I love feeling "like a bad guy." On the one side I'm very boring. I work long hours as an engineer. I don't drink. I excercise minimum 4x a week. I go to bed early, and I get up early, even on weekends. I hydrate. I'm vegan FFS. Feeling like a bad guy is exciting!

On the other side, I emigrated to another country and started my own company. I'm married to a former go-go dancer from a different foriegn country. I've surfed in Hawaii and mountain climbed in Italy.

I've had plenty of "experiences" and handled my finances poorly for years (Can I blame my first wife for some of it? Sure I can!). One thing I didn't handle poorly was making some big investments early on, and making sure I kept those going.

I like your philosophy, but I'm commenting to add that moving money to pots should be done automatically. Create a "down payment" pot and a "mortgage" pot that put money in before anything gets to your "entertainment" pot. That will help you budget while automatically building your wealth.

Revenue streams from multiple rental properties are (IMHO) the best form of retirement income, but it is hard to get started, and the first years are the toughest. Making it automatic helps define "living within your means" the same as "living within your means AND building wealth."