[SamAdams76]

So if you have $500,000 equity in a home, you'd be better off investing most of that money. So as an alternative to selling the home and paying rent to somebody else, what if you take out a 30-year mortgage and consider that your "rent". In that scenario, you will have the house equity freed up to invest and you'd be paying yourself back with the mortgage (minus interest). If you were even in a situation where you needed to pay the mortgage off, you'd have other capital from which you could do that.

Actually not a bad idea but I'm sure I'd get killed on capital gains in the beginning.

[nascarnation]

That’s exactly what I did.
When we moved to our retirement home (a 1500 sf ranch on 2.5 acres) I pulled out all my equity and financed for 30 yrs fixed at 3.75%
I really believe inflation will eat my payments up.
Property taxes....well that’s another potential landmine.

[Alberta's Child]

That's actually not a bad idea, but I wouldn't even consider advising for anyone who is not an astute investor. There is a huge risk in borrowing money to finance an investment, which is why I'm not keen on holding a big mortgage in the first place. LOL.

If I had $500,000 of equity in a home I'd give some serious thought to selling the home and paying $250,000 cash for a smaller home, then investing the other $250,000 in $50,000 blocks.