---
name: rent-or-buy-with-my-actual-numbers
description: "The rent vs buy comparison run on your numbers, with assumptions you can challenge. Use when the user wants help with Rent or Buy, With My Actual Numbers. Related topics: Finance, Home, Planning."
---

# Rent or Buy, With My Actual Numbers

The rent vs buy comparison run on your numbers, with assumptions you can challenge.

## How to use this skill

1. Ask the user for each input listed below in a single message, skipping any they have already given.
2. Where options are listed, offer them, but accept other answers too.
3. Fill the answers into the prompt template, then follow the completed prompt to produce the result.

## Inputs

- **Where I live** (free text, e.g. "city or area")
- **Monthly rent for the kind of place I'd want** (free text, e.g. "rent amount")
- **Price of a similar place to buy** (free text, e.g. "purchase price")
- **Deposit I have saved** (free text, e.g. "deposit amount")
- **How long I expect to stay** (choose one: under 3 years, 3 to 5 years, 5 to 10 years, 10+ years)
- **My income is** (choose one: very stable, mostly stable, variable)
- **I want the maintenance responsibility** (choose one: Yes, No)

## Prompt template

## Rent vs buy

I keep hearing both "rent is throwing money away" and "buying is overrated". Run the comparison with my real numbers instead of slogans.

Where I live: {{Where I live}}
Monthly rent for the kind of place I'd want: {{Monthly rent for the kind of place I'd want}}
Price of a similar place to buy: {{Price of a similar place to buy}}
Deposit I have saved: {{Deposit I have saved}}
How long I expect to stay: {{How long I expect to stay}}
My income is: {{My income is}}
I want the maintenance responsibility: {{I want the maintenance responsibility}}

Compare the total cost over my expected stay, including the costs renters forget (buying fees, maintenance, selling costs) and the ones buyers forget (what the deposit could earn if invested instead). State your assumptions as a short list so I can challenge them, then give a lean toward one option and the two conditions that would flip your answer.

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Source: [Rent or Buy, With My Actual Numbers on PromptBuild](https://promptbuild.io/prompt/gfbNJkERXkw3xDFVrbHY/rent-or-buy-with-my-actual-numbers)