I have been listening to podcasts, reading books and accumulating as much knowledge as I can before taking a dive into real estate investing.

As I start accumulating more properties my logic might change but for now it works.

Earn and accumulate.

Buy/hold/rentIf you prefer to be more passive and accumulate properties.

I overlapped properties based on the years of accumulation and figured out how many mortgages I would have outstanding at any given time.

I am trying to improve my credit as I accumulate cash.  

It sounds like you're able to accumulate the capital for the down payments, etc but what you need is to just make sure the income from your business shows up in the right way to give lenders what they need. 

Financially now I could afford both, but at some point, once I accumulate more properties I'm assuming I will need an LLC?

I did much research as I normally do, and came to find that not only would i have to accumulate a huge sum of debt over many years of schooling, I would also work many long days spending little time with friends, family, and traveling.

Then accumulate cash value in a life insurance policy (like the right type of IUL or whole life policy) or use cash as a loan for the difference.