Your youth is worth way more than $30k. Everything gets harder as you get older. So strike while the iron is hot. Delaying your life for 3 years just to put $30k into an ETF is not wise. Get started on building the core of your life right away. Success here will pay dividends for the rest of your life. The sooner you invest in your LP the more it will pay off. Youth is the time to be aggressive and highly active. Building up an investment portfolio is something best done when you're in your late 30s and 40s once you have a solid career/biz/income. You are not going to get rich from investing, you are going to get rich from building a high income which you can then invest. The key to good investing is income.

There too many ways to list them all:
Grooming better Dressing better Having a strong sense of life purpose and direction Developing charisma Developing humor Developing confidence, leadership skills, speaking skills Earning money, becoming successful, reputable, famous Building a social circle of cool and positive friends Being more social Gaining experience with women Doing pickup & cold approach Developing flirting skills Improving your vocal tone and body posture Going to the gym and shaping up your body Improving your diet Building an amazing life for yourself Developing amazing sexual skills Developing emotional connection and your feminine side Meditation & consciousness work Self-love and self-acceptance Developing misc skills such at: cooking, home repair, home defense, sewing, arts & crafts, martial arts, yoga, photography, etc. Becoming a good human being Improving your communication skills Improving your relationship skills Learning, reading, knowledge Building an awesome bachelor pad/home that will make a girl wet just from walking in Traveling around the world And more... You could invest 10 years of full time work developing all that.
None of it is necessary to get laid, but all of it ups your value.
Bottom line: become awesome, and awesome people will gravitate towards you. Or stay lame, and lame people will gravitate towards you. But don't expect to have awesome people in your life while you're lame and too lazy to change yourself. A lazy, sloppy, victim attitude instantly makes you repulsive, since you are a value-leech, expecting something for nothing. If you want something special you must be eager to work for it.

Living a life on purpose will make you more confident and stronger as man, which will make you more attractive.
Being successful in your life purpose can make it much easier to meet new people through your reputation, status, expertise, celebrity, etc.
For example, if you are a semi-successful musician or actor or public speaker, it will be very easy to get laid simply because of how visible you are.
How often you get laid is directly proportional to how many new people are seeing you.

Might help you even more to chat up every stranger you are in front of, regardless of beauty, age, or even sex.
This exercise will make you much more extroverted and will help you a lot once you see the right girl. The problem with waiting for a hot girl is that you might be waiting a long time. Just get good at talking to people. Talk to people in the check out line at the grocery store. That skill will directly translate to hitting on girls. But it also has the extra benefit of making you better at socializing period, with anyone. Socializing is fun once you develop the skill and habit of it. It will make your life more enjoyable. It's also good to not be so focused on "the hot girl" like a robot and just be more chill and easygoing. When are overly focused on chatting up the hottest girl this comes off inauthentic and desperate. You want to be in a frame where if you're chatting up a hot girl it's just a consequence of you chatting up everyone, and then the girl will sense that you're just that type of chatty guy and not some creepy PUA laser targeting her.

