Real estate is not a magic bullet wealth is created over decades those same decades working your profession will get you ahead no doubt.I just dont see any mistakes you made other than maybe you could have saved your marriage. ??

Russell - thank you for the amazing amount you have contributed to this forum and tens or hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of real estate investors over the past decade-plus! 

Picture a few decades of this, how would the landscape of the US look?

Growth has been phenomenal valley-wide over the last decade and projections are saying demand will be up in The Valley for the foreseeable future, barring catastrophe. 

Maybe their destroying 30,000,000 documents had something to do with it but it may not be this decade when I hear from them. ;-)

Starting the game mortgage free took many sacrifices (like bucket bathroom for a few nights) and definitely was hard work and less than ideal living for a while, however I can't stress what a huge positive difference made for us when confronting various life events over the decade!

Bought the Carleton Sheets "Low/No Money Down" course and did nothing with it for nearly two decades.

I do recognize that past performance does not guarantee similar future performance, but San Diego has many decades (at least 5) of outstanding appreciation and the fundamentals are very similar (geographically constrained, great climate, diverse jobs, housing shortage, etc,).  

Our market has doubled in value every decade since 85 and I recon that it always will honestly. 

I have not brokered at the street level for a few decades..