No matter how much we love our job, there are days when we ponder if retirement is just too far away. When that feeling comes on, it is time to look at moving that retirement date up and trying to finish our working careers sooner rather than later. To do that, there has to be a way to build up income so early retirement is possible. Retiring early is going to be about positive cash flow and one way to achieve that is to become a real estate investor. Knowing how to retire early with real estate means creating a good cash flow that comes from owning a portfolio of units that generate profit. Knowing how to retire early with real estate allows you to work toward early retirement goals. There are some steps you need to take to make this work.

Using the latest Home Values and Rental data from Zillow (as of December 31, 2018), I've ranked 171 U.S. cities based on their average gross rental yields, which measures the relationship between the gross rent and the value of rental properties. If…