Big caution when you leave your job weather your choice or theirs you must pay all of it back within 30 days.

@Lisa GarrettYes, a self directed IRA is just like the IRA you have, but with different investment choices.  

Its hard for me to believe any true investor would past this up and if they did either they do not know what they were doing or they arent investors at all.So the 70% rule definitely has a place in flipping but it is not the ultimate determination of a deal. along side a few other considerations the 70% rule is a great tool, but like all tools they are only valuable when the are used correctly

Have you read Brandon's ebook Ultimate Guide to REI ?

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out the The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing and The BiggerPockets Podcast.

Keep pushing forward; no venture no gain...Kudos,MaryCall me crazy, but I believe that you DO need a few naysayers in your circle.Some may even call these people "haters".For me, this is the ULTIMATE motivation.

My wife and I are making the conscious choice to delay purchasing the home we want until our real estate has grown enough to support it. 

Ultimately I want to get into buy and hold but that is a little further down the line.  

Be sure to read through The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Real Estate Investing to help you get started.Also - be sure to check out House Flipping: The Best of BiggerPockets.

The flame was just recently reignited and I'm fighting the urge to over analyze everything daily and I have to say that BP has played an incredible role in my action thus far and for that my future success will be forever indebted to both Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner and the countless other seasoned investors imparting all their experiences with us.My REI goals are to focus initially on building my wholesaling business and build an incredible marketing system that allows me to do 1 to 2 deals a month until I can save and reinvest enough capital to be able to turn my strategies to fix and flips and ultimately build an incredible RE portfolio that brings in enough cash flow every month that will replace my income for my full time job so that I could focus that 240hrs/month on my REI business and to continue in my pursuit in attaining my Doctorate in Nursing.