I'm trying to think when abouts I hit $100,000 of equity.
I know the first 3 years roughly working FT out of school I was breaking even monthly and didn't have a lot of money in investments. But in my first 10 years (those 3 starting years + 7 more), I changed jobs and got promoted a few times and I banked money as my spending habits were basically the same on a daily basis. I moved twice too where I banked some modest real estate gains (this was before real estate ramped up like crazy in the 2010s) where each time I banked maybe $25k on avg and the price of the new place to live wasnt really any more than I sold. So I tried not to increase my mortgage as I moved. During that time I invested more, had enough cash to buy an investment property (which failed as 2008 global crisis wiped it out so I got my money back), and bought stocks. By that time the companies I worked at also contributed to retirement funds.
So I'm going to ballpark maybe 6-7 years. Ballparking it, half was real estate gains, the other half getting promoted and banking the salary increases. My starting car was my bro's used Chevy which was a piece of shit. Then I bought a Civic and milked that car for a while.
As Billbofet said above, debt is terrible. Granted, I've got a mortgage and at the beginning I financed my Civic, but aside from that I never get into CC debt. Any place or car I own, I ensure I pay it off comfortably. Hindsight is 20/20 because technically anyone my age coulda maxed out their real estate debt as much as possible and fast forward to 2024 you'd have a nice house worth $3M you bought for cheap. But I did it more slowly going from condo to condo and then a house which I could bought for half price if I tried maxing out my mortgage earlier in my career. Some friends I know did that living like paupers buying a house 15 years ago for $800,000. But now it's worth like $2.5M. Lucky bums! Well, risk and reward. It could had happened the other way and it dropped to $500,000 and they'd be screwed the whole time.
As a general rule of thumb for me, I never move to a place where my mortgage will be over $350,000 in modern day. I'd be lower earlier in my career. But I know at that kind of mortgage based on what I make I can pay it off easy even if rates go up like now. The only time mortgages were tight pay stub to pay stub was at the beginning when I wasnt making a lot at my first condo.
For all of the investment condos I dabble with, I always make sure to be able to cover the down payments, and the rent charged is at minimum covers the expected monthly costs (mortgage, maintenance fees, utilities etc...). The worst thing for a landlord is to be in negative monthly cash flow. Dont forget about property taxes. And negative cash flow can be greatly increased if you get deadbeats who dont pay which I had one time and lost around $4000 in rent + another $1500 in lawyer fees. She literally did the sterotypical thing and moved out middle of the night and left half her junk my buddy and I cleared out all afternoon. Amazingly, at least she left the keys with front desk security. Wow thanks.
Tip fo all landlords or landlord wannabes: Never be the nice guy saying "Ya, just pay me next month". Trust me, it'll drag on to every month and then two months and then see ya! Hold firm to the first and last months rent kind of thing.