One of the great debates in Canada, from the local Tim Hortons in B.C. to the 5 a.m. hockey practice in P.E.I., is whether or not your house should be viewed as an investment.

Proponents on both sides defend their views armed with myriad statistics and both can make good arguments. But they both seem to have lost sight of the real issue: It is not whether housing should be viewed as an investment, but rather if investments should be viewed as housing.

All investors (not just Canadians) could benefit if they treated each investment idea more like a house than a stock. Here are five reasons why.  Read More…

8 Comments

  1. Interesting analogy to view our investments like our real estate.

    I never really thought of it that way and how they share similar things. The best advice for all is to take the long-term view. Way too many of my friends panic at first sign of a downturn and vacate too soon.

  2. Anyone have recommendations on investment making for beginners?

  3. How about rebalancing. When i was young i thought to keep investing in my portfolio but i never put much thought into routinely balancing to keep the percentages in check. This went on for years until i started thinking about it and realizing it makes more sense to keep buying (or selling) to keep my percentage goals in mind.

  4. I doubt most people will look over stock prospectus before investing. In more cases than not most people tend to rely on their neighbors or friends advice which is a big mistake. I should know. I am one of those.

  5. @don, i think you are a fool to just focus on mutual funds. I tend to spread my holdings in funds, options, AND individual stocks. By companies direct give you better control and more returns. Sure you have to be more focused on keeping up with news but that is the best part of it. Knowing what you’re investing into. Nothing worse than buying and not knowing what you’re getting.

  6. It’s always still best to focus your holdings on Mutual Funds if it were me. I use to invest in FX but they became way too expensive and not much in ROI. I dont tend to buy individual stocks anymore even though there are some nice ones once in a while.

  7. I would still rather deal with real estate than deal with stocks. Everyone is different. I just have more experience with housing.

  8. You’ve heard the advice buy low, sell high. But the real advice is buy and hold. Most people when they buy tend to look over the prices every hour of every day and get nervous despite not understanding that their is volatility.

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