IMO, if you can stick with rental/investment RE for the long-term (at least one decade), you cannot go wrong. As usual, if you have bad business sense, rentals can eat your profits.
I favor low debt loads and a focus on reducing expenses. You seem to be heading in that direction by working out of a home workshop with free-and-clear equipment.
RE has made so many people wealthy. If I had to picks stocks or RE, I'd pick RE 100 times out of 100.
I would make an effort to reevaluate progress after 1 or 2 years. Are you buying the right properties? Is the profit worth the effort? Do you want to stick with the same type of property, or do you want to trade up? Like Monopoly, there is no ideal track, and our goals and needs change over time.
Here's to your continued success:
jurgen