Taking the time to challenge our preconceptions is hard, but it’s a worthwhile habit to get into, especially if the rate of return can be into seven digits over the course of a lifetime! This myth that "renting is throwing money away" is wrongheaded. In fact, it's dangerous. It oversimplifies a life-changing, six-figure decision.

1. Your life is your lifestyle, not your money

Rent vs. buy debate as less financial and more about lifestyle. There are a lot of very cool places to visit in the world. Beats the hell out of mowing the grass. Renting gives you an opportunity to live where you want without the major commitment that a purchase would entail.

2. Better Ivestment Oportunities

While it's true that you're buying an asset when you purchase a house, it's an asset that barely keeps pace with inflation, and you lose the opportunity to make other investments. Renting its a more effective use of capital. The person who rents has a far greater cash flow position than the person who buys if they managed their money and saved the difference. Investing in index funds is much easier, safer, and cheaper than housing. $650k invested would support rental of a property costing $26000/annum (in todays dollars, increasing with inflation), likely indefinitely without touching the principle. In many cases, even if you double your deposits at a later date, you may never catch up to people who start saving earlier. And rental returns from investment property, if you're lucky, are something like 4-6% if that. Even a moderately aggressive share portfolio will return easily twice that.

3. Risk-Free

Rental is risk-free. There’s no benefit of capital gain, but equally there’s no risk of capital loss if the real estate market will crash and you know exactly where you stand. By taking the savings you achieved from renting and investing them in the stock market, your overall portfolio value eclipses that of the home’s appreciation after 30 years. And if you did have enough savings for a deposit – putting those savings into other assets would've made you more money (and means you can choose to buy a property at any stage anyway).

4. More Financial Security

You don’t have to work to pay they rent. There are stocks with dividends that would cover the rent for you. If you have 600k worth of house you get a place to live in return. If you invest that 600k you will make a return of similar value...ie, enough to pay for a place to live. The reality is if you sell your £500,000 house, £500,000 in a bank will rent you effectively a £1m house which you can easily pay for from your bank deposit interest and still have spare cash, and it gives you all the flexibility you might need later in life.

5. Amazing Flexibility

Rent gives you the ability to live in places that we wouldn’t buy. In any A class neighborhood, especially A+, it never makes sense to own. There is too much money out there that people stash in real estate as a safe investment. Mobility is an asset too. The money floods into “nice” areas, creating low rents. With renting you have way more flexibility to move location, to walk away after a lease and to save for other assets. You can easily upgrade to a nicer place, downgrade to a smaller place, or readily change location.

6. No Ownership Hassle

Maintenance is taken care of. Water heater bursts. Call the PM or emergency after hours plumber (notice these things always seem to occur outside of business hours?), and it'll be fixed/replaced within 24 hours. It is not true that you cannot adapt rental home to your tastes. With rental yeilds as low as 2% you can always get that nice house you want at a fraction of the cost to buy it.

7. More Security, Less Spendings

Security matters. Living in a high rise gives us peace of mind. We have a doorman and cameras to monitor who comes in and out. The front door is access controlled. You'll sleep well at night many floors up knowing that no one is going to break in through one of the windows. At the end of the day if all you want is a roof over your head and four walls to store your stuff, then by all means rent. Your building has a gym and rooftop recreational area? Thus, paying for a gym membership each month isn’t necessary. When you have guests over or want to grill during the summer, you can hang out upstairs on the roof.

8. Best Backyard Ever

When you live in a high-end district, ignoring the fact that luxury apartment buildings typically have amazing landscaped common areas, you have literally a multi-billion dollar back yard that is your city.

9. More Family Time, Less Commute

Many of us destroy our heath by sitting in cubicles at jobs we hate, just to have the money to pay mortgage and to buy 5 minutes of “joy” from a pet at the end of the day, that we can’t even enjoy since we’re too tired and stressed out from the job. 56% skip family time in order to work longer hours to help pay the mortgage. 54% passed on a family holiday because of financial pressures of mortgage. Renting close to your work could save your literally days of commute and spare that precious time to have fun with your family.

10. Stay Away From Mass Thinking

Most proponents of home ownership will doggedly cling to their view because the real reason for their position (99% of the time) is the unspoken one; to parade your “wealth” and “success” while avoiding the social stigma of renting (usually associated with being in a lower socioeconomic group). Buy when everyone else is selling, and sell when everyone else is buying. Be fearful when others are greedy. Be greedy when others are fearful.

11. Avoiding Debt

Don’t get caught up in the stigma and shame on renting, break down the numbers and work out what actually costs more. If it’s cheaper to buy then, by all means, go ahead and buy, if it’s cheaper to rent, ignore the misinformed who try to make assumptions that you can’t afford to buy or that you must be doing it wrong. Save 50% of your salary, period. Make that your goal. Embrase the motto “Spend less than you earn, invest the rest, avoid debt”.