[AdamL]

I'd like to look at all the financial vehicles, including poker play, and consider based on the returns and volumes generally needed for each option which vehicles would be most appropriate at given stages in a persons life, given their preferences too.

The goal is find an overall financial plan for someone taking their first real bit of income from a low income full-time job and an apartment to a retired person.

Looking at the characteristics of the different wealth building vehicles I can make some observations, generally.

Good poker play (not necessarily expert, at this level) seems to yield the highest return with the least risk (provided you're playing well, and you have the appropriate 300BB bankroll) for small quantities of money. This makes it particularly useful to students who have a lot of time on their hands and not so much money. It demands a high degree of attention and management, so a person without a lot of time will not be able to work with poker.

Real estate seems to be the best choice for someone with a fair amout of cash (for a downpayment) and a fair income (for mortgage loan payment.) It doesn't require a lot of time to manage, although if you count the income you need to pay the mortgage it takes a fair amount of labour.

Money Market instruments are pretty useless unless you have ENORMOUS volumes of money to work with -- i.e. you're a bank. I can see them as alternative to savings accounts for people who have no use for their spare cash, but will need it in less than a year.

I won't get into bonds. Someone else feel free to point out the merits of them.

Equities are great if you are looking at a large sum of money to work with. I don't think they are worth the amount of time you have to spend researching for the average person to bother with. Such people should just grab a mutual fund. The mutual fund is an obvious long-term, low maintenance investment vehicle. I think it's a great way of growing surplus wealth that you plan on using in more than ten years, mostly because there aren't many other options. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

There is stuff like buying real estate to rent. There is buying small businesses in the community, to control that sort of everyday wealth flow.

There is the career route. Investing in one's career can be a great thing if you're young and ambitious -- payoffs are huge. You need to pick where you're going. Know the industries that shape our modern economy. The big boys:

The big money is in energy, but it's high revenue (ROI isn't high percent, it's high volume) and it's not something you throw $10k into. It's for the really, really big boys: the government, major corporations in the country, extremely wealth families, financial institutions, etc. If you can get a powerful position in the energy industry, you're set.

Ok, then there's all the stuff we buy. The cars, the electronics, etc. A few major companies, again high revenue and low profit %, are involved with that. Similar to the power industry, something you don't throw $10k into. You get a powerful position in the industry instead.

The information age. This is the other big thing alongside energy and oil: Intel, Microsoft (if they could get some semblance of quality), etc. This is the modern chemical industry of old. Knowledge based, non-commodity, patent-heavy. I suppose pharmaceuticals are in the general category of information based, but they are a little too patent heavy.

Career options in these industries, beyond being a cog in the wheel, require a high investment of one's living time. Family has to suffer, your "soul" in general suffers. I don't think it's worth it. But there it is anyway.

I think the most useful wealth generating vehicles are low-maintenance and don't require much time. The whole point for me having money is free time and moderate ability to explore -- not luxury, power for it's own sake, or fame.

With that in mind, I'm interested in hearing if anyone has any ideas on low-time req'd wealth building avenues appropriate to different life-stages and ages.

Right now, I'm just a 24 year old guy living in an apartment with some modest savings and a poker account. I posted another thread about mutual funds, mostly curioisity. I need to move into real estate and get out of the apartment first and foremost. Not being a career-oriented guy (I have a job, not a career) I don't have a lot of money to work with.

I hope this is interesting.