Hi all,
Here I am again. This time I need advice from an investor’s prospective. My boyfriend and I have set a goal, which we have to accomplish in ten years from now. Our financial goal is to buy 2- 4 rental properties a year hoping to have a combined amount of $10K in monthly cash flow in 10 years. By this time, we want to be able to retire from corporate America, start my wedding planning business, and my boyfriend wants to grow his wedding photography business, and of course, we both want to keep investing in real estate. We want to have the option to live life on our own terms.
On the other side, we also want to start a family in three years from now. But before that happens, we want to have at least one rental property. Everything sounds perfect in my mind, but there are decisions I need to make now that would affect the results tomorrow.
I just graduated from college three weeks ago, and I'm having a hard time deciding how to start my REI career. Here is why i'm struggling to decide: I studied Journalism and Marketing, but sadly, I don't like journalism, but I like marketing, public relations, and event planning. I don't mean to confuse any body with my career orientation, as I mentioned before, my passion is wedding planning and event design. But this is something I don't want to do for a living because I know the financial struggle that comes with it. I want to do it once I reach financial freedom. If I have to take any risks now, I rather take them in REI. For now, I just need to develop my professional skills so I can increase the opportunities to make more money to invest it. The problem is that I don't know which route to take; which route gets me faster to my financial goals.
If I take the route of finding a job in public relations, marketing or event planning, I would have to intern for 6 months to a year, because these entry level positions require at least a year of full time experience in the field. Once i get that entry level job, I would start making about $600+/week. The bad side of this is that I feel that I instead of spending those months interning, I could be making more money to invest in my first property.
On the other side of the coin, I am currently working in a fine dining restaurant. Celebrity chefs own the company, and they offer me great opportunities to grow and make lots of money in the hospitality industry. Surprisingly, as a back waiter, starting from now, I would be making more than $600/week. The good thing about this is that I don't need to do any internship to start. If I study all the food and gain extensive knowledge about wine, I could increase my earnings to up to $100K in 5 years or so. Of course, this requires a lot of time, and study. The more I know, the more I make, and the more I work. The bad side of this is that even though I would be making more money, I don't like the lifestyle: working long hours during nights, holidays, and weekends. Also, I won't be able to eat/exercise properly, and I won't have time to spend it with family/boyfriend because when I work they sleep. I won't have time to study more about REI or drive around areas I want to invest. People in this industry have little to no life on their own, but they make good money.
On a side note, my boyfriend and I don't live together yet, but we are getting prepare to do so. So we made a preliminary budget based on a combined monthly income of $4800. Assuming that we both make $600/week. We estimated our monthly expenses including vacations, and could easily save $24K a year after expenses.
As an investor, which route would you recommend me to take and why? Should I focus more in making more money now to start investing faster, or is it better to focus on getting a job that would allow me to create the time to keep learning about REI?
I apologize for the long post, but this is my last resource to get advice and finally decide what to do. Thank you in advance for your advices.
