How To Go Broke Chasing “Passive Income”

When I first got into real estate investing, I had a simple plan:

Move to Chattanooga.
Buy 2–3 rental properties a year.
Stack them over time.
Create enough passive income to feel less stressed.

That was the goal.

And on paper, I was doing it right.

I was buying properties.
Putting 20% into deals.
Getting solid cash flow ($450 on average each month)

From the outside, it looked like things were working.

But behind the scenes…

I have NEVER felt more financially stressed in my life.

And that caught me off guard.

My younger self when I was first married would have been blown away if it knew how much I would be profiting each month in my 40’s…If I knew nothing else other than what was going into the bank account, I would for all intents and purposes feel like I had made it and I was living lavishly without a worry in the world.

In reality, five kids are expensive, and inflation has crushed the dollar’s purchasing power since I got married in 2008 — $100 back then is only worth about $68 in 2026.

Guys, that is BAD!

Now, it’s not as bad as it could be when you look at the rest of the world from 2008 to 2026:

Iran: $100 is now worth $1
Argentina: $5 – $8
Turkey: $10 – $13
Russia: $23 – $26

I vividly remember a conversation I had with my prior business partner by my truck outside of my first home when I was 27 years old thinking that if I could just have $100,000 I would be SET for life.

All my stress would be gone financially and I could just coast after that.

Granted I had 1 kid at the time and our living expenses were less than $5,000 a month including our mortgage.

Oh how times have changed…The Government really cannot help but screw up the lives of its citizens by making horrific policy and monetary decisions.

And in the United States, as much as we want to blame one party or the other, they BOTH are equally responsible for the unaffordable crisis.

But I digress…Let’s get back to why I felt so financially stressed out even though on paper I should have been in a much more comfortable position and sleeping much better each night.

The answer was pretty simple.

I was pouring large amounts of LIQUID cash (sanity) into long term assets.

And I assure you if someone wanted to rob me at the bank and ask for all of my money, they would have been sorely disappointed.

Not to get into details but…there were days I would forget to transfer over my monthly distribution on time and my wife would give me a call asking if I was going to deposit money anytime soon to cover our mortgage that was due the next day

Here is the crazy part.

On paper if you were to look at a financial statement I was a millionaire.

But when it came down to it, I was CASH POOR.

Money was tied up.
Hard to access.
Slow to move.

And even though the properties were “performing”…

My bank account felt tighter than ever.

At the same time, I was making a bigger mistake.

I was doubling down and focusing on just buying MORE rentals…

When what I SHOULD have been focusing all of my efforts on…

Building a business that brought in consistent, reliable money regardless of the market conditions and regardless of if I showed up to work or not each day.

For me, that was our Property Management business.

That business:

Covers the bills.
Grows consistently.
Scales faster than any rental ever could.

But I was treating it like a side hustle.

My priorities were inverted! I should have been building a successful and profitable/consistent business and investing on the side but instead I was going all in on buying more and more properties.

I thought real estate was the engine.

It wasn’t.

The business is the engine.

Real estate is the amplifier.

Once I saw that clearly, everything changed.

Instead of asking:

“How many properties can I buy this year?”

The better question became:

“How do I build income first… then use real estate to strengthen it?”

That shift made ALL of the difference for me.

It completely removed all of the pressure I was feeling.

When you have a business that can cover all of your living expenses as well as your overhead costs and payroll… the pressure falls off and you are actually in a much better position to scale your capital.

Because now real estate isn’t responsible for saving you.

It’s there to:

Protect what you’ve built
Reduce taxes
Create long-term equity
Add stability over time

And here’s the part I wish someone told me earlier:

You don’t need a massive portfolio.

You need the right foundation first.

Then a few well-positioned properties on top of it.

At Property Rush, this is the conversation we have with investors every day.

Not “how fast can you scale your rentals?”

But “are you building this in the right order?”

Because if you get that wrong…

It creates stress instead of freedom.

Trust me. I know this better than anyone.

Real Estate works best when you use it for what it was INTENDED all along for which is what I mentioned above:

Tax relief
Wealth Preservation
Wealth Generation (appreciation)
Hedge against inflation

Yet so many gurus on social media for the last decade have preached “replace your income through real estate investing”.

That is a flat out LIE and if anyone preaches this to you as the #1 reason you should start to invest in real estate, now you have been warned that this will leave you sorely disappointed.

On the flip side, if you are a high income earner who just cut a check for way too much hard earned money to the IRS, I can help you drastically reduce your next bill in 2026 and beyond through investing in real estate.

I can also help you build a conservative defensive and offensive position to protect and build your money that would have gone to waste with the government and instead build wealth for your kids and possibly their kids future.

But BEFORE you pull the trigger and buy one of these rentals, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. And if you do, you will absolutely never regret the decision to purchase real estate in Tennessee & Georgia.