Real Estate Rental or Second Job to buy more stocks?

Introduce yourself

• Hi!

-Age / Industry / Location

• 28 yo male / Corporate Finance / Salt Lake City, UT (MCOL?)

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-Target FIRE Age / Amount / Withdrawal Rate / Location

• Target FIRE Age is 35 / $1.0mil+ / SWR of 4% / Salt Lake City, UT

-Educational background and plans

• Currently have a Master's in Finance. Debating on getting a Masters in Data Science. Occasionally toss around the idea of learning to code to get that software developer salary.

-Career situation and plans

• Financial Planning & Analysis. I'm brand new to the job as of early April. I plan to stick with this job for at least the next 3 years.
• Current years of experience: 5

-Current and future income breakdown, including one-time events

• Current salary: $85k/year + 15% bonus
• I believe my salary caps at $120k total compensation (maybe I can land in 3-5 years?).

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-Budget breakdown

• Car Insurance - $30/monthly
• Phone: $20/monthly
• Food & Beer: $400/monthly (I should consume less beer. Eating out with friends.. But I value the experience)
• Gas: $60/monthly
• Rent: $400/monthly (3 roommate life)

-Asset breakdown, including home, cars, etc.

• $6k: Hyundai Elantra. Will officially pay off loan next month, has another 100k left in it (although I crave an electric car)
• $124k: Individual Account
• $60k: 401k
• $12k: HSA
• $56k: Roth IRA
• ~$10k: Bitcoin

Total Net Worth: $268k

-Debt breakdown

• 1 more payment of $164 car payment :)

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-Other info

• I'm burning out of my career. The passion is leaving me. I would love to be out of the 9 to 5 life in 3 years. Looking on networthify.com, I can FI in 3 years if I continue this $20k lifestyle, but I think It'll be closer to $30-$40k once a wife/kids pop in.

-Questions?

• Do I get into real estate? Seems to be a mix of a job & investing. Gets me out of the 9 to 5 soul sucking career life. I think I have the personality/work ethic to self manage.
  • Everyone says market will burst soon.. But should we be trying to time the market? Maybe my first 2 properties are purchased at the peak... But not #3, #4, #5....?
  • In Utah, it seems to be I can't get the 1% rule (monthly rental price / total purchase price). Seems to be around 0.8%.
• Do I get a second job (bartending/serving)? Make more money (~$20 an hour) to buy more stocks?
• Do I do a career change to something I *might* enjoy more, but will cost around a 50% paycut?

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I'm not desperate to get out my job, but I can tell it's not something I can do long term. I do realize I'm getting a good salary doing this. I can survive for ~3-5 more years. I'd love an exit plan.