A little bit about myself...

[Brian Mullen]

Hi Everyone!

I am new to REI and the BP community and just wanted to introduce myself.

My name is Brian, I am in my late 30's and I own a house. My current W2 job is a Mobile Software Engineer located in Utah. I had two goals when I was 12 years old and that was to become a programmer and to own real estate. For whatever reason, I forgot about my goal of owning real estate until a few weeks ago.

The past couple years, I have had this nagging feeling about making sure I have a proper retirement plan set up. About 6 months ago, I talked with a 401k advisor, that my company provided, and based on what I currently have in my 401k and my long term goals, I realized that I needed to make some lifestyle changes.

I started researching retirement planning and based on some recommendations, I should plan on saving 20-30% of my income. If I were to max out my 401k, I would still fall short of the recommendations for saving and so I started to look at alternatives. I started to follow a few financial websites to learn how to invest in stocks. About a month ago, I read an article that compared the ROI of stocks vs REI and that is when I remembered my childhood goal of owning real estate.

I came across a few websites about how doctors use their extra income to invest in real estate and I found that to be very interesting. At that point, I knew that REI was the direction I wanted to go down for my retirement. One of the websites mentioned BiggerPockets.com and so I started to read various posts and listen to the podcast.

I have now been researching REI for the past couple weeks. Whenever I get a few minutes of free time, I am learning more and more about REI. My wife thinks I am crazy with how much time I am spending on research but she is very supportive of getting into REI.

My end goal is to have a comfortable retirement where I can travel with my family whenever I want so that I can experience all the various cultures (stateside and international). I am a foodie at heart and would love the chance to try all the delicious foods that are available. I would also like to make sure my family is taken care of if something were to happen to me.

Based on my limited research and my goals, I have decided that investing for cashflow would be the best route to take. I plan to start with rentals targeting, but not limited, to small multifamily (2-4 units) properties with a long term goal of getting into larger apartment complexes.

My current action plan is to take about 2 months for education. I attended a meetup about a week ago and have plans to attend another in about a week. I am actively listening to the BiggerPockets podcast, attending webinars, reading the forums based on keywords, and reading several books. I have finished reading "Rich Dad Poor Dad" and "The Book On Rental Property Investing" and just started reading "The Book On Investing in Real Estate with No and Low Money Down". 

After my planned education time, I will evaluate where I am at and proceed with next steps and/or pivot as needed. There is a lot of talk about "analysis paralysis" and so to help me not get stuck in that cycle, I am moving forward on other things outside of research. 

I have met with a lawyer about estate planning and asset protection and I am in the process of getting a trust, will and an LLC structure set up. I know there is a lot of discussion about the pros/cons around LLC's but I have decided to take this route because I feel that is what will work best for me.

I plan on locating a CPA after I get my estate planning done in order to make sure that I plan appropriately for my investments. Next, I am going to talk with my local credit union and some other banks to learn more about their requirements for REI. At this time, I hope to be confident enough to pull the trigger on my first property and will continue my progress by finding a real estate agent.

I look forward to learning more from everyone and I hope to meet some of you in person at meetups.