Michelle Simon

Age: 30

Real estate investor, Upper Marlboro

Michelle Simon bought her first house in South Carolina when she was just 24, but she never intended to live in it. Instead, she rented it out, beginning her career as a real estate investor.

"That kind of jump-started me to wanting to do it all the time," she said.

Now, Simon owns five properties and runs her own property-management and real estate firm. She has put most of her money into property, though she does have an individual retirement account and holds stock in a few companies. But everything she's learned about finance, she has had to teach herself.

At school, she said, "they teach you how to get a job and work hard. But they don't teach you investment. . . . They don't teach you credit management. But all of these things are the real world."

When Simon bought her own home in Upper Marlboro four years ago, she had to save every penny for almost a year. Anything that didn't go to bills went toward her down payment, she said.

"If you are very disciplined, you stop shopping," Simon said.

Now her daughter, Mia, above, is a year old, and Simon said she wants to instill that lesson in her as well. She started a mutual fund for Mia's college education when she was six months' pregnant.

"I wanted to be ahead of the game," Simon said. "My mom always stressed to me that the next generation should be better off."

-- Ylan Q. Mui