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I’ve started investing in ETFs (S&P 500) but wonder if it would be better to buy a property instead and put it to rent.

I’m in my early 40s and I plan to regularly invest in this and similar worldwide ETFs in the next 25 years, as complement to my public pension.

A coworker told me he saved money to buy a house and put it to rent. He can always move in if he wants and it gives him a stable source of income per month. I don’t know how much.

I don’t know if investing in ETFs in wiser here: on one hand I want a quiet life and now I simply work and the money gets invested automatically once per month. I’ve never been a landlord and I wonder if the learning curve would be too steep. Furthermore, I don’t believe I want to be a landlord. Ain’t it too stressful?

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[–] PetteriPano@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I've invested in both. Don't expect rent to be a good income, but if the housing market is on the way up it might be a good asset.

We bought the house for living in, but moved cities after a few years. The market value has doubled in the last ten years for our house. Being a landlord sucks, but it's borrowed money that doubled its value while tenants cover the mortgage. That down payment would've turned into ~10x if we sold the house today. Still, it's hard to find and predict a market like that just for investing.

Be prepared to lawyer up when that rent doesn't get paid. Have enough saved up to repair/replace that boiler when it fails. I spent my two-week Christmas holiday painting walls and repairing/replacing all the things last year. I'd rather have things fixed as they break, but this tenant decided to save everything for handover day.

For ETFs I spread my funds over a dozen high-risk ones, I guess they perform on average some 15% YOY. If I math that right it's a 3.5x increase over the same ten years. I'd still consider it to be less risky.