My wife and I have nearly $600,000 in our investment portfolio. Should we buy a home outright or get a mortgage?

  • 📰 MarketWatch
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 70 sec. here
  • 3 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 31%
  • Publisher: 97%

United States News News

United States United States Latest News,United States United States Headlines

'We think we know where and how much we want to spend on a house, but we don't know how we should buy that house.'

Dear MarketWatch, My wife and I are Americans living in London. We currently rent, mainly because London real estate is hugely expensive but also because we know London is not our long-term future. In the next year or so, we have plans to move back to the U.S., where we’ll purchase a house and start settling down a bit.

For those who can buy a home outright, it can very much be a tough call — especially in today’s market. The low supply of homes for sale throughout the country has created a situation where listings are attracting multiple offers. As a result, many prospective buyers are opting to make all-cash bids to come out on top.

But there are drawbacks to buying a home outright, to be sure. Top of the list is the potential opportunity cost involved: If you’re cashing out around two-thirds of your investment portfolio to purchase a home, you’re missing out on the money those investments might earn. The average annual return on the S&P 500 is around 10% historically — and those earnings compound over time.

Even setting potential earnings and portfolio diversity aside, going this route would mean drastically reducing the amount of liquid funds at your disposal You’d have only $180,000 left in your investment portfolio — so how would you pay for furniture, renovations and ongoing maintenance — not to mention any other non-home-related luxury you might want to spend money on?

There are many other options you could consider. Since you do have the funds necessary to buy the home outright, you could waive the financing and appraisal contingencies from any offer you make. This means that you’d cover any gaps caused by issues with the mortgage lender you chose.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.

Get a divorce

Homes are a terrible store of value. Buy bouncing titty NFTs instead. It accounts for 90% of our portfolio.

if your currently working ..... with these rates at or below 3% u get a mortgage

good luck

20% Down rates are real low cheap $$

Use OPM Such As The Bank. Put In A Feasible Down Payment. Buy Low, And In Two Years You Either Sell High For The Capital Gains, Refi With Cash Out & Rent It Out. Rinse & Repeat.

Mortgage. Even multimillionaires get a mortgage. Use other people’s money while your money is making money.

Get a mortgage

should YOLO $200k on OTM options and morgage the rest

Like a millionaire mentor once told me: 'Always use the bank's money. If things go south, you lose your credit, not your money.'

Mortgageee

thanks

This is a good question

We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in US

United States United States Latest News, United States United States Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Following a high-profile divorce, this $600-million art collection is coming to marketEstimated to fetch over $600 million — 'the highest estimate ever placed on any collection to come to auction,' Sotheby's says — the collection includes artworks from Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Alberto Giacometti, Jeff Koons, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly.
Source: CNN - 🏆 4. / 95 Read more »

Bill Gates’ Investment Firm Buys Controlling Stake In Four Seasons Hotels For $2.2 BillionGates’ Cascade Investment LLC will purchase half of Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's stake in the luxury hotel chain. Was Four Seasons Landscaping thrown into the deal for good measure? Big money always appears when businesses go on sale. Sure Covid took a few 0s out of the cost.
Source: Forbes - 🏆 394. / 53 Read more »

Chip investment boom is just getting startedThe chip industry usually invests too much or too little. Persistent global semiconductor shortages, especially in automaking, indicate capital discipline went too far in recent years, but the pendulum has started to swing back. In the latest sign of that shift, Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger said on Tuesday that the U.S. company planned to invest up to $95 billion in Europe over the next decade. While capital expenditure has increased, especially at the biggest firms like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), it’s still short of the sort of splurges that have triggered past gluts.
Source: Breakingviews - 🏆 470. / 51 Read more »