uddhist monks aside, money, and the lack thereof, are important factors in your quality of life. Buying a house means you have much less money available to invest, or for cool trips on the weekend. Instead you could be mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters, or painting the kitchen.

Depleting your vault
Down payments are a necessary evil for everyone (except certified military veterans getting a VA loan.) It may seem ridiculously painful to save money now, when you have it least, but you can count on having to put 5-20 percent of the purchase price down.

For a $100,000 house, a 20 percent down payment is $20,000. This is a nice chunk out of your savings account. And it may mean that you can't take that much-needed vacation to Spain with your spouse, send your kids to camp in Vermont, or buy a new car this year.

Monthly cost
Housing costs can be divided into shelter costs (putting a roof over your head) and investment costs (building equity).

When you rent, you pay your shelter costs, and the landlord pays the investment costs. When you buy, you pay both, which is usually more. Often a lot more.

Ten years later when you sell the house, you may find that your investment did well and you saved a lot of money by buying; but on a month-to-month basis, you can count on spending more money to purchase a home.

Risk
A house can be a great investment, but like any investment, there is risk. Insurance helps you manage risks like fire, earthquakes and thefts, but there is not a lot that you can do if the neighborhood property values begin to fall.

You may be comforted to know that compared to other investments, if you are a careful buyer, real estate is on the safer end of the spectrum. But nothing is 100 percent safe.Disposable income and investment risk