When you "invest" in stocks you are plunking down a bet that the price will go up. You have zero control over the value of that stock going down or up. Every business day you look to see how "your" money is doing, but it's not your money any more. The money that you bought that stock with is real money that you earned and you had to pay full price for that stock. You can't buy stock at 60 or 70 cents on the dollar. When you buy a piece of real estate for the purpose of a long term rental you have the ability to perform due diligence prior to purchase and project what the rental income will look like into the future. You also get the benefit of your wonderful tenants paying for that piece of real estate for the next 30 years. Maybe the value goes up or down, who cares if the tenants are paying you and you are paying the principal down monthly, that principal pay down is adding dollars to your net worth. I spend maybe 2 hours per month on our rental portfolio and I'm a hands on guy. It is close to being a passive investment as possible that throws off cash flow and that's why we are here!