Newbie to REI and BiggerPockets. Preparing for First Investment.

[Erik Schofield]

When I was in 9th grade I took a career test to see what I wanted to do when I grew up. It told me I should be a Construction Contractor. The test said that on average a Construction Contractor would make 40k/year. I thought,"That's not enough to support a future family!". I then researched what career made the most money and I found, at that time, it was an Orthodontist with an average of 300k/year. I told myself I'd be an Orthodontist and eventually reach my DREAM of retiring early and being financially independent so that I could spend as much time with my future family as possible creating memories. I'm now ending my 11th semester in my collegiate career and have decided that the Dental field isn't what I get excited about when I talk of my future, but rather investing in real estate along the way to becoming an Orthodontist and after starting my Dental career. It finally clicked with me that I don't want to be an Orthodontist, but a Real Estate Investor! Why invest in real estate later when I can now, and build a career out of it? With that being said, my wife and I want to stop renting and get into our own home as soon as we can and begin our journey into REI!

I currently work at a used car dealership that I love and will make about $3500 Gross/month as the soon to be COO. We have about $20,000 in student debt from both my wife and I, have $1,500 in savings and have a baby girl due to join our family at the beginning of July (she will be our first and we are so excited!). I've switched my major to Business and have already signed up for classes in the Fall. I've been working part-time and going to college full-time basically since I graduated high school in 2011 and am going to be working full-time and going to school full-time in the Fall to allow myself to put away as much into savings as possible before this next year.

As for now I've always been interested in buy and hold REI and I heard that for your first "house" you can purchase a 4-plex, live in one apartment and rent out the other three. We want to do this to begin our journey in REI, but have no clue on how to get started or how much we need to save up in order to start looking for our first purchase.

Now that you know a little bit about me and my future DREAM I would love any advice anyone could offer me. Thank you very much!