I'll give an answer:<p>The most important thing in life is family.<p>For family and more, the most important raw material is financial security.<p>In the US, the main path to financial security is to start, own, and run a successful business.<p>In the US, for nearly all the businesses, the most important <i>Buffett moat</i> and, thus, protection, is a <i>geographical barrier to entry</i> -- for the business you are in, it is a big advantage to have no competition more than 100 miles away so that if do well in a radius of 100 miles will likely do well. Next, pick a business where you have lots of customers, not just a few really important ones.<p>This owning a business is important: It can be just super tough even to buy a house when working for someone else. Commonly they just don't have to pay that much.<p>Beware the usual, <i>mainstream</i> media: They are at best smelly bait for the ad hook and otherwise propaganda for special interests. They are NOT serious sources of valuable information.<p>DO exploit compound interest, in an index stock fund, real estate, etc.<p>Unless are already wealthy, avoid restaurants and eat at home. Restaurant food is MUCH more expensive, and the cost really adds up. Eating at home is MUCH cheaper. E.g., I have developed a recipe for a pizza for one meal for one -- ready to eat at anytime within 20 minutes with 10 of those just waiting on the cooking. Cost per pizza $0.40 to $1.00 depending on the toppings. Cost of the flour, $0.09. It's better, cheaper, and faster than frozen, carry-out, or delivery. Do much the same for 6-12 dishes, and call that mostly ENOUGH. The $1 version is better than $10-20 in restaurants. The extra $9-19 really adds up -- put that in a piggy bank and then in an index fund for 30 years and will really have something. I wish I'd known that.<p>These days often can get buy wearing blue jeans. Do that. They were and are made of canvas originally designed as cloth for sails for sailing ships -- DARNED tough. Don't need the expensive, famous, fancy brands. Similarly for shoes -- boating shoes are good because they are still good in rain and light snow.<p>For education, learn enough so that you can learn more as needed and how to filter the good stuff from the 99% which is junk, even in the best academics.<p>What to learn for your business? Mostly have to learn that year by year or even month by month to RESPOND to what the MARKET wants. Master's and Ph.D. degrees (I have both, in the STEM fields, from one of the world's best research universities) can help a little but, except in rare cases, do not replace the learning in response to short term market opportunities.<p>Make friends, associates, acquaintances whenever and however you can, just casual and even superficial can be much better than nothing.<p>Don't waste time, e.g., don't watch TV.<p>Learn about human psychology, e.g., as in common psychological counseling. Hopefully you don't need the counseling, but you DO need to know what it is about the maybe 50% of other people who DO need such counseling. E.g., you need to know about emotions quite generally and also anxieties, obsessions, libido, duplicity, manipulations, deceptions, etc. The best single source I found on human psychology is E. Fromm, <i>The Art of Loving</i>, but alone it is not enough.<p>Learn about organizational behavior. Learn about management and, in particular, borrow some points from the US military.<p>Know how politics works, and, when you need to, play the game.<p>Learn about law -- mostly try to avoid it since there mostly only the lawyers make money.<p>If you have any hope or intention of getting some financial security, then before getting married have a good pre-nup. To s LOT of people, from whatever in their personalities or backgrounds, the meaning of <i>love</i> is not very strong and, even if it is, usually can blow away, <i>Gone with the Wind</i>, at anytime in about three years. Just accept that in that famous Norman Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving, nearly everyone at the table is acting.<p>You have to be the CEO and COB of your own life; a good co-CEO would be TERRIFIC but in practice is asking for a LOT -- without some really good evidence, don't bet much on a good co-CEO relationship lasting. Here are some things that have a good shot at lasting longer than a good co-CEO relationship -- a leather belt, a wooden chair, Casio wrist watch, a bedroom chest of drawers, a good pair of boat shoes, a bottle of red wine from <i>Corton</i> in France, a piano, a violin, a collection of stemmed wine glasses in the kitchen, nearly any new car, a cast iron frying pan, even most Teflon frying pans, a house that initially meets code, a good index fund account.<p>From Fromm, "Men and women deserve equal respect as persons but are not the same." Learn about the difference.