Newbie near Helena, MT

[Penny Job]

Hello! 

I am new to the study of real estate investing and new to BP. I am so excited to see all the information that is available through this community! I have some learning to do before I even know what type of real estate investing I want to focus on.

Goals:

I don't really want to leave my full time job at this time. It doesn't pay that well but it pays the bills and the work I do is important to me. However, my husband would like to retire soon and is also very interested in learning more. Mostly we would like to earn some extra money and save for retirement.  

Interests:

My husband and I love to hike, camp, fish and travel. We both work for the State of MT as public servants who advocate for children. I am 45 and he is 58. We are new empty nesters and we are looking for a new adventure. I love DYI projects! I like to build things and work on small remodel projects so flipping houses might be my forte. I enjoy creating something that brings joy to others. My husband is more of a process person and book keeper type so I think we would make a great team somewhere in the real estate investment industry.

Challenge: 

Our financial position is less than stellar. My husband was in the restaurant business until he became very ill and it went belly up 3 years ago. He had invested $90 K into his business which was all of his savings and much of his retirement and we acquired some debt on top of that.  We tried to pay off the debt from the restaurant and the medical bills but we kept getting further behind and due to his illness, he was unable to work for several months.  Last year we declared joint bankruptcy. Also, my husband applied and was approved for a home loan modification. Neither of these events will make us very attractive to lenders!

Strengths and assets:

The good news is we now have a very low debt to income ratio and have been able to start saving money again. I have a small student loan payment which is my only debt. He has the home loan in his name only (purchased before we married). We live about 30 miles outside of Helena on 4 acres of rural, lake view property. We owe $125 K on the property and pay $877/mo. We have about $30K in a separate IRA account. If we wait until December of 2016, we can use that cash penalty free.

I am so glad to have stumbled on the BP community! We are looking forward to learning more on this journey and I hope that in return, we will be able to contribute well to the BP community add value to those around us.

Thank you.