Nowadays with most people struggling paycheck-to-paycheck or already deeply in debt, just having $30k saved up is a pretty substantial achievement. But in the grand scheme of things, it isn't much. It's good to have something to start with, but it's a minor amount on your overall wealth-building journey.
First if you plan to have any kind of public-facing job, working in sales, going to interviews, running your own business, are still dating / looking for a partner... I would invest in your wardrobe a bit first. Instead of buying a lot of mediocre clothes, buy just a few quality outfits that will look great and last a long time. Just buying decent outfits isn't enough though unless they fit you perfectly off the rack. Pay an extra $50 per shirt or pair of pants for maybe 5 different sets of clothes. $500 worth of tailoring will give you a week's worth of clothes that look 10x better on you because they'll fit perfectly and really make you stand out as a high-quality person.
If there is something specific you want to learn or master, I'd invest up to $1,000 in a couple courses.
You spend 1/3 of your life sleeping, so if you have any kind of back problems or your current bed isn't comfortable, I'd get a decent mattress. Getting good quality sleep is critical to being your peak self. That's like $1,500.
If you need eye or dental care, get that done. If you use a manual toothbrush, buy an electric one. Probably $2,000 on the high end to get a new pair of designer glasses, multiple cavities filled, etc. 
If there's anything else in your life that is costing you a lot of time or causing lots of frustration, and there's a way you can spend money to make the problem go away, do that.
Even if we say you spend $10k on all the stuff above and whatever else you need, then you still have $20k to invest.
With that savings I'd put the majority of it into an ETF that tracks the entire market like the S&P500 or NASDAQ. It's like investing in over 3,000 companies all at once which really spreads your risk out but will still earn you 7 - 10% per year on average.
Up to 5% you can put into highly speculative assets like crypto. I would only invest in Bitcoin or Ethereum, no altcoins or NFTs.
I don't have the stomach for buying rental properties and dealing with tenants, but that seems like one of the objectively best ways to really build wealth and financial independence. The first rental or two you need to get somewhat lucky and not get a bad non-paying tenant. But then by the time you build up to owning a dozen properties or an entire apartment building, the risk is way more spread out. You probably want to have more like $100k+ in savings before you start looking at real estate though.
If you are pretty much ready to settle down and live in the same city for the next 10+ years, I would at least buy a home for yourself. I bought my house for $250k in 2017 and today it's worth probably $650k. One of the best investments I've made, and absolutely necessary if I ever want to trade up to something better. If I had rented all this time, I'd probably be priced out of the housing market entirely now.
As a slight caveat -- I have a strong hunch that we will see a pretty big market correction sometime in the next couple of years. In the stock market, the housing market, pretty much everything. So if you feel the same, you might actually want to just keep your money in cash on the sidelines and wait to buy into everything at a 30%+ discount while everybody else is panicking. Although there is a saying "time in the market beats timing the market." People have been predicting a recession for 5+ years and if you had waited all that time you would've really missed out on a lot of gains. In the long-term, even if today is the peak and you buy and we go into a recession, you'll still be ahead 20 years from now vs not investing at all. But realize you'll probably be shitting your pants to see 1/3rd of your wealth evaporate overnight too if you invest at the wrong time, so maybe you want to keep a decent amount in cash and dollar-cost average in a little bit over several years.

That's just an opener to clearly establish a sexual frame. I don't really consider it a compliment or qualification. It's just a way to let her know you are talking to her for dating purposes.
Ideally you would avoid complimenting physical features period. But if there is something you genuinely like about her which is a bit less obvious, focus on that. Stuff that is not overtly sexual like eyes, face, smile, freckles, tattoos, hair, nails, piercings, jewelry, smell, etc.
Once she's really into you and sleeps with you, then you can compliment her on stuff like her ass, tits, nipples, pussy, how she sucks your dick, etc and she will love it.
Yes, energy is a good one. Vibe. Femininity. Passion. Enthusiasm. Submissiveness. Fashion sense. Maturity. Wisdom. Intelligence. Spiritual connection. Intuitiveness. Special skills she has like cooking. Cool hobbies. Adventurousness. Health-consciousness. The way she kisses. etc.
Of course ideally your compliments are as authentic and genuine as possible. This is pretty easy. Just look for features about her you genuinely like and then tell her about it. If you are seriously attracted to a girl there should be stuff about her you genuinely love besides her ass and tits.
All those openers will work. What really matters is your vibe and sub-communication behind the openers and how you carry on the conversation afterwards. The verbals of the opener are truly irrelevant.

1) You have to understand that we're not all built the same. Some people just aren't built for climbing the corporate ladder or for university. This is okay. You just gotta look for other niches in life where you will fit more naturally.
2) You have to understand that we don't all have the same energy levels or physical or mental capacities. Some people are just more energetic or more robust or even healthier than others. Again, you must find a place for yourself in life which honors your energy level and physical and mental health. You just may not be able to work as hard as someone else. But this doesn't mean you can't find a good niche and be well-off. You have to find the right position for you and work smarter not harder.
3) There is enormous opportunity in the world every year. But it takes passion to seek them out and capitalize on them. I think your biggest problem is lack of clarity about your passions. You say you're not interested in any other subjects. This is a problem. You need to connect more with your passion and curiosity for life. There are so many cool aspects of reality to study, explore, build, etc. You gotta what those are for you. To do well in a job you gotta be passionate about it and it has to suit your energy level, personality type, and health. Try to find something cool to pour your life into.

