Should you own your home or rent?
In my opinion, home ownership is everything. It just makes a lot of sense to own your own house. Additionally, home ownership is also to have happy family life.
Mortgage-free in our own home
My wife and I bought our apartment in Zhanjiang in Southern China without using a bank loan. In fact, we have never taken any mortgage to buy property.
In my personal opinion, always aim to own your own home, but renting in the short-term is also fine.
We are happy to be able to own our home
Many people ask whether they should you own their own home or rent for years? In my personal opinion, always aim to own your own home.
Reason 1: Emotional happiness. Home ownership is very important, especially for having happy family life. When you have kids, you will want to have your own place to raise them up and build up beautiful memories as your children grown up. Being able to stay at home with your own kids is the best thing that can happen in your entire life.
Reason 2: Psychological safety. The psychological benefits of owning your own home are profound. In fact, owning your own home which is paid in full can give you a great sense of mental safety – peace of mind. Owning your own home paid in full can give you a great sense of security. Especially when you get sick and need to stay at home to recover, lose your job and cannot make mortgage payments back to the bank, or simply get old and cannot work any longer.
Reason 3: Financial security. Pay off your mortgage as soon as possible. You will have security of owning your own home as your monthly expenses will not include mortgage payments. If you have a mortgage though, a fixed-rate mortgage is better than variable-rate mortgage. It will help you to avoid large surprises when interest rates increase, so will your monthly mortgage obligations. If you have a mortgage, you should pay off your mortgage as soon as possible.
You can also avoid some inflation risk by owning real estate. Real estate can also hedge against inflation. You can avoid some inflation risk by owning real estate.
