Think of them like stocks.

You can't buy that with gold, silver or stocks!!!

Why a mortgaged home purchase is considered any different than buying stock on margin is beyond me.I'd love to be enlightened though.And on another note, are our high schools and colleges failing THIS miserably in educating young adults about basic economics?

Everything seems so volatile to me- variances on shadow inventory estimates, stock market up & down, lenders backtracking on loans, possible bulk sales by the gov't., job growth vs sustainable job/wage levels etc etc.And of course this IS an election year....How much is hype?

I am so glad I don't own stock in this bank.

Could be a contractor who wants to work on investment properties.I do find that title being used for stocks.

On side note, I'm hearing a lot of newbie investors talk about buying tech stocks like google and apple...

Over the past year, studying investing in my spare time has become a very active hobby; I day trade forex in small amounts, buy and hold stocks (dividends + selling occasional covered calls), and have been trying to in general be very frugal and conservative (no cable TV, negotiated down all my living costs, got a roommate in to cover the mortgage) and put away a very large percentage of my income.

This is similar to saying the stock market is a get rich slow business...it depends on what you are doing (day trading options vs holding mutual funds).

My real goal would be to stock away as much as possible and after a couple of years use some of that money towards another house or duplex and repeat it again in a couple more years.Here's another interesting question.