if @ john stevenson's #'s are correct (& so are yours), at a 30 yr loan, that $2196/yr cash on your $15k down is 14.6% cash-on-cash return.that's better than 10% history in the stock market.

It you use it for research a stock i'm not going to argue with you.

Plus, a bunch of CDs and stocks is easier to understand and oversee for them.

I started investing in the stock market when I graduated from high school, but never really realized what it meant to let someone else control your investments.

I think that in New England, it is difficult to find older houses (which is most of the housing stock in some towns) where NO ONE has died, simply because as you go back in time, it was more and more common to stay at home when you were elderly and ill.Murders and suicides are less common, and have much more of a stigma.

I have $30k in cash, $55 in liquid assets (stocks) and about $75k in illiquid (retirement accounts).I am currently renting an apartment.

Specifically, I was lucky that I was born a white male in the United States in a time of unprecedented prosperity and technical advancement; I was lucky to get out of college during the technology bubble and to join a couple companies that provided a lot of compensation in the form of stock options; I was really lucky that a ten came on the turn when I most needed it to; I was lucky that I was able to get on an earlier flight than the one I had booked; there are a million reasons why I was able to take the skills I had and translate it into a good bit of money...but, a decent amount of it was simply luck.- Btw, I'm hoping to be able to make real estate the third industry where I can make over $1M.

Though the stock market allows margins RE has no margin calls so the two are hard to compare.A bigger issues arises that gets more to the heart of the matter.People are generally specialists when it comes to how they make money.

Like a well stocked toolbox you need training in how to use the tools and also when to use them.

In fact, the appreciation of real estate consistently underperforms the stock market.The beauty of real estate is the leverage.