An American Nightmare

[Ami Sapir]

My name is Ami and I have made a pretty  big mess of things. Here are some details of my life:

- Sales Manager of a sales team in the IT universe earning about $85k/yr

- Wife has an office job paying her $60k/yr

- We owe $304k on a SFH worth $350k in Forest Park IL

- We lease two cars for $682/month

- We have $43,000 in high interest consumer credit card debt

- Our monthly expenses total about $6500/month all in not including debt repayment

Up until my eyes being opened I thought they we were living the American Dream and had a bright future ahead of us. Then I actually started to look at our future. Once I really looked I realized that we were fooling ourselves and headed for ruin or becoming a burden to our children one day, we decided to completely change our ways.

We have recently gotten a hold on our spending and have started very aggressively paying down our credit card debt (using the avalanche technique) and putting all available funds and any bonuses I make into becoming debt free or the consumer debt. We estimate that it will take us 24-30 months.

We will then take 12 months to build up our initial $25k that Scott Trench suggests in Set For Life (an amazing read)

Once we have the $25k ramp up money we intend on starting to build positive cash flow through BRRRRing and actively looking for cash flowing small multifamily homes.

The eventual goal (as is for everyone here) is to achieve Financial Freedom within 10-15 years.

We intend on spending the next two years during our debt repayment period educating ourselves on every aspect of this amazing world that you are all in. Our goals are to learn from and meet:

- People that have succeeded in REI

- Realtor to work with

- Contractors to work with

- Real Estate Investors

- Real Estate professionals (Lawyer, Accountant, Title etc.)

In the mean time we are learning to analyze deals so once we are free of our debt we can hit the ground running.

ALL THAT BEING SAID I MIGHT BE (AND PROBABLY AM) COMPLETELY WRONG AND OUR PLAN MIGHT BE CRAP. 

I love learning from the people who have come before me and I know in my heart that many different roads can lead to Financial Freedom. What I am hoping for is for different opinions and perspectives on our path, this community amazes me and I feel lucky to have found it.

Thank you all for reading this horribly long post