You forgot to include the actual living costs if you invest. You're not gonna be able to contribute $2,500 a month. You would be able to contribute not that much , around here rents are $2,500 a month.

That point is in the analysis after the bullet points (in phrases like "minus 400k you would have probably paid in rent" and "you need to consistently have rent-payment-level disposable income to make this work. Many working people don't.").

I considered putting it up in the bullet points. Apparently deciding against that lost my expressions of this point to some readers, including yourself.

But yes, this is why the analysis after the bullet point mentions the profile of people who don't have $2500 disposable income. The leverage matters more to people in this situation.

Having seen this conversation play out more than a few times and even turn a tad fighty, I think this is the fault line:

* people who do this kind of analysis frequently and generally have high disposable income often see that they can leverage compound interest rather than pay it, so the Pure Financial Investment plan seems like a slam dunk to them, and for their profile they're probably right.

* people who generally don't have high disposable income see that they can use leverage to make their rent payment do double duty, which seems like a huge win for them, and for their profile they're probably right.

What I did leave out is how a mortgage can bound your living costs. Another commenter correctly pointed out rents can expand dramatically. Where incomes track rents, I don't think this makes a dramatic difference, and that's why I didn't include it, but it's true this isn't guaranteed, and mortgage can function pretty well as a hedge.

They forgot to mention that they will move back to mom’s house.

Exactly lol