Rent vs. buy life-plan simulator

Compare the home.
Protect the life.

Housing is cost, wealth, liquidity, flexibility, and timing. See them separately before anybody tells you there is one right answer.

Start with the shape of the choice. Open Advanced when you want the full costs and rates for your place and timeline.

The home is one decision. The life around it is another.

Buying can build more modeled housing wealth and still leave too little accessible cash for a repair, leave, wedding, or childcare. Renting can cost more each month and preserve flexibility that is valuable to your household. The result deliberately keeps monthly cash flow, liquidity, and ending positions separate.

Start simple, then make it yours. Basic mode gives you a first shape of the choice. Open Advanced when you are ready to use the costs and rates that belong to your place, your timeline, and your household.
How this works + what it leaves out

The mortgage uses the standard U.S. fixed-payment formula and monthly amortization. Home value, rent, and the renter alternative portfolio use explicit effective annual rates converted monthly. The renter portfolio begins with down payment and closing cash not spent, then receives or funds the monthly cost difference. Owner wealth is home value minus loan balance and selling costs.

Income taxes, deductions, capital-gains treatment, deposits, refinancing, variable-rate loans, value-changing renovation, and assistance programs are excluded. This is not a qualification or affordability decision.

Educational planning estimate. Not financial, tax, legal, lending, or real-estate advice. Last reviewed October 5, 2026 by Ahead of Us.

Plan the home and the life around it.

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