Thread: PLEASE HELP!! I need a mentor/teacher.

Good morning everyone!

My name is David and I am new to this forum, and just by reading some threads I can tell that the members on here seem quite helpful and thoughtful in their responses, which is more than I can say for some other forums I am involved with. This is why I am posting here because I hope I can get some thoughtful responses in return.

I will start with a little about myself, I am 28/married with a 5 year old boy and a little girl that is almost 10 months old. I am in retail management as a profession but I have always had a huge passion for real estate along with my father. I have spent the last few years really researching what I wanted to do with my life as far as careers go, and have just recently realized that I was chasing jobs with the promise of money, when I should have been focused on what kind of investing I could do with the income I currently make.

Thats when the lightbulb came on and I started looking at real estate investing, specifically for cashflow not capital gains. I have read much of Robert Kiyosaki's articles and books and love his line of thought. I bought his cashflow 101 game and am completely immersed in it all. I realized that I had "stupid debt" and have been putting forth intense effort to get it all paid off. Right now I am in line to be completely debt free by April 2012, other than my current mortgage on my residence. It is with that great relief of pressure from my dumb debt that I plan on pursuing this journey of investing.

I am not content with owning a few properties and that is it, I plan on pusuing and creating a multimillion dollar real estate portfolio OVER TIME, so that I may enjoy the financial freedom that brings, and enjoy some of the spoils that life has to offer. I have been looking everywhere to find people to get in touch with that actually HAS this kind of wealth, all I seem to find are people trying to "sell" me a system, or people that are just regular working class people that are in more dumb debt than I am trying to tell me how to invest! I need someone that has made this journey already and has been extremely succesful at it, who would be able to be a mentor for me, even if it is just as an email contact to trade emails with, or someone locally that I could meet with periodically to talk and learn from.

I live near Kansas City Missouri and would love to find someone close by, but even if the individual is thousands of miles away, the value that they would be to me personally could not be put into words.

So I am sorry this quickly turned into a novel, but I just wanted to get my honest story out so everyone can give me whatever advice they deem fit. I appreciate the time that everyone took to read my post, and I really look forward to hearing any responses that come my way.

Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

Sincerly,
David

Hey David -- welcome to L4P. Very good intro; however, I encourage you to do a lot of searching here, reading, and embracing a lot of what the members say here. If you give to this community, you will get A LOT out of it. Before asking for a mentor, I encourage you to get to know some of the members, post some info, get into some discussions, etc.

I understand where you're coming from, but it looks like you're looking for someone to hold your hand and guide you along the path to wealth. That may not be your intention - but with 1 post, you're coming across that way (to me).

Contribute, and you'll make some life long friends... and a mentor or two.

J

J-

Thank you for taking the time to reply, I truley appreciate it!

First off let me say that if I came across in my statement as looking for a hand to hold, that was NOT my intention. I knew that with this being my first post I was going out on a limb a little, but I just wanted my story out there. I was just looking for advice and a knowledgable contact, and but went about it the wrong way.

I completely take to heart what you said, and I do look forward to reading and researching, and interacting with everyone on this site. I am sure there is many knowledgable individuals on this site, and I am sure I will learn plenty.

So once again thanks for the reply, and I look forward to speaking with you and all the other members more in the near future.

David

David, welcome to the L4P family! It seems like you really had a revelation. This forum is like no other. It has a variety of great, knowledgeable members! Many of these members have become very close personal friends of mine and I'm sure you will be able to meet some very great people as well! Try looking through the past threads relating to real estate. I can tell you that many members post their successful real estate projects from start to finish for others to see. They contain lessons learned and other helpful advice. You wouldn't believe the wealth of information this site contains! Good luck with everything and I hope you stick around!

SSIIICK-

Hey it's a pleasure to meet you, thanks for welcoming me! You guys are right about this forum, just so far by meeting you two I can tell a HUGE difference from the money sucking leeches I have talked with on some other forums! All they want to do is try and sell me their "sure thing" new system that will make me rich overnight! These people are out of their mind! So it's definitely refreshing coming here! I will be sure and look through all the real estate posts as well as the other sections that this site has. What a place, I am in love with some of these rides you all have. Beautiful stuff! Anyway I appreciate you taking the time to welcome me and it's a pleasure to be here!

i hope you find what you are looking for!

Hey L4MBO I appreciate it, thanks for welcoming me. By the way is that your lime lambo in the pic?

Hello Djwalto. I am currently in a more 'infant' position than you at age 27, single, and still looking to get my own first property (i.e. move out from home). I've wondered along with you and kept asking myself how to best apply my skills and ample time towards financial security and success. I don't dream of becoming fithly rich, but a net worth of around $5-7 million by retirement would be my goal. Note that is net assets including home, retirement, savings, and other capital assets. In the area I am now that is very plausible especially if you eventually get your foot into the very lucrative oil and gas industry - and from that you invest into real estate over time.

Currently I am completing my finance/accounting degree through night classes while working full time as an accountant. I plan to get my Certified General Accounting designation in around 3 years time while getting the MBA in around 4 years time. At this point my focus is to build up on liquid assets as much as possible and get into simple and safe investments that I can pull my money out of. Real estate unfortunately isn't very liquid but is generally stable over time. My old folks are into it with their main property and a rental property and lots of hard work.

As for supplementary food for thought, I highly recommend you check out Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson, a British professor of finance and economics.

Good luck with your future endeavors.