Debt is usually one of the best hedges against inflation. Instead of buying stocks on margin, though, people usually buy more price inelastic assets like homes.

Yeah, I’ve just never really liked the carry costs of a house… taxes, maintenance, utilities, transaction costs, etc. and never wanted to deal with being a landlord.

Plus, while the real estate market on a whole might go up, I have a hunch the chances of one individual house appreciating are more varied than the chances of one of the big tech stocks appreciating… as they are the market at this point.

Edit to add: I think for the average American, real estate is the only plausible way to invest on margin, as you’ll never get 5:1 leverage at your brokerage, if you even have a brokerage.

That's because the median person qualifies for a vastly larger mortgage than margin limit.

Margin trading is for the already-wealthy. You can get a home with near-zero assets.