If you look at homes, most people say, "Hey, I bought a home 10 years ago, bought It for $200,000. I sold it for $300,000. What an amazing investment."

談到房子，多數人會說，「我十年前買了一棟房子。花二十萬美金買的。我賣了三十萬美金。真是一個超棒的投資。」

But in reality, it's usually a terrible investment because you're paying to live in that home.

但在現實生活中，這通常是一個很糟的投資，因為你必須支付款項才能住在那棟房子裡。

You're paying property taxes, you're paying maintenance, you're paying insurance.

你要付房地產稅、維修保養費，還有保險費。

And there are all these other things that happen with your home that you've got to pay for.

而且還有其他需要負擔的額外花費。

Once you add that to the cost that you've put in, in many cases you're better off owning much less home or even renting and taking the money that you save, investing it in a diversified portfolio and watching that grow.

一旦你把那些花費加起來，你會發現，很多時候不買太多間房子或甚至是租房子，把省下來的錢投資一個多樣化的投資組合並等它成長會更好。

So when you're looking at renting versus buying, what you really have to compare is the cost of your capital.

所以當你在思考要租屋還是買房時，你真正應該比較的是你的資本成本。

So you might be paying very high rent.

你現在的住處可能房租價位很高。

Let's say you live in Brooklyn.

假設你住在布魯克林。

You're paying $2,500 a month to live somewhere.

你每個月要付兩千五百美金才可以住在那裡。

If you bought, what would that cost?

如果你買房，你要花多少錢呢？

Would it cost $4,000 or $5,000 a month?

每個月需要花四千或是五千美金嗎？

What are all the other costs you're not thinking about to maintain that property and pay taxes on that property?

其他所有你沒有想到的花費，諸如維護你的房子和付地產稅的金錢是多少呢？

If you take the difference and you save it, that extra $2,500 you're saving in a diversified portfolio is most likely, almost certainly, over a long period of time, going to grow to be worth more than what your home equity would have been worth if you just put the money into a home.

如果你比較中間的差異，然後把多出的錢省下來，拿兩千五百美金去投資一個多元化投資組合，很有可能，或者幾乎很肯定地，在經過一段長時間後，它的價值會成長到比你只把錢投資在房子上的價值還高。

The one thing about owning a home is that it's forced savings.

擁有一棟房子其實本身就是強迫性存錢。

You've got to find the money every month to put into your home, to pay that mortgage.

你每個月都要想辦法為房子掙錢，去付房貸。

So it forces you to build equity.

所以那迫使你去增加房子的淨值。

But if you're disciplined, what you can do is, you can take that difference, you can go open an account at a low-cost custodian and invest in a diversified portfolio.

但如果你很有原則，你可以做的是，拿那筆差額，去小額的保管銀行開戶和投資一個多樣化的投資組合。

You can start with something like the S&P 500.

你可以從一些東西，像是 S&P 500 開始。

And if you take that difference that you're going to pay towards the home and you save that every single month, 10, 20 years from now, you're going to be in far better shape than if you had invested that in a property that continues to take money from you.

如果你省下那筆你原本要拿去付房子的花費，每個月都存起來，從現在開始十年，二十年後，你的投資報酬率將會比投資在花費高的房子上還要高。