Our first steps...

As I mentioned, we never gave up faith in God over these past three years. We knew he would bless us with a child. We just didn't know when and how. So in the meantime, we started looking into money streams that would be consistent while allowing us the freedom to raise our children together. In other words, we were looking to get out of the rat race. Jeff started by going to real estate school on the weekends. He finished quickly and passed the test. Shortly after the test, he began talks with specific realtors regarding hanging his license in their office. We quickly came to find out that it was a viable idea, but in order to match his very nice salary he was making at the time, he would have to do this full time. And the first year doesn't usually bring any profit. But, again we turned it into a positive experience. We both decided to continue reading about real estate but on the investment/landlord end. We spoke extensively about how we would handle being partners in real estate deals, and we came to find out we were both very excited about it. More importantly, we felt if we invested right now, we could pass these investments and/or profits on to our children. We also decided if we enjoyed owning and renting real estate, it could be an option for our children to work for themselves at some point. For one entire year, we read books, went to seminars and hired a real estate coach. All along, we continued to try to conceive and we began discussing adoption options. Our real estate kept our minds preoccupied, but more importantly it really brought us closer together as a couple. Hopefully,in my next excerpt, I will have links to some sites to help you if you are interested in educating yourselves on keeping your money for yourself and getting out of the rat race. I am in contact with those companies to create a working relationship with them.