Finally an honest opinion, yes this is the decision one has to make between a mortgage and kujenga. One has to be very careful especially if you have school going children.

I built my own home in the outskirts of Nbi...After all the 3 yrs hustle,The challenges reamins especially in things beyond my control. 1.Whenever it rains,getting to my home is a challenge yaani the road gets washed away because the council has not any roads. 2.Lack of a proper sewer system brings serious challenges. 3.My neighbour has put up temporary structures next to his unfished house..damn1 4.My other neighbour has put up containers and is planning to rent them out as shops 5.No schools nearby 6.No shopping centre nearby 7.I have to leave my home before 530am everyday to beat the morning traffic. 8.Security...no problem though..not with my 4 rottweillers which shit all over my 1/4 plot. Well,despite these challenges,Sometimes I think that I made the good decision.Maybe in future this issue esp on the gavas side will get resolved.The bottom line is when you decide to build your own home be ready to face all these challenges amongst others..

I agree with you @kiwaru. You need to balance risk. I'll tell you for a fact, one of my long term goals is to build a block of flats. Now, do rentals have the same yield as stocks? Not by a country mile! Returns in the stock exchange are far much higher that what you would get from rentals [surprise, surprise!] Then why would I want to do flats. 1) My kids - They don't need much 'financial education' to collect rent if God forbid I was not around anymore. They might not necessarily fair too well in the stock market if they don't have the interest. The block of flats would be my security for them! 2) I might get tired of the stock market as I grow older - maybe prefer travelling to analyzing stocks and company performance. Luckily I will have the mother of all passive incomes. 3) Stability - Despite what happened in the US, rentals would provide a defense to any shocks that might be experienced in the future! 4) Risk averse(ness) - As you grow old, you become more risk averse. Low risk, low return will do. And in any case, you should have made your money in your younger ages and probably in old age you are just interested in protecting it from inflation! But the fact remains, I will not do my block of flats on 15%+ interest mortgage. Best case scenario [henceforth referred to as 'the plan'. He he he], is to make my money in the stock market and else where then "park" some of the money in a block of flats!

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