Didn't mean to imply that you would put the screws to unsuspecting folks. But there are dirtbags out there who will and won't think twice about it--all for the quick, easy buck.

For starters, check out a website called realestateinvestor.com. There are a few tons of information/education on that website (although more and more it seems to be another venue for some folks to advertise the products/services they have to sell. If you look beyond all that you'll see that there is a terrific amount of info on this site. Things like wholesaling, lease-options, short sales--odds are that you haven't heard of any of these things and that's ok.) Plenty of real estate investing blogs out there as well with some real life experiences.

I suspect that if you can channel some of your drive and sit down for a couple of hours a day and read and learn about real estate stuff for the next few weeks/months and then take action on what you have learned, you will be very well postioned (enviably so) to be financially free by age 30 if not sooner (just my opinion).

Now, I am FAR from a real estate expert, but I truly think that this is a wonderful time to, at the very least, do some serious research in this field to see if it might interest you.