But you truly need to be self-employed, and pretending to be self-employed while actually being an employee can be a problem for both you and especially for your employer.

That would actually put you ahead $1800/year, in addition to whatever equity and appreciation gains you might have.Let's scale that up, pretend you are a real estate mogul who runs for president and proudly declares that you pay "very little" in taxes.

@Scott Duerk, I'm not sure how many homes your line of credit can purchase, but lets pretend that you can purchase 5 before running out of money.

Unfortunately, all REO and short sale contracts are EXTREMELY bank friendly, but they have the upper hand, and you are usually getting a deal, so just pretend the closing is a week earlier and make sure you get everything ready to go then so there is no issue on your TOE closing date!

You'd be able to tell the contenders from the pretenders.

They pretend that they're the number 1 developer in the region.

Have a colleague or family member pretend to be the prospective client.

The 1st consultant even "pretend" to have good relationship with me and PROMISED to help me step by step, so surely she knew she was leaving way ahead, why wouldn't she tell me she was leaving?

I would pretend I didn't have that money and intimately learn my investment vehicle. 

Thanks @Terry LewisI'm not a lawyer, nor do I pretend to be one.