How important is school and more general game plan questions

[Aaron Tandy]

Hi, I am a recent member of this form, but I have been listening to the podcast for the past ~3 years. I graduated high school 2 years ago and am currently working a 9-5 desk job making 17.25 an hr. I am super interested in house hacking and recently moved back in with my parents to get my savings rate in the 70-75% range with a realistic goal of getting a net worth of 21k by my 21stbirthday in January of 2020 with that mostly in cash and some in to investment accounts like betterment. Something I am trying to do is see people older than me that are doing well and model after that (increase savings rate, educate myself with the podcast, books and more recently this forum) and it looks like the only thing I don’t have going for me is collage education. How important is furthering my education and if it’s something I should do what direction should I go in to give me more advantage in real estate investing? My job will pay for night classes if it is something I could convince them would help me with my job (I can do most relevant majors that rule is pretty much in place, so I don’t do underwater basket weaving).

A little more possibly relevant info about me:

I was C student in high school because I didn’t pay attention or do any of the homework which is something I really regret now and know I can do better if I had applied myself but I have worked hard at every job I have had and in the last year and a half gotten over 7 dollars in raises because of it and moving around to different jobs with experience and good references.

My “why” for investing is so I can do whatever job I want to without the need to be concerned about the pay and so I can travel and so I can help friends and family instead on needing to look inward so much.

The type of investing I’m interested in is first house hacking I ideally want to get a 2-4 plex so I can get some land lording experience and when I run the numbers I will include the cost of management, so I can test a few out with me being right there so when I get more doors I will have good people to call.

After that I don’t have an issue staying in a house hack situation with roommates and the whole bit to try and get my W2 savings to as close to 100% as I can and continue to get small multifamily units until I can quit where I am to go in to something that I enjoy. I also really like the idea of air bnb and I have a few friends that are house cleaners that I would love to give more work but that’s probably getting to be to much at this point.

My 21k by 21 goal also coincides with 2 years at my job so I will look better at to banks for loans that’s part of the reason for that date and I have a credit score of 740 that is trending up so im thinking that I can get bank financing ok by myself (I hope, what do you think?)

Beyond the first question I have if you have any think to say or critiques of my game plan I would love to hear it I (sorry for the long winded post and the spelling/ grammar issues too!)

Thanks!

[Account Closed]

@Aaron Tandy Man this post hit home because it's like my 20 year old self wrote it. I hated school with a burning passion. I never went. You can definitely succeed without college, but I'm telling you you're in for a ton of work and an uphill battle. If you go that route you'd better have a lot of grit and a high tolorance for lack of sleep. When I was your age I decided to skip school and figured I'd be a millionaire by the time I was 30. Yeah....didn't happen. I'm 32 and doing better financially than most people my age but only because of drive and self dicipline. I went straight to work after high school. Because I don't have a skill I've never had a job that paid more than $40,000 a year base pay. This year I should gross about $75,000 from my job...do the math to find out how many hours I work. life will inevitably have major setbacks. You will get hurt, fired, sick, etc. When you're not making enough money these things set you back months....or even years. That being said I ran full speed 60-70 hours a week and  finally bought my first property at 27 years old. It was a duplex house hack. I moved out after a year and saved every penny of cashflow over a five year period. I just sold it last month for a good profit. In the mean time I met a women who is just as crazy as I am, who also does not need to sleep. We've saved almost $50,000 from our W2 income over 3 years. Here I am 32 years old and I am just now at a point where I feel all this hard work is paying off. I have delayed marriage and having a family because there is no way I could work hours like this with kids. I never wanted that. I'm not the stereotypical millenial that just wants to avoid growing up. That is a sacrifice for the both of us. Seriously man all I've done is work for 14 years straight. Imagine how much more efficient it would have been if I'd just gone to school and become an engineer or some other high paying job. Don't make the naive mistake that real estate investing will allow you to skip the rat race. Go to school and get a skill......not just a degree...degrees are for baristas.....get a SKILL. It doesn't matter if you are passionate about the work. If you're like me there is no job on earth you could ever find passion in. The only option for fulfillment is being independently wealthy. The job is just a vehicle to get you to that destination. An education will get you a faster vehicle. Get the skill, avoid debt as much as possible, buy the house hack and live rent free, and work like crazy in a field that actually pays good money. You'll save twice as much as me for the same amount of work. You can be a millionaire in ten years.