I beg to differ. You don't need neither gold, nor a high level, to involve/plot. What you need is, to interest people with your design, both ICly and OOCly. And if your character's a mechanical wimp - find yourself some buddies, who are not.
As a proof - Dante for most time of his mercenery period, was a rather mid - level character, followed by people mostly out of curiosity, what train - wreck he'll end up as.
Heck - with Matreus, ever since I joined Wyverns, I don't remember having more then 1k gold, and I have been level 8th for a day. And still, if I followed a certain tiefling's guideline, I might've started a conflict that could spark a small civil war.