<prompt> Human: This is a figurative situation, as I am a young 20-something not in the place to do either right now but hopefully will be in the future. Ive always held the belief that is best to do both, to live slightly below your means investing the rest, simultaneously I live in an expensive, high demand housing market DC where a lot of people make extra income from buying houses early and then renting them out.Is buying a house well below your means, with a short-term mortgage and living there for a while, then renting it out once the rent market for your unit proves profitable. While investing the remainder Then moving up to a better place and repeating a good life strategy? Or should I rent below my means and put more of the money into stocks and other online investment without worrying about buying a house or place until its my dream home? I work in nonprofits, so I maximizing my net worth and the value of the few dollars I earn is very important to me.  <response>: If you are good at being a private real estate investor, you can probably make more money than the stock market.It is, however, more work. You have to put a lot of work into buying well and being a landlord.If you like the work, and think you could become good at real estate investing, no reason why not.As you say, doing some of each is not a bad idea.Good luck. 