I too started to look towards Real Estate Investing as a way to build Wealth for my retirement, more than 30 years ago.

I am in the Army stationed at Fort Carson I plan on retiring in 6 years I want to start my estate investing now so I can keep providing for my family. 

I'm interested in building a buy and hold portfolio to create some residual income for when I retire from my teaching position in about 5-7 years.

Rather, it is a means for you to take existing retirement savings and diversify from market based assets into solid assets such as real estate.  

I've dabbled some money into different retirement vehicles prior to me learning about RE so it would be really helpful if I could get in touch with a company that would be willing to transfer all those monies into a single account that I could use for investing in RE.

Purchasing properties where you can add value will also accelerate the time period to "retirement".Side note...if you can't sell them quickly for $235k, they are not worth $235k.Well done and keep us posted.

Im a new investor, trying to learn this business to achieve financial freedom and have a great retirement.

Remember you not going to make retirement funds just to take care of your immediate family people but other family members.  

That said, I am reconsidering a bit since I have some retirement funds that I am thinking of puttinginto a rental, a buy/fix/hold or even lease option property.

The annual contribution is $53,000 plus $6000 for those age 50 which is aggregated among all self-employed retirement plans.