— Matthew Richmond makes a good living running a successful pest control company in Northern California's Silicon Valley.Richmond can afford to pursue his passion for adventure. If he wants to buy a motorcycle or dirt bike,"I can go write the check and buy it," he said. "Somehow, we've been led to believe that you have to own a home in order to be living the American dream," said Ramit Sethi, host of the Netflix series"How to Get Rich.
"We have this idea that if I could rent a place for $2,000 a month, and if I could buy a place for $2,000 a month, I should buy, because I can build equity," Sethi said.mortgage rates"I call them phantom costs, because they're mostly invisible to us until they appear," Sethi said."I actually add 50% per month to the price of owning. That includes maintenance, including a $20,000 roof repair, eleven years from now, that I don't even know I have to save for yet.
If Richmond bought a home in Silicon Valley, his housing expenses would likely double. He said that he is"totally happy" renting at the moment."A rich life really is about saying yes to the things you want to spend money on," Sethi said."And it could be a house, but for many people, it's not."