Renting vs. buying

The Money Guy Show doesn’t publish a dedicated renting article, but their 3/5/25 buying rule doubles as the “when NOT to buy” guardrail: rent until you can put 3% down (20% on subsequent homes), commit to a 5–7 year hold, and keep total PITI at 25% of gross household income or less. Missing any of those means renting is the disciplined answer.

Ramsey has no dedicated renting article; the Baby Steps page defines the answer implicitly by ordering — rent until you are completely debt-free except the mortgage (BS2) and have a fully funded 3–6 month emergency fund (BS3). Home purchase is treated as a later-sequence decision on the Baby Steps page; buying earlier is treated as premature. The Baby Steps page itself does not spell out mortgage-specific down-payment, term, or percentage-of-income guardrails — those live on the dedicated how-much-house-can-I-afford article.

Ramit is the clearest pro-renting voice of the three — he explicitly says “renting might be better than owning depending on circumstances” and challenges the idea that buying is a mandatory milestone. He wants readers to run the full total-cost math including phantom costs (HOA, taxes, insurance, maintenance, opportunity cost of the down payment) before assuming ownership is the “responsible” choice.