A website in the making

I have decided to make a website for this blog. I have no idea how long it will take, nor what it will exactly entail. Of course the blog will be part of it. Unfortunately, ThinAirMillionaire.com is taken so I may have to look for a different name. ThinAirMillionaire.net and all other variations are still available, however. Who knows, its just a thought process in the works.

I want to have book reviews, the blog, ideas section, product reviews, site reviews, forums, and more. It is more a repository of information for myself than anything else, but if I can parlay it into some cash for my stake, then so be it.

The light! go to the light!

I may be premature in posting this, but I believe I am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel for my financial dip. The new job, while not great pay, is steady and doing well. School is still going strong, and my graduation date is still in the first quarter of next year. It is then I hope to get a job making at least twice what I am now so I can return to my former payrate.

More recently, I have been able to pay some of these weird, sudden bills and they are now getting smaller. I have myself to pay back from the doubling fund as well, THAT is what I am excited about. Once I pay back my loans to myself I will have successfully liquidated and consolidated my funds. It is then I will be able to make larger strides once again towards the next step. Currently, I sit at $1600 in a vehicle, and roughly $200 in cash, meaning I owe myself almost $2000 in loans. It was indeed a rough year but I must say that without the doubling project, it would have been much much worse.

Onward and upward! I will celebrate the day by looking for a deal. Small or large, it matters not, the idea is to stay in the hunt!

The Doubling Bank Account

As your doubling account grows from tiny to small to slightly-larger-than-small, you may take a look at the money lying on the nightstand or in the shoebox and be tempted to spend it. What should you do with this guarded treasure? Should you open a bank account to put your money in? The answer is 'it depends.'

While stashing it away in a bank account may seem like a good idea to keep you from diving into it during a moment of weakness, you may be spending more than you are making by placing it into a bank account too early.

Banks pay interest, that is true. But at the current rate of interest at less than 1% here in the States, that is not too tantalizing. In fact, my personal bank pays a whopping .2%!!! So for every $100 I place in the bank, I will make 20 CENTS a year! WTF?!?! And they expect me to keep my money in there?

Not to mention I have to keep $5 minimum in the bank to have the account open. That is 25 YEARS worth of interest for $100 at that rate. Or the equivalent of one years interest if I place $2500 in the account for a year. Um... ok...

THEN! Lets not forget FEES! The bread and butter of the banking industry. If your account is less than $500 in my bank, they charge you a $6 monthly 'low balance' fee.
Theres another 25 years of interest per MONTH I'll be spending. Of course, once I go over $500 I do not get the fee.

As you can see, finding a place to keep your stake while it lays dormant looking for a new trade is not so simple. My advice, give it to someone to hold or just bite the bullet and discipline yourself. If you break down and spend $5 on a Subway sandwich at least you got something for yout $25 years of interest you just spent instead of buying the privilege of your money staying in a bank so they can make 25 TIMES that in interest on a new car loan.

I can't wait until I have enough to start my own bank...

My first attempt at a tutorial

Last night, I burned the midnight oil as I began creating a tutorial for how to get to at least step 20. It was actually quite fun. Once I got started, I just kept going. I posted the majority of it on my favorite doubling forum, The Doublers Den. Even though it is the only steady forum I have come across for doubling, it would still be my favorite as the group there is awesome.

So far the tutorial only gets you to $4000. That is where I am at the moment, technically speaking. As I think and create the next step, it will be a guide for me to follow. I find it very easy to see how to traverse each step looking backwards, but remember that each step felt as daunting as this one as I reached it. Maybe that is the point. Maybe not. I just know that it is fun and I enjoy doing it.

Once I tweak the tutorial enough I may attempt to make it a product. Or give it away. I am torn about that. I am abhorred by the lack of REAL, LEGITIMATE information out there on how to make money, but also understand that selling information is a great way to make money and would like to get a share of that.

