Way behind in Woodland, CA

[Wendy S. Yu]

I'm taking the slow and steady approach, working my way through podcasts, blog posts, and books to get up to speed on the language and practices of REI.

I'm finding myself in the strange position of being what's often called a displaced homemaker. Some unusual circumstances (that at least included the positives of international living) equal: a spouse who's only been finding employment overseas and a contract that ends in 2 years with no idea of what's next, no career for me, kids growing up (one in Germany, one still in high school) at the same time my dad has moved in and needs some caregiving, no retirement to speak of for DH and myself, but dad's generosity has provided us with a now-paid-off SFR via no-interest personal loan payable if at some point dad has to move out and go into assisted living.

Anyway, it all adds up to - we're kind of financially ok today and tomorrow is looking mighty worrisome. I'm having trouble finding a W2 job (which I'd like so I can qualify for new home loans to start this REI ball rolling) due to being out of the workforce for so long. DH may get some inheritance when his mother passes and we'd like to use that for investing.

REI came up as a plausible option after DH went on for a while about starting a food services business; neither of us have experience or frankly, passion, for that, so I nicely nixed it and suggested rental properties.

So, now I'm the point person!

I need my husband to come home, recuperate from unrewarding employment, we need to be able to support our kids and ourselves and my dad (somewhat, he's got some pension), and we need to be smart and prepared.

My sense tells me that my area is not necessarily a great place to start, so I'm looking at markets outside CA, but I'm going to use my town as a case study so I can become familiar with all the macro/micro analyses and learn how to communicate with the professionals in this area. 

Thank you to @Joshua Dorkin and @Brandon Turner for the podcasts (and everything else that is here on BP that I've only just started exploring).