I have adopted the mentality that I'll have to educate tenants and help instill confidence that they can use it.

If he is in a bad financial situation, he may just be trying to leverage the situation to buy himself time.

I would say uder 40, under million, with no kids, stick with what you have and leverage in rentals. 

You can get this yourself or from family members or other partners, but just be aware it will require a lot.If you assume 10 percent return you need 1M in realestate likely more if you’re leveraged a lot.Hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you want to talk more

I have recently got my license in order to access MLS as well as educate myslef.

Highly recommend for MH education.  

Leverage your money by getting loan at 25%.

I'm a Broker of 20 years in AZ and teach real estate school and continuing education here, as well.

I understand that we have our own risk tolerances, but it seems impossible for us to invest in rental properties that generate supplemental income because of a low-risk tolerance.Perhaps it's a big picture discussion and there will need to be compromises from both sides but I wanted to see if anyone else has had to educate/convince their spouse of the benefits of rental properties.Thanks for your insight.

It also allows you to walk away if there's collateral damage but I would say put skin in the game for more leverage by building a 800 FICO with the willingness to cosign along with $0 personal debt instead.