I agree, but this is a RE forum. Funny how we have to fight to keep the focus on RE.
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Buying stocks on margin is speculation (gambling). Nothing wrong with that but it shouldnât be confused with investing. It is a choice. Using leverage in real estate is a necessity unless you have fairly high net worth. The ease of diversification in stocks is another thing that makes them safer. Not all stocks come back from a crash but stock markets nearly always do.
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@aalj, good advice. What are the best municipal bonds to buy, and do you purchase them directly or through a fund?
Can remove the nearly 
For most people especially started working or not interested/ no time to learn more about market/economy/stock investment, should just DCA purchase of market index (such as S&P) funds, not sector or industry or customized ones. Can allocate up to 5% for stock picking to soothe our gambling instincts⌠treat it as entertainment.
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If you want to compare Stock vs Real estate, you need to compare them equal terms. If one is leveraged and another is not leveraged, equality is broken and you will miss seeing the benefit.
Supposing you have 250k, getting 750k mortgage at 4.75% 30 year fixed, buy a 1M home, doubles in 10 years, you assume your 250k+carry cost gets 1M profit.
Assume I have fully paid home of 1M now, and 250k cash on hand, I cash out refinance my home for 30 year fixed at 4.75% 30 year fixed, I get 750k mortgage.
I take this 1M in stocks, If I make it 3M in 10 years, I supersede you by a million.
Simple examples were practically shown by haneraâs AAPL, wqjâs FB, TSLA and AAPL. Even in future lowest Dipped Stock market their holdings are win against real estate.
Even if you take dumb investment like S&P 500,buy long term, they grow at 7% while real estate at 5% or below. There are better growth options (like ITA, BRKB, QQQ) than S&P500 as common person buy and hold.
There is a thread for this debate
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Jil, with all due respect, I believe you are overlooking the effect of taxes. There are lots of things you can do with real estate to minimize the effect of both federal and state taxes, which are especially important in a high tax state like CA, to boost your return. Furthermore, property taxes are deductible against income if your RE business is counted as a pass through entity.
Its not a matter of whether or not RE gives more return than Stocks or vice versa. Its a matter of asset allocation. Allocate everything in orderly fashion and then you can tamp down volatility and sleep well and night â and let compounding work for you.
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I do not know if these are best. I try to hit a credit rating average of at least AA. In my ladder, the average maturity is 6.7 years.
Municipalities to look at in CA - San Diego, Desert Sands, Cypress, Fort Bragg, El Dorado, Lawndale, Chino, Moreland, Merced, Gilroy, Carson, West Sacramento, Brier Creek, San Marcos, Fontana.
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There are also muni bond funds. MCA is for California. The yield is a little lower but they include insurance against default.
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Thanks. I think those muni bond funds typically use some leverage though right?
I donât believe they do. The yield would be higher if they did. There are bond funds that do though. Anally capital uses leverage.
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Leveraged investments increase both the probability of a high returns and high losses. If that million dollar home drops more than 25% youâve lost more than your initial investment.
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EXACTLY.
The only thing I would add is that often people who do learn about market/economy/stock investment - sometimes very smart people - still unperformed the broader market.
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Either real estate or stocks, any one can make money, run the business successfully. Success depends on various factors, timing, cash position, leverage benefitsâŚetc. There are pros and cons on each of these.
If you want to analyze broadly, keep it equal standards, stocks will outsmart real estate in the long run. This is well known with google search results.
It is like buy vs Rent, this debate, Stock vs Real estate, never ends
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WB used to make fun of these guys, he usually refers to doctors, sometimes hedge fund managers. Now, I think should replace doctors with SWEs 
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High risk high return In the long run, a higher risk investment should yield higher return. But. Yes, but short-term anything can happen AND you can be insolvent and donât have sufficient time to recover because youâre older than me 
And I donât have sufficient time to recover compared to wqj. So better be as prudent as you can. Adopt WBâs âdonât loseâ.
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Thatâs life insurance money contributed to an IUL.
I rest my case.
You canât, wonât succeed if you keep your hands in too many losing investments.
Has anybody done a study of their own money placed on a stock, say Apple where they can track whatâs their profit and match it against what that investment would produce if they put in into a CD or any municipal funds, o anything attached to the whims of the stock market?
I make the questions because most of people I ask questions about their contribution on a 401K canât and wonât have any concrete answer of the total amount every month or year. They donât even have any idea of how much they have grown. None at all, just âI got money thereâ.
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Lead by a true statement doesnât imply the ensuing statements are true. Playing game 
Asset allocation. Risk adjusted return. What most of us should aim for is a stable return. So putting all in one basket is not a good idea. Tell me how your IUL help to achieve this aim? Why would I want to complicate my asset allocation with IUL if my current asset allocation can already meet the goal of IUL? Too many instruments are hard to track and usually lead to bad return. KISS Primary, S&P index, rentals and focussed stock portfolio in descending order of building up. Ahem⌠I did build up rental before stock portfolio 
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