Greetings from newbies in Kingsville Maryland!

[Thomas Elam]

Hey,

We're in our early 50's and we talked to a financial planner at T Rowe Price last month. We told her what our desired income in retirement is and she ran the numbers. Unfortunatly we will not meet our goal on our current path with mutual funds. Fortunatly the power plant where I work was sold off by my employer to a new owner and I still have a job. I am able to roll over my 401K and portable pension funds into a Self Directed IRA. The sale of the plant turned out to be a blessing for us.

My wife Paula and I follow Dave Ramsey's advice to stay out of debt. If we can't pay with cash than we can't afford it.

We are looking for single family houses in distress in eastern Baltimore and southern Harford counties Maryland. We plan on buying 2 houses this year and 3 next year. Our goal is to own 25 houses by the time we retire.

Paula plans on leaving her job in 2 years to work as the property manager. I hope to make electricity for another 10 years. We have attended a seminar on purchasing houses in distress and are going on the MrLandloard cruise this February. I am reading more than I have in the last 20 years. We are forming our inner circle and have found people that appear to know what they are doing.

In the end it all comes down to everything belongs to God and we just manage it for the short time we are here.

Tom Elam