My father went their for about 10 years ago in the past to make a living and came back to the Dallas area a wealthy man that allowed him to pay cash for his home on a golf course.

If you do this, it imposes discipline on you so you do not buy a bad deal, and it also means that, when the nominal value of the property decreases during the coming downturn in the market, you are still collecting cash from the property and can afford to hold it while you are waiting for the market to trend up again.You don't need to worry about appreciation because cash-flowing assets will always appreciate along with the others.I take issue with the person who advised you to buy in wealthy areas in a state like CA, as those are the ones least likely to provide you with positive cash flow.  

Places like these are typically built by either companies who are in it for the long haul or wealthy people as a place to park their cash and get some kind of return/tax break on it.

While I will agree that *if you know what you are doing*, RE can be a great path to wealth, I wouldn't advocate putting all your eggs there and ignoring other investment vehicles.

To become a high-performing individual, you can follow these steps:Set clear goals: Determine what you want to achieve and set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for yourself.Develop a strong work ethic: Be disciplined, focused, and dedicated to your work.Manage your time effectively: Prioritize your tasks and use time-management techniques such as the Pomodoro method to increase productivity.Continuously learn and improve: Stay informed of new developments in your field, take courses and workshops to develop new skills, and seek feedback from others to continually improve.Stay organized: Keep your workspace and schedule organized to reduce distractions and stress.Take care of your physical and mental well-being: Exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet, and get enough sleep.

Substitute dieting, gym, etc. if you don't belive me, get the BP people to survey members and see what percentage of posters here have even done a single deal!

In addition to the tactical and analytical aspects of achieving this number, there is a lot of philosophy behind it ... below are a few of my current thoughts on the subject (none of which I came up with and some may disagree on):Wealth is measured in time, not dollars.

Wealth is always invested somewhere.

This is why the wise are wealthy.

Not when the alternative, STRs, could be easily shilled to the public as unregulated private profit-taking by a widely hated class of convenient villains, already wealthy landlords looking to maximize their parasitic profits.