All I’m asking you to do – at least once per year (or whenever the market changes significantly) – is re-examine your decision, taking into account the emotional/hassles/etc. No?

@Adrian – I agree that we have to examine our housing situation regularly but isn’t it a hassle to move purely for that reason? I think I’m beginning to agree with Robert Kiyosaki more on not treating our home as an asset. But now we need to fit in the 20% Equity and 25% Income Rules as well. Maybe applying the rules for “affordability” and treating it as a non-asset when looking at it as an investment.

Over the years it’s been the equity that came in handy for things I wanted or needed, too bad I wasn’t thinking about the “investment” side of life.

Keep the house or “a” house

@ Ryan – A home performs two functions: housing and investment.

Like most dual-purpose things, owning your own home is probably a poor compromise on both …

… in my experience, you can usually rent a better house than you can afford to buy AND can usually find much better returning investments.

Yet, I recommend that one does own their own home, for a number of reasons:

1. Often it can turn out to be a person’s only investment,

2. It is a ‘safety net’ in case all else goes wrong,

3. You have continuity of tenure (the ‘landlord’ won’t kick you out, as long as you keep up with the payments)

4. Over time, you may build up equity that you can ‘release’ to kick-start other investing activities.

For me, it was always 3. (and, the associated ‘emotional attachment’ that comes with calling your house your ‘home’ as Sue suggests) that held the most sway as I always expected to make my ‘fortune’ elsewhere. And, I have never actually used the equity for investing (except for my brief HELOC-fueled stock speculation experiment of 2007/2008).

So, I would suggest that you ask yourself the following question:

If I were to invest in a house right now, given my current net worth, is this the house that I would invest in (and, if not, are the changeover costs/hassles worth it)?

If the answer is YES, then stay. If the answer is NO, then sell/move … be it into a rental or to purchase another.

This is a question that we all need to ask at least once per year (or, whenever the market and/or our financial position changes), as – in effect – we are ‘buying’ our house every year (by missing the opportunity of selling and putting the money to work elsewhere).

@Lee – I agree selling and renting would not likely turn out well in the end. I’m not sure about pouring money into it though.

While it might be “comforting” to pay off our mortgage early, I believe the opportunity cost of that money (especially with such low interest rates) is too high for me to do it AND reach my number by my date.

Just live in it, enjoy it, and not have to worry about being over the 20% rule.