5 SMART IDEAS FOR MAKING MONEY AND BECOME RICH
1. Start Blogging For Money
Blogging is my favorite way to make money “on the side” while working a full time job. Did you know many blogs make $100,000 (or more) every year? The greatest thing about a blog is the fact that you can retire early from it. You work your butt off for a year or two and you should be able to quit your job in this time if you do it right. From there, you can “maintain” your blog or grow it bigger and make even more profits.
2. Invest Your Money In Stocks & Bonds
The stock market has always been an attractive place for people who want to increase their wealth. Sure, you hear about scary things like “market crash” and “Recession”, and hear about people who’ve lost a fortune betting the wrong way.
But here’s the deal. The person who loses it all on the stock market is stupid. Who in their right mind would put all their eggs in one basket? This person is a gambler (or a dumb ass) who’s looking to win it all on one roll. It isn’t any different than walking up to a Roulette table and putting it all on black. Don’t be alarmed about these stories. What you need to do is educate yourself about investing in stocks and only invest money you are willing to lose. This way you won’t lose sleep if you happen to pick a few bad stocks.
Getting back to generating money in the stock market: Here’s the thing about money. If you are a smart saver and live within your means, you probably have extra saved up money and would like to make more money from it. Leaving it in your savings is a bad idea because you make little to no interest and inflation actually makes your money worth less every year.
You need to do something with it, and the stock market is a great place to earn a reasonable return (5%-10%). It is much easier to make money in stocks when the economy is thriving. A thriving economy means the overall health of companies are great (they are making profits and increasing in value) and it makes it easier to choose the right stocks.
When the economy is in a downturn, you want to be cautious. It can be hard picking the right stock when most stocks are falling in value. You may want to have ZERO money invested in stocks during a down economy. You can take your “extra money” and invest it in other avenues other than stocks. For example, bonds! Stocks and bonds can sometimes have an inverse relationship, so when stocks aren’t so attractive, bonds may become very attractive. You’ll need to educate yourself and investigate your options.
But overall, stocks and bonds are the epitome of a passive investment. It’s an income stream that many people fall back on as their number 1 way to generate money besides their jobs. And why not, with it being so easy to get into the stock market now, everyone should be learning how to invest in their future with it
3. Turn Your Skill Into A Thriving Business
I think everyone should take time to build a business on their free time. Get rid of Cable, get rid of Netflix, and get rid of useless hobbies that don’t add much value to your life.
Instead, do something productive to your bank account with your spare time. Why not! Are you worried that you aren’t business savvy? Are you thinking you don’t have enough money to start a business? Are you thinking you would start a business if you actually had time?
Sure, these are all reasonable excuses. But let’s get real. If you really want something, no objection is too difficult to overcome. I bet you’re into the idea of retiring early and making sure your children have enough money for school, right? Well, to get these things, you need to start creating that future asap.
A business is one of those income streams that will give you the freedom you want.
Of all the types of businesses out there, I’d stay away from the ones that cost a lot of money to start up. They are tricky to navigate because they require expertise and experience to get it (mostly) right off the bat. It’s risky spending $50,000+ on a business only to find out it was the wrong idea or you missed some critical steps. It would be something to cry about, that’s for sure.
But, there are many business ideas that can be started for a few thousand dollars only. I talked about blogging earlier, and that is a business you can definitely start with just a few hundred dollars. Actually, to start a blog, you only need $50.
With all this business talk, I got a little side tracked with the main point here. And that is to use one of your skills to create money.
We all have skills. We all have expertise on certain things. The trick is to find a way to make money off it. Whatever the way you do it, the idea is to provide a service with your skill or sell something.
Here’s an example to get your mind thinking about turning your skill into an income stream.
You are good at cooking:
You can create a pdf cookbook and sell it online
You can create Youtube tutorials on cooking and make ad revenue from your videos
You can find business (like home builders) who need catering and offer your cooking services
You can start a blog on recipes, cooking, or anything else related to cooking
All the above can be started with less than a few thousand dollars, and you can grow it to a six figure business.
Take a little bit of time every day and learn a little about making money off of a skill you have. Just keep going and you’ll naturally figure out what’s working and what’s not. Keep doing what’s working and stop doing what’s not. That’s how every successful person who’s learning how to do something for the first time does it.
4. Loan Your Money
If you have spare money and want one of the most passive ways to make money, think about loaning your money out and collecting the interest. Yes, you can do this too. It isn’t just for the banks. You can join something like peer to peer lending where people like you and me lend money to other people. Interest rates are pretty good, and will depend on the loaners credit score. It’s a fairly hands off way of making money and the returns are pretty good.
5. Rent Stuff You Have
If you have an extra room in your house or a car, or a parking spot, rent that stuff out! Think of all the things you have that people would LOVE to use but may not want to buy it or cant afford it.
A room in your home or your entire house comes to mind first. This can add $500+ to your bottom line every month. You can also rent your car, too. There are companies that will give you money to borrow your car.
You can rent literally anything though. Your office equipment, sporting goods, clothes, electronics, or power tools. All you need to do is go on a website like Craigslist and list your stuff for rent. You may be surprised at the amount of people willing to rent stuff! With something like a power tool, which can last many many years, you can get an incredible amount of money back from stuff you don’t even use anymore. Or how about those “old” clothes in your closet? Well, someone will wear it. Trust me!
If you try this and find success with it, you may want to scale it up. Start buying things that are very “rentable” and start renting it out for money. As long as the money you receive back from renting exceeds the price of the item, you are in the green and making money. You’ll figure out what works and what doesn’t over time and fine tune things. People have business of renting equipment of all kinds and in industries like shipping or construction, it’s big business. For you, start small and work your way up into something you can retire on