Greetings from NYC!

[ChunYu Shi]

Hi everyone!

I'm a recent graduate (22 yrs old) of Columbia University in NYC with a B.A. in Financial Economics. I just got a position to work as a real estate sales agent with a boutique brokerage in Manhattan. I still haven't gotten my real estate license yet (will be taking the exam on Oct. 1st) but am excited to be starting my education in real estate.

I'm a huge fan of Robert Kiyosaki's books. I have Rich Dad Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrant at home. My husband and I stay up late playing the Cashflow E-game (lol).

My interest in real estate came from my parents, who run a small family bed and breakfast business in Toronto Canada (so sometimes I visit and live there too). At the moment they work for themselves and are seeking to make their properties sources of passive cashflow, although they are not quite there yet.

Currently I am working in NY with my hubby and would love to meet some other members in the greater NYC area! My hubby also just got a job at a commercial real estate investment firm and they want him to get a broker's license in the future as well.

My goal at the moment is to get as much hands-on education as I can about how real estate works by doing the sales agent job, and also start meeting other like-minded people. Most of my friends in finance coming out of college went directly to in investment banks or in consulting, and honestly I feel quite alone in my decision to not work at wall street. I felt ever since I was a child that I want to work in that kind of environment but wanted to have an entrepreneurial career instead. I wanted to search for "financial freedom," as Kiyosaki calls it, than to be forever chained to a desk job I hated for a salary. I didn't do the finance internships during college and now that I've already graduated, it's almost impossible to get in without relations. The problem is though, that I'm worried the sales agent job won't bring in enough capital. My husband and I want to move out on our own and start living our own life (we both just came back to NY after graduation in August and are temporarily living with my family) but we also want to be able to save money to invest and not spend all of our income on living expenses and rent. I am considering finding a second job (probably in finance, if possible) but am also somewhat depressed about the notion that it's near impossible to work in a high-paying job (on the level of financial analysts in ibanking) at this point. I sometimes feel quite guilty about the career/life choices I made in college to not take that route now, as it seems that working for a year or two for a large paycheck could really be advantage for funding real estate investment. I didn't quite figure things out until recently and I hate that I might have had an opportunity to provide a better foundation for us (rather than starting from the bottom now, with no capital) if I had went into finance.

I feel a little bit lost about what to do and would appreciate any advice for a young couple just starting out in the city. Am I on the right track with the sales agent job? What can we do to make some extra savings, if that's advantageous for future investment? Did I really throw away a really great opportunity by not going for the money in finance and what can I do proactively in my situation now? I am working to reach out to my school's alumni network (which I know is very fabulous and very important), but how do I find the right mentors? When I searched through databases, I realized that someone who works in real estate might not really be doing investing themselves. How did you guys go about searching for your mentors, or other like-minded people?

Thanks for reading my long introduction everyone :) I hope it wasn't too heavy. I am an optimistic person though and really want to start taking control of life today and pave my own path.

Looking forward to meeting everyone in the community here!

Best,

ChunYu