One thing to factor in when calculating how soon you could retire is inflation.  

Also, real estate is a good hedge for inflation. 

Our economy grows mainly due to inflation. 

This is unfortunate because (1) with the CORRECT education and experience, some of these people might have found a profitable and interesting career in the field and (2) real estate investing (as opposed to the real estate "business" ) could be a very important part of anyone's investment portfolio, providing diversification, inflation hedge, long term savings buildup, tax advantages, and cash flow.For someone who wishes to learn real estate investing, a far superior method of education is to take the courses leading to a real estate brokers license, take the additional courses offered by NAR, CCIM, ULI, etc., consider the seminars/courses taught be your local REIA, IF, they are taught by local people with actual experience and NOT national guru types.

(Indeed, that seems to be the Fed's plan to stop inflation.)

HB 6588 and HB 6589.Both bills are very similar, 4% + Inflation yearly maximum, they also deny rent increases during a "state wide public health emergency" and extends the rent freeze 1 year after!

I have a decent set of cost data from those builds, but all the material and labor cost inflation/volatility of the last two years make it an imperfect calculation for price checking my GC's latest bid for the townhomes.

Add in massive inflation and cheap markets actually start to appreciate faster than historically in-demand markets, simply because people are literally forced to move there to survive.

As your rent goes up, keep the % at 4.2% to account for any inflation down the road.New a new HVAC in 15 years and it will cost $2,500 to put a new one, set aside $14/mo or 1.4%.Once you put in a new roof, new HVAC, etc. reset how much you need to save based on the new useful life.In addition to this, I would account for 1 month of vacancy and about 5% for general repairs and maintenance.Hope this helps.

When inflation gets too high, people won't be able to travel as much and those areas may be the first to suffer.