@realcaseyrollins interesting idea. After becoming a parent (now of several kids) I became more friendly to the question of why parents of adult children should be obligated to pay for college. 🤔
The state of college/university also has me concerned about the ROI of a tuition bill.
I like the idea better of having a family business that adult children can help run and this pass it on. An airbnb/rental setup could do nicely for that, I like the idea better of my many kids benefiting from investing in the family business rather than expecting extremely large cash allowances for years into adulthood.
There's ROI in a degree but it depends on the degree you get, and it'd be smarter to have a home even if you decide to go to college. Property values only go up, basically.
How old were you in 2008?
There are other reasons why real estate can go down but that was a really big example.
Property is like any other asset class. Best to buy low and sell high. I see people paying crazy prices right now and wonder if they aren’t doing that. At some point buyers dry up and prices will respond.
@midway @SecondJon So you think that someone who bought a home in 1994 or even 2004 is underwater right now?
The problem comes when there’s a big economic crash with high unemployment and a stock market crash. People need cash so they go to sell their house. But there aren’t buyers out there because of the crash. So the value of your asset goes down right when you need it the most. If you can afford to wait it out you will be ok. If you can’t, you’re sunk. The bank comes calling and people just walk away because they can’t afford to sell it.
It’s not all the time but properry is a market and is still dependent on buyers and sellers. Everything Is great…until it isn’t.
@midway @SecondJon Ah that makes sense. I’m not talking about fair weather/short term investing though. Smart investments take longer than 4-6 years to mature, I’d think.
I’m not trying to trash real estate. It can be a good thing. But it’s not risk free.
The benefit of the original proposition is that of ongoing income having a property that could be used as Rental property, which is true regardless of potential selling value.
It's also true that nothing is risk free. Just handling over cash to a higher ed institution rather than offsetting cost with something that produces income AND has potential future value in itself seems wise.
Seriously thinking about this actually.... Several kids and just got through a period of real financial strain. What if we started investing in real estate in lieu of educational savings accounts? Hmm.
But either way the idea is that you need a specific reason before going into and paying for adult learning.
The new risk in real estate investment showed its face in 2020 where the government suspended evictions. If the government will do this, smaller property owners will suffer.