I'm reading all the materials I can get my hands on, but I feel like through hard work I can push to start investing even sooner than just the paycheck from the daily Rat Race.

That horse has left the barn.

I have a full time rat race to attend so my intentions were to save for my next investment while my tenant from section 8 pays my mortgage (200k-225k 30yr) at roughly $1200 a month for 1 year.

I work in an industry completely unrelated to real estate but work many hours and hope to get out of the rat race with financial freedom.

If I were to look at a 10% "vacancy" rate and 10% maintenance rate, we'd be just shy of breaking even, which would still be coming out more "ahead" than we currently are) Am I putting the cart before the horse?

I want to have no 9-5 rat race job and minimal bills with some good cash flow with investment props

I just bought the "Cashflow - Get out of the rat race" (Kiyosaki) board game!

Hello fellow BP'ers, Both my partner and I are self employed in the horse racing business.

@Jacob Stone I think you're probably putting the cart before the horse.  

Because legitimate people who have legitimate service dogs or horses (the only two true service animals) will tell you upfront that they have a service dog, and what disability it covers since you have no way of telling what the disability is from a computer.