Real estate has been one of the pillars of wealth as most people believe. The popular notion that, “you don’t get to produce more land” usually the selling point to seal the deal and invest in real estate.

I think, real estate is a good investment. But saying that real estate is the only good investment is far from the truth. Real estate for me, has the highest PITA (Pain In The Ass) ratio. There’s a lot of people involved and you need to pay each one and negotiate with each one. If you love talking to lawyers, accountants and marketing people, you’ll love real estate. I have an engineering background so I would love to talk to the engineers and architects that’s involved in the project, other than those people is too much for me.

Once the tenants come in, more headaches come in. Maintenance, repairs, tenants who doesn’t pay rent, tenants who delay payment of rent. For me, life is too short to be stressed out like that.

Is it safe because we are not producing any more land? Remember the housing crash of 2007 – 2009? A lot of companies, banks and investment companies who invested in real estate went bankrupt. What about invasion? China invading Tibet and more land from South East Asia, how safe really is real estate?

It also has the highest capital requirement. And very slow in liquidity. It would take months to buy and sell a real estate property. Managing the property would be time consuming.

Now looking at forex, you can buy and sell currency anywhere in the world. You just need a laptop (or a smartphone) with internet connection. I think this is one of the best benefits of forex. Management of forex portfolio can be a breeze, with tools available for traders, automation and what not, you can be free to spend your time on things you like (i.e. travel). Should invasion from China comes, pack your things and fly to another country, taking your laptop with you and your portfolio is still there.

You can so decide to NOT invest in the country you don’t like. You can liquidate your position any time, instantly, and take advantage of opportunities faster.

I think forex wins hands down. But since this is a forex blog, I am biased. But I hope that you think about this deeply, see the benefits of it all. Some people would like real estate others don’t. I’m one of those people who likes to spend my time on things I want, and managing a real estate portfolio for me, I think, would prevent me from living the life I dream of.