This week, two more instalments of my “Eternal Truths of Personal Finance” series were published in the Financial Post.

Wednesday featured Eternal Truth #3: Get out of Debt.

Saturday featured Eternal Truth #4: Buy a Home and Pay if Off as Soon as Possible. At least that was my original headline: you can find it online under the title Eternal Truth #4: Don’t be a Renter.

In my book, Findependence Day, this truth is expressed as “The foundation of financial independence is a paid-for home.”

Of course, in cities like Vancouver, Toronto,  San Francisco and several other California cities, critics of sky-high housing prices continue to argue that renting and putting the difference in the stock market may make more sense. In Friday’s Financial Post, just this argument was made in no uncertain terms: You’d have to be crazy to buy real estate.

I’m not sure I’d be buying at these prices today but am glad we bought a starter home in 1988. It didn’t stop us from building a healthy stock portfolio as well: I don’t see home ownership and investing as mutually exclusive propositions. Continue Reading…