[yapcguy]

Don't forget TOM.COM.

His nickname in Hong Kong is "Superman" so everybody trusted him. During the first dot.com he jumped on board the IPO wagon resulting in mom and pop investors getting absolutely fleeced. I think after that episode people began to see him truly for what he is: just another rich guy playing the politicians to extend his empire, built mostly on property.

Another tidbit. His younger son, Richard Lee, promoted himself as a tech guru having graduated from Stanford studying computer science (it said so on the IPO prospectus). Journalists later discover that in fact he had attended but dropped out of Stanford, and instead went to Canada to work at his dad's financial firm, before returning to Hong Kong to help run the family business.

[collyw]

You got to love all these baby boomer aged investors giving advice on how to get rich. Most my age never got the chance to buy property ridiculously cheap, and are now having to rent it from the boomers.

[SyneRyder]

Not sure how old you are, but did you consider property in Florida or Detroit during the global financial crisis? Planet Money had the story of a girl who bought a house for $12,000 and rents it at $700/month:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/03/09/148218539/this-14-...

I'm not saying it's easy (hey, I didn't do it myself). But there have been opportunities. You've got to put the effort into finding the opportunities & be brave enough to jump in & take the risk.

[collyw]

Nope, from Scotland, where the government seem happy to trash the economy to keep house prices high.