How does one get past the idea of NOT having a traditional retirement account and into the mentality of leaning on rentals to consistently bring in cash flow?

The velocity of deals being done can make  a difference in market cycles at various points in time.Buying assets with top market rents and high debt could be a bad thing as it saddles you with non-producing with loss or neutral debt load which can hurt ability by more properties.I saw in the last downturn of 2007,2008 where people had a buy anything mentality and the train stopped.

You need to buy some kitchen equipment, one or two of the good basic cookbooks like "The Joy of Cooking" or Bittman's "How to Cook Everything," and build a sustainable repertoire of 10-15 cheap, healthy dinners with a few variations each that you can put together easily and quickly.Better for your pocket, better for your mental health because it will help ground you, better for your love life because smart, capable people appreciate personal cooking skills in others.The top three expenses of the American household, as @Scott Trench's book taught me, are housing, transportation, and food.

It doesn't matter how much it costs, we can't afford the destructive mayhem of deadbeat-dad mentality as a culture.

@Corey Demuth they got divorced, or September 2008 ... 100% of all real estate failure stories that don't directly involve mental illness.

By then I was so mentally beyond that concept that I told him I'd rather live out of a cardboard box than work for somebody again. 

The first thing you need to do is train your thinking from a save/spend mentality to an entrepreneur/REI mentality.  

Since May 2017, I’ve listened to about 3-4 podcasts/week and have read tons of books (far more reading than I ever actually did at college) pertaining to not only real estate investing, but also negotiating, overcoming mental obstacles, business strategies, etc.

How much does that student loan debt weigh on you mentally?  

@Jake Minyen from personal experience I inherited 3 Section 8 tenants and 2 were fine, the other had mental health issues and was rough on the property.