<prompt> Human: A bit of back story. My SO and I have been living together for 7 years next month and weve rented in the same city for the entire time. We have a 3 year old starting preschool in a few weeks. Ive been toying with the idea of purchasing a home in the city over the last few months and came to the conclusion today that I think we should buy within the next year as weve spent over 100K renting alone. Were both in our mid 20s and make around 90K a year combined with great job stability and consistent raises. If I calculated properly our DTI is about 12. I dont foresee us moving in the future as we have a school aged child but my SO is a huge travel buff and is struggling with the idea of having a mortgage as he would rather see the world. He is a good saver thoughIs taking on a reasonable mortgage and still paying for trips abroad possible WHILE saving for our sons future and retirement? Will it be a bad idea?  <response>: People,lost site of what a real estate investment was- a way to long term pay ahead your future housing needs. It later turned into a market widget that appreciated so quickly you could hold it and sell it for a profit or borrow from it and make all this cash.If you go back to basics, the question is, how much money will you need toay for housing when you retire? Or conversely, how much MORE income will you need to generate to pay after thirty years of increasing rent for the rest of your life?Thesis what we did; rather than buy the most expensive house we could buy, we bought to where we lived below our means. Between having more income over time, and through appreciation, we leveraged the income for a second house and put a renter into our old house. The renter was now buying our investment for us.Let them appreciate then using the iRS 1031 rule to defer capital gains on sellinging investment property, using your equity to buy a more expensive property, increase your CSS flow. We have up-traded several home using 1031, or sometimes called Starker Exchanges.Today we are retired, our residence is paid off as we transferred the balance of the mortgage of our residences to refinances we did on the rentals, the renters are paying those doe for us. As retirees, our housing costs are afout 450 mo property taxes and hazard insurance for a 3,400 sq ft house. The rental income is inflation proof as rents go up eith the market and inflation.My wife calls real estate a get rich slowly scheme. I married a smart woman. 