And you still only have 30k to your name? Maybe real estate would be a better investment.

Let's say you actually have 30k. That would be a decent down payment that you could put down on a house.

Then either you can live in that house and pay the mortgage and in 20 or 30 years you'd own real property that you can retire in...

or, you could rent it out and let other people pay the mortgage and then later you can retire in it.

The only catch would be you qualifying for a mortgage. But that would require you to have...

....wait for it....

a job.