My net worth is pretty close to even, probably a little positive.What the last 3 years has illustrated to me is that timing can mean everything.

I was trying to illustrate that some companies do well regardless of external financial crisis, panic, European debt issues, etc.

We are conditioned to understand concepts if there is a 2:00 video that illustrates the idea with friendly images and that generic guitar strumming in the background. 

To illustrate - I live in a large apartment building in NYC, where the high-end and luxury sectors are massively overbuilt.

That is not the only scenario, but it does illustrate that it depends on the hardship, not the payment history.

Illustrates the point really well - http://www.pagetutor.com/trillion/index.html

We have all seen illustrations of our self devil sitting on one shoulder and our self angel sitting on the other.

It's written well and simply illustrated. 

My market value example was merely to illustrate what the market is like in general, seeing as rental incomes at 0.5% of ARV-repairs imply that even if you get a fantastic deal at 50% of ARV-repairs, the rental income would still only be 1% of ARV.

Maybe I'm just illustrating that my investment objectives are different from a more active or fast paced investor?