I'm 41 ... I opened an IRA at age 25, but I made mistakes throughout my 30s ... nothing that will cripple me in retirement unless the shit hits the fan so to speak, but they were dumb mistakes .

My advice to any youngsters out there that *really* want to enjoy a kick ass collection of pins at a relatively early retirement age :

1> Open an IRA as soon as possible regardless of age. Even putting in something like a couple hundred a year will make a substantial impact later in life. Believe me, you'll be 41 before you know it . I expect to be in my 60s next Wednesday at this rate .

2> Make it an early goal to contribute the max. federal limit into your IRA. This is currently $17.5K/year + another $5.5K in a personal retirement account. Obviously, this would be very difficult to do when you're starting out in the "real world" . However, the earlier you boost your IRA, the larger the payoff later. Think "Early risks, big rewards later ... in the Twilight Zone" .

3> Certainly chase your dreams. However, don't let these dreams distract you from retirement planning. I work in the tech industry and have dabbled in startups. Some don't have 401K plans in the incubation stage and I didn't contribute to an IRA a couple of years throughout my 30s (that was stupid on my part ... actually, more like laziness).

4> Buying a house ... When you hit 20% of a down payment on a home, buy then. Do NOT get suckered into buying a house with lower than a 20% down payment (I didn't do this ... you get raped with additional crap you have to buy). Also, with interest rates as low as they are, do NOT pay more than 20% on your down payment (I did do this ... it was STUPID in hind sight). You are FAR better off investing any savings than you are pouring cash into your house. Your house will appreciate in value slowly (on average) than something like an index fund. This advice only applies to low interest rate environments like right now. If they skyrocket, then you need to need to take a longer look at the numbers to figure out what makes the most sense.

5> If you've been delaying boosting your retirement accounts for whatever reason, don't beat yourself up and think that you'll be doomed. Just start now. Forget the past and focus on what you can do now. You'll be amazed how quickly things can turn around. There will be bumps in the road, but those bumps will level themselves out.

6> Don't let money rot in a savings account. You aren't getting a return. You do want to keep "F-you" money handy for job changes or disasters, but you really want that cash to grow. Find yourself a nice index fund.

7> If you don't have the time to follow individual stocks, DO NOT INVEST IN THEM. I design FPGAs for a living. I know the industry pretty well. Those are the only investments I make in individual stocks. The rest I decided to use various mutual funds ... it's easier for me that way. I'll let the experts determine what's going to happen . If you're one of those experts and know companies well, then by all means buy individual stocks ... if you're like me and don't have the time to research them, take advantage of the various funds out there.

8> Don't buy into the "all debt is bad" mantra. Yes, credit card debt (and similar) are HORRIBLE and you should avoid that at all costs. Mortgages aren't though in a low interest rate environment. As far as credit cards are concerned, you can rack up a lot of nice bonuses using them for all of your purchases and paying them off at the end of the month.

That's just some of my advice . An expert financial planner might disagree with some things I posted ... take that for what its worth.

As far as pinball machines being a replacement for a stock portfolio ... no, don't think that way. I've done OK in the pinball world I guess since a bulk of my collection was purchased in the late 1990s. However, collectibles are a finicky thing. One minute, for whatever reason, a game like Lady Luck can be in high demand and you'd get silly money for it since the community all of the sudden deemed it to be a great game. Months later, you might be sitting on one thinking it's a silly money game when in fact it's not worth much since the fad passed . I've seen it time and time again.

Just enjoy a hobby and try and forget about value until it comes time to sell/trade a game. Obviously this doesn't apply to people that make a living selling pinball machines to buyers .

One of my fears of a pinball machine as a "long term investment" is that the generation that's about 10 years old right now not really liking the game. When they hit their 30s and start to have buying power as I enter the retirement years, will they be interested in any of my games, or will they look at them as worthless, primitive relics ... nobody knows! I'll weep for them if they think that way about pinball, but that's not going to buy me any security .