Check out the BP Ultimate Beginner's Guide and then once you've finished that, read "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller and "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Know About Cash Flow" by Frank Gallinelli. 

Of course, you need to read The Ultimate Beginners Guide to REI here on BPIf you haven’t already, please read/listen to these books ASAP!

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Wholesaling is a good place to start with wholesaling if you haven't read it already.

If you haven't already, the Ultimate Beginner's Guide Real Estate Wholesaling gives sort of the blueprint you're asking for.Best of luck,JTM

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide would be a good book to start here. 

I guess it would depend on what you're ultimately trying to achieve - it may be a better choice to go directly for a brokerage license, or to not have any at all. 

But, designing, building, and implementing a system robust enough to handle my business would have cost me far more time (and money) than buying Quickbooks and hiring someone to set it up for me.I started with Excel, and ultimately I waited too long to make the switch to Quickbooks... then waited too long to get real professional help.

Keep in mind, however, that when you pay your 401k payments are made with after-tax funds which means you will have to pay taxes on the interest payments when ultimately distributed form the 401k, usually at retirement. 

The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Wholesaling and The Book on Flipping Houses are good places to start if you're looking for breakdowns of how the strategies work.

My ultimate goal is to develop a passive income and become financially independent so I have more time doing important things like...saving the world and searching for long lost treasures and civilizations.