Even if you could cover the reserves I would say the psychological toll of basically feeling like you list all your cash would be very.

I guess it's just psychological/emotional if not logical.

Just remember Ali - CAPs are not about buildings, but about the psychological behavior of the marketplace!

BUT, when it actually comes to DOING.... they never pull the trigger.Even making a small mistake and learning from it is still better than never having done anything at all.I remember reading about the psychology of happiness when it comes to vacations.If you break down the vacation into two phases, the Planning Phase and the actual Vacation Phase, the majority of people are happier in the PLANNING phase.That's because they day dream of a PERFECT vacation where it never rains, the hotel doesn't have bugs or the AC is never broken, etc.To me, that's like a lot of beginner Real Estate Investors.

Different circumstances got us all here one way or another so congrats on making the psychological plunge into REI despite the challenges/situation.  

Degree is in psychology, but I've worked in finance and accounting for the past 25 years. 

Education is absolutely priceless but (if you’re going for a business major, psychology, liberal arts, etc) you can learn anything yourself online with today’s technology if you want to.

And the preferred one would be (A) Easy to understand and (B) Require no maintenance or effort and (C) Be cheap with a decent risk/reward ratio and(D) Psychologically make you feel like you're making progress so as to encourage more good behaviorBuying a mutual fund ticks all those boxes.

A little psychology goes a long way.  

There is research in psychology on this and the basic finding is that gift cards with hedonic (pleasurable) associations are more highly valued by people.