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!