Advice on preparing to invest...

[Joe Edwards-Hoff]

Hey All,

I took a half year break from posting on here, but now I'm back. I am 25 years old and I am trying to set out a 15 year plan. So far, my outline is 5 years of paying of student debt, saving, learning, and buying another home (I own one and am currently renting a tiny place to save $). Years 6-10, moderate investing. Years 11-15, aggressive investing.

Though I'd love so start jumping on deals right now, I know I have more to learn, and I need to get some finances going.

I guess I have two main questions-

1) I want to learn more about acquiring financing. Should I just go find a mortgage broker and talk with them? I want to be able to know how much down payments I should be expecting to save. Debt to income ratios, financing single families vs small apartments, etc. What would it take for me to receive financing on a 100+ unit apartment complex? So, any general advice of where to do my research on this topic would be great.

2) Any other general advice for year 1-5? I'm a shop teacher, and I have a couple side businesses. My wife is finishing nursing school. We've got substantial school debt. Part of me wonders if at the end of 5 years if it'd be better to pay off all of my school debt(no credit cards), or to have more money saved?

Thanks guys!