Hello from Northeast PA

[Jill Dorneman]

Hi!

I am very new to this; I'm learning, but very overwhelmed.

I have an education and a stable job (but there are no promises in life). At the end of the week there is no money left and nowhere else to cut back expenses. I'm nearly 40 and feeling dread over where I'm going to be in a few years.

There is a nagging feeling inside me that there is more to life than this.

My previous experiences with real estate have only to do with the homes I've owned and lived in. My first was a fixer-upper that we owned for 7 years and sold for a good profit about 3 minutes before the real estate market crashed in our area. We then bought a house a few weeks later for way less than it was worth. We still live there and have a bunch of equity now.

Other than that, I have owned a small business as a sole proprietor and only employee. I made a little money with that, but when it became obvious that I was unable to grow profitably, I closed up shop.

I'm studying information here to figure out a way to make the equity in my home useful in some way, and I hope that something I have already been through will be able to help someone else, too.