I hope in the future, all information is free and true. Fat chance I know, but it is nice to hope for.

The 10% Rule

During my time playing the doubling game, I have run my ups and downs. Most of my success was due to a few big hitters, while I spent most of my time down, looking for ways to find my next $1 or more. While I truly enjoy my big hitters, I would love to see a nice steady stream of consistency in my trades that work towards my goals.

After much thought, I discovered that the big hitters are not rare, but common! My readiness, or motivation unfortunately is neither consistent, nor common. I found my big hitters came when I was ready and ripe for it. Usually after I had a long bout of kicking myself for being lazy. One day, I would just get sick of the feeling of stagnation and make a move, I would actually put forth the effort and LOOK for a deal.
That is when I would find one. Odd how that works, huh?

There is a quote made from Samuel Goldwyn that states 'The harder I work, the luckier I get.' My goal is to decide to get lucky a little more often. That is why the 10% rule was invented for my game. My goal is to focus on 10% at a time, until I have that licked. How is that different from my current goal of turning $2500 into $5000?
It is yet another division of the goal put forth by the originator of the doubling plan, Stuart Goldsmith.

Each step is to take the beginning amount and double it, that is, increase it 100%. By taking the 100% and subdividing it into 10 steps of 10%, that gives a nice clear goal. Plus, making a 10% goal within a specific timeline will also make things more reasonable.

Action: The rare ingredient.

No matter what you are interested in, do a Google search on your favorite subject and see how many unfinished sites there are. Now, do one on making money, or some type of money making blog. Heck, take any type of goal reaching blog. People just do not keep on moving towards their goals very often.

Its not that 98 percent of people are not smart enough to become millionaires, but that 98 percent of the people do not have the discipline to take action. It is the 2 percent that take action that make it.

Look at how many blogs there are on this subject alone. There are more than a handful. Now see how many people are past step 10, 15, or even 20. Not many. In fact, there are only two other bloggers that I know of that have made it to step 20.

So as you think about starting your doubling or moving forward with your doubling just remember that staying in action, moving forward, even slowly, is how the race is won.

Business has no emotion

I took my silver and gold in to the dealer to liquidate it today. An odd thing happened. I was really kind of sad to sell them, even more so than selling the car I have yet to do. How can I get attached to some shiny little coins? I did eventually train myself to look at most things as business when I purchase them, in reference to initial price, expected profit, max loss potential, etc.

The point is this, if it is a deal to make you money, it is just that. No emotion, no like or dislike, just the question of 'Can it make me money?' If the answer is yes then buy the deal and get it done.

New changes, good and bad.

I tend to have a hard time figuring out the value of my silver and gold coins on the fly, so I decided to add these kitco charts to my sidebar. It is an up to the minute value, whereas I originally thought it was from the close of the last trading day. This does come at an odd time as I am liquidating my coins for my newest goal of returning everything to cash to ensure my current step and totals are current.

I am also currently liquidating the car a little earlier than I had anticipated. Whether this will bring me the same or less money is yet to be seen. I had an exorbitant $1000 emergency vet bill for my dog this week. Surprise!

Logic tells me to get rid of the dog, but there are times when even I have emotional attachments. I purchased her and by doing so I implied a promise to take care of her. Plus I like her, which is surprising since I typically do NOT like animals. I bought her for my fiancee originally, but I took a severe liking to the little runt. What do you do, huh? She is now fine, and as happy as ever.

Increase your stake with savings...

I know I have gone way off the original rules of the original doubling plan, so I thought of a little bit more wacky ways to go off the plan.

From now on, whenever I save money on something, the savings goes towards the stake. So if I go shopping and find an item I NORMALLY BUY and normally pay $5 for $2.50, then $2.50 goes towards the stake. Remember, it has to be something I was going to buy anyway.

Frugal Frugal Frugal!

