Real estate is my dream!

As my husband gets closer to retirement, his dream of owning a cabin in the woods gets stronger. 

Pursue your dreams, but not at the detriment of your relationship.

Thinking about that duplex in Missouri seems like a good idea, especially with someone already living there to help with the home payment while you work on your dream home.

Living where you can afford to live isn't a new idea anyway; it's just that in today's mindset of "I should have my every dream and desire met all the time and money shouldn't matter", there's too many people chasing Charleston, Asheville, San Diego, Portland, etc and that makes housing prices there expensive.

I really don't think you can beat the beaches here, I'm happy to share some legit pictures of the beach I have taken as I go quite often, the clarity of the water is unbelievable at times, like a dream. 

But I just don’t like people who sell “the American dream” knowing full well they will being leaving people unemployed and $50,000 in debt.  

that's key point in there :-)dont wait to wait to buy your dream STR post retirement but buy it while you're on your productive age and enjoy as much as sport as you can !

Even if you find a dream tenant, a sub-$100k property usually isn't going to rent for more than...what...$500/mo?

We've managed to save about 30% in a relatively short time for our dream home in her home town, worth less than 200k USD.