That all makes sense to me but it makes me wonder how can you be "financially free" or even just start building wealth if you are 100's of thousands of dollars in debt at all times.

Never invest in Longterm assets with short term debt.  

It may be too late.yup stop payment.. also for future reference if you cant pay cash for these kind of educational events don't do it.how are you going to do business if you have to charge this to even get started.. this is the very thing that really bugs me about the real estate education sector in the US>. talking people to go into credit card debt when they know full well only 10% or less of folks that try this or any kind of wholesaling / flipping/ notes / lending etc will do anything .. and especially if you have no capital.

we invest in defaulted debt and have looked at it in the past.

My sacrifice… no haircuts and no fast food. 1 job full time, 1 full time side hustle. 0 debt at the time other than student loans.

My husband was able to consolidate and re-finance the debt after we executed the deal but this was only possible because we bought a VERY modest property of 70k as a learning tool to really see what buying a home in CR would be like. 

Do DSCR loans qualify if purchasing through 1031 w/debt-carry-forward requirements?

Also, you will likely only be able to use the rent to offset the mortgage pmt debt on the rental property to $0 since you dont have any Sched E history yet. 

Everything in the article makes total sense...wealth building helps through appreciation and debt paydown over time.It makes sense that chicago suburbs with strong school districts perform the best. 

Our next big objective is to eliminate our housing expenses by purchasing a triplex or fourplex using my VA benefits.