To be politically incorrect, my friends say I am the most Jewish person they know. That means they think I am cheap. Cheap? Since when is it bad to only replace something if it is broken and then try and find the best deal? I wear the badge of 'jewishness' as a medal of honor. Although I'm not Jewish, I am of Greek descent, and let me tell you, most of the Greeks I know put the Jewish sterotype to shame. By the way, the correct term is frugal.

After looking around on the net, I discovered I have no idea what frugal is compared to some people. One of the ways I spend my limited free time is to look and see what I'm not doing that other people are in the ways of frugal. Is it possible to be frugal and still live well? To use that cash to build a million dollar income? I say YES, most definitely.

Oh money, how I save thee, let me count the ways... Onward to frugalness!!!

Losing an income source

It happens to us all at some point. I am becoming accustomed to losing jobs, it seems to be the trend nowadays, but sadly I have lost one of my major income flows in the game. I had a vending machine at one of my locations that made an enormous amount of money for the time involved. So much so that the owner of the business that hosted the machine decided he wanted it all for himself. I have lost that portion of the location. I am thinking about liquidating the rest of the location and moving that money to the account as part of my liquidation plan. I really should as I finally got a new job and it looks as though it will interfere with the time slots I had to go and deal with that location anyway.

I will let you know how that goes.

A trip back to liquidity - and reality.

After working at this game off and on for almost two and a half years, I have discovered I have strayed from my original plan. At this point, I should have $3800 or so dollars in cash. I do not. I do have a few assets such as some gold and silver, a car, and a few vending machines. But they are not cumulatively worth $3800. I believe if I could liquidate them all I may come up with is around $2200. Where did the other $1600 go? Loans. I had to loan myself some cash to get through a major tough time. And it is still not over... Gotta love the economy, huh?

The good news is this project has taught me how to be frugal and take practically make money from nothing in small amounts. So what to do, what to do? While I make my way through this time, I will freeze my step at 20. I am going to liquidate my assets to pull myself from this mess and begin again on this awesome journey.

Hang tight and I will blog my personal BAILOUT and recovery since it seems the hip thing to do.

In this continuation of the journey I plan on attempting to tackle some of those money making ventures I have drafted out. I want to blog my frugal methods and attempt to calculate the savings towards the stake. All in all I expect to see this grow at a speed much faster than before.
Til next!

Quick Deal for 70%

I found a great deal in a local used DVD/game shop. My girlfriend found a TV series on DVD for $17. We bought it and placed it on half.com. After about a week, it sold for $38. Not a bad deal for relatively no effort. After commissions it was about a $14 profit.

New Year - New Progress

This coming year should be interesting. I am hoping to start it off with a good push. I am starting off the year with a car-flipping deal, much like the one I pulled in the past. This time, however, I am purchasing the car and intend to drive it around while I take my time and attempt to get a decent profit. Unlike the last deal, I do not already have a buyer in mind.

I have also spent the last few months drumming up some income ideas, several pages worth, in fact. I know many of them will dud-out and not make income, but the more I come up with, the more likely I am to have a big hitter. I obviously cannot do them all at once so I must implement them one at a time and see how it goes. Since many of them involve little to no physical parts, it won't be a huge loss if they don't work out. Still, one likes to see progress in all they do, right?

I need to adjust my monthly income program a bit. I initially said I wanted to make $30 a month as a starting point in residual income. I actually had that going with the vending machines I have. I just was not separating that income into a monthly cashflow. I have since decided to do so. So my next goal will be a measly $50 a month. A small increase, but $50 gives a common round number to start with and then progress to the next step of say $100 or so. I am working on that chart and will post the steps when I make them more concrete.

Final Haul of the season

I made the final haul of the season in my largest vending location. It was an awesome $496. SWEET!

I let the money pile up in some of the machines so it made for a big payday. Its kind of like getting a tax return in October. I may do that again next season.

But now to business, this brings my total to 3801. Not shabby, a little progress here.

Its great to have progress even when you get lazy, isn't it?

