Currently I hold a full time job as an independent contractor working in supplemental insurance, and I have always wanted to create a stream of income from rentals and other creative investing on the side.

Would be really awesome if BP could survey its members and provide some statistics (averages, standard deviations, etc...) on a variety of areas (i.e.

It's independent of my business insurance, and doesn't cover first-level property liability issues.

I am a buy-and-hold investor who prefers (and currently owns) stock and bond index funds to gain controlled market exposure, so my interest is really just in risk hedging and diversification—or potentially higher profits.My aim is to divert much of my income to investments that will help me achieve financial independence at a relatively early age, retaining a realistic perspective about cyclical market conditions, loss, risk, and expected returns.Thanks.

if you're looking for appreciation, and are trying to spend that kind of money (independent of cash flow)....go where people wants to be....aka Federal hill, Canton, Locust point, Hamden, maybe Roland park (expensive), maybe Remington (careful where you are in Remington),...outside of the city, Towson (Towson u area), hunt valley, some others......with 2-300k x 2, many options are available to you.

Then you can be independent.  

A good retirement will have several independent sources of income.

I want to become financially independent and free my time from my income.

In essence, because of a beneficiary agreement that comes with but is independent of the trust itself, you can actually turn a real estate (realty) transaction into a personal property (personalty) transaction!

I have done all of my REI  thus far independent of my spouse, which I could do just fine up until now - because of our separate finances.