event derailed my progress

In a perfect world, they would go hand-in-hand: succeeding at objective No. 2 would mean creating another revenue stream (in the form of rental income) and, therefore, achieving objective No. 1.

And so in January, overcome with that inflated optimism one feels at the turn of the year, I got to work: I spoke to multiple lenders, got pre-approved for a mortgage, found a realtor, started looking at properties, and continued putting cash into a savings account earmarked for my down payment.

Fast-forward 12 months and I'm still a tenant, I don't own a primary residence or an investment property, and while I have multiple revenue streams, none of them are completely passive.