Should I Invest in Short Term Rentals or focus on my job

[Daniel Kitts]

In a couple months I'll graduate with a masters, and start a role as a hardware engineer in FAANG. I'll be living in San Francisco and am aiming for the cheapest rent I can get. I'll be making around $155,000 including my RSU's each year with a $25,000 sign on. Over the past few years I've been looking into Short Term Rentals as a method of retiring early through passive income. I've got about $300,000 in savings and have been considering purchasing a Short Term Rental somewhere outside of the Bay. I like the idea of retiring early and reinvesting through my STR cash flow, but I also am in a high growth career that I enjoy. Even when I get to the amount of STR cash flow I'd need to be able to retire I don't know if I would want to. I'm looking for advice on if I should take on the additional hassle of running my own STR (which will most likely be out of state) or if I should take the extra time of not having to run the STR and invest in myself/my work at FAANG. Then invest my money in either ETF's or FAANG stocks? Would love to hear advice in general on this. I've also been considering house hacking in SF due to high rent, but the housing costs here are so high I don't know if that makes more sense than buying an STR out of state. Thanks for any advice you can provide!