In the short run, yes. However, after buying a home, the home will typically gain value over the years as you pay it off. Not to mention that if you intend to live in the same home for about 25 or more years, the home will eventually be paid off, but you'll never stop paying rent on a rental home.
There are several advantages of renting instead of buying a home. A lot of apartments include a pool and/or gym on-site. Most apartments include water or included in the rent. A renter does not do the landscaping or any maintenance on the unit.
Buying a 4x4 truck has several advantages. These can include advantages over terrain and different environments and the advantage of having more space or room to fit people on trips.
If you leave the country, one question you need to think about is whether to sign up for an international plan, or whether you should purchase an international cell phone rental. A rental does offer some advantages if you choose the right one. It is typically less expensive than an international phone plan with a domestic cell phone company, although this is not always the case. If you will only be visiting the country temporarily a rental offers obvious advantages over buying an international phone. A rental is preferable to signing up for a plan with your current provider if you will make several calls to people within the country you visit.
There aren't really any advantages to buying an 8GB IPod. The only advantage that I know of is that it would be cheap. There are some many disadvantages to buying an 8GB IPod.
There may be certain tax credits involved in buying a hybrid car. Although there are more environmental advantages to buying a purely electric car like the Toyota Prius over a gas electric or diesel electric hybrid.
There are many advantages of buying a used car over a new car. When buying a used car you can save thousands of dollars depreciation. Buying a 2 or 3 year old car with low mileage in some cases can save you over $20,000. You can own a current model car and still have a car that is under factory warranty.
The advantages of buying used versus new are numerous. For one, the engine has likely been broken-in by the previous owner. Also, any flight related adjustments will have been worked out. Lastly, you can save considerable money buying used.
You can get Netflix rental's on their site by simply buying a subscription and then you can watch as many movie's as you want's to every month. When you have the subscription all content over there is free and you don't need to spend anything on the movies / series.
The home field advantage
Renting commercial property versus buying it is going to be the most affordable route and thus the most profitable. If buying is an option, then of course it would be a good investment.
Email doesn'ts cost anything but when you use postal mail you are buying stamps