Amex "total assets" help

[Anonymous]

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@DrZoidberg wrote:

A house simply isn't an investment even if paid. It makes you no money. You pay taxes, insurance and repairs. When you sell it, you have to spend the money to find other living arrangements. 

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What about "investment" properties?  Say you own multiple pieces of real estate (free and clear) that you don't live in like I referenced above earlier.  I think it can be argued that they could be considered assets.

[Anonymous]

If you wanna put your house under assets, go for it. Your accounts, not ours. Although you've gotten good advice.

[bada_bing]

One common metric of financial health is liquid savings as a multiple of annual income with respect to age. You can tell a lot about a  a person's financial management by how much they have saved verses their age and income. In some respects it is the best simple indicator available.

Housing isn't really factored into the calculation. Housing could be an asset or it could be an indicator of consumption spending.

[DrZoidberg]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@DrZoidberg wrote:

A house simply isn't an investment even if paid. It makes you no money. You pay taxes, insurance and repairs. When you sell it, you have to spend the money to find other living arrangements. 

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What about "investment" properties?  Say you own multiple pieces of real estate (free and clear) that you don't live in like I referenced above earlier.  I think it can be argued that they could be considered assets.

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They're still not an asset or investment. If you own real estate you're either holding or you/re renting. If you're renting, you mark the rent as income. If you're holding it's still not an asset as you're not making any money and it's costing you money.

[Anonymous]

Gotcha, good feedback above from all.  I don't have multiple paid off properties; I was just speaking in hypotheticals so I don't have intentions of adding house values to my assets just to be clear here.