Originally Posted by
Aero1900
The stock market is better than Vegas or holes in the ground.
The S&P500 has gone up 10% on average for the last forever. And you don't need to repaint, change the carpets, or worry about the lawn. Buy and hold. Don't try to time it. But shares of low cost index funds, don't sell and keep buying. It works. As long as you don't panic sell and then wait 2 years to get back in.
You left a big part out, which is tax on capital gains. It's easier to avoid capital gains tax on real estate than investing in Index on Mutual funds on the side. My wife is driving around in our "company" car that we are deducting the depreciation of the car and real estate investment, which offset part of my W2. There's more to real estate investing, than owning a rental property. I sold a commercial property a few years back and provided seller financing to the buyer, while collecting the loan payment and 5% interest rate. That's just a fix rate of return on interest, and doesn't even factor in the valve that it went up before I sold it.