Eager to start my Investing journey but am $20,000 in debt.

[Nicholas Smith]

Hello Bigger Pockets! I am a new investor that is still in the educational stage currently and am very excited to start doing deals in my market (London, Canada). I Have been soaking up as much information & knowledge as I possibly can from reading books as well as listening to the Bigger Pockets Podcast every day. I want to get out there and start networking with local investors in my area and hopefully find a mentor that I can offer value to in some way. My concern is that I currently live paycheque to paycheque and can barely pay my bills every month with the amount of income I have coming in currently, therefor I feel like there’s no point in approaching any professionals in my area as I don’t have any money to my name. So I guess I have 2 main questions here. 1: Do I pay all of my debt off before getting out there and engaging in the market/community? 2: What could I do in terms of Real Estate that doesn’t require anything out of pocket?

My main concern is not being taken seriously by other investors in the area due to my financial situation. Was anybody else in a similar situation or still is that could give me some guidance? Currently I’m attacking my debt head on with everything that I’ve got, taking on a 2nd job as well to get back to par so I can begin saving my down payment for my first property! Please leave a reply with any insight or suggestions you may have!

Thanks for your time,

Nick Smith