It's all back now plus more, but that hit added a year or two to a significant goal I was on target to achieve by 2013.Indeed, double digit growth will be hard to maintain as net worth increases.

Over the past 80 years or so, a highly diversified portfolio has historically returned between 6-8% annually, which is pretty good for just sitting back and letting the markets do their thing.But, if you can achieve even a few percent higher than that 6-8% through skilled investing (I'm NOT talking about speculating), you can significantly increase the speed at which you can accumulate wealth.

and "If you believe it, you can achieve it..." and all that crap...Unfortunately, there is a lot of pressure associated with that mentality -- if you don't succeed, there must be something wrong with you, huh?

It is hard to achieve very high returns with much larger apartment complexes, though, because you will face competition from institutional buyers such as REITs.2.

Do record your mileage travelling to and from the rental for whatever activity you need to do there.Not sure if you need the separate LLC to achieve any tax breaks in the situation you've described.

After a lot of hard work, I achieved success and my mind went something like “is that all there is to this”?

I told him my plans and he seems more than willing to help me achieve them.

I am assuming you already have a message you are giving them based on what you want to achieve.

The property itself is a loser.Well said Jon,I think what most people forget about the 50% rule is that it should always be calculated assuming 100% financing regardless of if that can be achieved or not.

Tips:- Build your credit starting NOW- Start saving money NOW- Start reading everything you can get your hands on about real estate NOW- Start networking with other investors -- try finding a real estate investing group/association in your area- Once you have some base knowledge, start putting together a plan of action to achieve your goal -- it will likely consist of various intermediate steps you need to take to get to your goal- Start looking at and evaluating deals so you know what a good deal looks like (and doesn't look like)- Ask lots of questions along the wayIt may take a few years to get where you're trying to get, but if it's really what you want, you won't give up until you achieve it...