Multimillionaire personal finance expert Ramit Sethi says Americans have a deeply ingrained belief about housing that often goes unquestioned. Despite his wealth, he chooses to rent, challenging the idea that owning a home is always the smartest financial move.
“In America, we are taught from a very young age that you’ve got to buy a house to be successful, that renters are poor people,” Sethi said on his recent “I Will Teach You To Be Rich” podcast. He reasons that this mindset shapes decisions long before people actually run the numbers.
The Cultural Pressure To Buy
Sethi says homeownership isn’t just a financial decision in the U.S. It’s almost treated as a belief system. “This is America’s No. 1 religion, home ownership,” he said, pointing to how rarely people question it.
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That pressure can result in people rushing into massive financial commitments. “You should never let yourself get in this situation,” Sethi said, referring to buyers shocked by how high their first mortgage payment is. “You should be too skeptical and too smart to get blindsided by something that you are now going to have to pay for 30 years.”
He points out that many buyers ignore the full cost of owning a home, including maintenance, taxes and unexpected repairs. “It’s not the mortgage that you need to be paying attention to. It is TCO, the total cost of ownership,” he said.
Falling Rents And Missed Opportunities
At the same time, Sethi says people are missing what’s happening in the rental market. “Notice: There is essentially ZERO conversation about declining rents,” he wrote in a recent post on X.
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Data supports that. A February Realtor.com analysis showed that median asking rents across the 50 largest U.S. metro areas have fallen for 30 straight months, with the national median at $1,667. Some cities have seen sharp drops, including Austin, Texas, down about 18% from peak levels, and Phoenix, Atlanta and Memphis, Tennessee, all down about 15% from their peaks.
Despite that, Sethi says many renters aren’t adjusting their behavior. “Even when rents are down 15% — meaning you can save *thousands* per year — few people even realize it,” Sethi said. “It is simply not a part of their worldview, even when it is factually occurring.”
That disconnect, he argues, results in unnecessary financial stress. “Money is less about the numbers in your bank account and more about how you feel about them,” he said.
Sethi also emphasizes that renters often have more leverage than they think. When asked if it’s possible to negotiate rent, he responded, “Of course. I’ve done it many times.”
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Why He Still Rents
Sethi says his own decision comes down to flexibility and math. “For me, every time I have run this math, buying would have cost me way more than renting,” he said on the podcast. “Buying would have reduced my freedom financially and emotionally and buying is just something I don’t want to do right now.”
He adds that many people assume owning always builds wealth, but fail …
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