It’s getting harder and harder for first home buyers to get into the market. According to CoreLogic, it takes a typical household 8.7 years to save up a 20% deposit. But for a lot of people, it’s still perceived as very important to have that house, to buy your own home.

In particular, over a 30 year period, you will have paid off the house and you have a solid asset that will back you up financially. So more and more people at this moment end up renting. And the question is, is renting a waste of money or not?

Well it depends on the reason behind it and also the strategy that you’re playing. If you’re renting while saving up a deposit for a house, then that’s a different story. If you’re just renting because you want to spend less money, that could be very costly over a period of time, say 20, 30 years, you will not have that asset.

So if you choose to rent, make sure you have an alternative strategy, a strategy that creates and builds up wealth for you over a period of time that can serve as your backing by the time that you want to retire or you’re getting close to retirement.