It sounds as though you have set yourself up for success. 1) I don't think there is a surefire way to do this, but I would approach it from the perspective of how real estate investing can be leveraged to meet both of your goals.

I think its kind of making more sense now in my head what I want so I will try to be more organized in relating this info to you guys:in order to retire/do something else, here is what I think I need:1) live in a paid off house2) have 6 k in passive income...Even if I stay in my job, which I probably will for a while, I really dont want to leverage my house to buy investment properties.

How would you compare the risk rewards matrix of these versus lets investing in the stock market riskier assets (leveraged ETFs or High Yield, junk bonds etc.)?

I’m still lightly researching other avenues while I educate myself on wholesale.

Matt - You don't need to convert your policies in order to take advantage of the leverage opportunity.

You have to educate yourself first though PRIOR to taking any action.

Start by reviewing everything under the Education section and listening to podcast interviews.

But either way was a great education. 

Paid off the private money loan, the closing cost and walked a way with about $500.000We could have done it on the 160K, however I did not want to over leverage the property on the first try.

Hello,please, dont go flipping anything from hard money at this time. try door knocking, calling on craigslist, zillow etc to find wholesale dealssave up money then partner with an experienced flipper/rehabber on your first flip.until then, join local groups, meet 5 ppl a day in RE, build a network, provide value to them by supplying leads to them..via wholesale or even referral understand online marketing as well...thats the future, under how technology can be l leveraged in RE.so, you need to MARKET, NETWORK, & AUTOMATEfor now, start with marketing. kill it!!!