I say join the military as an officer. Military pays for schooling. Stay in for atleast 1 enlistment, go to school, and use the VA loan to buy your 4 plex. No down payment needed. Also you get paid so much as an officer. Most of your pay is not taxable. Save your money up and buy more properties while you are serving in the military. Also, you can get other benefits if you speak another language. Promise I am am not a military recruiter I just think that anyone who has a degree and no job yet desires a job should definitely consider joining. Most people who had some prior knowledge of investing in real estate while serving in the military buy properties at each duty station. Why? Because you are only required to live in in your permanent residence. Well if your military career takes you to another area you can use the VA loan again to buy a new house. Isn't that awesome. I would love to talk to you more about investing while serving in the military. If you would like to learn more just let me know. Just like Andrew said there is nothing stopping you from Investing in Real Estate while you are in school. Actually I'd recommend it. House hacking is gold if you don't mind roommates. I hope to hear from you soon.Shaniqua Dupree

Account Closed,If you decide to go to grad school, I would make sure that you are actually going to use that degree. If you aren't going to use the degree, or don't want to use the degree, then your time and money is much better spent elsewhere. There is some value to just having a degree but there is a lot more value to having real world experience. For example, investors are much more likely to loan to someone with 2 years experience managing or flipping properties than they are to someone simply because they have a Master's Degree, all else being equal. Don't get me wrong, Grad degrees are not bad, I happen to have two, but they are much better when someone else pays for them. The military could do that and there are a lot of other benefits to being in the military but there are a lot of drawbacks as well. First, as an officer, you will probably have to give up your dual citizenship. You will not make very much money initially and while a good chunk of it is tax free from income taxes, it is not true that most of it is. You will have the opportunity to buy a house in each of your duty stations because there will be a lot of them. Expect to move every 3 years or so and your duty stations will be based on the needs of the service first, and your desires second. Then there is always the possibility of getting deployed to some god forsaken place on the planet so people can try to shoot you and/or blow you up. Bottom line, it is a great opportunity for the right person but it isn't all sunshine and rainbows. If you opt to join the military, I would do it mainly for reasons other than the "financial" benefits.

Jeff Beard That is why I am pursuing a MBS degree that wont put me in a basement lab :) since it is oriented to business aspect of pharm/biotech companies.

There is a lot of good advice here.Mine would be that nobody but you can say what's best.If I were you I would definitely follow my passion and that way every day you wake up you are doing something you love.When I was younger I got a good paying job and had a lot of passion for it and loved going to work.That passion has wore off and has became real estate for many years.I haven't done much with real estate but am starting now to get involved and do something I love.Life is too short so do what makes you the happiest.Good luck in whatever path you decide to take.One last thing.You might want to research wholesaling to bring in some money to fund your investments if you haven't yet.I have a friend who does that and has been pretty successful.

I know this is what everyone else said but I would definitely choose grad school as well!

You really need to ask yourself, where do you see yourself in 5-10 years? 15-20 years? If your future is with your degree and you just want REI to supplement your income or offer extra cash for whatever your needs, then I say go and get your grad degree right away. As some have already touched on, it is easier to get your degree while you're on the school track (versus going back after taking time off). Especially if you've already been accepted and have potential scholarships and grants. BUT if you see yourself just doing REI for your future then why are you bothering with a degree? As Shannon talked about; degrees are expensive, and loan rates are astronomical (especially compared to investment loans), so why burden yourself just for more education that you will not use? Some of the business aspects might be nice, but they will be completely unrelated to your REI for the most part. Basic business is easy enough to learn and there are plenty of available resources. Good luck on your journey!

