All Forum Posts by: Jeremy S.

@Aaron Knoll

 Man the last two pieces of your post are hard to swallow. I am young and have 0 plans on kids for at least 5 to 8 years, but I would hope I would not regret them. I am trying to plan my life so I have no regrets. It sounds like you and your wife needs to get on the same page. Get a plan together and make some sacrifices together to make some changes. I hope you find your way out of the rat race that 99% endure. It sounds like you are driven to take action and do so. Best of luck to you! Stay positive and keep your head up!

@Katie Douglas

I can relate to some of your frustration. I am a 24 year old recent college grad and have over 70K in student loan debt. However that being said, when I graduated with my first degree I realized it would not bring me the kind of lifestyle I wanted so I stayed in college full-time taking 18 credits and worked full-time in a juvenile detention center making less than 30K a year. I paid for most of my second bachelor's degree in a highly desired field. I graduated a year and a half later at the top of my class and nearly tripled what I was making a year. I budget well, I keep my expenses down, and I save a lot of my money to start to use towards REI.

If you sit around feeling sorry for yourself this is not the forum to be on. You need to get your mindset right first before tackling something like REI or anything for that matter. Life is all about your mindset. I am really big into the law of attraction- not so much thoughts only can provide wealth or whatever, but actual positive mindset, do well by others, and work hard and anything can happen for you. I do not tell this story much, but 6 months before I graduated I knew what job I wanted with a specific company that would allow me to save up a lot on money so I could finally start investing. I had been in contact with the guy who does the hiring to make sure my name was out there. I typed up an offer letter with X amount of dollar salary and dated it December 16th 2014 addressed to me from that company and signed it not knowing if or when I would have an interview or if they would even have a spot open for me. I had the interview a few days before that date and got the call that day. I truly believe things can go your way. I am passionate about it.

That being said, I sacrifice a lot with my job I travel and work 60 to 70 hours a week, but I know this is the road I have to take to success. I tell my friends the hours I work or how I have to move around the US a lot and they think I am crazy, but I know where I am heading there is not a doubt in my mind. It is not convenient that I have $70k in school loan debt and my payments are $800 a month, but that is part of the fun and part of the challenge. Honestly I had $55k in student loan debt after my first degree and if I didn't have any I think I would of settled for making $30,000 or $40,000 a year. It would of been harder for me to get into REI if that was my path even though it "looks" easier. Our generation is really messed up in the fact that they want something for nothing. Go out and get it. It sounds like you are more informed than most people at our age, but do something with that knowledge. Let it fuel your fire. Best of luck to you!

Awesome! Congrats. I bet it feels so good to close on your first deal.

I am sure this has been posted in the past, but I want to know if other people have had problems with close friends of family thinking you're crazy or money hungry or whatever it may be for getting into real estate. I have been super interested in successful people for years. I read investment books all the time throughout high school and college. I of course want the things money can bring, but I am more interested in building something up and seeing it grow. In the past I have built websites from scratch on the side while working full-time and going to college full-time. I built Twitter accounts with tens of thousands of followers to try to get into online advertising. There is something just so satisfying about doing something like that to me. I really did not make much money with either and lost interest after I built them up. There is something appealing to me about growing a business or your assets. I think a lot of it is proving to myself that I can do it, and money just happens to be a consequence of putting in the work. Real estate has been a fascination for me and it is something I am going to stick to. I plan to buy my first property (buy and hold) within a year.

Anyways, I constantly read and talk about personal finance and real estate

to the people around me since I finally graduated college and have a good steady income. My family (mother, stepfather, sister) on the other hand think I am money hungry, obsessed with money, think I am too good for people, etc because this is a focus to me. It is completely frustrating and it is to the point where I do not even talk about money period around them. The main problem is my mother. I recently bought my stepdad a truck in cash since he has provided me and my sister with everything I needed in my childhood to get by, she still thinks I want to build wealth and "die with a lot of money like my grandfather". Who I never knew by the way.

