Getting Rich Quick

Something I realized soon after getting getting decent paying internships in college was that the best and only practical way of getting rich is having a decently paying job. It probably seems obvious, but in my youth as a stereotypical Jewish moneychanger-wannabe-in-training I really really liked the idea of having and spending a lot of money, and my mind was often a-whirl with ways of generating money.

As a kid I was overly concerned with the resale values of baseball and basketball cards, comic books, video games and assorted other items. I remember when I sold my Nintendo and most of the games for $40, when in retrospect I really should have just kept the thing. At that point I couldn't have even gotten a single good new Super Nintendo game for that piddling sum.

Once I actually had a decent amount of money from summer work, I became better at managing money than I had ever been with allowance, which is not surprising, but I also I realized that my tastes weren't that expensive. Sure I'd love to have a private jet and fly to England and watch Futbol every weekend, but as far as food, shelter, friends and general entertainment, I feel plenty rich.

I say all this because in the past 4 months or so, the worlds largest get rich scheme -- financial markets -- have lost an unfathomable amount of money. And its clear that literally any course of action taken in the recent past that didn't include shorting the whole market would lose a whole lot of money. And so like all folks with investments, I indeed lost a good bit of money from having mutual funds, but I also don't look at the market as a get rich scheme. It's a somewhat risky store of money but still a better call in the long term than cash in a mattress. When I recently saw an ad on a financial channel for information kits on currency trading, I just found it hilarious. It will be the perfect gift for anyone who hasn't gotten through their get rich quick phase.