I was told by a real estate professor that "What you're in debt by at 30 is what you'll be worth by the time you're 40".

Man, I wish that book was written when I was broker.That book led me to his 2 earlier books "Marketing to the Affluent" and "Selling to the Affluent".He was college professor at the time he wrote those books and he interviewed millionaires to find out how they got their wealth and how they chose investments and financial services.

As my poetry professor once told me, "Mimic the moves of a master, and you will soon move like a master."

The Mortgage Professor has spreadsheets on his site devoted to discussions like this.  

The professor held a MAI designation and appraised commercial real estate investments for several years.

Half of these academic professors have never had a real job in their life..

Couple those goals with the inappropriate structure of insuring deposits (mispriced). the opaque accounting used for financial institutions, the ability of financial institutions to "innovate", or as one of my college professors puts it "loophole mine" the regulatory structure and regulations themselves and the FDIC's role becomes a Hurculean task.Pulling back to 30,000 feet and most observers would realize that there are a lot of players and a lot of poor incentives and other factors that share the blame for this recent crisis.

Interesting, Darren, my definition is very close to yours, but I'd say there is another important element, the quality of the information given.To me, the derogatory use of the term is applied to those that add fluff, exaggerations, aspects that while may be technically correct but are highly improbable to replicate or simply put out bad advice with no consideration to ethical issues.I make that distinction because, some professor in some university teaching a real estate course or some instructor in a state approved real estate school for agents isn't a guru, they are teachers and instructors.The difference in being a non-guru teacher is two fold, 1. the materials taught are compliant with rules, regulations, laws, accepted in practice and are based in sound applications of the business; and 2. they are qualified by education and experience, by education that has some professional level that is determined by proof of their mastering a level of knowledge, testing and degrees earned or certifications by proper authorities in the industry or academia.

Oh boy...I can really relate @Michael Ouvrard with your story of being a relatively well-paid but less than wealthy pharmacist PhD...I have a PhD as well and have grown to absolutely hate my college professor job (surly students, constant, long, boring meetings, rude colleagues, too many nights away from wonderful family on useless conference travel, very little money in my bank account at the end of the month!!).

I knew more than my professors because I was out doing it while they were trying to teach it (they didn't teach it well BTW).