A classic.

Originally I got turned on to real estate investing by the classic Rich Dad Poor Dad, and love the goal of financial independence/freedom that real estate can provide.  

I think this is your classic Win-Win situation.

Here are some ideas just for starters (though it may depend if you are 4 units, 40 or 400)...I won't put full cite in interest of brevity.Landlording (Leigh Robinson) is a classic and in the umpteenth edition.

Maybe once things get rolling I'll use the cash flow from a few propertys to pay the note on the garage and new car.( Like rich dad talks about)as for the summer car:it's a classic convertible that I got a smokin' deal on a few years ago.

I believe the classic technician or chartist would say the next downward trend would level off at or just above the previous high.

-Classic by the way!

Don't assume that any of your renters are just like you.....that's the classic mistake.  

On the buy and hold side, I have some classics of landlord lit (probably free at the library) in a blog post and the forums and blogs often break up along buy and hold or flip lines, with some cross over and many topics common to all real estate folks...welcome and best of luck on your ambitious goal!

That is sort of the premise of Schumacher's classic book: Buy and Hold (just hang on...especially in SoCal and Coastal CA, or at least it worked for him)...