SEA Orientation

Hello all,

Well, the orientation went pretty much as I was led to expect. They help you create a business plan, marketing plan, teach you about basica accounting, legal business formation and some other stuff about how to get any business started.

One thing I was glad to hear was that the instructors are actual small business owners and not government employees. So there is some real experience talking and not just "theory" from somebody who has been sucking on the government tit all their professional lives.

I didn't turn in my application to get started yet because I still haven't decided if that is the right path for me or not.

Emotionally I am leaning towards being a Real Estate Agent since I my plan and my passion involve Real Estate Investing for my future. The challenge is that the logic isn't there just yet. I haven't figured out how to support my family for the 6 months or so it will take for me to start receiving somewhat steady commission checks.

Logically the forerunner right now is investing the money into the career advisor to help me find an high paying IT Management job and then use the proceeds to pay down debt, save an emergency fund, save an investing fund and then start investing. The downside even logically, is that this plan doesn't fit into my Goals. At most we will be able to pay ourselves $650 a month, which means it will take us roughly 52 months to pay off our debt, save a $15k emergency fund and then save $20k to begin investing with. That doesn't leave much time to turn that $20k investment fund into $15,000 monthly passive income form Real Estate and Stocks by the end of 60 months.

When I run the numbers on becoming an R.E. Agent and be pretty conservative, after 6 months I should be closing on 1 property per week (per the RE Broker I spoke with) and even taking 40% out for taxes/fees/etc... we can still put away $2,000 per month. By doing that even including no income at all during the first 6 months (even though I should see commision checks after 90 days just not really steady until 6 months) we should be able to pay off everything, save that emergency fund and have $20k investment money by the end of month 39. That is a full year earlier then if I was an IT Manager. Plus I will have been in the market that entire time so by the time I am financially ready to invest I will also be knowledgeable enough to invest well. Plus I will have over $3,500 a month or more to put into my investing every month even after I raise that $20k. Doing it this way gives me 21 months to turn $20k into $15,000 per month passive income.

Now I know that since I am emotionally attached to the RE agent scenario it's really easy to make the numbers say what I want them to but it just seems to be more logical to me somehow.

UGH!!

Until next time...

Eric