Building a plan for retirement income

[Ron Riffe]

Old guy, new to real estate investing. I'll likely retire from my W2 career in the next 5-6 years. I'm fortunate to have learned the value of saving / investing early so am in a good financial position. I'm looking at real estate as a means of supplementing income after retirement. Looking for guidance from folks with more experience than me :-)

I'm thinking...

I want to avoid the risk associated with debt.

I don't need any income from the real estate now... so am less interested in cash-on-cash return than I am in cash flow appreciation over the next 5-6 years. Cash flow would all go back into acquiring additional properties... until I retire.

I have little time to devote to personally managing properties (at least for the next 5-6 years), so would lean toward turn key.

Is that a reasonable way to think? What else should I be considering? If that was your situation, what would you do?