I'm going to give a dissenting opinion. I loved school and was always a straight-A student. It came very natural to me so I'm alllllll about education. HOWEVER! I give a vote for REI investing right now and using the money for a house down-payment.I have a Bachelor's in Social Science & Law, my MBA in Finance & Marketing Management. A pre-med certificate majoring in physics.... And I'm currently in med school to become an Orthopedic Surgeon with a fellowship in Sports Medicine.IF I had found REI sooner, I NEVER WOULD HAVE GONE TO MED SCHOOL or gone after that pre-professional degree in physics. I received scholarships to cover a large part of undergrad/grad school, however remaining student loans are still insane and med school loans #$%^&*( driving me nuts even worse. Grad or professional degrees are an exorbitant amount of money for what I see as little return at this point. If you're planning on working for someone ELSE the rest of your life, then yes, perhaps to move up the company ladder you'll need a grad degree.I'm making a career change to real estate this coming fall. There is zero reason to incur more financial debt in the form of student loans when I am/and you are already thinking about a future in real estate. You already have a degree. A biochemistry degree (and as a woman) should present plenty of opportunities for a well-paying job while you begin to build your real estate portfolio. A month is not a terribly long time to job search. I'll bet you'll find something great :)I have several degrees. I wish I would have stopped much sooner! It feels so much better cashing a $50,000 check when selling a property than paying that $50,000 in tuition!

I agree with Andrew. You already have some investments, which means you've taken action. Personally, I'd go to grad school, then go WHEREVER you can get the highest paying salary or become an entrepreneur. If you work in the US, house-hack (live in multi family home) with FHA loan immediately after school. Getting your income as high as possible will give you the opportunity to invest anywhere in the world. Good luck.

Account Closed,Congrats on getting into grad school! Most people here are recommending grad school, which I believe to be a fair recommendation.I'd like to argue against it though. For background, my perspective is that of a recent grad and not as much of a real estate investor.You graduated from an extremely good school, UCLA. As long as you're hungry and networking directly with people at companies you're interested in working for, you should be able to secure a fairly well-paying job.I went to a comparable school (albeit different major, business), and the average starting salary was between $65-70K. Certainly not crazy money, but a great place to start IMO. My question becomes: is the ROI of the incremental salary and network you'll earn via a master's degree enough to justify the cost of attendance (~$150-200K?) and opportunity cost of two years of earnings / real estate investments (~$120-160K?)? That is the question I'd be asking myself. It sounds like you have a good scholarship, so some of my above assumptions may be off. Only you can answer if it's worth it. But I wanted to play devil's advocate and represent a differing viewpoint with the way I'd approach the question. Hopefully that's helpful.

My vote is for grad school. You have already made some investments in Russia, and there will always be time for more investing. Deciding to apply to and go to medical school last minute was the best decision I have ever made! Grad school will open your eyes, make you more well rounded, and make you much more attractive to lenders (better credit, W-2) so you can do deals. Sending you a PM.

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Updated almost 9 years ago, 04/25/2016

Account ClosedPoster

Los Angeles, CA

Starting Out

Grad school or REI?

Account ClosedPoster

Los Angeles, CA

Posted April 21, 2016 16:48

Hello, everyone! Let me say first how I love , love BiggerPockets!! Second- I got a situation here: i graduated from UCLA last year (biochem degree) then left to Russia to do some investments there ( got the whole family there to take care of properties) due to taking an advantage of ruble falling and losing more than half of its value. (1 dollar was 32 rubl before- than it became around 80 rubl, now its 63-64). I thought to myself that I go to states and do some investments here.... Get FHA loan, get a duplex/triplex....But then i got a surprising acceptance to grad school that also offers me some good scholarship. I do have a downpayment for a the house or either I use it towards paying for grad school. Right now Im looking towards a job (real estate) where I can get a sense of what I actually want. I m not looking forward to work in the lab, that is why I am more oriented towards grad school which opens new opportunities. To be honest, I need a job that will provide a good pay so I can invest on the side (in that case I wont go to grad school) . For now (have been looking fir a month) I can't locate a job that actually will let me have a good pay (yet). Im not using income coming from investments in Russia/neither I am planning on selling those properties soon. I am waiting until the economy is going to stabilize there and ruble will get steady along with market appreciation (prices in Russia are all the time growing up). What would you do? Go to grad school or continue investment journey? By the way, I am from LA and I am a duel citizen (US and RF). If this journey looks confusing to you- sorry - i had to do decisions sometimes not based on my best interest but for the interest of my family. Right now its only about me. :) Best Regards, Tatiana.

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