College Student Learning the Ropes!
Hi everyone! Not sure how detailed these intro posts are supposed to be, but I'll go ahead and be thorough so if anyone ever wants to know about me they can refer back to this intro post.
So! My name is Chris, I'm currently a 23-year-old college student in Los Angeles, California, studying Visual Effects for the entertainment industry (i.e., special effects for movies -- y'know, blowing stuff up). I got interested in investing and money through reading Tim Ferriss's "The 4 Hour Workweek" and shortly after "Rich Dad Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. I'm sure pretty much everyone here has already read them as well but if not then I highly recommend them as they changed my life, literally.
I'm definitely a newbie, as I have only been learning about money and investing for a year now. After doing research and soul-searching, I eventually decided that real estate is the most interesting and exciting wealth vehicle for me. I am also hugely interested in entrepreneurship and building a company, and it is my dream to one day take a company public.
On the real estate side, I am a huge believer in Buy And Hold investing, and I worship at the cashflow throne. I'm not very interested in flipping properties, as I'd rather hold on to them and build my empire. What I am most interested in is the commercial side; I am fascinated by huge apartment complexes and my main goal is to own thousands of units in apartment buildings.
Currently my main interest is creative financing. I'm a very technical person, I always have to know the nitty gritty about how things work behind the scenes. Pair that with being a broke college student, and I've decided that creative financing is the best thing for me to learn at this stage! I've been reading every book I can get my hands on for the last year or so, and I'm currently almost done listening to the Bigger Pockets's "The Book on Investing in Real Estate With No (And Low) Money Down", and I love it. I've already gotten tons of great ideas from it and I like the challenge of coming up with creative ways to put deals together.
What I'm looking to get out of this site: I'm sure my goals will evolve over time, but right now I'm looking for two things. First, I want to know what education options are available. I've looked into several of the "guru"-offered classes (such as Rich Dad Education, Peak Potentials, etc), but I'm not convinced. I'm fine with paying for education, but I've found that most information is available for free with just a bit of effort. But I'd like to know if others have recommendations on impactful classes that offer extraordinary bang for my buck.
The other thing I would love to find is a mentor. I know every newbie is looking for a mentor, and I'm no different. I would really thrive under the guidance of my own "Rich Dad", someone I could bring deals to that would help me evaluate them, etc. One thing that I really struggle with at the moment is that I feel like I don't have anything to offer a mentor in return for his/her help, though. Perhaps I could include them in deals or something like that. If anyone has suggestions or stories about how their mentor/mentee relationships have worked in the past, I'd love to hear them.
Well that's all for now, thanks for reading my introduction novel. Hope everyone has a wonderful day, and happy investing!
~Chris Burgess