hey rolls,

Longterm my goal is to retire with a great nest egg and several real estate properties in southern california. I was inspired by my mom, the consummate saver, who's managed to own two rental properties and have 7-figures in assets while being a poor journalist ;). I hope I can match what she's been able to do and then some.

Short term, my goal is to max out my 457(its a 401k basically) each year starting in 2009 and then start putting in about $500 a month into a stock fund. I'd like to build a pretty low-maintenance portfolio made up of indexes and about 5-10 stocks that I've done all my own research on.

My goals for learning investing is to go to the library or buy used copies of some of the suggested reading on this post: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/03/050803.asp .