Weekend Reading – Why not celebrate a $3M Portfolio?
Hey Folks,
Welcome to a new Weekend Reading edition, about celebrating a $3M portfolio (over the same value of a house). More on that in a bit!
A reminder about some recent reads:
80-something Henry Mah continues to enjoy his cashflow for life.
And more recently…I shared our own income journey and update.
Weekend Reading – Why not celebrate a $3M Portfolio?
One of my favourite sketches:
Source: The Behavior Gap.
Inspiration for this headline arrived from this social media post this week – my goodness – I know my answer!!!
Kudos to Nick Maggiulli from Of Dollars and Data for this one that went viral.
And…
As someone who is not really into status, although I do like nice things for sure, I don’t need the biggest McMansion and I don’t aspire to own the nicest car in my neighbourhood that stays parked in my garage 90% of the time…
What’s your take on this? Surely you would rather have a tidy $3 million portfolio vs. a $3M dollar home?
In other reading material this week:
I found this article interesting, what Berkshire might sell next now that Buffett is no longer in charge.
I actually sold out of all my U.S. stocks including Berkshire over the past few years. All ETFs now for my ex-Canada investing so I continue to own Berkshire albeit indirectly via indexing.
Here are some things that Ben Carlson has been wrong about including:
“I thought the meme stock crash of 2021 would slow the speculation. At the time it felt like GameStop, AMC and the other meme stocks were a flash in the pan thing.”
“…Nope”.
Always interesting to read how much other retirees spend. U.S. blogger Accidential FIRE spent “…$43,051…only $403 higher than my total for 2024 for an increase of 0.9%. So why the hell aren’t I spending more!?!?!”
Very simple but good advice in The Globe and Mail (subscription) about this financial case study – the need to downsize to free up home equity for retirement – since this couple has “…a house worth $1.5-million, with a mortgage of about $400,000″ at age 59 and 65 respectively today. They will be forced to work into their early 70s if they don’t make any changes.
They want to spend $80,000 per year in retirement.
They won’t be able to make this spending plan happen unless they downsize and clear the debt.
Assets: Cash $7,000; her TFSA $139,530; his RRSP $138,755; residence $1,500,000. Total: $1,785,285.
Estimated commuted value of Cyril’s pension plan (provided by applicant): $675,000. That’s what someone with no pension would have to save to generate the same income.
Liabilities: Mortgage $394,780 at 4.9 per cent; CGHL $25,915 at zero interest; car loan $5,690 at zero interest. Total: $426,385.
Do you have the same thoughts as I do along with the financial expert = clear the debt??
Thoughts?
Have a great weekend!
Mark
Mark, what a great topic!! I am in neither category!! What I want is a comfortable home in a good area and a sizeable portfolio that will outlast me! Having said that, I just need a healthy and long life and enough money to spend as I want.
Seriously, I think a valuable home is good to have to minimize the volatility of the stock market (as we are experiencing now). The home value is more predictable and less volatile. The current state of the stock market is anything but as long as the Orange man (TACO) is still in charge and who calls the shots that affect every facet of the world, we don’t feel secured as we would like. A home acts as a safety net and peace of mind in troubled times we are going through now.
We just need peace in the world.
Have a great weekend everyone.
I hear ya, Ken.
Same general goals: “…comfortable home…and a sizeable portfolio that will outlast me!”
Health is the ultimate form of wealth.
The world is very troubled and getting worse I think.
Mark
Reading the comments and article makes me think of an ad I often read: … “you can live, enjoy & create wondeful family memories in a beautiful house, but can’t do any of that in a mutual fund or stock portfolio”. And, in the long term, we’re all dead —- leaving everything we’ve accumulated and worked so hard for behind. Your beneficiaries (charities, family or Bank of Canada) will squander it on the things you never enjoyed. That’s a certainty!
Might want to explore better charity scenarios.
Fair enough but you can’t eat a granite countertop…nobody needs to own a house but everybody needs cashflow.
Cashflow is king!!
Mark
Three certainties in life:
1. Death
2. Taxes
3. The we can dwell on the past if we want, we can plan for the future, but we can only live the present – best enjoy it.
Cheers!
Mark
True wealth is largely invisible and not material in nature. I understand the show off/competitive aspect but the answer is quite simple: a $3M home is a liability and a $3M portfolio an asset. That should settle it, anyone thinks it’s the other way around needs to retake Finance 101. Put differently a $3M home is a prison and a $3M portfolio is freedom. How that’s even a consideration is well beyond my comprehension and tolerance level.
