It's a subtle difference, but an important one. The problem so many people in the US face is that they collect things that make them poor, thinking they are assets.

If owning a home is an asset, then owning a bigger home is better, right? If a car is an asset, then spend more money on cars, because that is investing! Are golf clubs or a jet ski an asset? These things make you look rich but stay poor.

Everyone needs a place to live and a way to get around, but understnding that these are not investments to maxamize but rather expenses to minimize is key. Calling them liabilities (since they cost money rather than make money) makes that easy to see.

I used to think this way (that my house was an asset), and it was terrible for my finances. I bought a big, nice house and then couldn't save or invest any money, so my wealth was stagnant.

Now that same house is a rental property, so I have turned it into an asset that is both making positive cash flow every month and growing in value at a high rate of return due to leveraged appreciation.

Small difference in semantics, but big difference in results.