Real estate has made more people "rich" then any other investment. I did the whold house flip game and did pretty well. I just don't have the time to buy and flip anymore as the day job is on the road most of the time. In 2009 I got a very nice comercial industrial rental property that has been an absolute home run. Even used some equity in it to buy a peice last year but it took every cent I had to buy in the original rental and even cashed out the 401k but made it work. I will have a fantastic income when I retire. I still have an amount of debt that most would not be comfortable with though. At 42 I hope to see a reasonable dip in the real estate market and get one or 2 more properties as the original one only has about 4-5 years of payments left. If no dip in the next few years it just won't make sense as the retirement plan is at 50 unless something crazy happens and need to work till 55.