Guess I’m signing up for the curmudgeon (new addition to my vocabulary look at me still learning new things) club as well:)
Stealth wealth is good in my opinion.
I get the big house, nice cars, nice clothes, etc. – I like those things too but I’m not into flauting that stuff and never have been – if I had wealth.
Houses are certainly expenses!
Thanks for your comment.
Mark
If someone wanted to offer me $3M for the property I’d not be offended. 😉
LOL.
I don’t agree that an expensive home is a liability or a prison.
You need to show your work for me to accept your conclusion.
If your home is increasing in value net maintenance/improvements, taxes and operating expenses, it is an asset.
Both homes and portfolios require work unless you invest strictly in passive indices.
I look forward to your reply.
Hi Colin,
First off you do not need to accept anything I say. Secondly this a debate older then time, I’m clearly in the no camp which doesn’t mean I’m right. Happy to share some thoughts on this.
There are plenty of factors influencing the value of homes some are similar to stocks (supply/demand, interest rates, economic cycles, location) but unlike stocks homes rarely increase their intrinsic value beyond incremental investments. (a $50K kitchen upgrade does not add $100K in value). And then there is inflation, your home value is actually not increasing the dollar amount goes up b/c your money is worth less.
Let’s say you have a $1M home with only a modest $500K 30y mortgage. Sell that house in 30 years for anything less then $2.1M you lost money to inflation (2.5%) alone, you need well over $3M to recoup most other cost a lot more to make a decent return and that is bit of a stretch if you ask me.
Housing cost (mortgage, tax, insurance, utes, etc.) can easily be close to $5K meaning you need $15K per month (30% rule acc. RBC) to keep cost at a comfortable level. Most homes bought are overpriced or leveraged beyond the 30% level and as a result become financial prisons or if you prefer making folks house poor. We know this because of what happened when rates got normalized. Worse, people become asset poor with insufficient invested capital which is a lot more productive than a house.
So the way I see it best case you have a guaranteed oversized liability paired with a uncertain underperforming asset.
My (typical inner city) house has increased in “value” about 6% PY for the last 6 or so years and ~3x since I bought it. Deduct inflation, tax, interest, insurance, upgrades and opportunity cost and I’ll be fortunate to break even when I sell. I might be lucky and get a premium or unlucky and loose a couple hundred $K. I have seen both happen to the same house on my street within a relative short timespan.
If your home appreciates beyond inflation and cost than yes it can be an asset but that is a big if imo. My home is my home not an investment vehicle. Beyond retaining value and avoiding cost (not paying $30K in rent) I don’t expect it to do much more.
Ben
Thanks Ben for your reply and comments.
We need to live somewhere and our options are either to rent or to own our homes. Home prices reflect the housing market’s supply and demand. They are also impacted by multiple levels of government regulations/policies, interest rates and economic conditions. The value of an asset depends on the demand for that asset and the alternatives to that asset. So it boils down to what individuals are willing and able to pay for the asset.
Housing is definitely more expensive than it was a decade ago; making it very difficult for younger generations to save a sufficient down payment and cover ongoing expenses. High prices don’t in themselves change the nature of assets and liabilities.
In your $1M dollar house example, you use a modest $500k mortgage with a 30 year amortization period. I thought your $500k down payment was very generous. Thirty year amortization periods returned about 18 months ago so are still relatively new but I am not a fan of them. Extending an amortization period does reduce monthly payments but increases the amount of interest paid. On your mortgage example the 30 yr mortgage @5% results in $2,668.45 monthly mortgage payments and total interest of $461K. A 25 yr mortgage, increases monthly payments to $2908.02 and total interest drops to $373k. Monthly payments did increase ($240/month) but monthly interest cost decreased by $293 (total interest/number of payments).
As for your $2.1 million price to breakeven, your purchasing costs are $1.461M, leaving you roughly $639K for operating costs, property taxes, insurance, etc (about $20k per ave. year). If you had instead rented a comparable home, your rent might have been $3k / month or more for 30 years without inflation totaling more than $1M. You would still have some operating costs and tenant’s insurance. You also paid your landlord’s investment costs.
