@Ronald S Fritter JrWelcome to Bigger Pockets.

@Brian Jordan, it's a sad world where Sellers will let a lot of their property equity be frittered away by your promise of quick cash, even though you've told them in bold letters that you intend on making a HUGE PROFIT out of them, rather than sensibly request that you (having told them that you're also a Licensed Realtor) list it for them for normal commission only!

In my case, most of my close friends are what I would instead call middle-class to upper-middle class.They work well-paid jobs (mostly in the tech industry) and make very respectable salaries, but...that income is in all these people's cases frittered away on paying for the upkeep of an expensive home in an expensive neighborhood, multiple late-model cars, and bad investments (most typically actively-managed target-end-date pension funds with high expense ratios).I have three millionaire friends and family from this pool of friends, all people who made their money investing in small businesses.

PS: If you're really afraid you're going to fritter and waste your money away before you get a handle on things, take all/virtually all of it and put it in a 6 or 12 month CD at your local bank.

It also spent money on dividends (frittering away money better used in reserves?)

That has a few advantages:Gives you the lowest possible mortgage.Increases the amount available for a HELOC (you can still do a total 90% LTV)Be decreasing/eliminating the cash out, you're less tempted to fritter away the extra money.A bit off topic, but since you're doing a HELOC, look into "velocity banking."

Most of these are fairly small things that don't hurt every now and then, but I've seen people (including myself) fritter away embarrassing sums of money on some of this stuff.

From that record, you can see the things where money is being frittered away.

Personally, I frittered away three years before I finally stopped the BS about studying and thinking about real estate and actually took charge and began investing in real estate. 

On the one hand it is nice to have some extra funds hanging around, but will they get frittered away on unnecessary things?