LogFAQs > #977173005

Revelation34 posted...

Unless you're trying to buy a many room mansion $1 million is plenty to buy a nice house.

In quite a few cities, $1 million won't even get you a second bedroom unless you're willing to live so far from everything that you spend another million commuting. Moreover, even if you can get a decent house within the million, doing so is going to eat up a sizable chunk of that million and therefore reduce what you can get by investing the remainder. Retirement entails making sure you have enough income to support yourself without working, and while owning a paid-off house will reduce the cost of living below what you'd be paying to rent, there are still ongoing costs associated with that house that mean only being able to invest 3-400k will put you in a pretty tight position.

That said, while I wouldn't expect to retire on a million, I'd absolutely be buying a house as one of the first things I did with it, and that would put me in a much better position to prepare for retirement. Renting is just too unstable in the current market and will likely only get worse for the foreseeable future.