Outstanding suggestions about educating oneself through online and open courseware.

I realize the importance of educating oneself on creative financing can be costly, but to gain such insight from knowledgeable and experienced investors that is absolutely FREE just blows my mind!

I guess it's just a matter of putting oneself into the shoes of another.

Sure we've made "investment" decisions that didn't work out as well as we had hoped but that is part of investing in anything (except for oneself - I think that is always a great idea).   

It takes planning and restraining oneself against impulse, and this feels like severe pain to most and they can't tolerate it. 

Regarding the premise of the discussion in protecting oneself in a rising interest rate environment, it may not be as straightforward as:rising interest rates = higher cap rates = weaker property valuesA couple of reasons for this would be that the spreads between the 10 year treasury yield and current cap rates are significantly higher than the historical average (500+ basis points) vs. an average of 300 basis over the last 20 years.  

So basically can he have two accounts, one self directed and the other with the existing investments?

It's so hard not to do all the work oneself when you have the skill set....you're smart to have found the tipping point to start utilizing others services ie property management, repairs etc...thanks for inspiring the rest of us!

Nothing like repeating oneself over and over again! 

Risk management is taking reasonable steps to protect oneself.