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Working Millennials: Rent or Buy Real Estate?

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When you’re a working Millennial, your weekends are extra valuable: Everybody’s working for the weekend. When I was the age of today’s Millennial I worked at Fidelity Investments and lived in Watertown, MA. Rent was a big chunk of my paycheck but that’s what it cost to be so close to Boston. I wasn’t saving much money.

Then there was a change. My department was moved out to Marlborough, MA—40 minutes west of Boston.

For a while I did the reverse commute from Boston to Marlborough.

But that got old fast.

I wanted to live where I worked and I was also tired of paying someone else rent.

I started looking into multi-families in the area and found one where the numbers worked. But I didn’t have enough for the down payment. I explained to my dad what I wanted to do and that I needed some help with the down payment. I bought the three-family in Marlborough, paid back my dad within six months, and lived rent free and then some for the next few years.

I sold the house before Becky and I got married and used the profit for a down payment on our first home in Newport, RI.

If you’re a Millennial this doesn’t have to be how you do it.

But if you want to start living for a future where you pay yourself—start thinking creatively. I don’t want you buying some spec house you hope to sell at a profit. That’s a suckers game. It’s not investing.

You may not have to come up with all of the cash at closing. I borrowed from my dad. But you might be able to borrow from a motivated seller. It’s just a matter of getting the dialogue going.

Do what you have to do here. I’m not fooling around. I want you to figure out a way to pay yourself, not a landlord. It is the key to your eventual success that I’m almost positive will be yours. Pay yourself. You have time on your side. And time is a most valuable asset—something  many others wish they had, but don’t.

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E.J. Smith

Editor-in-Chief
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com.