The Real Skinny
I’m going to come at this from a little different perspective than most of the posts out there but I’m not going to beat around the bush either.
In contemporary society, if you work solely as a wage earner (in retail, let’s say), you will be subject to two things: first, your time will not be your own and you will be subject to whatever arbitrary scheduling your manager needs to fill on any given day of the week (typically at the last possible minute of scheduling) and secondly, you will be well on the road to perpetual impoverishment (a mere car-repair from bankruptcy and never more than one paycheck ahead of the bills). If you manage to find better paying employment, your money will be better but your time will be even more non-existent. You will not really have a life of your own.
The only way to escape such a wretched fate is the ownership of property. With the ownership of property, you have the opportunity to invest in something that accrues value. In our society, you are not really worth too much if all you have is muscular energy to sell.
Education and a Mortgage
In former times, people invested in Education and accrued value based upon superior knowledge and experience. However, nowadays you can google anything for free and the old experiences are not relevant to today’s market conditions. So knowledge and experiences are not bringing the leverage they once were. Again, if you don’t own property, then you aren’t getting anywhere.
The standard remedy for these conditions used to be getting a mortgage and buying a home. You fix up the home and it accrues 
value so that your property is worth more on the market than what you have in it. You either acquire money through a series of resells, or leverage your equity whenever needed. In a case like this, your property speaks on your behalf; you have a net worth and it is calculable.
Other Kinds of Ownership
There are other kinds of property, for instance musical compositions. Authors and composers typically own their creative
work; they hold property rights on it. Spotify and the others have kind of diminished that in today’s scene.
But Authors hold rights on their intellectual property ( all the more so if they are Publishers, too). The Author/Publisher is professionally Indie in today’s world and not only has a life and owns her own schedule, but cultivates the value of her property until over time it becomes worth something. Even right at first, it gives her a degree of 
prestige and credibility. Writing a book is as good as owning a small business in terms of Authority Positioning.
One of the most overlooked facets of ownership is the Internet Domain. No property is easier to acquire in today’s world, nor possibly more important than the ownership of Domain.
But it doesn’t stop there. For a measly $20.00 anyone can invest in ownership dominion that has the potential to skyrocket in value, given the right nurture and a little time. Sure, you couldn’t just sell it back at a profit right away because you haven’t demonstrated 
any valuation to it yet. It’s real worth doesn’t become apparent until you couple the domain with a website, some intellectual property, and acquire the intangible of Trust (or Authority).
A Materialistic Truth
Yet, speaking materialistically, there is nothing in this world that, on a global scale, can bring you the excellence and value that owning a trusted website and proper domain will get you. And the Intellectual Property that you connect with it only builds in value.
In today’s world, whether you are interested in Personal Branding, or Authority in your Field, or whether you just want to rake in consistent and reliable affiliate income, you really must take ownership of your domain and couple it to some kind of valuable intellectual property. In the process you will gain Experience, Knowledge, Respect 
and Authority while at the same time your property will accrue in value most dramatically with a little work and a reasonable amount of time. And in the process you will regain ownership of your life, your direction, and your schedule.
So do whatever it takes to make it through the interim and get your bills taken care of but don’t let the time slip by without taking ownership of your own domain and some kind of intellectual property. That is the real reason why you should begin to build a website and there is no easier way than to start with an easy blog; something that reflects your interest.
Why Self Host Your Website?
I’ve come at this from a little different angle but I hope it succeeds in uncovering a certain important aspect of the capitalist system: without the ownership of property, you are basically nobody and quite dispensable. That is not what we want anybody to be, especially in these days and times when there is so much opportunity at so little cost. It is simply that many have not yet begun to realize this. Now you know!