And worked as a dish washer, and my mother in law who dropped out of 5th grade to work in the farms, came across an opportunity to buy a small house in the desert for roughly $30k and rented it out to approximately 3 tenants over the course of 10 years (wish I had that low turnover), sold that home at the height of the market and had enough to pay off their existing home and a good retirement cushion.  

To answer a previous question, i dont like to refi and pull money out since i want to have a large cushion of equity. we can always pull money out, but i dont mind struggling and finding ways to get the next one with what we have.i had to get 50k out of my 401k and borrow 60k from family which is being paid off now.but nothing could have happened if we didn't have good jobs. that's why it's stupid to quit your 8-5 too early in the game.

With that said I want to try to be as smart as I can with the money from this and I was wondering what monthly expenses you guys set aside for investment properties as a cushion?

If you are worried there may be some issues you didn't account for then offer $35-40K to have a cushion.  

I Love Real Estate and feel similar that my real estate is my retirement not the 401K, It is a nice cushion growing on the side though.

If you save that cash flow and also provides some cushion for future deals .

There should be some cushion for one on this property as well.

We went over budget and past our timeline but I built in enough cushion to still make some good money.

I also agree with @Chandler Calvert about the rates being low -- this provides future long term cushion and better margins for cashflow.Not to mention, a 'market crash' can't take away the lessons, experience, & knowledge gained from doing a deal today -- as long as the numbers make sense, why wait? 

If I'm wrong on any of that, then kindly clear up my thickheadedness.So the part that gave me concern (because I've made mistakes in the past and I am fiscally conservative) is where I interpreted that you don't have any cash cushion.