I was making 6 figures with a high school education before my investing became my true bread winner.

With the war zone properties it is likely you will have higher expenses and more damage from the type of personality and problems that come with those areas.Get a couple properties under your belt, maybe you'll see you have the tolerance/desire/etc. to have a riskier investment with hope of more cash, but at least if you have a couple winners in your portfolio you can float your war zone one and it won't kill your investing dreams if it proves to be a problem.Stay patient, keep looking, stick to your criteria and be flexible.

Make it count and keep your eyes on the prize.

Who cares if you have to pay taxes on your 4% withdrawl on your 2.1 million 401k, at that point you deferred the taxes for so long the compound interest made you a winner.    18,000 a year vs 31,000 for the same return....pretty easy choice.Public PolicyLocking up the money is a feature not a bug.   

Alabama is #3 in auto manufacturing, Honda, Toyata, Hyundai, Mazda, & Mercedes.Boeing, Airbus, & Google are also in the state.Plus, when you win as many national championships in football as Alabama does we get the winner's paycheck.

Originally posted by @Roma Whyte:@Jay Hinrichs you forgot you had a property like other people forget they had a certain Tupperware container.When I grow up I want to be like you.its not a prize possession and so not one I covet or think about 

I want the prize bad enough that I’m willing to pay a very steep price.

And I WAS the bread-winner, HAHA! 

So you're telling me there are more oscar winners that have been murdered than lottery winners?

The reason you keep hearing references to controlling spending is because of simple math:Income-expenses=savingsSavings is what builds net worth, through investing.People say increase income, but no matter how high your income, if your spending is greater, you will go deeper in debt.That is why there are movie stars, athletes and lottery winners who go bankrupt.