Where do I fit in the Set For Life schema?

[William Goodrich]

Hi all,

Just getting started here.  I recently finished reading Set For Life by @Scott Trench and wanted to get some feedback on some good approaches to take, from that perspective, for someone starting later in life with some equity but negligible liquid cash.

Here's some stats on where my wife and I are right now financially:

• My wife and I are in our late 30s, no kids at the moment, but that is likely changing very soon.
• ~$250k in equity in our small condo in Boulder, CO (worth about $530k right now) - we owe about $280k for 12 more years of a 15 year refi
• Emergency fund worth of cash (a bit low) and some insignificant retirement accounts ($10k and $30k, respectively)
• "Good" self-employment income, around $150k for both of us (it's all relative and that feels like pennies in Boulder)
• About $20k in credit card debt which should get paid off in a matter of a few months (we had some extraneous expenses in the recent past; long story; "won't happen again")
• About $16k car loan on my wife's Real Estate Mobile (she is a RE agent here in Boulder)

I feel like we're the "Sam" character in Chapter 12 of the book - classically calculating our net worth looks OK, but calculating our "Real Net Worth" comes out depressingly negative.

We really want to get started in REI, but of course we need to pay off our credit card debt and probably the car loan and save up $X first.

Right?

Or, since we have equity, can we jump ahead in the schema somehow?  Would it be stupid to get a rental property in the near term before we save up, say, $100k?  We don't want to leave our condo for at least 2 more years, but would love to get started before then.

My main question: How would you recommend I view our scenario through the lens of Set For Life?

(I'm sure I'm forgetting some detail that might help the math, so please ask questions.)

Thanks in advance!