22 years old... Where do I start?

[Colton Roan]

     Hi everyone! My name is Colton Roan. I am 22 years old and live in the small town of Elmira, NY. You probably have no idea where that is or know of the fact that Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain) lived and died here. Where you may have heard of is either Corning, NY (Home of Corning Inc.) or Watkins Glen, NY (Wine and NASCAR Racetrack). I'm about 45 mins from either of those towns! Besides those attractions not much goes on in our small town. I am completely debt free and have minimal expenses due to my girlfriend and I budgeting and being very thoughtful on what we spend our money on! Besides work and doing CrossFit we both read a lot and try to keep spending to a minimum. We both are wondering what our next steps in life should be.

     Recently the idea of passive income and having money work for me instead of myself working for it was brought to my attention. A specific author many of you probably know of wrote a certain book that I read you may have also read yourselves is the culprit of this! You guessed it... the one with two dads! Rich Dad Poor Dad!! After reading this book I have picked up a couple of Robert Kiyosaki's other books and have begun to speak with some locals in my area who flip houses or own many properties themselves. You could say that Rich Dad Poor Dad got me Hook Line and Sinker with the idea of passive income! The idea of eventually working with who I want and being able to weave my way through all of the noise and become financially independent has me obsessed! I am so eager to learn everything and anything about finances and money in general that I dying to know what I should make my plan of attack for the next 5-10 years! I currently have about $5,000 saved up that I am wondering what to do with to start my pipeline towards a passive income through real estate in the future. Any advice is welcomed! Thank you so much for reading!