Suze Orman

Then your number one goal should absolutely be, in my opinion, owning that home outright by the time you retire.

These things about 50-year mortgages and everything, are you crazy?

Your absolute biggest expense is

is the mortgage on your home.

It's one thing to have a lot of money in a retirement account, but when that money in the retirement account is generating enough money simply to pay the mortgage.

now we're in trouble.

So therefore, get rid of your expenses in retirement.

And that's how you make your money make more money.

If however, you know, you're going to have a home, you're going to sell it by the time you're 65 or 70.

That's a whole different thing than just keep paying your mortgage and sell it.

However, if you're going to buy a home in your 50s,

I would want you, if you knew that you wanted to keep that home for the long run, I would ask you to see if you could afford buying it with a 15 year mortgage versus a 30 year mortgage, which means you're going to be paying that mortgage all the way until you're 80 or 85.

I don't want that for you.

Because as you get older, you have long-term care expenses, medical expenses.

Trust me, Katie and I know it gets more and more expensive as you get older, believe it or not.

So if you're going to buy a home in the 50s, then I'm asking you to look at a 15-year mortgage, which is, by the way, usually a half a percent less in interest than a 30-year mortgage.

Listen, if you can't afford to buy a home, that's not the end of this world.

I get that you feel that you're throwing out money by renting and that you really want to own a home, which is part of the American dream.

My American dream for all of you is that you are financially independent.

And there are incredible expenses to owning a home, whether you know it or not.