Lifestyles among the rich lean toward instant gratification.  

The major downside is that paying off $180K is going to take a while, much longer than saving up a down payment on another property and getting the ball rolling on my mortgage-free lifestyle sooner. 

Doable, but not exactly the lifestyle you think of when you say "high income".

Lower every day expenses = you can survive on less income without sacrificing life style, even if the rental market takes a down turn.I hope that helps.

I have 5 children 10 and under and they are a wonderful motivation to provide a great lifestyle for!

I hear that from guys I work with all the time but they drive crazy cars, blow money at the bar and simply do not want to change their lifestyle they are currently in.

So I would be very careful if you need more than $1500 rent to break even or just barely get +cashflow I think the rents will stagnate and as more apartments get build and rehabbed they will create more options for singles and the people with families who can afford to pay $1500+ in rent will be looking for a home to own renting is prob temp and if they like renting they would prefer swanky place which usually new apts offer that lifestyle and pet friendly its prob only credit that is stopping them and as time passes if they make good decisions the old stuff on their credit comes off increasing their score.  

Here is my take on your scenario for FHA and it has nothing to do with income, assets, or credit (these are given).You can use FHA to purchase the second duplex but FHA has criteria to stop borrowers from utilizing the FHA program as a means to buy more investment properties so hopefully the next property is superior to your current duplex in terms of room sizes, location to work or family or lifestyle, and or other reasons to make it seem like a better primary residence.If it is not make sense that the next property is a primary residence you will have to consider other strategies of structuring your file to ensure you'll receive an approval from the underwriter.Hope that helps.

And you have a very comfortable, passive income coming in where you can help family, give back to your community, and you can lead a luxurious lifestyle...why wouldn't you?

This is a rather simple procedure for gathering more capital over a modest horizon and later converting it to cash to index and live the lifestyle desired.