I'm in my mid-20's, and so I am aiming at long-term growth with higher risk in my portfolio.  My financial adviser is showing me some investment allocations that put my money in some growth, mid, and value-retention locations.  He doesn't seem to be taking into the equation the fact that I am putting a huge percentage of my paycheck into my home.

I know home values fluctuate, but long term, it seems to be a pretty good way to at least retain value, and at best make a small return.  If I am already contributing so much to my "home" investment, why would I also invest in stocks or bonds with a low rate of return, even though they are considered a "safe" part of my portfolio?

Update: I think the question really has two parts.

1) How does owning a home fit into my financial portfolio?  Most seem to agree that at best it is a hedge against rent or dollar inflation, and at worst it should be viewed as a liability, and has no place alongside other real investments.

2) How should one view payments on a home mortgage?  How are they similar or different to investing in low-risk low-reward investments?


Question: What caused "silver eye" instead of red eye, and what can I do about it?
Answer: As for how you got the "effect": My guess is that you were too far away for the weak flash on the phone to do anything other than produce the red-eye, which means the phone still had to increase the exposure (probably via high ISO) to the level required by the available light anyway, blowing out the red in the red-eye in the process.

It's not difficult to fix manually with a paint program like GIMP, just view at 2:1 (200%), and use the smallest brush available.

ADDENDUM: The reason the flash was low-power in the first place may have been because the camera was metering (at least partially) on the bright white paper the girl is holding.