Throwing money away in rental is far, far, far dumber. In my case I would have had to pay more money for the rental than what I’m paying now with a mortgage. The difference is that in a couple of years I don’t have to pay anymore and I will own an house that already doubled in price, while if I was renting my rent would have skyrocketed. And with 50k$ in the bank I probably could have survived for 1 year here.

That's only true if you live in a place with an unsustainable market, i.e. permanently growing rents and house prices. There are places with stable house and rental prices, and in those - buying tends to be a worse choice financially.

And many would argue that places with skyrocketing property prices are going to run into significant issues in the future (if they aren't already at breaking point, hi bay area).

The comment I answered to was expressing a very narrow minded opinion on how everyone that buys an house instead of renting is doing the most stupid thing in the world. I proved to everyone that is not true and that most likely he is not as smart as he reckons if this is what he believes.

Yeah, that is how I saw it too. But honestly, not everyone thinks the same or wants to start a company...for some people not buying right away could just cost them more in the long run i suppose. Personally I feel even in that case the life experience of renting and moving around is probably healthy, but each to their own!

Add to that: once you've had one "hit" (even if it's a small one off $100k exit) then you're basically hooked for life.

You'll realise it's almost always easier to make money from a successful business (no potential constraint on earnings if you solve a large enough problem) than it is working a job (time limited, limited opportunities for promotion based on age or company, etc)

But I agree, not everyone is made to be an entrepreneur.

A lot of startups seem to be started by groups of people tired with the bullshit bureaucracy at large firms who want to make real projects and sell that. I wonder if feeling frustrated like that is an important motivation as well.

I’ve worked at companies of different sizes. I think the important realization is seeing how much people are paying for something you’ve built, and that you’re getting very little of it.

AAMGF tech behemoths make almost a million per employee, yet the median salary is 15% of that.

Going it along, you could probably build a better product in another niche market and take a bigger cut. It’s a risk/reward bet.

In the Us, if you have the income FHA is 3.5% down and you could buy a double so most if not all of your mortgage could be paid for. Not saying there wouldn't be hassles/distractions but its an option for some.

The tax man takes a cut of money you get from creating things, but money from living in a pile of bricks is tax free.

The tax man also (depending on the country) levies stamp duties upon purchase and annual property taxes.

Owning a house also generally means low liquidity (should you want to sell), money going to repairs that you could otherwise just forward to the landlord and the requisite of putting up a deposit (money that can't be invested in say the stock market -- meaning you lose out on yield).

> Buying a house in your early 20s is very common in Europe

"Citation needed", also, it varies a lot between places.