The conventional wisdom is that owning a home is a sound financial decision and the mark of success. There’s nothing wrong with owning a home, but deciding to buy solely based on this conventional wisdom is not a good enough reason to do it. As long as the buyer understands the true costs and complexities of home ownership, they can make a fully informed decision and plan accordingly. But many times, this doesn’t appear to be the case. In this article, I share my story of buying a home in my mid-20’s – including the costly mistakes I made.