As of right now, I'm unsure what career path to go down, so the extra cash flow would give me a little more financial freedom because as of right now I'm making a little over minimum wage. 

My dad was an immigrant and worked for less than minimum wage and mom always taught me to stay away from debt and pretty much work until I can’t.. because of life struggles and not going to college I joined the military and deviated from my dream.. now I’m a home owner and support my dad (who is disabled and now in college) and wife who is also in college..

I've decided to purchase near military bases in an area that has good wages/price/rent ratio.

A side benefit would be the reduction of the lower-pay labor pool, which would raise low-end wages without laws.4.

EtcI've never been a high earner but if I halted my business of 3 dozen rentals, they would build wealth and income over time.

For what it's worth, the high income earner sibling who lives in the US and can live anywhere chose Scottsdale, after living in Tennessee, Delaware, and Irvine CA.  

Now Bob doesn't have it to get Phil arrested, but after talking to his attorney he does have enough to sue Phil, get a judgement, and then garnish wages to eventually get paid back.

It's an erosion of our economy that overall wages have not kept pace with the cost of living, much less having extra room for retirement planning. 

If you can't do the math yourself then you are not ready.You are lucky you are losing only $30k because that is a cheap lesson and an amount that will not take long to recover for even low-income earners.

@Victor S.Yes this is another great point.How the Fed measured inflation is a topic of great debate since anecdotally, many have commented on increasing prices that are very palpable but the fed continues to rely to metrics like Core CPI that don’t seem to reflect this.The disconnect is interesting but I think Jay Powell is very attuned to this and he’s spoken multiple times about how inflation and productivity can be measured in the internet era.But fundamentally I think when the majority of jobs have become non-union, workers have very little negotiating power and so a primary driver of inflation like wage growth may remain stagnant for a long time.