Some great comments in the thread so far, aside from the real estate ones and the praise for Kiyoshyster
Iceman, if you've got a $100k a year job, make $5k a month off of gambling and still have other streams of income and savings, you're actually doing better than probably 98% of the people out there. Get your expenditures down and you'll be stinking shitty rich within a couple of years without doing anything else.
Regarding your points, these are all good ones and ones that others should consider. My added feedback on them, from the standpoint of having made a little in my life:
The #1 point for getting wealthy is living below one's means, of course. Many people who do not have high incomes balk at this because of everything they "need" in life that costs so much (cable, Tivo, more than one car, 1,000sf of house for every person and pet in the family, etc.)
A couple of corollaries to this are debt elimination and cash savings. If you have debt you are a slave to the debt, no matter how much you earn, because you have no choice but to work until the debt is paid off. I am personally opposed to even having a mortgage, which some people consider on the extreme side but it's nice to be in control of every little thing and having the mindset that whenever I decide to not work, it's no big deal. Cash savings --
i.e. CDs, money markets, savings accounts, or anything else where you have more or less immediate access to cash but are not losing out to inflation -- are extremely important. Anyone who doesn't have a minimum of two months' living expenses in ready cash is one broken leg or corporate downsizing away from being in homeless shelter. Two months is the bare minimum -- really not any maximum although more than a year borders on overkill because of the opportunity cost (since those funds are just barely keeping pace with inflation, they could be out making you much more.)
Should be your bottom priority. Real estate is a grossly overrated commodity, mainly by people who either have never owned any or who have plenty to sell you. If you leverage it out you're committed for life. If you are a speculator you're chained to your dealbook. If you're a part-timer trying to mix up flipping, renting and other strategies you will, statistically speaking, go broke within a few years (like day traders, the majority of all "part time real estate investors" lose money, some drastically.)
The only use for real estate, unless you're going to go all in and be a speculative develper/rehabber (which can be fun and profitable but is an enormous amount of work) is when you have so much money you just don't know what to do with it all. You've got tons and tons of ready cash, no debt, decent income and as much risk portfolio as your stomach can handle, and you
still have some money left over, then by all means put it in passive income-earning real estate.
Yes yes yes. Just remember why the word "risk" is in the phrase "risk capital" and you'll do fine. Options, futures, Forex and other derivatives are also fun and profitable and high-risk.
I'd say pour it into online semi-passive businesses. You can buy quality income-producing sites that require relatively little work for as little as 6-12 months' cash flow at places like Sitepoint.com and Digitalpoint.com I have a significant portfolio of these myself; net revenues are running in the 8-9% a month range with a couple of hours work a day or less that I could easily outsource, except that I like the work.
This is also a great starting point for people with no money, since price points at those two marketplaces are available all over the board -- as little as $100-150 and well into the five and low six figures.
Well, whatever you do, smoke enough meth to forget the name Robert Kiyosaki. The best books you'll find on real estate (once you have all the money you could conceivably ever spend) are by
John Reed. He doesn't have any Exclusive Nine DVD Real Estate Millions Home Study Course type of stuff; just a couple of really good books written from the standpoint of a guy who made all his money
before he went writing about it, unlike most other would-be gurus such as RK. I also recommend
Jack Luna's stuff; although it's more geared towards privacy than making it, his book
Work from Home at Any Age is great if you are literally at square one on self-employment.
Phaedrus