Are they worth the risk if the interest rate is volatile? 

I am not sure if it's a good market to buy right now...the stock market is getting volatile, the commercial market is slowing down and the tariff caused economical instability.

Anyone have any thoughts, I'm a little unsure about the 5yr ARM and future volatility in the market.

I’m just not really comfortable with the volatility at my age (60)...so my plan is to make a 12-15 per cent return on real estate, then invest in annuities(3.7) and perhaps be able to average the norm for the market 8 per cent without ever entering the stock market!! 

Investor saturation has artificially driven prices up in so many midwestern markets and the major hubs, and the nature of that growth (although positive in trend) comes with volatility.

The idea is to limit exposure from underwriting potentially volatile income associated with tenants that don't have as much skin in the game.

Is it consistent and not tied to the news cycle volatility of the stock market? 

If you realize that you take a serious emotional toll if your portfolio value goes up and down, you need to asset allocate more to less volatile instruments like bonds. 

A more sophisticated way is a laddered income approach that combines fixed income sources like annuities and social security, followed by things like rental income which is somewhat predictable and not tied as much to volatile markets, dividends, bonds and then equity withdrawals.

So, absent a true crystal ball, what is a PRUDENT real estate investor to do in this potentially volatile and downward environment?