I have worked in the nuclear electrical generation industry since 1991 (6 years Navy Nuc Pwr prior to 1991 – submarines) and I am currently a licensed Reactor Operator. I live in San Diego, CA, but the plant shut down (San Onofre Nuc Gen Sta) is forcing me to move out of state. I may end up in either Kansas (near Burlington) or Pennsylvania outside of Pittsburgh.

My experience in real estate is purchasing 2 homes (sold the first home to help buy the second home) and refinancing home number 2. Even though I'm being forced to move out of California I would like to keep my house and rent it out (Goal #1), but my wife and I are looking at big chunk of negative cashflow (~$700/mos). My other goals, since I will soon have access to my 401K and cash balance account, is to rollover my retirement funds to a self-directed IRA and buy multi-family rental properties and sit on the cashflow until I can retire. I figure by the time I retire the bottom of the next real estate cycle (assuming the 7 year cycle bottom is around 2019/2020) will hit and if I bought the right properties, I can buy a few more multi-family rentals and retire off the passive income.

The way I found this GREAT site is while I was doing research on self-directed IRA's and real estate investing, I stumbled on biggerpockets.com. I my hope is to draw from the vast amounts of experience here to buy good rental properties. I have had enough of the gurus, which is painful topic for me, but that's for another time.

VIOLIN TIME – Break out the tissue:

If I am blessed w/ a new job it will require me to be in class for about a year. For "me" a new reactor operators license will take a lot of studying. I work w/ some super smart guys that breeze through – I am not a super smart guy, in fact the last time I did this I spent 10 hours a day in class/studying (including weekends). Depending on the nuc generating station's training program, the pass rate can be as low as 40%. So I don't see a lot of time to invest in real estate until I am fully qualified.

So my first question to you real estate investor smart guys – is it hopeless for me until I get my RO license? I'm excited because it looks to me that we are at the bottom of the RE cycle and now that I am getting laid off I can rollover my 401K and cash balance into a self-direct IRA. I'm bummed because I have to be in class again.

Thanks for reading.

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