I am 30 years old, unmarried. I have worked full-time since I was 19 years old. I make $160,000 a year. This year, I'll make closer to $175,000 thanks to some opportunities for overtime, but they're not consistent or guaranteed so I don't want to consider that as regular income.

I am very fortunate to have an excellent pension that will allow me to retire as early as 39 years old ($58k/yr) with it growing exponentially every year ($400k/yr at age 65 - which I do not intend to work until). The pension amount at age 39 is not enough for me to feel comfortable, so my long-term plans are to start a small business and invest in real estate to position myself where I don't even need my pension, and it's just a bonus.

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I have about $290,000 saved between savings/stock investments. I have roughly $160,000 in my 401(k). I do not own any real estate. I do not have any debt and my credit score is 800.

Life has been an adventure and now I find myself at 30, staying with family rent-free. I'm ready to change that. I honestly should have more money saved up considering my years of working full-time, however younger financial mistakes have been a painful lesson and I regret not purchasing a property sooner/younger.

My most important and immediate goal right now is to purchase a property.

I am in (what I perceive to be) a relatively high cost real estate area. I am wanting to sell all my stocks and just take the cash since I don't want to drain the majority of my savings/checking purchasing real estate and have most of my money in stocks. If I did so, that would leave me with a total of about $290,000 in cash that I can use to purchase a property.

My initial thought is to put at least 20% down on a property. I do want to have an adequate amount saved still for an 'emergency fund', to replace my vehicle one day, and enough to start a small business. I haven't really exactly figured how much I will need for the business, but I imagine $25,000 would be plenty initially.

As a rough estimate, I imagine if I put 20% down + 5% closing costs on a $500k property (what I consider to be an average/nice house in my area), that would still leave me with $165,000 in savings.

The thing I am undecided on is what type of property to buy. I have long wanted to purchase new construction but I'm well aware of the premium that's built into the price. I've thought about buying way below my means and just living in it for a year or two and turning it into a rental. I've thought about buying a duplex/quadplex (which are few and far it seems like) and living in one unit while renting out the other(s). I've thought about buying on the high end of what I could afford (in highly desirable areas) in the hopes the property values will climb.

Should I forgo financing entirely and buy something "cheap" that I can pay in cash or take a minimal mortgage on? I just don't know if I will be happy or feel safe living in some of the homes/neighborhoods that I would be able to afford paying cash for.

I've heard opinions for everything from 10 year, 15 year, and the 30 year mortgage options. Having never been a home owner, my thought is to go with the 30 year to keep my DTI low, since I certainly do want to purchase multiple rental properties down the road and that I can always "pay it off early", but is that too simple minded? Should I put down much more than 20%? Should I put down the bare minimum (3.5%, if I'm not mistaken)?

I just don't know where to start. The sheer number of options feels overwhelming and I'm afraid of making the largest purchase of my life and screwing myself over. As high as interest rates are too, it makes me wonder if I'm making a mistake buying now instead of hoping for lower rates one day, whenever that is. I'm attracted to the duplex/multi-family option since I feel like I'm already very late to the REI game and want to jump in and not waste any more time.

I've been a long time reader of BiggerPockets and there's so much great information on here. I am very grateful to be fortunate enough to have these options. I certainly know there's many extremely successful people here who are way smarter than me and would really appreciate getting some advice. Thank you!

Dallas, Texas

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