Funding My First Investment

[Andrew Bordwell]

Hello, BiggerPockets! Complete newbie here...to be exact, I'm about halfway through Brandon's "Book on Rental Property Investing" (so needless to say my excitement is through the roof, but more importantly I've committed to action and am now in the "how do I make this happen" phase) I have a ton more learning, networking, and team building to do, but I have so many questions. I live in CA, so my plan is to start investing out of state. I'm married with 2 young kids, and we just bought our first home (personal residence). One of my biggest questions currently is "what is the smartest way to start preparing to fund my first investment?" I don't have a ton of cash just sitting around. I have some in an IRA, some in a 401k, some in my employees stock account. Does it make sense to decrease my 401k contribution? (Real estate investing seems like a more effective way to plan for retirement anyway, right?) Should I pull from my IRA? (I've heard you don't get penalized if it's for RE...is that true?) I assume I'll pull from my employee stock portfolio as that's where the majority of my money is, but it also has the highest returns. I recently started investing a small amount (maybe $100-$200/month in an Acorns account for the hell of it). Should I stop that and put that money aside? Like I said, complete newbie here...would love to hear some opinions based on experience. Thank you!