At the end of 30 years, if you rent you would have spent more than $1M and if you bought the home, you have an asset you needed daily worth more than your expenditures. You had the freedom to do what you wanted with it. As for your kitchen reno, no reason for a $50k expenditure to increase your home value by more than your expenditure (real life vs real estate tv shows). Yes, you could have invested the difference between renting and owning.
Principal residence capital gains are tax free which helps. Inflation over an extended period is the main reason that our capital gains inclusion rate is only 50% (thank you Carter Commission).
Your owned home is an asset. It might not be a great investment but you have to live somewhere and it is likely better than the alternatives.
Hi Mark: Your pyramid graph above jogged my memory. A lady asked me when I would stop investing. I was puzzled and asked what she meant. She said well there comes a time when you have enough and I said you never have enough so your three graphs to me should continue on into infinity. This leads me into Elon Musk’s statement that in 10 to 20 years work will be optional and money will be irrelavent. To me what a dumb statement from a supposedly smart guy. Who would work for nothing if you had to and if everything had no worth what would be the point. Most people strive to get ahead and try to be better then the other guy but usually fail but still try to get ahead. What would be the point if AI did everything for you. Who would do any work to bring in food and buy a place to live if AI handed everything to you. As you can see when you really think of it a very dumb thing to say. Besides why is he trying to be the worlds first trillionaire? As far as housing I live in the same house I’ve always lived in. We’re not sure when it was built but there was land here in 1833 and a deed in 1851 so between then a house was built and has been improved. It has gone from a drive shed with a coal bin to a gas furnace with central heating plus some other improvements. Yes it is originally a log farm house. Dad and mom bought it in ’47 for $1650.00 and today would probably go for between $800000.00 and $1Mil. It was a 100 acre farm but after a couple of subdivisions the house and land are 0.8 of an acre. The barns are gone and the fences are gone from the barn yard but the north lawn makes the house look like an estate. It may not be a mansion but it is my mansion. You know Mark I’m really looking for a market crash. My dividend stream would still be coming in but then I could actually take some money and buy more stocks. Yes the market dropped over 1100 points last week but after an 8000 point rise last year it was a drop in the bucket and this week it has made it all back again. Its hard to buy when everything is high.
Loved the details, Ronald. Hard to believe a house cost that much in the 1940s. 🙂
As a buyer, I have no doubt you’re looking for a market crash.
I don’t mind buying at all time highs, history has proven that’s OK as well but I totally get your point on buying stocks on sale.
If things corrected a bit, what would you buy?
Cheers,
Mark
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/weekend-reading-all-time-highs/
FYI – the S&P 500 is likely to be higher the following year about 70% of the time even after an all-time-high.
Hi Mark,
Timely topic as I have been thinking which of the following portfolios is preferred in the current all time high stock market:
Portfolio 1:
$3 million investment portfolio consists of individual stocks and stock ETF’s and $100k in HISA. $1.5 million of the total portfolio is capital gain.
Portfolio 2:
$3 million investment portfolio: $2 million of which is invested in ladder GIC’s and HISA. The other $1 million is invested in individual stocks, and stock ETF’s. About $400K of the $1 million stock investment is capital gain.
Annual expenses are covered by pension and part time work and no debt and no mortgage on house.
Interested in your thought on which is the preferred portfolio in today’s market.
Humm, interesting.
Given the stock market/stocks go up more often than not I would vote for a higher bias to stocks as part of Portfolio #1.
Especially so if expenses are covered by existing income streams and no need to touch the $3M portfolio – which would be very rare for 99% of investors is my guess. Capital gains can be an efficient form of taxation = a wealthy problem to have.
Even with $3M portfolio, smart I believe to have some $$ in the HISA as you have mentioned.
Which one do you like and why?
Cheers,
Mark
Hi Mark,
I agree with your logic. Portfolio 1 is more tax efficient and has better growth potential. Portfolio 2 has a ‘sleep better’ factor. Given today’s ATH market, I would lean towards Portfolio 2 with the plan to deploy 2/3 of the money in GIC and HISA to stocks and stock ETF’s when mean reversion occurs which might happen this year or might not for a while. It is a form of market timing I guess. I think both Portfolios are good. It comes down to if one prefers offense or defense. Seattle Seahawks has a good defense. Enjoy the big game today.
MQL, agreed, I mean, both portfolios are amazing given your other assumptions = other income covers expenses.
If that is you, you’re set for life and then some. 🙂
I like more offense than defense in my portfolio. Keeping 1-years’ worth of cash/cash equivalents to enter retirement spending with here = got our cashflow figured out for the rest of 2026. 2027, we shall see!?
