We should all have Shawn Fanning’s problem, if you can call it that. He starts companies, then turns around a couple years later and has to sell them.

It’s not as though he does this to liquidate for the sake of beating a tax rap; people just want to buy whatever it is he makes.

And we’re not talking hand-knitted pot holders here.

In 2002, Fanning cashed in with the sale to the German media firm Bertelsmann of his pet project called Napster, an online peer-to-peer music file-sharing service that ran just beyond the realm of law until the law got its second wind and caught up to the technology. Though Fanning’s baby eventually went legit, the hassles it incurred in court en route to legitimacy proved costly. Nevertheless, Napster changed hands for a cool $85 million — some of which certainly went into Fanning’s pocket.

Next came Snocap, a Napster wannabe launched in 2002 that didn’t break the rules but hasn’t generated comparable interest, either, even after MySpace proposed using Snocap technology for its own digital music service in 2006. Fanning then distanced himself from the project — just in time to keep from getting his hands dirty when Snocap cut loose 60 percent of its work force late last year. The social media service Imeem purchased the remains of Snocap for $5 million earlier this year.

Not huge money by music industry standards. Still, that’s $5 million more than Game Guy has in his pockets right now. (Dunno how much, if any of that, went into Fanning’s pocket. GG presumes Fanning is too smart to not gain from the sale’s trickle-down benefits.)

Now, there’s word that Fanning’s ThreeSF company is going into Electronic Arts‘ pocket. ThreeSF is the parent to Rupture, a social networking tool developed two years ago that lets gamers post their profiles in communal spaces so they can do things such as grapple with each other virtually in “World of Warcraft.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that the transaction is worth around $30 million.

Given all this, and given the short time in which it happened, Game Guy recommends that anyone who has the opportunity should find out now what Fanning has in mind for his next project and invest heavily now. A couple of years after that project takes shape, this serial inventor likely will cash out somewhere in the realm of six or seven figures, perhaps dragging his co-investors along with him.

Shawn Fanning, money man. Maybe he should change his first name to Jack.