Yes, when young, investing in yourself will yield extremely better % than stock market ever could (unless your company IPO's). The only money I have in the mar

Yes, when young, investing in yourself will yield extremely better % than stock market ever could (unless your company IPO's). The only money I have in the market are from SEP-IRA contributions, and that's only because it is tax advantageous. The gains I've gotten were nothing compared to when I invested capital in myself and my ventures. I was able to consistently turn $10-15K/mo investment into ~$150K-200K/mo return (normalized over a year). I cannot see anything remotely close to this with pure stock investments. It may make sense when you're looking at a fund significant size, and the % per year = significant money. One of my friends manages a fund of > billion trading mortgages on wall street, and a half percent swing translates to significant sums for him. But at a smaller scale (less than $1mil), starting your own business yields tangible (money) as well as intangible results (invaluable experience). Invest in yourself.