I also own a custom cake business with my wife, another small business that has contracts with multiple cruise ship lines and a full time career in the music industry, dealing with royalties on album sales from our record label and multiple tours throughout the year.

A fellow Austinite.There are a few strategies here - as a former Property Manager overseeing major unit rehabs, we would play musical chairs (move tenants into rehabbed units after they were completed for a discount (I.E. 20% off 1st full month's rent). 

I think limiting/cutting out negative things is very useful as well: negative friends and family, negative TV/negative news, social media as a whole, negative music, etc. 

Same with the CapEx account - put that money into some other financial instrument to earn as much as possible while it's sitting there waiting to be used.

Cash reserves were/are HUGELY instrumental. #1Purchase Price: $356,900Because of the luck of my timing, this house appraised for $480K in November of 2021, and I was able to pull out roughly $20K to do renovations, pay off my roughly $63K 2nd, and have a LOWER payment each month. 

This kind of thing is state specific and depends on your lender and the specific mortgage instrument.

This is not a debt instrument used for long term. 

I just think back when I was getting my instrument rating and would ask my instructor how do I tell if there is ice in those clouds or where do I find  or avoid ice.. he just would say Ice is were you find it.so you just have to go looking for it

Using a revolving debt instrument and your mortgage as a "checking account" is simply more efficient banking. 

It has a defined upper limit on returns defined by the contract instrument.