@Clayton Rokosh - Welcome to the vibrant BP community.Thanks for igniting such vibrant and hearty responses.Here are the salient points I gathered from this dialogue regarding financial freedom and wealth:@Jd Martin - To me, financially independent means I depend on no boss to make my way in this world. 

You can never really mimic someone else because you will always put your own flavor to it.Both strategies have positives and negatives.  

Many people eat for flavor, not too many eat for fuel.

The only exception is if you are drinking foo-foo flavored coffees like lattes, which the Keurig seems to make pretty well.

I have a loving spouse, 3 wonderful kids, no health problems, a vibrant spiritual life as a Christian, a positive attitude, and we give generously to several charities that touch our lives. 

I have also used esri to get a flavor of the tenant base and or even run local rental ads for more feel.

I live in a suburb of NYC and I’d love to see it back to its vibrant self.

If interested, I'm putting some details together for newer investors and for agents who want to serve investors / new agents in general, but definitely investor focused agent is the 'flavor'. 

check out the business expenses publication by the IRS to get a flavor for what you should consider expenses.

Laminate comes in all different flavors.