I like Seattle today: 28-24.
Enjoy the game too!
Mark
Hi Mark,
I think Seattle has a very good chance of winning today. Their offense normally scores enough points to win games. New England offense is inconsistent and can be contained by a good defense like Seattle. Looking forward to a competitive game and all the additional entertainment that comes with the Super Bowl.
For some people, the journey of accumulating enough wealth to live a decent life is straightforward. Maintaining good physical and mental health in retirement can be a challenge. It is a good challenge nonetheless. It starts with prioritizing family and friends. Not just any friends but the ‘useless’ friends as per Dr. Arthur C. Brooks.
Stay warm and enjoy the game.
The game got better later on, thankfully, not just a kicking game!
Yes, for some, they love to accumulate wealth/stuff. Somehwat of a hobby for some. All good. I prefer a balance. Enough to live a great life but I don’t want nor need to chase excess. Have to know your “enough”.
I appreciate your comment!
Mark
I have tracked my net worth and spending for the past 24 years. As I read the blog and responses here I decided to go back and look at the info. One of the items I have tracked in this information is the value of my house compared to net worth. I have lived in the same house for all that time and have not had a mortgage during this time. In 2002 my house as a % of net worth was 40% and went down yearly. For the past 10 years it has been around 12-14% of net worth. While I do not think most people ever get to that that low of a % of housing as a % of net worth, I believe it is important to understand that your house should become less and less of a % each year as you work toward retirement. After retirement it likely reverses and becomes a higher % of net worth as you start to spend down and have no outside income. Just a different way of looking at all of this for the regular person. Almost everyone with a $3mm house ALSO has a multiple of $3mm portfolio so the question is not really realistic for 99% of people. But it certainly showed what type of people follow this newsletter. None wanted a $3mm house!
Excellent points, Dale. I suspect you got to where you are based on a high-level of saving and investing discipline and avoidance of debt. Smart – but not easy to do. Most struggle.
I think if as I age, if the portfolio becomes a greater % of net worth vs. the house then I’ve done something right.
In our early 50s now, I suspect our house/condo is likely about 25% of our net worth.
If we can get that to around 15% or so in our late-50s and 60s I will be thrilled. 🙂
I appreciate your personal insights.
Mark
A $3M home is far more visible than a $3M portfolio so unless one shared the information about their portfolio’s value, who would know?
Morgan Housel’s “Art of Spending Money” covers status symbols and has some insightful comments. I recommend reading his book.
If you can afford the activities you want to do, live contently and can help family, friends and charities, you have enough to be happy.
Yes, very much so re: $3M home.
I will be ordering a copy of the “Art of Spending Money” soon. Likely going to read on my next beach vacation. Sounds like you enjoyed the read.
Best wishes to you, I enjoy your common-sense takes.
Mark
I own a home debt free and have a 3 million portfolio. We looked for 2 years until we found this gem. This penthouse condo was literally a steal in our seaside community and we enjoy the fantastic light during winter as our south facing kitchen, living area and 700 sq. foot balcony (strata but for our exclusive use – personal property tax assessment does not include it) are flooded by warm rays from the lower sun … we can even turn off the heat. No towers obstructing our view. Birds in the trees in the adjacent building to our west. Ideal.
But if we were to sell we would definitely rent rather than own. Two main reasons. For the first – cost of ownership. For all the advertised “virtues of ownership” there are the downside costs such as your monthly mortgage, house insurance, strata fees (three years ago up by 25%), “special assessments” (one last year for $14,000 as our share), property taxes (up by 23% three years ago), utilities and paying for repairs. And then there are the other people – you are at the behest of their whims and some can get out of hand.
With the present income producing portfolio, the tax free sale of our residence and my self managed investment experience over decades we could probably get a fabulous rental condo for over $5000 plus a month with hardly any infringement on our current cash flow, given I could probably find the right set of dividend growth stocks to garnish an income from the tax free lump sum. And those other costs would be gone too. So it’s a wash, except from a psychological point of view if the building is well managed ( you have to thoroughly ensure that) any necessary repairs become their problem. Inn my seventies this becomes more and more appealing.
The second reason is flexibility. As we age we don’t want to be in a situation where it controls us rather than the other way around. Twenty years ago we were able to look a long time until we found a purchase closest to our hearts, and this is the same today if we wanted to sell and rent … we don’t NEED to sell so we are in control and thus can afford to muse about the future. Panic purchases or decisions rarely pan out well.
