Bryce Leung and his wife Kristy Shen, who retired in their 30s, with their son.Maxwell Giffen/Supplied
Many people told us that once we had a child, renting would no longer be feasible. We were also told that we’d need to own a car. When it comes to families, ownership seems to be preferred over renting.
Data from Statistics Canada showed that in 2021, 67 per cent of Canadians own their homes. According to the 2025 Royal LePage Canadian Renters Report, 54 per cent of renters plan to buy their own property.
And who can blame them? Renting carries a stigma and judgment that you haven’t checked the “adulting checkbox” yet. This is especially true for parents, who must now worry about their children’s school district, and the possibility of being “renovicted,” when the landlord “renovates” the home and kicks you out to bypass rent control laws and raise the rent.
No wonder Canadian families fear the instability of renting, worrying their children could be forced to change schools and friends.
Opinion: My sister was hit with a $1,000 tax penalty on her FHSA. Here’s how we fixed it
As a couple who follows the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) lifestyle, we’ve long believed that being a contrarian can pay off. After having our son, we are still choosing to rent – not just our home, but our car as well. By renting our home and using car-sharing services, we come out ahead financially – and invest that money in the stock market.
Instead of having to spend time on home and car maintenance, we have more time to spend with our son. That’s why our family motto is: “Buy your freedom, rent the rest.”
Here’s how it works. By choosing to rent, we save on maintenance, property taxes and insurance – and we invest that money. We’ve been in our current rental for less than a month and strategically picked a place that is rent-controlled and can’t exceed the annual inflation amount set by the province.
Since our three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment would cost $870,000 to buy, and our rent is roughly equivalent to mortgage interest, we avoid additional annual ownership costs such as maintenance (1 per cent), property taxes (0.312 per cent) and insurance ($2,790). In total, we save $14,204 a year.
For Mr. Leung and Ms. Shen, the number one factor when deciding on a rental is the ownership structure.Maxwell Giffen/Supplied
It’s a renters’ market right now and our portfolio has returned at least 6 per cent a year over the past decade, which easily beats the rise in our rent. (British Columbia has set the 2026 rent increase limit for residential tenancies at 2.3 per cent.)
As renters, you too can have a more flexible lifestyle because your money isn’t locked into one asset: a home. Instead, you can invest and get paid dividends and interest – which, in turn, can help cover your rent.
Renting also frees you from needing to pay thousands of dollars in mortgage interest when interest rates rise, or having to fix a leaky roof or other unexpected maintenance issues. (The upside of owning, however, is that you’d have full control over when these things are addressed.)
Still, renting gives you flexibility that owning never will. It’s true that you can’t live inside a stock, but you can live in a rental paid for by stocks.
Opinion: When it comes to taxes, salaried income is treated worse than investment income
I know families worry about being uprooted, but this doesn’t mean that ownership is the answer. The key is to be strategic about renting.
For us, the number one factor when deciding on a rental is the ownership structure. Individually owned homes or condos hold zero appeal. We only look for purpose-built rental apartments, because the owners can’t just sell the unit and kick us out to increase the rent beyond the provincially set limit. In Ontario, we also only pick places built before 2018 to ensure rent control applies.
Instead of spending money on things, prioritize investing to buy back your time. This means that the capital gains, dividends and interest from your portfolio are enough to pay for your living expenses (rent included), so that you are free to live life on your own terms.
The more stuff you own, the more money you have to put toward insuring it, maintaining it and storing it. As for us? We’d rather own our time.
Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung retired in their 30s and are authors of the bestselling book Quit Like a Millionaire.
