Im 16 years old. What do I do to invest earlier?

[Joel Rushlow]

I’m a 16 year old entrepreneur with a landscaping business. How do I set myself up to start real estate investing at an early age? I realize it won’t be easy or even fast, that is why I want to start preparing now.

I am in a very welcoming smaller town in Michigan. I am pretty envolved with our local Chamber of Commerce and I work with our local rotary club to help plan and prepare for an annual event. Both of those things seem to be good recourses, I just wanted to see what else I can do to prepare my skills and prepare financially.

[Chris Winslow]

Wow, the fact that you are 16 and already starting to think about this stuff is awesome. If you keep your focus on it, you will be so far ahead of so many other people that are your age. And the fact that you know it may not always be easy or fast makes it seem like you are in it for the long haul (very smart). Keep taking daily consistent action that will get you to where you eventually want to go.

There are some great and affordable places in Michigan to invest so you have a great location to start with. 

- Get some background knowledge on real estate topics and strategies. Learn what successful people are doing and how they are doing it. Definitely read this too as a start: https://www.biggerpockets.com/guides/ultimate-real-estate-investing-guide/introduction

- And the other BiggerPockets books are great resources too along with all of the site content and forums which are free

- Narrow down your focus on where you want to start and what you want to learn, probably best to pick one thing at a time to really dive into and get good at versus trying to learn every strategy in-depth at the same time. Really focus on learning everything you can about that one thing. 

- Make connections- investors, lenders, realtors, contractors, wholesalers, etc. You will hear people say “Rockstars know rockstars” and it is very true. Meetups or other real estate events are a good place to meet people as well as on BiggerPockets.

- Look for a mentor- if you show that you are legitimately interested, full of energy, and willing to get in and do the work, lots of people will be happy to let you learn from them. Don’t directly ask people to “be your mentor,” but ask to help them out where you can and try to learn from them however they will let you. 

- Analyze deals so you know how to actually spot a good deal when you see one

Bonus: Start learning general principles about ways people achieve financial freedom- basically spend as little as possible, make as much as possible, and invest whatever you can.

- Also highly recommend that you read “Set for Life” by @Scott Trench