Been reading this site for 5 years! (Long intro)

[Connor Dunham]

So, I have been reading bigger pockets forums since 2009. In 2008 I had gone broke going to school out of state and getting a collection on my credit score, it suddenly became very difficult to get loans to go to school (keep in mind, I had no support from my parents and was living on my own). I had been called into collections after failing to pay tuition. I ended up moving back to my home town and got a job doing phone tech support to pay off my collection and try to return to college. I spent a year paying off the debt and figuring out how get back into school with a low credit score, and no outside financial support. I figured out how much I had to work and worked 21 hours a week doing this job while in school (which was mentally taxing - 50 calls a day). I also at this time made a 5 year plan to finish college and buy my first fourplex. That's when I used BP to make a solid plan for the real estate side of things. I also had to manage my time (spent 60-70 hours a week at school and work), get through engineering school (after thinking I wanted to be an architect), and get a solid-good paying job and profession after graduating. I used this time in my life to read books like rich dad poor dad, in the plex, how to win friends and influence people, e-myth revisited... The list goes on. Fast forward 4 years to 2012. I finished college, got my first job as an engineer intern (read entry level engineer), and got married to a like minded, hard-working woman. So, 2012 was a great year. I also figured out my student loan payment was $1200 / month. That's pretty steep, but at least I got something out of that. I read that there are several ways to build wealth ( business, investments, etc..) but the best option for me at this point was to pursue a graduate degree while working and my boss would pay for the tuition. So I have been doing this for the last two years and it's going great, I'm almost done and have increased my worth to my employer and will gain additional pay when I get my second degree and professional engineers license next year. Mean while, my wife and I purchased a duplex last January for 10% down through a community bank ( fourplexes were 20% through this lender). I plan to have it re-appraised in March because our market prices have risen 6.2% since then to drop the PMI (I'll post a deal analysis on this property soon). Glad to say, since I started my 5 year plan and finished it successfully, I've been pondering what my next moves should be. I know I want to do another duplex since the financing through that lender is ead the " how to make a million dollars in 7 years" plan Brandon Turner wrote and thought it was a good base. I had a friend tell me the podcast was good so I've been working my way through that from the beginning (currently on show 33). I also feel compelled to write starting now mainly because I was a utility user before and listening to the podcast has been eye-opening in that I could be doing a lot more with this site. Anyways, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading my intro and story. I'll be posting more to give you all a better idea of what skills I have outside whats on my sparse profile. -Connor