You have probably heard that phrase or one like it when you have been solicited for an investment.  The investment business is very regulated.  The home mortgage industry is not, but should be.

Yesterday, I was in the car and an advertisement for a mortgage company came over the radio-- "Home ownership builds wealth . . . "

I had to laugh, given the foreclosures, bailouts, and losses in value people are sitting on.  Somebody should have gone to jail with the abuses and sly practices of the mortgage industry.  As I said, The mortgage industry should be regulated like the securities industry.

Yes, home ownership can build equity, but a house should be a place to live, not a speculative investment, where we buy more than we can afford and rely upon the "Greater Fool" Theory to give us unrealistic investment returns and "wealth".  Remember, a house is an expense more than it is an income producing asset (unless it is a rental property).

• Creating Income Producing Assets
• Wealth Creation and "Assets"
• Passive or Residual Income