Get ahead by not shooting yourself in the foot
I grew up in Germany, where, for reasons I don&#x27;t really know or understand right now, paying rent has been common and normal across a large part of the population since long before I was born. Buying an apartment or even house to live in almost seemed to be more like a &quot;luxury&quot; for rich people to me.<p>I moved to the US a decade ago, and (I knew this before) the mindset seems to be that renting is only a temporary situation, until you finally settle down buying &quot;your&quot; house to raise your family in. People talk about their &quot;first house&quot; or &quot;starter home&quot;, terms that aren&#x27;t really common in Germany at all. Buying property isn&#x27;t totally uncommon there, but often happens much later in life, and many people are happy never doing so at all.<p>I always felt that differing mindset has been doing me a service, as I feel zero compulsion to buy property until the conditions are really <i>fully</i> satisfactory. I am aware that any rent I pay is &quot;gone&quot;, while the mortgage ultimately pays into a principal, but so far the overall equation taking everything into account (also including those aspects without a directly gaugeable monetary value that the article mentions) did not tip over towards owning yet.