Now, I can't pick for you, but consider what suits your budget and lifestyle better.

Ultimately time and experience have taught us that consistently being in charge of your property, religiously enforcing the lease and keeping the property up leads to better end results.

When I started I scaled back my lifestyle, sold stuff, and got debt free to fund my first rehab. 

Or changes in lifestyle? 

The first will require you to have another form of cash flow to sustain your lifestyle and future investing, commonly being a W2/1099 job.

Im seeking some advice to motivate myself into making the jump into the investing lifestyle.  

It would only make sense to me if it’s a lifestyle decision and, even in that case, you could most likely find a much better deal.

Beware that 1) some lenders might not lend in Tulum because they deem it too risky given the oversupply situation and 2) other lenders won't lend if the purchase price is below $750k because you can't get title insurance in Tulum specifically.Finally, beware also that there's a huge difference between a lifestyle purchase and a (profitable) investment purchase, the latter being all about numbers.

You should listen to this podcast then:http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/09/26/lifestyle-investing-podcast-aaron-mazzrillo/If I lived close enough to this guy, I'd be knocking at his door everyday until he got me a deal.

Also, there are a lot of people who are interested in the minimalist/mountain lifestyle and come to colorado specifically for that purpose.