<prompt> Human: I saw a reddit conversation talking about whether or not renting is throwing money away. I was shocked to see that people were saying a definite yes or no... For some people yes it is, other people not so much. I own a condo 15 min from a major metro area. I bought it for around 52k. My mortgage is around 475 per month, which includes prop tax, insurance, HOA fee. I could rent for about that in my area, but it would be a smaller place, lesser bedrooms etc... I am currently away on deployment, and so I rented my place furnished for 500 per month. I am renting out one of my bedrooms, I keep my bedroom locked up. I also kept the place furnished. My neighbor who rents his out, gets 800 per month for the whole place. So I have options if I ever decide to move. So I keep paying my mortgage like I have been and I will now have around 6K in a savings account and an affordable place to live when I return. I feel like I found a great deal. I also can see how renting can be a great and affordable option to some people. So in my opinion it depends!!! I hate it when some people make it seem like a definite way one way or another.  <response>: I think people always want hard and fast rules and simple answers that apply to everyone in every situation, and are disappointed whenever they hear the answer it depends. So people come up with rough rules of thumb e.g. the 30 rule for housing costs and end up misinterpreting those as ironclad laws that can never be broken under any circumstances for any reason.Tl;dr - I agree, but it depends is often an unsatisfactory to answer to people who want an easy solution that doesnt require thinking. 