Looking to make my first move and want to do it right!

[Daniel Conway]

Hi All,

I've been reading up lately on real estate investing and think it fits my life goals for being financially independent.  I've been talking to some people locally but was hoping to reach out to the BiggerPockets community for some info.

Here's my situation:

- 34 yrs old

- background in the tech industry

- low six figure day job with some consulting work on the side that I do which brings in roughly $7-10K per year

- Currently rent right now with a monthly rent of $1000

- No debt outside of a car payment

- Appx $40K available to start investing right now

- I do have a 401K that I contribute to but there isn't much at all in it since I just started it this year (2018).

- My wife and I owned a bakery business for about 5yrs that didn't work out (long story) and we had to file bankruptcy in 2016 to protect    ourselves.

I'm hoping for some advise on the best move I can make right now.  If I use the money in the bank to pay off the rest of my car to get totally debt free, i'd have about $14K left.  I can easily cover the payment for the car every month so i'm not struggling with it.  And not sure if getting 100% debt by using up a large chunk of my available capital is the best move to make when my main goal is achieving financial independence through increasing cash flow by investing in money making assets.

I figured I'm probably never going to be in this situation with this amount of money in the bank, no long-term financial commitments and very little debt again.  So I'm really trying to make the best move possible and trying to gather as much info and advice as I can before I make any type of moves.

Thanks in advance for any type of help you can give me!