Basically it boils down to having a different mindset than the people around me. I do not want to be controlled by having to work for money, I never want to be poor again, and I want to be able to help those around me if they need it. I also find it so exciting to take risks and build something up. This is the reason I joined BP, I love the energy and the drive people have on here. Everyone has a mindset and a viewpoint closer to mine than those I have at home and work.

Has anyone had these problems in the beginning of their business or in real estate with people closest and has their opinions changed over time? I am at the point where I do not care what others say, I am going to go for it anyways. I am interested in if anyone else had a similar experience. Thanks! 

My all time favorite quote that literally put words to what I think success is and now is my motto that I have written everywhere - "Success is the fulfillment of potential" I saw it a few months back on Instagram by a business guy Andy Frisella I think his name was. I don't know if he originally said it, but they are powerful words to me.

Originally posted by @Chris Pasternak:

Jeremy, I'm a real estate investor and agent in the Pittsburgh area.  I'm a 27 year old real estate agent in the area.  Hit me up to discuss options in the Pittsburgh area

I will for sure. I will not be back in Pittsburgh until early October because I have some trips planned, but I would love to meet up face to face when I am in the area if you are available.

Originally posted by @Jeremy Jackson:

@Phillip Joo

See this recent post.  He may be able to give you good feedback since he's juggling investing and paying off college debt.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/12/topics/216533-how-much-debt-paydown-before-i-invest?page=1#p1444169

Pretty crazy that I was typing my response as you were typing this! Haha Thanks for your post.

I just recently joined the forums and my first post was the dilemma of paying down school loan debt vs saving capital for my first property. I have over 70k in debt. I do not regret going to college because my out of my two bachelors degrees one is very desired and is high paying. My particular job I have now I couldn't of got it without my degree and make the amount of money I do at a young age. I have always saw college as a means to and end which was being able to have a steady income to invest and eventually do whatever I want in life. I eventually want to work for myself. It sounds like you would go to college specifically to earn respect or learn things that can help you in real estate investing. My only advice is make sure that whatever degree you go for you do not take on more debt than you can pay off. My first degree was in Criminal Justice and had 55k debt making under 30k. Was not worth it. I stayed an extra year and a half and got a second degree in Safety Management and got a job before graduating that pays over 3 times what I was making. Risk v reward. I also love this field a lot more. My degrees are just a relative safety net to me and a means to bring in income to invest. I truly believe self knowledge is worth more than degrees and the information found on this forum will get you closer to your goals than most college classes would. You can achieve anything you want! Good luck!


EDIT: In addition if you are specifically interested in pursuing real estate full-time there are many ways to get started with low capital or even going a route such as getting your real estate license. I am no expert, but plenty of people have done it. It is hard to truly know what you want to do in life at your age. I made the mistake of going for CJ first, and I am not even using it. My advice if you go to college is do it for one of these reasons: pursuing a career you LOVE, a field that will help you investing such as accounting, or like me something that pays well that you kind of enjoy, but it pays well enough that you can raise funds to do real estate on the side.

Yeah property management is definitely a concern. I want to try long distance management especially if it's only one property, but I am for sure open to a property manager. I have seen a few people on here already that do property management in Pittsburgh so I will get in touch with them as I get closer to buying. As for people posting on here to get in touch to make connections I am interested however I'm finding it hard to reply to specific people on here using the app. I also do not think I can private message yet, but I will when I can. I forgot my charger for my laptop at work so I can't use it until Tuesday. Thanks everyone for reaching out. I really appreciate it, and an even more excited to start this adventure.

It would be awesome to cash flow right off the bat and be able to pay extra towards debt or reinvest. My concern I guess was getting into a property that just covered expenses and not really cash flow until down the road. Like I said though I am a newbie and haven't done enough research in my market. Yeah I see your point with the 15 percent towards retirement while holding that debt. Part of the reason I'm doing that much is to lower my taxable income as well. I guess I have come to the conclusion save more capital for my property in case the opportunity comes up instead of worrying about paying down 4% and 8% (which will be refied). At the end of the day that money is in the bank and can be applied to paying debt I decide that. Once I put it towards it though, like I'm doing now, there's no getting it back! I'm looking for to getting started and I sincerely appreciate everyone's advice.