Let's set the tone straight; most people don't get into the rental business because they like to manage problematic tenants, deal with leaky toilets or attend eviction hearings.Most people follow traditional investment strategies, that are taught to be passive, but that in reality are far from passive for the great majority of investors.At the very core, most people begin in therental business because they believe in the fundamentals of investing and desire to create some level of freedom and passive income to supplement their current income, and at the same time would like to have some sort of control over their investment.There is nothing wrong with this, and i certainly wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from buying rental houses, if that’s what you really want to do.

If the author stashes the cash in a CD earning an inflation-adjusted 0% each year, then the reserves will be exhausted at some point well before year 30, which is fine because cash flow from the properties is meant to supplement the reserves in the long-run.

REI is a great way to supplement the 1099 or W-2.

I have some reserve cash that i would use to supplement any repairs beyond the 35K mark.

The first two we lived in and rented bedroom to supplement the mortgage.

Passive income stream to supplement current retirement income.2.

@Clayton MillerTo Tim's point if you house hack a property would will start to reduce your expenses and supplement your income and that would help boost your RE career. 

We are very new to the process but wanted to get into it because having a renter would allow us to supplement some extra income and help pay toward mortgage while my wife stays home with the young ones.We have inspection today and if all goes well, we'll be signing off with mortgage broker tonight.Our broker needs insurance information, but we don't quite know the best way to insure it knowing we will in the very near future rent out the basement.  

My wife and I are discussing buying our first rental property with the aspirations of having 3 or 4 to supplement our current income and hopefully fund college for our children which are still young.Our plan was to buy a home at 50-75k and rehab it with 20-25k and then rent it for 1-1.2k.

At the moment I'm looking to supplement my income.