A baseline schedule is a reference timeline to track key project milestones.

Thanks in advance.My contracts have a design summary, detailed scope of work, then price list broken down by trade, followed up with an estimated time to complete the job, total price with payment milestones (big jobs I break into 4 to 6 milestones), and finally all the legalese stuff.

You have to have a plan that shows specific numbers as goals or milestones to be reached so that their performance effects applicable funds injection that will in fact create the real building blocks necessary to get you the Multi-unit-building you envision to own someday.

@Kathleen Diaz Welcome.Most important to establish a few milestones to your goal and set a timeline!

I have just hit my 10k in savings milestone.

As far as labor, Set milestones for your project and at the successful completion of a milestone that portion of the payment could be made.  

I just wanted to share this experience and milestone.

These goals should be very simple:1 - You need to pay off all your personal debt2 - You want to have enough passive income to cover all you monthly bills3 - You want to accomplish this by a specific date.4 - You want to have fun doing this.Once you set these numbers, you "reverse engineer" from there, establishing as series of groups (elements of the steps above) called "measurable milestones".  

Your Financial Goals are as simple as generating two very basic sets of number...dollars really:1)  Make enough Profit (lump sum returns) to Pay Off your personal debt...ALL of it.2)  Get enough CashFlow to "cover" your monthly bills...ALL of them...and to replace your current method of doing so.The overall Plan, is comprised of a series of Measureable Milestones made up of groups  of the individual Financial Goals (Debt Payoff, Cash Flow)...all lined up in a row.  

But I think an actual check as a gift would be odd and crossing the line between professional and personal.The reason I'd opt for a nominal gift is because landlording is a "people" business and getting married is a major milestone in someone's life.