My Goals as a New RE Investor

[Craig M Chavis Jr]

To all:

My name is Craig and I just returned to Columbus after living in Washington DC and Latin America for several years. I am just beginning my REI journey and as a believer in setting goals / affirmations, I wanted to share them as my first post:

"I desire to invest in real estate to increase my monthly cash flow so that I can achieve financial independence, seize control of my life, and build wealth to pass along to my future family" 

With this in mind, I plan to purchase a 4-unit property and house hack (live in one unit and rent out the others) by the end of 2019 / early 2020. I would also prefer to invest in B/C rated neighborhoods and am still in the process of identifying these exact places.

So far, I have found the Columbus RE investing community to be simply amazing and I am thankful to have been referred to this website - there is so much great material here.

My question is, how did everyone else define their goals / start their investment journey?