Hello BP forums, my name is Oscarr Douglas, I am 29, and I live in Lubbock TX. I am making this post for a few reasons but before I dive in, I want to give you a heads up that it may be a little long. Having said that, let us start from the beginning. My parents are educators. I love and respect what they do but I learned early on that I did not want to follow in their foot steps. I didn't think much of it at the time but looking back I saw the financial struggles they went through. I don't know if I ever had a conversation with my parents about their finances until I was well into my 20s. I still haven't had that conversation with my father beyond surface level chatter. My parents did tell me at an early age that they couldn't afford to send me to college. I guess this went in one ear and out of the other because when it was time for me to leave for university, I decided to go to one of the most expensive options available to me. I will say that I was a preferred walk-on for the basketball team, so that helped me ignore the tuition cost, but stupid is still stupid. Signing a loan for $30,000 at 18 years old would eventually lead to the university recommending that I drop out. I probably thought about it for two minutes before I agreed with them and left school. Over the next year, I would experience a level of shame, depression, and lack of purpose that I had never felt before. I had done what I was told to do, go to school, take out loans, and the rest would take care of itself. I had somehow failed those simple steps. I made matters worse when I didn't pay back my school loans. I had totally forgot about them and they went to collections. Thinking I was good to go, the calls began and I didn't know what to do so I ignored them. I would do this for the next year or two. I call it god but you may call it divine intervention, either way, I randomly came across Dave Ramsey. I was driving to Houston and the only radio station available was playing his show. It was the first time that I had heard anyone go in depth about finances. I was hooked right away and would listen as often as I could. It would be another year before I made any changes to my lifestyle but it was the kick I needed. I eventually bought and read Total money makeover and started to implement some of his techniques. During this time I was engaged and was about 6 months away from getting married and I remember having a conversation with my now wife about how she wanted to buy a house. By this time, she was well aware of my debt and my lack of responsibility in paying it. I felt that buying a house at that time was a poor decision and I brought that to her. This was not a easy conversation to have, in fact, it has been one of the hardest we have ever had. My wife graduated undergrad and PA school debt free. She had help from her parents and grandparents but she also worked multiple jobs during this time. Telling her she couldn't purchase a home was a slap to her face. I had disrespected all the hard work she had put in over the previous 4-5 years. It was at this time that I called into the Dave Ramsey show. I explained my side of the story... but as a wedding gift Dave Ramsey paid for us to go through Financial Peace University. I don't agree with everything Dave Ramsey teaches but I believe it is the best place to start if you have zero financial literacy. We would spend the next two months going through the course and then the following six months paying off my school debt. We used all of my wife's savings and any extra money from our jobs. We were very strict and lived on coupons and sales. I had messed around with robinhood and acorns while in college but never really committed to it. Once we were debt free, I felt this was our time to begin building wealth. My wife had been investing in her retirement account but we hadn't done anything outside of that. It was during this time that I found Biggerpockets and started listening to the podcast. It was eye opening, unlike the stock market, real estate seemed to make more sense. That was the end of 2017 through 2018. I apologize, I know that was a lot. If you have made it this far, we can now talk about our current situation. My wife still works as a PA and I became a Realtor a year ago in June. My wife makes around $120,000 and last year I made $9,500 total for the business. I did not pay myself because taxes terrify me and I wasn't sure what I should pay myself. We have roughly $70,000 in two different retirement accounts. About $17,000 in cash that is split between our savings, checkings, and rental accounts. Our primary is worth roughly $175,000 with a mortgage balance of around $115,000. Our rental is worth about $140,000 with a mortgage balance of around $95,000. We want to jump more into Real Estate but there doesn't seem to be any real estate meet ups in my area. Rates have jumped and real estate prices still seem to be too high. My lack of knowledge and connections makes me feel like we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. I figured BP forums would be a great place to start considering I am pretty shy and have no idea how to start a meet up. I don't even know if I am qualified to start one. I know it was long but if you made it this far, thank you. I will read and respond to anyone who decides to comment. Thank you again and have an amazing day!
