Aspiring Investor from Springfield, Illinois

[Edward Robinson]

It is a pleasure to be here on Bigger Pockets. I recently joined a few days ago and finally had some time to come introduce myself. My name is Edward Robinson, I am a truck driver for the largest intermodal carrier in North America and I have dreams of quitting my job.

It is a very common goal, I am sure. But I am only 27 years old and feel like I'm being stifled from really enjoying life due to a job that I took out of necessity. Almost all of my time is spent away from home and it really just isn't doing it for me anymore. I have a girlfriend that should be my fiancé (can't afford a ring, much less a wedding)  who wants to start a family (DEFINITELY can't afford that) a mother with hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills (I should be home taking care of her) and deteriorating friendships that I thought would last a lifetime. Trucking is effectively killing my life and I want my freedom back.

So that was how I stumbled on Real estate. I found a 'guru' who said that with no experience, I could get started in real estate doing things like wholesales to become financially free. Most of what he said I've found to be true. Everything he said and wrote was essentially a sales pitch for his mentor program where he would get 50% of all profits and you could only join the program if you paid a significant down payment with a monthly fee. So he would be getting more out of me than just half of the profits, and I couldn't see how I could make a living doing that.

Enter Bigger Pockets. When I was doing my research into this 'guru' and validating his claims, I was led to a forum discussion about this particular 'guru' here on Bigger Pockets. Someone had mentioned that all the info the 'guru' was offering could be found here for free. What a deal! So I immediately signed up and now I listen to the Bigger Pockets Podcast while I'm driving and try to drink in as much as I can.

As it stands now, I'm doing my best to learn as much as I can until I'm confident when I step out of my comfort zone to make my first deal. There are some issues considering I only spend collectively about 5 days a month at home, but that would be the challenge I would need to overcome if I want to achieve my goal with real estate.

The goal is to replace my income that I make from driving a truck in 5 years. If I could do that, I would be able to spend my time at home with my family, as i should be. I can watch my potential children grow up and be there instead of being an absentee father. I can ease my mother's life a little by helping around her house. The ultimate goal with my mother is to help pay off her medical bills, or at least get her into a handicap accessible home. I want to do so many things for the people in my life, but at the moment I have to try and figure things out for myself.

I do apologise for the long post. I don't get a whole lot of time to myself while I'm on the road, so I tried to introduce myself, my goals, and my situation as best I could since it'll be at least a day before I can respond to anything. It's a pleasure to start my journey here and I hope to one day share my success with others. Here's to hoping!

[Edward Robinson]

 @Jeremy Hart , I would appreciate that immensely. Right now, I'm more worried about learning the basics because I would hate to approach someone and not even know what an SFH is or what an NOI is, much less how to find it. I do know that at some point I'll have to just dive Right in and having someone I can talk to who can potentially ease that initial jump would be invaluable.