A lot of people will tell you you're wasting your money if you rent, rather than buy, a home. That may be conventional wisdom but it's just plain wrong, personal finance expert and author of "I Will Teach You to be Rich" Ramit Sethi tells CNBC Make It.

The idea that you're just throwing your money away by renting is the No. 1 myth that Sethi says he hears all the time, and it "really needs to die," so renters can stop feeling guilty about doing what's right for them.

"When I pay rent, I have a roof over my head and a great view. That's what rent gets you: shelter. It gets you a house," Sethi says.

Paying rent doesn't mean you're throwing your money away. It means you're exchanging your money for something important.

You don't have to be able to hold something tangible in your hand in order to be excited about it. When you go to a movie or buy a basket of strawberries, Sethi says, all you have to show for that purchase is the satisfaction that the film was fun or that fruit tastes good. But that's enough.

"When you spend on something you love, you get value from it," Sethi says.