Real Estate Investors: What made you finally decide to "leave the day job"?

[Frankie Woods]

This question stims from another post, A Day in the Life of an R.E. Investor , an excellent thread about the day in the life of a R.E. investor.  @Wendell De Guzman made an excellent comment:

@Frankie Woods, personally, I wished I left my job a lot sooner but being an engineer by training, I was trained to be risk averse. So I stayed on until my job was interfering with my business. Had I left my job sooner, I would have made more money. For example, last week, we made $46,000. In one week! I know other investors who make more money than that every week. Half of Americans cannot even earn $46,000 in one year!

Wow!  Talk about a shot in the gut in reality.  Exactly the kind of words "youngins" like me need to hear. 

So now, I'm interested to hear from those who made the jump.  When did you feel you were ready to leave?  If you were to do it again, at what point (e.g., amount in savings, monthly passive income, number of deals, number of units, etc.) did it "feel right"? 

I currently have a 9-5 with a pretty great income.  It makes it a lot easier to get loans and learn from mistakes.  But...I'm bored and spend a lot of my time learning more about real estate (ok, honeslty most of that time is spent on BP).  Although I'm doing/finding deals, my pace is pretty darn slow.  I think I can do better, but I keep dragging my feet...

I would love to hear your stories!  Thanks in advance for those who take the time to participate!