Post about me (same as my "bio")

[Tom Gillotti]

I am a 34 year old married, father of one. My job requires us to move every few years and we decided to purchase a house at each location as a rental/investment property. This all started by accident when, in 2012, we attempted to sell the house we own in Florida and quickly realized we were upside-down. We decided to rent the house instead of taking a loss and have been pretty happy with the results thus far. The other house we own is in Texas (property taxes in Texas are ludicrous, by the way...) and are expecting to move soon and will be looking to rent as we've only owned the house for a little over a year. Both properties are/were new builds.

Why we're here: We want to grow! Like most other people here (I assume), we want to create more streams of income. While it would be nice to have completely passive income, I understand that real estate is not fully hands off and I'm ok with that. Ultimately, we would like to learn more about real estate and start to scale our business and get it to a point where we surpass our income from our current job(s).

The goal: The current contract I have with my job takes me through 2024. I would like to continue to scale to the point where we have matched my income by 2024 and allow us the option to walk away at that time and focus solely on our real estate portfolio. I don't believe that I would actually walk away at that point as there are other benefits to remaining with my current employer for several more years. I estimate that my income should be around $130k by 2024.

Ten year plan: In 2028 I hope to be fully retired from my current employer. My son will be 15 years old and will be in high-school. We will likely find ourselves back in Florida but nothing is set in stone. I am from Buffalo, NY and my wife is from Northwest Arkansas. Both of us love Florida and constantly find ourselves drawn back there. While we anticipate Florida to be our homestead we also love to travel and would like to be mobile for at least part of the year (possibly RV travel). Ultimately, we want FREEDOM!

My four 'F's': Family, Finances, Football, Freedom

Family: God, wife and son, family members, true friends

Finances: Money can be evil, but it is a means. I love to talk about finances and to help others gain more understanding. I am far... FAR from a master and am always looking to learn more.

Football: I am a life-long Buffalo Bills fan. It's a passion. It's a religion. It's life.

Freedom: I appreciate the freedoms we have as Americans but I also desire true freedom from the schedule of others. I want to be on my own schedule and answer only to God, myself... and my wife!

I will update this as I find more information that will be useful. Hopefully this paints a picture of who I/we am/are.