The title notion is a great thing to think about, but a lot of the stuff in the article is really reaching:
Real estate gives you more control over your investment. As a real estate investor you get to pick the property, the tenants, and how you maintain that property over time. You don’t have this same level of control when you buy most other traditional investments.
Traditional investments (i.e. stocks) give the same amount of control if you want dedicate your time to due diligence, but better yet you don’t have to take that control if you don’t want to - just buy index funds and use that energy at your real job (i.e. the title of the article).
Real estate is less liquid (which is a feature, not a bug). Some have argued that the illiquidity of real estate is not a downside, but an upside that prevents you from panic selling when the going gets tough.
If you can’t help panic selling you need to fix your brain and stop choosing specific investments as a bandaid
Real estate feels more tangible than a stock ticker in a brokerage account
As above, not a real thing. Fix your brain.
Their linked graph really feels they came up with the idea first, then smudged the data until it fit. Passive stock funds are a difficulty of 5 while active stock funds are a difficulty of 6? What’s the difference? How are T-Bills and Bonds easier than passive stocks? How is a diversified portfolio easier to use than a passive index fund? Individual stock picking is a 7 while passive funds are a 5? If they’re giving this much weight to “hassle” as a surrogate for “volatility” they really need to see a psychologist and/or stop watching the markets.
(I also think it’s mildly disingenuous to imply that active stock funds and stock picking give better returns than low cost index funds.)
I don’t fully get the perspective of the writer. They seem to be working under the implicit assumption that renting property is good, that feeding of those poorer than yourself while the super rich profit away, rather than trying to band together with those roughly equal to yourself, but instead creating competition and division is good, all so you can get an extra $2600 a month from those less fortunate that you.
Sounds like a real well thought out and admirable implicit position. /s
