I’m going because I never pass up an opportunity to see a great big house - sometimes they don’t open up again for decades.

 

But I don't think I'd ever actually live in a massive house. I've hung out in enough of them to know the real story - the astronomical costs to clean and cool them, the endless maintenance, and here's the kicker: you end up using only a fraction of the space anyway. Most families live in their kitchen, bedrooms, and one living room. The rest becomes expensive storage for furniture.

 

Now, if I won the lottery? Different story. I'd buy the biggest house in LA. And a New York brownstone. And one in Victoria, Canada (my homeland).

 

Here's why: At a certain level of wealth, your job isn't to grow the money but preserve it. And there's no better way to preserve wealth than with real estate.

 

You buy a $10 million house, you still have the $10 million - it just changed form and can pretty easily be changed back. Real estate is liquid enough when you need it to be, especially at the high end in LA.

 

Buy a plane, a boat, or a car? Now you're getting into trouble - that money's gone the second you sign the papers. Lori once worked for an infamous talent agent who would claim to be “bleeding money” as he furiously tried to rent his private plane to celebrities and clients. 

 

As the old joke goes, the happiest two days of a boat owner's life: the day they buy and the day they sell.

 

So I like houses. They're stores of value that you can actually enjoy.

 

That being said, nothing can ruin you financially quite like a house.