Newbie from Montreal, Quebec... Some Questions.

[Sahil N.]

Hello everyone,

I'm currently a 24 year old student that will be graduating soon from university and I'll most likely be able to find a job that pays a decent salary. I live with my family and have close to no expenses at the moment and no plans to move out any time soon, which I realize puts me at an advantage so I would like to get into REI (or any form of investing really) to maximize my advantage.

To start, I notice there's a lot of information everywhere on this website and on others, and I'm just a little clueless on where to start. I read the "Ultimate Beginner's Guide to REI" on this website and it got me acquainted with the different types of investments. Although I'm open to really anything, I think I would like to start with rental properties as a start and possibly once I get my head in the game start flipping as well. Any guidance on other resources I can read/learn from would be great.

I noticed just from browsing the forums for a few days that people often mention finding a mentor. I was wondering how people find mentors, and what is in it for the mentor? Why would a person waste their time teaching me the ropes for free? Is there something I'm missing? Is there something in it for them?

As I'm starting out, I'd like to have some goals. I'm really looking for some part-time passive income that hopefully can eventually grow to something which would allow me to quit my job and enjoy my hobbies. Now of course, this would be in an ideal world but I assume passive income in REI still requires work. With that being said, what are some reasonable goals to shoot for and in what time frame? I really have no clue so I'll take a shot in the dark and say is 70-80k/year passive income a reasonable goal in say 5 years?

Another question I have is how do people generally find properties and how do you recognize that it's a "deal"? Is there a website people look at to find this information? I'm in Canada so are there different tools that people use?

I'll leave it at that for now as I can't think of any other questions at the moment. Apologies for the wall-of-text, but I'm hoping someone can guide me in the right direction.

Thanks!