Fast money anyone?

Almost everyone that I know of wants to be rich fast. No patience in waiting to grow their wealth. Well, probably that includes me too, when I was much younger.However, after dabbling with various websites,blogs, magazines, books,classes and seminars, I've managed to slowly crawl out of my shell.

The group that falls mostly in this category are the ones aged between 20-35. At least that's what I find when I talk to my friends of that age group. I figured that while less than 20 would not have worries or plans about their financial future (because most probably they are still depending on their parents for survival), those above 35 must have had their share of life's experiences for them to have a different opinion.

During that age(20-35), as I recall clearly, me and my friends used to sneak into casinos and illegal gambling spots that kept mushrooming in the city to fulfill the needs of high adrenaline rush in youngsters like us. And make money we did!

My personal favourite was the Russian Roulette and Horse Racing (computer animated). We used to do all crazy stuffs, especially when it was pertaining to bring us luck. After a while lady luck seemed to get bored and decided to leave us.

Then, slowly we began to 'graduate' and move on to more serious ventures known to many as 'Get-Rich-Quick-Schemes' or 'High-Yield-Investment-Products'. Those agents/con-men that we met were really convincing enough for us to part with our money. The main reason people are still throwing in their money in these kind of schemes despite reminders and warnings from the authorities is plain greed. People just can't let go of the idea of being rich overnight and are willing to take BIG risk for that.

There are plenty of those schemes out there, both local and foreign ones, but I'm not going to list them here. Some deals are done face-to-face while others make use of the technology where they come up with really professional looking websites and systems to attract their potential 'victims'.

Then as I grew more matured (or so I thought),I started going into the stock market, without the slightest knowledge about the vast financial world out there. The result? Burnt my fingers of course! But it was a worthy experience, since I learnt it at quite a young age, now I can restrain myself from going into the stock market just by relying on 'tips' from friends.

So, now whenever I advise people to invest in a more reliable and trusted source (such as mutual funds,etc.) and they don't seem to agree or understand, I just remain silent. After all, I've been in their shoes before!