Just finished watching UBG series on YouTube this morning.

This book, and series came out in the early 90s. 

I would recommend either a series LLC or Delaware Statutory Trust as a personal entity, invested in an LLP or LLLP with your partners, and would use Scott Swenson in Wilmington, DE. 

They also might like fact the you lighten their tax burden by a series of payments over years rather than one lump sum this year that might put them into a higher tax bracket that Uncle Sam loves!

I wrote a series of posts on Active Rain a few months ago because so many folks were having difficulty decerning between the two. 

I just finished up a video interview series on my blog called "Escaping the 9 to 5; How I Did It".

LOL  Been full time since '02, but used to underwrite private placements as a series-7 securities broker and trader.This is great.

(often they eat up any match)   Do you know the history of the IRA's and 4 series products (401k, 403b, 457)?  

In the series, I also actually found the Cashflow Quadrant (the second installment I believe) to be more useful than the first book.As for specific suggestions, I think newbies need to learn to analyze all of the REI profit centers, and compare the projected returns against the risk you are taking and the time and effort you are putting in to achieve those returns ... that is far trickier to do than just come up with a CoC return from an online calculator, but it is essential IMO if you want to succeed over the long term in the REI business (and yes, it is starting a business, just like starting any other business).To review, the profit centers of REI are:1)Cash flow (which changes over time, so don't assume year 10 will look like day 1)2)Appreciation (both forced and market)3)Mortgage Pay Down (through loan amortization)4)Tax savingsThe best way IMO to combine all of these into a single analytical framework is to project the financials from purchase to sale (or cash out refinance) and compute the IRR.

I almost dropped out when I received my series-7, which is very difficult to do.