As for the 3 million portfolio … often others in our circle are very uncertain as to how this was done. I really don’t want to get into that, especially with people who will probably never understand it or even act on it. So why waste my breath? Randomness does play a role … most definitely … something could have happened – a car accident with permanent disability, a fire etc – and thus we are “fortunate” that everything went “to plan” However, to inquisitive minds I always refer to our TFSAs as a prime example to those who are “of means” to do more or less exactly as we have done since 2009. I remember how excited I was by the first combined 10,000 contribution … and $500 a year income. Others were not that impressed … as of today after regular contributions and reinvested dividends this has grown to $740,000 and $37,000 respectively … and I made mistakes too. Just kept going on and violà! Remember folks … this is TAX FREE. Funny though … some of the unimpressed in 2009 now are envious but in a negative way, as in they think I’m boasting whereas I am so willing – as I’ve done – to breathe what I have learned to those who are willing to learn.
PS … we haven’t touched it since inception except for contributions and reinvesting the cash flow.
Believe me … there is no one more astonished than I am by the above. I owe it all to Tom Connolly and the many years of subscribing to his dividend growth “reports”. $50 a year – imagine that. He condensed years of research and reading into an easily accessible set of simple rules.
Barry, amazing.
Not sure I will ever own a $3M home but hopefully a $3M portfolio – eventually?
We might rent eventually ourselves for all the reasons you just mentioned.
I have no doubt you could live like royalty if you sell your penthouse condo.
When it comes to your portfolio, I recall you own a nice basket of CDN stocks and derive quite a bit of cashflow from them. Kudos.
Maybe down to 12 or so Canadian stocks only??
My goodness, your TFSAs are > $700k?? Incredible.
“Believe me … there is no one more astonished than I am by the above. I owe it all to Tom Connolly and the many years of subscribing to his dividend growth “reports”. $50 a year – imagine that. He condensed years of research and reading into an easily accessible set of simple rules.”
I suspect Tom Connolly has many fans like you. So well done. I hope to catch up to you, someday, Barry.
Cheers,
Mark
You’re younger than me Mark and by time you get to my present age (73 next week) you probably will have a sizeable TFSA portfolio. Yes 12 CDN stocks and a 6 figure cash component.
Outstanding, Barry. I think we own similar stocks, I just have more of them likely than you!
I also own some ETFs as you know for growth. Those have returned about 11% annualized since I started buying them. Can’t ignore the growth.
Yes, it will be interesting to see where things go for us in another 10-20 years. It is my hope we also have sizeable TFSAs to catch up to you. 🙂
Continued success and stay in touch.
Mark
hmmm…in theory, us geezers all had an equal opportunity to begin our TFSAs at the same time (2009), so catching up to an age isn’t really a relevant yard stick. There would be advantages for couples over singles though.
Depends on what you own inside the TFSA of course. I have a bias to growth stuff vs. income stuff.
Couples can certainly have an opportunity to contribute more, agreed.
At the end of the day, only Lloyd’s goals matter! 🙂
Going to watch the SuperBowl?
Cheers my friend.
Given the same starting date, it’s ALL about what’s inside. Risk versus safe, growth versus income, betting versus investing, long time frame versus short, etc etc.
Never been interested in professional sports. But I will watch for the adverts on YT later. Planning for an exciting day of paper work sorting and filing in preparation for taxes. Unless I procrastinate (again). 🙂
Take care.
I don’t think you procrastinate as much as you tell me – you seem on top of things to say the least. 🙂
Its difficult to answer that question properly without much more context. What is the persons age, income, lifestyle goals etc? Is $3M house free and clear? Does $3M person rent, how much etc? Among other considerations……
For me I wouldn’t want either extreme earlier in life or now. Like most things in life I like balance. I’d choose $2-2.4M in investment assets, additional pension income sources, and $600K-1M mortgage free comfortable home.
Those are very fair questions.
Certainly, $3M portfolio at age 90 is different than someone at age 50 in terms of spending.
I’m aligned with you in that I wouldn’t want either as an extreme, I like balance, but if I had to choose between then, I’ll take the $3M portfolio anyday.