@Raine As a man you just gotta grow a thick skin and don't get wrapped up around the axle about stuff like this.
Some girls laugh at you? Who gives a flying fuck? You should laugh at them and laugh at yourself too.
It sounds like you are being too serious. Whatever insecurities you have, you must own them and learn to laugh at them, even using them as the butt of jokes. Make jokes about yourself being bald. "I'm too cool for hair. Hair is for losers.", etc. Learn to embrace your weaknesses and make light of them. Self-deprecating humor is very powerful not just for attracting girls but for making yourself feel good.
Honestly, I doubt those girls were even laughing AT you. Your mind is likely just interpreting situations that way because you are fundamentally insecure. It is not normal for girls to just laugh at an ugly guy. That like never happens. People don't laugh at ugly people, they laugh perhaps at some lame way that you're acting. Maybe you are overcompensating and they laugh at that.
No one has ever laughed at me for being bald. Never. And I've talked to like 5000+ girls. Sometimes girls will walk up to me and ask to rub my head for good luck. And I laugh. I don't take it personally.
You need to develop a sense of humor about yourself and about life. It sounds trivial but I'm telling you this is a huge part of not only getting good with girls but just overall personal happiness. Happy people laugh at themselves. Miserable people cannot laugh at themselves.
You want to develop a delusional level of self-confidence such that when people interact with you they walk away thinking: "Damn, that guy is so charming, carefree, humorous, and cool that maybe I should go bald like him. Maybe being bald just makes you cooler?"
Stop trying to hide your insecurities and weaknesses. Wear them on your sleeve. Talk about them. Laugh about them. Makes joke about them. Eventually you will stop worrying about it.

Girls don't understand a guy's needs so well. Often they don't even care about our needs. They dress up nice because it's helpful for attracting guys and boosting their own self-esteem -- and it's just baked into the culture.
Yes, you should understand a girl's needs more. This is very good.
But a girl's needs are actually much deeper than vibe. Vibe can often be a facade that doesn't really met her needs. But of course she doesn't have much else to evaluate you on but vibe when you first meet, so vibe is crucial early on.
That's not why they pick masculine guys. They pick masculine guys because the feminine needs the masculine and vice versa. It's not about abundance. High femininity requires high masculinity to ground it. And the kind of girls you're probably attracted to tend to be highly feminine. The feminine tries to optimize from its end and the masculine tries to optimize from its end.
Yes, broadcasting masculine vibe and energy is huge for attracting girls. That's like bait for the feminine. The feminine is always sniffing around for some genuine masculinity to wrap itself around.

It's usually a bad idea to number close two girls at once. Looks weird and desperate as fuck. Pick one girl to be your main.
They could have been trolling you. Could have been a shit test. When a girl brings up sex don't jump on the bait like a starving dog. Play it cool.

Rarely a girl will just be sexually explicit and blunt with you.
For example, you might be talking to a girl and then she just says something out of the blue like: "So are you gonna fuck me real good?" or "I'm horny" or "I'm wet" or "I want to fuck". This is very rare, but it does happen and you should be ready to capitalize on that without flinching. I've lost a few girls in the past by flinching because it just takes you so by surprise because it's a rare thing for a girl to say. You have to not flinch and just play it cool. Don't get too eager but also lead directly for the close.
You can also adopt the girl frame by saying a line like: "Easy there... I'm not just a peace of meat. I need to romanced first. You have to promise to buy me chocolates ".
The "promise to buy me chocolates" line is a stroke of pickup genius! It's such a powerful frame control . If a girl is coming on to you, make her promise to buy you chocolates

Girls rarely get attracted in the first second, they get attracted more slowly as they sense the guy's vibe and energy.
But of course not all girls will be attracted to what you got to offer. In such cases no amount of confidence will help you. But she's also not rejecting you purely based off looks. Girls give guys much more leeway in terms of looks. It's not 100% leeway but much more leeway than a guy gives a girl.
A lot of times the girl rejects you simply because she's not in the right mood. It's not even about you in most cases but about the bullshit going on in her own life which is distracting her from being fully open to dating. Most of the time she's not even thinking of dating or sex.

