Should I buy a house with all my saved money or should I get a mortgage?

 look at this way

suppose you have 100k and bought a house for 100k

In 1 year its value goes up to 150k

so you made 50k on 100k - and thats 50%

NOW suppose you use 20k of your money and borrow 80k and the same happens

say the cost of the mortgage over the year is 5% (so the interest cos you 4k

so the total cost to YOU was 20k+4k

 so you made 50k for just a 24k spend - and THATS just over 200% of what it cost you

and you STILL got the interest on the 80k you still have in savings

I know this is a simple example and a lot of things can change - so its wise to do a lot of "what if" calculations on a spreadsheet to see the effect of these changes. some will benefit you paying cash - some will benefit you getting a mortgage.

  Only you and an advisor can decide how likely these changes are to actually happening.

if you can buy the house with cash and you HAVE the money...  PAY cash for it.

Or let me ask you this??? Which one would you rather it be if you were to lose your job for six months.

Edit- Hey Keith- why dont you go get a gold price chart from 1980 to the year 2000.

Helll Go get a price chart from the year 2011 to the year 2021. Not too impressive. plus it pays no dividend.

Interest rates are pretty low right now, while return on investments is pretty high.  You would be better off having a higher mortgage and invest your money in something which has growth larger than your mortgage rate, but something with liquidity if things suddenly change and you need to pay that house off.

Never sink all your savings into an  non-liquid asset.  You need to keep an emergency fund of at least 6 months expenses.  Once you purchase a house there's also the expenses of fixing it up to suit you and any necessary repairs.  Mortgage rates are very low right now and there's probably better investments you could make with your cash.

I personally would not invest all my savings in an investment that is only going to return 3% interest.

I'd leverage my money by putting 20% down.   I'd still get appreciation on 100% of the house.   And the other 80% will remain invested where it earns an average of 10% over a long period of time (compared to the 3% savings of interest by paying cash).

I know nothing about you, your age, you income, your financial obligations, your risk tolerance or your self-discipline so I cannot possibly advise you on what YOU should do.

You could pay half with your savings, get a mortgage loan for the rest, and have lower payments. Then buy gold coins with your left over money as an investment. Gold is always going up.