Continued success to you, I know you are owning more indexed ETFs as you age and I suspect you had a good Friday in the markets. 🙂
This varies by age. When you have a young family, most of your net worth should be in the house. Families need space and you wouldn’t have had enough time to convert your skillsets into multi-million investments.
As you get closer to retirement this equation changes and whatever gives you financial independence becomes more important.
That’s a good point and aligned with my reply to my friend Deane here.
Personally, I think a $3M portfolio would grow much faster in value than a $3M house but that’s just me.
Cheers,
Mark
I would rather have the portfolio than the house. It’s just more to clean and maintain. We live in a very modest, cramped home and don’t host because of this. I guess that’s a bit of a shame, but instead we go out to restaurants, cafes and meet people there. Part of the challenge is having recent uni grads trying to lift off who are still living at home. When that changes, it will free up space for sure. Honestly, I would rather sell and move to a condo / rental unit so there is less work maintaining a home as we age, but that’s just me. It would make it easier to lock the door when we travel, too.
That couple from the G&M needs to clear the debt to sleep at night during retirement. If inflation rears its ugly head again, the mortgage payments will require them to go back to work part time. I don’t know how much downsizing will really help them depending on where they live, the cost of housing is steep even for a condo or townhouse (in Toronto for example) so they may not have debt but they won’t access their equity either. Then they would need to be worried about rising maintenance fees and one-off large expenses that could arise for the building. They should probably rent, invest the $ from their house sale and live large! 🙂
We are like the Millionaire’s Next Door. Shop at Value Village, wear our clothes until the end of their useful life, don’t own a car, don’t hop on the bandwagon of the latest device, etc. We just are flashy and want money for security and to enjoy our life. I don’t see the point of trying to win status brownie points.
I think everyone needs to find their balance between housing and investments although the two can be the same.
As for the G&M article, I could not imagine being in my 50s with $400k in debt. I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night but everyone is different.
We also shop at discount stores now and then. I don’t mind that. I buy what I can afford and value. My wife and I are not flashy whatsoever. Maybe that’s why we’ve been financially independent since age 50.
Everyone has their own values with money. Not right or wrong but I know I value investment value vs. house value and we live accordingly.
Enjoy the weekend!
Hi Mark,
This reminds me of the saying I heard years ago that pertains to some folks (not all) on big houses and luxury cars “me and my bank, we can own anything together”.
Have a great weekend
CJ
Well put CJ. 🙂
Best to you too.
Mark
This is hilarous!
He’s witty!
I’m not sure why anyone would do anything for “status”. Comfort, convenience, ease, practicality, etc etc are the more important things. A decent person is a decent person and having granite or particleboard counter tops in their kitchen ain’t gonna change who they really are. Having said that, if one has an emotional need for some kind of status level, then by all means one ought to do what one needs to do to get by in life.
As to the case studies, I find most of them so far from reality so as to be comical.
I have become the curmudgeon I used to mock. 🙂
LOL, re: curmudgeon. We all get there and I’m well on my way!!
Mark
$3 million house or portfolio. Depends on where you live.
A $3 million house where I live would have people coming by all the time to look at it.
A friend sold a $3 million house and lot in Vancouver around ten yrs ago for three million, I would have called it an older type bungalow. Reason for purchase? To rip it down and build a new house. In other words over $3 million just for the lot.
There is also a > $1 million archway entrance to a lot on a lake not that far from me. Don’t know how much the newly built house is worth but probably slightly more than that. How do I know about the archway? My son worked on the house construction. We drive by there often enough in the summer and I always have a look at the archway entrance.
So $$$$ value can depend on a lot ot things.
I always wonder how some people can build up nice portfolios but can’t figure out what their income(s) and expenses are. At the very least, they have to balance. But I guess that is a bit of human nature – always wanting more or seemingly better
RICARDO
What counts is what you 1) can afford and 2) are happy with.
Gosh, Vancouver definitely the exception not the rule.
I dunno. I would rather have $3M portfolio vs. $3M house. Sure, both would be nice but a fantasy world for me – and it’s not like the $3M house wouldn’t have LOTS ($$$) of upkeep. Housing is an expense. A big one for some.
I see tear-downs in Ottawa for $1M. Seems shocking that people pay that money for just land.
I’m with you: “I always wonder how some people can build up nice portfolios but can’t figure out what their income(s) and expenses are.”
To me, it’s essential to know what you are spending to be finacially successful. It’s eating well and you can’t remember what you put into your mouth. 🙂
Have a great weekend,
Mark