Welcome to BiggerPockets! Always good to have more information in an intro than just a "hello" so we can point you in the right direction.
You gave great info on background to help understand where you're at! I heard a lot about how you got here, that's super awesome. It sounds like you're really ready to dedicate time and energy into educating yourself about possible investments and I love that. Most importantly you seem to have an understanding that education is the foundation to build your investments on, and that will keep you from chasing shiny objects.
If you're open to looking at some resources here's what I would recommend you start with based on what you've said:
1. My first resource recommendation for your education is this: Get a BiggerPockets audio subscription and start listening to the audiobooks available on the topics you're interested in, see what stands out to you. This is the BEST $100 you will ever spend, and if you listen to Amanda Han's tax book, you'll know it's also likely a business expense for you to write off :) https://biggerpockets.supercast.com/
My perfect way to learn from the BP books is to listen to the audio book through the subscription above, then books that really stand out to me I go old school and get the physical copy so that I can re-read it, take notes in the margins, and put post it notes so key points are easier for me to re-reference in the future. That's just my personal way of really feeling like I've comprehended the topics rather than just listened to them.
2. Given your previous career, your goals, and wanting to diversify your investments, I'm wondering if you might find value in the PassivePockets community, it's a community with private forum dedicated to passive investing in syndications. There's a free 7-day trial for you to poke around on those forums and learn more. You can also check out the PassivePockets Podcast and if you take up my first idea, The Hands Off Investor by Brian Burke is a great read. If this seems like an avenue you're interested in there's a PassivePockets conference in Columbus this May, it can be hard to find syndication conferences that is geared toward LPs (the passive investors) aren't actually just a sales funnel for one particular group
3. Beyond real estate investing, BiggerPockets Money has great episodes on how to avoid the middle class trap with your investments - ie how to structure your investment best so that they're not all locked up in accounts with penalties until you're 65. I'm happy to give you a list of episodes on that topic if you'd like! I think most BP folks would agree that you have the right idea, diversifying your assets with stocks, bonds, and real estate. Plus diversification within your real estate portfolio can be a solid strategy.
4. Meetups - Our events page is a great place to start, some areas of the country are far more active about posting their meetups than others, if you're not finding anything here meetup.com is a great place to look as well. Good to try out a few different meet ups with a few different topics and event structures and see what vibe fits you best. Really nothing can replace real life connections!
5. That brings me to five, two great ways you can make lasting connections this year - Momentum 2025 cohort starts in February, this is an 8-week virtual summit with weekly meetings and what I'm most excited about is that when you get a ticket to Momentum, you'll have the opportunity to join small accountability groups with others from Momentum. BPCON happens every October, this year is in Vegas Oct 5-7th good to get some practice in going to local networking events because BPCON is like drinking from a firehose, in the best way possible though! I will be on the sessions for Momentum, as well as attending the PassivePockets convention and BPCON myself so maybe we will cross paths. I will not be at the NY Real Estate Investors Expo but I'm sure that's a great one for meeting more people in your region!
6. Once you've thought a bit about what your ideal wholistic investment portfolio looks like, if you decide that you want some kind of more active real estate investing in the mix, I cannot recommend more getting Start with Strategy by Dave Meyer and the accompanying workbook The Strategy Planner. I've been very slowly investing over the last 5 years, and I cannot tell you how much of an impact this book had on me when I read it last September. I was feeling really overwhelmed with thinking about what real estate strategy I wanted to pursue and I was going in circles for over a year not making a decision. I read this book, and within 3 weeks of finishing it had my next deal under contract because it helped me make my strategy decision and feel good about finally acting on it
Happy to help if you have any more specific questions. Again, welcome to the community!
