Help! Inheritance, in debt, and no financial knowledge.

[Jon Stennes]

So, I lied (a little) I have listened to the BP podcast and BP money podcast. 

My father recently passed away, he left behind a modest amount of assets. I am 1 of 4 children, who constitute all of his beneficiaries. He leaves behind a house (a semi-recent purchase / unfinished passion project), a 401a, another retirement plan, and life insurance. 

I am a 29 year old, 2.5 years out of college, bachelor's degree, 2 years married, and a first time father of a 1 year old. My wife is unemployed (by our choosing) I have no financial background, mostly raised by a divorcee mom who lived paycheck to paycheck to keep the lights on. 

I had never expected to "come into money", I have no savings, no assets (other than a car worth 3k). I expected to tread water for the rest of my life. Since my father's death in July, I have started to educate myself, and unpack the financial decisions he had made (he never really talked money / investing). 

From this point, I will try to lay out what I'm looking at, and I post this in hopes that I can find some direction, tips, advice, or critique. 

What we have (wife +myself):

- ~5k in collections

- ~75 - 90k in debt. Mostly my student loans. 

- Bad credit! 

- car payments 

- a 19 year old jeep (my daily driver, paid in cash) 

- incoming assets (probably equal to around 100k)

What we want:

- more family time ( I work two jobs, neither one in my degree field) 

- a house (currently renting) 

- grow our money & turnaround our growing debt. 

- passive income

- break out of our generations-long socioeconomic status & be able to leave our children with more opportunities than we have been given. 

Questions:

- Considering real estate - buy a home for us or first buy an income property ? Or flip? Or house hack? (the latter, given our situation would probably be a turn-key duplex.)

- buy out my dad's house from my siblings? (about 80k, + emotional stuff about his unfinished projects) 

- considering investments, namely index funds. - - is this even reasonable before we are debt-free? 

Also of note:

We are currently looking to replace my job with one that equals my current two in annual income. We are willing & actively looking to relocate for the right career. This may mean a new town where we aren't as familiar with the neighborhoods / what's hot or upcoming. 

I have a job offer that is not very different from my current income & hours, but it's in my field and close to my wife's family (about 9 hours away in a car). Our only family here is my mother and step-dad, so there's an appeal to being close to her people, but a burden to not leave behind my aging mother. 

I welcome all of your insight, direction, and opinions. Let it roll. 

Regards, 

Broke and hopeful.