If you are close to retirement and are accredited, it's safe to assume that you'll likely have some decent, taxable income rolling in during retirement.

In the past, I cashed out my 401K(Paid income tax + Penalty).

Rental gives $500 monthly income from $2,000 rent.

The idea of debt-free is that if a person is going to retire and has to completely depend on the income, they don't want a severe recession surprising them and causing them to default on the debt and losing the properties.In a normal world, I would do that as well.

This would satisfy your retirement desire. 

I wanted to share my experience in working with Rent to Retirement and @Zach Lemaster.

The dude asking for advice is a 33 year old retired NFL player and she recommended he check out a $5 or $10 book written by another 33 year old retired NFL player.

The Rent To Retirement team is excited to share this journey with you!

@Aubrey Eblin Thank you very much for sharing your experience with the Rent To Retirement Academy. 

Your income needs to be 100x it and you need to invest 10% of your net(so less than $5mil) annually in structured product type investing incl RE, let it season for 3-5 years, re-invest the first bit of profits and by year 8-10 you should be comfortable.$500k annual income is alot for your average folk, but it's not "retire me" income at all.