Lump sum for rental or invest?

Hi there!

I started investing last Jan with my employers 401k min. match. Only until Aug. of this year. (Don’t have that much in there now) like 6k.

I then started taking traveling assignments in Sept (I’m a respiratory therapist)… I’m now focused on paying off our house. We live in FL and thankfully bought our house super cheap 5 years ago… have 52k left now!
Will have it paid off by June!

I opened a roth a couple months ago because my company doesn’t offer 401k match until 1 year on. So I’m putting in $500/month.

I would LOVE to retire/semi-retire around 45/50.
I’m 26 now.

Husband and I were talking about purchasing a multifamily home for rentals once the house is paid off. If I continued to travel, I could easily put 30-40k down in 3 months.

But my question is, because I want to be work optional in my 40s…would it be better to put that money into a brokerage and let the 30k compound over all these years or purchase the house for extra income?
I’m wanting to put something in the brokerage while I’m traveling just to have something extra than the roth ira (until I get a staff job again and get my 401k match)…
I’m just lost and wondering which route would be the best!
I’m not wanting to travel for much longer…maybe until end of next year. So I want to make the right choice with this lump sum!

If you want to retire the fastest the two quicker/quickest routes would be real estate or entrepreneurship.

With your time-line you could pump all your money in retirement/brokerage accounts and meet your goals most likely.

I am bias against real estate personally and index funds are about as passive as you can get.