Survive for a decade and watch your net worth grow tremendously.

We comfortably could use the cash flow but could probably survive if reduced by half but only as long as have our tenant at the primary residence.

What I can say is that many physician + spouse combos have successfully done this and survived audits. 

And most don't survive it. 

Some of the best advice I got that I will forget was this:"SOME OF THE BEST DEALS, ARE THE ONES YOU DON'T GET"Let that sink in for a while...I remember 4117 s Michigan Ave. here in Chicago, it was an awesome 8 unit full gut condo conversation - I loved the deal and still belileve it would have been a great deal, but would have pinched me so thin I am not sure how I would have survived. 

Luckily, I did not include this unit in my underwriting when purchasing, so the survival of this property is not contingent on this situation.Continuing to optimize for management of the building when I move out, like moving everyone to online rent payments or adding remote accessible security cameras.Exploring opportunities to expand my portfolio—I've begun my hunt for my next 3 to 4-unit building to house hack, ideally in Lake View, North Center, or Ravenswood.This year taught me that real estate investing isn’t easy, but it’s undoubtedly worth it.

The average company only survives for ten years, while even large companies typically last just 18 years.

So after being laid off a few times in the last 8 years I decided to get back into investing but this time focusing on buy and hold multi family real estate so that I could built wealth that could help me retire my wife who just had a long battle with cancer and survived , but is now back to work, and I want to give her a relaxing life free of all the stress of the world (by the way did I mention she is also in the mortgage lending field) so that explains the urgency to retire her from w-2 work ! 

We don't know what parts will survive the battles in Congress.

Ok, then there "benefits" get cut to that bare bones "survival" minimum.