I'm a new member and starting

[Troy A Washington]

Hello, my name is Troy Washington. I'm new to the community and to real estate. Just a little about myself.  I'm a Forex trader, on my own for 3 1/2 years and I'm also a full time Baker for 14 years. I work very long hours, but I still find time for my studies and trading. I also like to travel out to the Philippines, every year, with my wife and family.  

I'm interested in learning more about real estate investing. but I really don't know where to start. Where where been the best place to start. I'm looking more into renting out places and maybe whole sales. I'm learning the different approaches. Should I get my real estate licence to do this?   Any recommends for newbies? 

My 1st and longterm goals is to be Financial freedom. Meet other real estate investors, Expand my knowledge, learn how to negotiate, better communication skill,  and live where I please like Philippines with my family. 

[Jeff Stephens]

Troy, it's good to meet you, and congrats on getting started.  I'm happy to share my two cents with you.

Buying rentals and doing wholesale deals will deliver you with two very different types of results.  I'm overgeneralizing here, but rentals are about building wealth slowly, while wholesale deals will never make you rich but will give you an infusion of cash.  If your goal is financial freedom [depending on how you define that] it will much more likely come from building a portfolio of long-term rental property holds over a longer period of time.  Some wholesaling may be useful for getting started and giving you a little capital to work with, so you may see a synergy between pursuing both of those for now.  

As for getting your real estate license, it's not necessary for what I've described here (I don't have one, either).  However, it could be useful for generating some income as you learn the landscape of real estate and investing.