Took me ~450.
Learning pickup is a lot harder than it sounds/looks.
If you want to be successful in life stop looking at the odds and stop quitting. If you want to get good with girls you shouldn't mind doing 1000 approaches and still not getting laid.

If ever you run out of shit to say, talk about yourself. This is the secret of extroverts. And talk about trivial things. Don't wait around for "important" or "meaningful" topics. You can talk about something as dumb as how you ran out of toilet paper.
Don't hold back talking about your feelings, passions, desires, dreams, and aspirations. You don't need to be a millionaire in order to talk about how one day you will be a millionaire and spend that money traveling the world. And it makes no difference if what you talk about will ever pan out in real life. It's just a conversation topic.

Complementing a hot girl on her beauty is preaching to the choir. She already knows she's hot. She's been told that her whole life by everyone. It's like complimenting a billionaire for being rich. It comes off so cringe. Jeff Bezos does not need you to compliment him on his wealth.
I would never compliment a hot girl on her looks. It just makes you look like a desperate chump.
This sounds good in theory but in practice hot girls get hit on a lot more than average girls. They literally have dozens of guys orbiting them, desperate to get in their pants. This notion that hot girls rarely get approached because they are too intimidating is a fairytale. Guys are not stupid. They target the hottest girls first. Not all guys are struggling Incels. Plenty of guys got natural game.
1) Stop trying to flatter girls. Especially hot ones.
2) Stop complimenting girls on their appearance and compliment on their unique traits and personality.

As the songs goes, "Gangsta ass niggas don't talk much."
The loud-mouths of the world rarely accomplish much. It's the silent ones, toiling long and hard in the dead of night who get shit done and change the world.
 

The trouble with that approach is that it's sourced from a deep neurosis. You're basically in conflict with yourself, disowning parts of your psyche, and trying to bull your way through towards some idealized future which -- even if it comes -- will be deeply disappointing because you will one day realize that you whored yourself out for success. If you use this approach, you will become the stereotypical businessman who makes a killing on Wallstreet and then hangs himself one day from the ceiling fan.
All your achievements in life are ultimately pointless and produce very temporary doses of satisfaction because of hedonic adaptation. What you need to do is to learn how to derive joy from being, not from doing.
A good approach for you would be to do almost the exact opposite of what you suggest. Which means, practice self-compassion, self-acceptance, and a slow relaxed, easy-going pace. Learn to enjoy life rather than enjoying some idealized future.
All that said, I don't mean that you don't take action. You still take action. But from a place of self-acceptance rather than a place of lack, as you're doing now.
This is another one of those counter-intuitive moves I always talk about.

Honestly, it's a real trade-off. I don't think you can do it all simultaneously. When I started my first business, I was working over 60+ hours per week for several years until things finally settled in. When I started Actualized.org, I had to abandon most of my social life and dating life. And that was 3 years ago and still continuing today! Just recently I started to dial back on the quantity of work I do and spend a little more time to myself. It will probably take me another year of work just to be able to get back into dating again.
In the book, The One Thing, the authors speak about the myth of living a balanced life. Life balance doesn't mean you do everything evenly all the time. Balance is a dynamic, not a static state. In reality, what effective living looks like is you're slowly swinging your pendulum strategically between various areas of focus. You might spend 3 years working really hard on your career with single-minded focus, then once that's handled, you spend 2 years dating really hard, then once you get your girlfriend, you might put your focus on lots of meditation and traveling, etc.
It's like spinning plates but you're doing it over the timeframe of months and years, not hours.
It's also very important to be crystal clear about your top values and priorities in life. Most people are so vague and indecisive that they can't focus on any one thing and so they get mediocre results across the board. You have to do very strategic long-term life planning. You should have a 5 year plan for your life at least.

