I sold my car today! It’s a very nice car, quite new, runs perfectly. It’s driven me to uni, parties, holidays and jobs for three years.

Why did I sell it then? For the past two weeks, I’ve been walking to the station and catching the train to work. I did the same coming home. I only used my car in the evening and on the weekend. It seemed pointless paying $1000 a year for car insurance and registration when I could borrow my mum’s car out of business hours.

Now I get to make some pretense of being environmentally friendly by getting rid of my car and spending $1500 on public transport (ouch!).

I’ve come out of my stint of car ownership at break even. That is, I’ve sold the car for more than I’ve been paying mum and dad for it, if we ignore complications like running costs, interest and inflation. Now I’ve got all this money! Yay! More shares for me! It feels like an enforced savings plan has suddenly matured.

I am reminded of the debate on house ownership versus shares. A good proportion of financial planners say that instead of spending $400,000 or whatever on buying a house, you’ll be much better off if you rented and invested the extra money in the sharemarket. It’s far less risky to spread your money amongst equities. Just think — would you buy $400,000 of shares in the one company? That’s crazy! (Pretend you’re not a millionaire.)

Still, financial planners encourage people to invest in houses. The simple reason is this: Very, very few people would have the discipline to put aside the money they would have paid to their mortgage. Let’s face it, if you’re renting, then the temptation to spend the extra money on having fun and buying new gadgets would be overwhelming. Buying a house and paying a mortgage is like having an enforced saving plan. People are forced to put money into an asset and in a few decades, they own something worth a few hundred thousand dollars.

So. Humans are weak. Buy a house.