I think that most people underestimate the cost of buying, owning, and maintaining a home and

fail to factor those sizable costs into their total return calculations. Add in your time,

the headaches, and the stress that owning real estate can cause, and it's hard for me to make a

good case for this asset class. My wife is well aware of my feelings about real estate, and not

too long ago, she decided to dig a

little deeper. She has some really good friends who invest primarily in real estate and they

often share with her what a great investment it's been, so great in fact that they're actively

trying to save more money just to buy more properties. What am I missing? She asked. Why do you think it's such a

bad investment when others I know say it's the best investment they've ever made? Hearing it phrased

that way, bad investment just struck a different chord that day. And rather than defending my

position with charts and data, I found myself reconsidering the question entirely. So in today's episode,

I'm talking about how to evaluate investments in the real world, what separates a good investment

from a bad one, and why some popular performance metrics can be misleading. If you've ever

wondered why an investment that looks great on paper just doesn't feel right or why others

swear by strategies you would never touch, this episode will give you a clearer framework for

thinking about your own portfolio.

Welcome to another episode of the Stay Wealthy Retirement Show.

I'm your host Taylor Schulte and every week I tackle the most important financial topics

to help you stay wealthy in retirement.

And now, on to the episode.

One of the most underappreciated benefits of real estate is that it's ill-liquid.

You can't pull out your phone and sell your house with a few swipes the way you can with stocks and bonds, at least not yet.

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