One of the RSD instructors said that if you go out long enough eventually you'll get stabbed.
But it will be worth it.
So stop being a pussy and approach
I have a 2-inch scar on my neck from when a drunk girl clawed me. Wounds of love
You're a man, you're not as fragile as you think.
It's not that there are no risks, it's that part of becoming a man is learning to tolerate and handle risk. That in itself is an attractive quality. When you can walk up to a table of dudes and hit on their girl, that takes balls and girls want that kind of man.

Don't pussyfoot around. A man must be comfortable doing a direct approach.
When you hide your genuine intention and sexual desire for her, you're losing your attractiveness and power.
Stop inventing false reasons for talking to a girl you like. This is unbecoming of a real man. You should feel entitled to talk to any girl you like with no pretense or justification.
"If my dick likes you, I'm gonna talk to you." << That's the proper frame.

I've been to bars and nightclubs 100s of times where everyone was drinking and never bought a single drink.
I've been offered weed for sex several times and turned it down.
It's easy to say no.
Just focus on your education and work and you will be out of high school before you know it.

The more experience you get talking to girls, the more hot girls you sleep with, the less their looks will faze you. Eventually you become entitled to the hottest girls.

You really need to raise the caliber of people you hang out it.
Go study under someone who is way above you and will make you feel embarrassed for your own ignorance and deficiencies.
When I see how much ignorance I still have undo, it makes me think twice before nitpicking others.

I don't even know if I would call myself intermediate.
There are many variables involved: how often you go out, how long you stay out, how hard you hit it, your health, your logistics situation, time of the year, what city you live in, your skill level, your personality type, the quality of girls you're trying to pull, your ethics, luck, what your goals are, how much momentum you've built up, your emotional state, etc. So there's not going to be any clear number. It will vary a lot from guy to guy.
A bad month is zero.
But also, I don't measure my results based on quantity of girls I sleep with. That's a pretty foolish measure. I would rather sleep with 1 amazing girl than 10 below average ones. But even that is still not the right measure because the skills developed and life experiences gained are more important. I measure my results based on how much it grows me internally. This way if I have a month where I get zero girls, I still see it as part of my overall success and I don't quit. Whereas most guys would just quit.

They got huge backlash from activists which basically got them canceled for putting out content which was toxic masculinity. Julien's juvenile antics were the straw that broke the camel's back. If RSD did not self-censor and take down their own old videos, all their social media accounts would have been banned. Their payment processors were also starting to cancel them. So Owen made some tough decisions to self-censor and sanitize the entire brand. The old super-sexist RSD content could not survive in a post-Me-Too world.
As far as the RSD forum goes, I think it got so toxic by around 2018 that it had to be shut down. The problem with the RSD forum is that it had virtually no moderation, so toxicity grew over the years to the point of getting horrendously out of control. It was a cesspool of toxic masculinity. And I think it got even worse once Incels, Redpillers and Blackpillers started joining in. That's a really toxic combo. It wasn't as bad in 2012 when I first started using their forum. But I was not around in 2018 when they closed it so I don't know how bad it got. I just assume it got pretty bad for them to shut it all down. I think they were also getting a lot of attacks from feminist groups and that forum was just a magnet to showcase the toxicity of the PUA community so they had to shut it down to not feed the horrific PR they were dealing with.
It's bitter-sweet. There was good stuff on that forum, but also a lot of toxic sexist unethical garbage. The forum became an echo-chamber of juvenile, sexist, and narcissistic behavior. Which is one of the reasons why the Actualized forum is heavily moderated and I don't hesitate to insta-ban toxic people here. That toxicity accumulates over time if it is left to fester.
https://www.reddit.com/r/seduction/comments/arb2bx/what_happened_to_rsdnation_forum/