Great discussion. "Risk is not knowing what you are doing" is another great Buffett quote. If you don't know anything about investing, start with the S&P500 index. Then you can build wealth while you learn about real estate or starting a business. You will always make mistakes as you learn, but the goal is to learn and get better, always expanding your circle of competence to include better and better investments. I started with index funds, then moved to single-family houses, then commercial real estate. With RE the way it is now, I've started learning more about value investing and choosing individual companies to buy, working to expand my circle over time.