“Real estate investing is a wonderful tool. But the key to financial independence or any other worthwhile financial goal has nothing to do with real estate.” So says Chad “Coach” Carson in a July 2020 blog post on Bigger Pockets, a real estate investing platform which offers content, tools, and a community of over 2,000,000 members to help people avoid mistakes; learn valuable tips; find partners, deals, and financing and make the best investing decisions possible. Chad goes on to say: Instead, the basics of building wealth—whether that’s with real estate, stock investing, or starting a business—has three basic steps: 1.   Save money 2.   Invest the money wisely and 3.   Harvest your wealth so that you can live off your investments While it’s fun to talk about investing, and occasionally you’ll see content on harvesting and living off your investments, learning How to save money (which isn’t that sexy) is the first step and the key to achieving success with real estate or any other wealth-building path that you take. Search any financial independence forum, blog, or podcast, however, and you’ll see that Real Estate is a hot topic that garners quite a bit of attention. But should it? This year, at Camp Mustache, a yearly retreat dedicated to the teachings of Pete Adeney aka Mr. Money Mustache I was privileged to lead a panel discussion involving a group of real estate rock stars and tease out the role it plays in their financial independence journeys. Kavell Taylor is a commercial and residential real estate investor with a portfolio currently valued at almost $10M. She also manages commercial and medical office buildings for a New Jersey-based developer.  Santana Perez is a real estate investor in her early 30s, pivoting from a career in energy trading and corporate finance. After growing up in the foster care system and spending 21 years in poverty, Santana discovered FIRE in 2018. Since then, she has single-handedly built a $1M real estate portfolio of 10 doors while raising her son as a single parent.  And Ming Mercer began real estate investing in 2014 in her early 20s, then quit her W2 job in 2020 when her real estate income surpassed her family's expenses. With a portfolio of $2M at age 29. I present to you the Real Estate Rockstar Panel recorded live from Camp Mustache on Sunday April 18th 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices