So grateful for this site and community... this information is already starting to change our lives by giving us a new mindset and optimism as we look to build wealth.

I'm about to turn 40, wife, 4 kids. We have worked in the non-profit space for 17 years earning very little income but enjoying what we do in helping people. To my embarrassment, I have not thought much about our family's financial future. The pain is heating up, however, as our kids grow and expenses balloon.

I earn about 60k/yr after taxes. My wife just got her real estate license a year ago and is netting nearly 50k after year 1.

Our income statement looks like:
Income: about 9400/mo
Expenses: about 10,750/mo (which includes 4 kids in private school... a conscious choice we've made and are sticking to for now)

Our balance sheet is pretty bare. Maybe 60k in equity in our home. No liabilities to speak of (cars are paid off... no other doodads to use Kiyosaki-speak). We have no cash to invest in a property unless we were to dip into our emergency fund, which can cover about 3 mos of expenses. And you can see our monthly expenses are more than our income.

Bottom line, I'm feeling the pinch and the anger at myself for allowing our family to be in this position at this stage of life. But we have toyed with RE investing and it has come front and center in the last month or two. We have several friends with capital who believe in us and are willing to go in on a deal or two. And RDPD + Bigger Pockets has put some wind in my sail to see a way forward.

Questions:

- How should I go about researching how to structure deals with partners where they are bringing the capital and I am providing the sweat equity (in terms of distribution of cash flow, depreciation, contingencies, exit strategies, etc.)? Any tips here would be MOST appreciated.

- I would love to be generating about 10k in cash flow 10 years from now. Is this goal too ambitious? Not ambitious enough? I don't plan on leaving my W2 non-profit job any time soon, so RE investing would be on top of that... though I do have more flexibility than most when it comes to my schedule within a FT job.

- Any other tips for a newbie in my stage of life / situation? I'm all ears!

Thank you!

Waco, Texas

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