Name: Ricky Van Veen
Age: 29
Location: New York, NY
Why we care: Making us giggle made Ricky Van Veen rich. He sold his dorm-room startup, CollegeHumor.com, to Barry Diller's IAC for more than $20 million. Clearly we should be taking notes.

You started College Humor in 2000, which was a terrible time for internet companies. What were you thinking?
We were college students. We had meal cards and lived in a dorm room. It's not like we had to pay the mortgage or pay rent. When we decided to do it for a living, we thought, "We can have an apartment, and cable TV, and order pizza and eat ramen." We were doing that anyway, so it didn't feel like much of a risk.

Now that you have money, are you a spender or a saver?
I have no problem spending money on experiences. Here's my philosophy: A dollar now will be worth $2 in twenty years, let's say. But there's also the reverse of that. I'd rather spend the money now on traveling than when I'm older and have more responsibilities and can't do that. So in effect, that dollar is worth more to me now than it will be in the future.

But are you saving for retirement?
I'm in our 401(k), and that forces you to save. What I like about it is that the money is automatically deducted from your paycheck. I never see the money that's taken out, and so I'm not going to think I need it. If you take home your whole paycheck, you'll probably spend it all. Like when you go to the Cheesecake Factory, you eat a lot, because that's what they give you. So there you go: the Cheesecake Factory analogy.

Let's go back a bit. What was your first job?
I worked as a gofer at a country club and used to clean out dumpsters, which was pretty gross. I worked for minimum wage, $4.25 an hour. When you got hired, you would go into the office and the owner of the country club would write your salary on a piece of paper and then slide it over to you. So he wrote $4.25 on a piece of paper and slid it over to me. I was like, "Why did you even write this down?"

Did your parents make you save?
They trusted me to do whatever I wanted with it. They knew I'd save some.

What was their philosophy about money?
My dad was a locksmith. He worked six days a week. When you see your dad get up in the middle of the night to open someone's car door, that's when you realize the value of money. He had to actually get up out of bed to go open that door. It was very inconvenient, but that's how he made money.

What's in your wallet, besides money?
I collect absurd business cards that I get. I have five, maybe. I have my corporate American Express card and my regular AmEx. I put everything on my AmEx. I'm a sucker for the points. I've never used them, but I'm like, "Yeah, I'll buy this! It will give me points!" It's the worst rationalizing you can do.

Is it true you're the oldest person in your office?
I'm starting to be. The average age used to be 23. Now it's 25. And the interns are younger.

Related Links:

Real men don't buy flowers: Dating site CEO Brian Phillips, in a special Valentine's Day OPM

We only need $15,000 a year to live: Art-video game designer Jason Rohrer

Asking people for money is hard: 23-year-old mayor Justin Nickels