One week, One month....

Wow, I said I wanted to spend a week figuring out a money making plan for $1 a day and here it is a month later and I haven't come up with anything. Can't I get some more time in a day?! I typically am going almost 20 hours a day most days before I get to sleep, so the time I DO get to myself kind of slips away.

I will give myself another week here and promise to dig on it and come up with something. I have a couple of ideas but I need to research them to see if they are viable.

Hang tight, its coming I promise.

What Exactly is Residual?

I was thinking about what my idea of residual is. In normal terms, it means receiving money over and over from work you performed once, like royalties from a product or something. My theory on the whole idea is that the money will eventually dwindle off from each venture, so you really have to keep busy coming up with new things. At first, you have to be really busy until you hit your income goal and can sort of go into a maintenance mode.

Is my vending considered residual? I mean, sort of and then again not. I have to fill them up and collect money, which is work I have to perform, but I no longer have to place a machine once it is placed. Finding locations is about 90% of the business anyway. I think I would place that under residual. Rental income is a type of residual income. Too bad I don't have anything to rent out. Royalties from writing, photography, and programming are feasible. I first need to learn to write and take pictures. Programming I can do, but what? Perhaps make an app for iphones and sell it on the istore. That is a possibility.

So far I have:
Vending
Royalties
Rental

But what about internet specific ventures? Id really like to focus on those. The main reason for this is the flexibility of location. I would hate to have to completely sell all ventures and restart them if I decided to move somewhere else. The idea of residual is continued income I know, but to make more you have to do more work, or replace the streams that dry up. I'd like to be able to do that while I am anywhere in the world. Wouldn't that be nice?

Time for a change

As I mentioned in a previous post, I will be focusing on building monthly income and not just trying to get to a million dollars. That does not mean that I will not continue working on the million dollar goal, quite the opposite. It means that I will focus on finding ways to build recurring income, vs working on one-shot deals. Of course, profit is profit, and I will still do one-shot deals when they come around.

I have yet to decide if the format of the blog will continue or if I will do a complete redesign of it, structurally speaking. I don't think anyone cares what color scheme I use or something unimportant like that. Although, I would like to make it look a little less like everyone else's blog on blogger. I'll add that to my 'things-I'd-like-to-do-but-probably-never-will' list.

SO! Time for the change, I am giving myself a week to come up with at least one residual money-making venture. What I would like to do is find one a week for the next few weeks, then spend some time working them into the plan. I will also report the 'What not to do' things I find, that way I can revisit the list whenever I forget I already saw something or want to remind myself why I should not be doing it.

So I suppose the first thing is to decide how much money per month you want to build up to. I think a cool million per year, AFTER TAXES, would be sufficient, don't you think? That's approximately, $2MM per year. HAHA, I know, think real. But hey, it could happen eventually, right?

Given that I need to start a LITTLE closer to the ground level and in the real world, lets go for an initial goal of $30 a month. Thats $1 a day. That shouldn't be too hard, right? Let's hope not.

My feeling on this is that it will be a bit harder at first because I have no idea what I am doing, but that it will get easier as I get more proficient at this.

Step 20 - Finally Some Progress! - And a Confession...

Wow, what a fruitless summer this has been. With some heavy hits from real life taking away my time to get more involved in making money, things just did not go as well as I had hoped or planned in my venture.

First my confession. Against the rules, I took money from my stake to help with all the various things that were going on. How much, I am really not able to say, but much more than I wanted to take, I'm certain. So I will have to re-evaluate my fundage and how much I owe myself. In all of this, I can say that I was not as on top of things as I should have been in my financial situation. To my defense, the total losses on my personal accounts from January to August was over $7000. It's hard to plan for that and still not lose momentum, wouldn't you agree?

