Put my money to work so I don't have to?
 

Here's the deal... I work in real estate. The real estate market where I'm at is pretty screwed at the moment. As a result I have lots of free time, and I have access to about $10,000 cash and another $25,000 in secured credit lines. Any ideas what I can do that requires time and money but is more flexible than working for someone?

(Would have posted in Tilted Finance but I can't find it!)

Start by taking the time to read books about exchange-traded funds.

I'll check it out... From googling it, I get that they are companies that hold stocks or commodities and can be traded at any time. I'm not sure if you're getting at a "day-trading" suggestion or long term investment, but either way I think I'd need a lot more money to get a profit from it that could equal an income from a job. Of course, I could be wrong... What books do you recommend?

An ETF is a basket of funds that trade like a stock. Kind of like a hybrid between a mutual fund and a stock. The cool thing about ETFs is that they can be indexed, which means they are tracked and averaged as they earn you money. This means you are often given good performance while minimizing risk. They are difficult to explain in brief. The only book I've actually read on the topic is New Investment Frontier by Howard Atkinson. It's Canadian, though.

Thanks for the suggestion, however, this was not exactly the kind of thing I had in mind.

I guess I'm trying to think of something like some sort of equipment I could buy and learn to use fairly quickly that would let me earn a good amount of money. Or something I might be able to pick up cheaply and turn around and sell for a good price on ebay or craigslist or something.

I want my chicks for free, dammit.

If you're looking for an investment that's going to give you sufficient returns to live off of, you're probably going to need more than $35 000. Also, be wary of using credit for investing purposes; you'll have to factor the interest on the credit line into your costs, which will eat into your returns.

Honestly, I think Baraka_Guru's on the right track. You can get that money socked away now and turn it into some serious long-term gain. That's what I'd do, anyway.

Dude, if you want your money to work for you, you need to invest. eBaying and ummm using equipment require a lot of time and effort on your part so you'll still be working. Just as an example, you can get into ticket scalping where you buy tickets for shows sure to sell out and post them on eBay at a higher price. It requires you to be quick with the buying (brains/luck/fast internet), savvy about shows (research/trendwatch), and an amount of douchebaggery (moral ambiguity). For the record, I'm a concert goer and I hate hate hate those scab-ass scalpers. I think they are the scum of the earth... but they make money. You can be a full-time paparazzi. Also scum, but they can make 30K for the right photo.

I'm sure there are people on the board qualified to answer this better but there are a bunch of things you can invest in (stocks, bonds, businesses, etc.) that may provide good turn-around in time. Any book/magazine on investments should help. You can go sell real-estate in Second Life.

There's no such thing as easy money... or fast money, either (well, gambling). Homer Simpson's been trying to crack this for how many seasons now? yeahhhh...

Hard to tell, not knowing your interests and past experiences. However, I would highly recommend buying some of Robert Kiyosaki's books (aptly titled the Rich Dad's series). He speaks a lot about building wealth through leverage, while maintaining and building cash flow.

In terms of investing, I have a few friends that are big traders, they'll all agree that unless you have $25K+ to invest, stay away from stocks and go towards mutuals/ETFs. Remember though that stocks are more or less a long term investment. Trying to make a lot of money in a short period is highly speculative and you can lose a lot of money if you catch a bad break in the market (i.e. the last week or two). If you choose to go the stock route, I would suggest researching a lot. Perhaps learn about margin trading and options. The sky is the limit, however, so is the basement.

I'm not sure how to answer.

On the one hand, you are in the right business to make good money without working very hard. On the other hand, you must either not be very good at it or not real committed if you are looking to get out.

I can give you some really good RE advice but I don't know it you want that. You say you are looking for something that takes time and money but don't want to work for someone else. Hmmmm....just about any business fits that description.

Don't waste your money on Kiyo-suck-i's books. The guy is a goof.

This is the best book I have ever read re: making money and getting rich: The Zurich Axioms. Like most things, it is not the method, but the attitude and commitment.



"Chaos is not dangerous until it begins to look orderly"

"Worry is not a sickness but a sign of health. If you are not worried, you are not risking enough."

The way the stock market is going nowadays, I would not invest in that. Maybe invest it in a cd?

Only if you're in it for shortterm gains. If you're willing to take longterm risks, the stock market is still a great place to put your money, provided you have the right stock and don't expect triple digit returns in the short term (or overall).

If you have good credit, check out an App-O-Rama. It's risky, and IMO, foolish, but the returns are pretty good if you're good at keeping up with the payments. Google it, or Check out FatWallet Forums.