I used to have a link to a great article on exactly this, however I can’t seem to find it. The basic gist of it was ‘how to become rich’.

In a nutshell it was the following:

1. Make over 100k a year.

(get educated, get upwardly mobile)

2. Invest 20% of your salary a month in a diversified portfolio of index funds (re-investing the returns).

In 10 years you will be rich (or so the article said).

My take is this advice would be great circa 1998, however as the great de-leveraging occurs over the next decade I’m not sure its going to hold. Market deflation combined with inflation are going to take their toll.

Re: The rental property. Real estate is the worst investment vehicle there is (when its not experiencing a bubble). This will be made clearer in the coming years.