of your dreams. Not a fact of life. It points to a mindset where "THE FAMILY HOME" looms large, a mindset which millions of Americans share (or some might say have been brainwashed into). I can understand this, and the people who make their money off this dream can also understand it, and THE FAMILY HOME you seek will be priced accordingly.

So I really think you're trying to convince yourself that, despite what Kiyosaki points out, a big opulent personal residence is the right fit for you and won't drain your finances too bad. I'm sorry, but this is invariably not true. The numbers NEVER work out.