As a matter of fact I'll go further and say that in most cases* personal home ownership is not an "investment" at all, but a significant expenditure and lifestyle choice.

The income from the triplex will be a little bit less/month than the 4-plex but because it's brand new the expenditures and maintenance will be less.My office has been working with a developer for about a year to launch a townhouse PUD in Rigby.

If what you are putting in remains in place without needing to be replaced again after 1 year, it is an improvement/capital expenditure.

Also major CapEx expenditures.  

I feel like I am fairly well-educated on the main items such as rental income and capital expenditures but also don't want to miss anything. 

Do not save all of the increase or even all of the increase above cost of living (you deserve some rewards for you hard work), Example if you get a 5% raise at the end of year one and the inflation rate is 2.5% would imply the raise above 2.5% is money beyond your previous year's expenditures.

@Ryan Guffey Use stessa.com app (free not sure for how long as it's recently acquired by RoofStock) It can pull transactions from bank, convert receipt sent from email transactions, and many cool reporting feature such as income, cash flow, capital expenditure.

The $500 capital expenditures reserve is crap.

That is how I liked it.The only thing I approved was expenditures over 300 dollars.

Hi Jay,I'm also Australian (currently living & working in Vancouver, Canada) and just had some thoughts on your post - If transferring any money over to US currency, for your investment deposit or to pay for ongoing operational or capital expenditure expenses for example, you may need to consider the exchange rate as the US currency is significantly stronger than the Australian dollar at the moment.