Both parents did, grandparents, and so on.I was fortunate to have grants offsetting part of the cost.

I'm fortunate to do this full time, but I put in 20-30 hours a week solely on locating and analyzing potential deals from a variety of sources for myself and my partners.  

Fortunately for me I have been in the business for couple of years, (I am Realtor here in NY) and work with some solid & loyal investors. 

Fortunately, that piece has been manageable for me.  4. 

I was very fortunate to inherit a great tenant who virtually lets me do anything I want on his unit any time.

Fortunately for me I have been in the business for couple of years, (I am Realtor here in NY) and work with some solid & loyal investors.

I would spend my day managing people and their problems as well but I loved doing it.You mentioned "reaching your investing real estate goals", and fortunately I am currently in the business of Selling houses for a fix and flip and fix and hold/rent.  

Thanks for the feedback, I certainly have been very fortunate to have the job that I have had and it has made a lot of this possible, its kind of like investing with a net, I was able to take a lot of the risks that I did because in the back of my mind I always knew that no matter what I had a stable income coming in that mitigated a lot of my risk. 

I'm self employed with a solo 401k, and am fortunately able to contribute a substantial amount of income per year (up to $55k) pre-tax.

Fortunately, having done the numbers- I realized we are in a very good place and in another few months I hope to have my work/life balance in check.