Another thing that took up a lot of time, but in a good way over the long term, is school. Some of the classes are pretty time consuming and need more attention than others. Given that I'm no spring chicken any more, there are times I really need to focus so I can get finished and resume a decent salary again. The idea is that the more I make, the more I can turn into the projects of making money, or at least the less I will have to borrow if something disasterous happens.

So now, we move on to the progress!
Since my last post I have collected another $250 in monies from various machines. Not too shabby. I really need to purchase some spare pieces to replace some of the worn ones. To expand, I need to purchase another few machines as I have a chance to expand a little within the locations I have.

Step 20 - Real Life is the SUCK!

<sarcasm>Hey! So my renewed commitment is doing soooo well! </sarcasm> But it is not my fault, really! What had happened was... no! the sun was in my eyes!

Ok, in all seriousness, I have been moving forward but have yet to see any results. This is due to that thing called Real Life that loves to jump in the way of anyone doing anything worthwhile. Let me give you a recap on why I have yet to realize any significant gains in the last bit.

My puppy broke her leg. They want to fix it to the tune of $3500. 10 TIMES the cost of the puppy originally.

My car decided to break, and since I use it for work and not just to and from, I needed that to be fixed. Yumm $400.

Oh and my friend I loaned $500 (which I was expecting it back this week) has run into payback trouble. Apparently he owes some BIG people BIG money (ie. US government, and they ain't playing) so I have to get in line behind them for the money he owes. yay...

Other than that, things are great. :)

I did a partial money pickup on one of my vending locations: $365.00 Yay money!
My losses include a dollar I lost in the currency market. Could be a lot worse

So for now, that is my report. It sucks I know and is nowhere near what I wanted to be able to report.

Renewed commitment

While checking out my progress, I have decided that it could be much faster. I am renewing my commitment to the experiment in order to accomplish the goal faster. I have decided to focus instead on assets that will help me build a monthly income.

While my dream goal is $1M per year, I decided my first long term goal is to make $100k a year. I am currently working on defining the steps along the way, much like the 28 steps I am now following for my million dollars.

The doctrine of the experiment will be on increasing monthly income as well. I will still track the million dollar value as always, but will also track monthly income. I believe the two goals go together perfectly.

By giving more focus on the project I should be posting a lot more often about opportunities seen, missed, taken, and the results of my actions.

Here goes!

Step 20 - The Beginning

So Step 20 has begun. This could be a very fun and interesting step because of the opportunities that could begin to open up for me. While not a large amount of money, there is potential to begin to grab hold of some better deals that could result in better money.

This step is a bit shorter due to an adjustment of the goal total. This is for simplicity and nothing more. I have to say I am extremely excited to have reached this step. I hope to be able to et some neat and interesting deals going on the way to $5000!

Step 19 - May 6 2009

This day marks my first collection of the vending machines down on the beachfront. The tourist season will begin soon and that means more money from this route. All in all it is not a ton of money for the year, but enough to be excited about collecting. My first haul of the year brought me $212.50. Not a bad start.

As far as other monies go, I have made another $60 from loaning to co-workers, and the currency market has yielded $4 back to me.

So all in all, $276. this time around. (I did net some more money from my prize vending location, but I spent that and some of my savings on a new computer, so I guess I loaned myself some money. $240 total.

$212.50 - beachfront vending location
$240.00 - prize vending location
$60 - interest
$4 - currency market
-$240 - loan to myself
-----------------------
+ $276.50 total

Grand total: $2690.50

WOW! Step 20 has arrived! Alright!

Step 19 - Spring has sprung!

Wow, been a while, huh? I hate winter. My money slows down in winter. Yuck.
So where was I with all this fun money stuff?

Well, as spring is coming, I spent a little time collecting dormant vending machine money. $100 from my largest location, $32 from another, and yet another $125 from my machine with the giveaway prize.

I also have been playing bank to co-workers, netting $124 in profits from 'payday loans.'

I have some money also invested in the currency market, but at the time, it is at a loss of $9. Ah well, I'm hoping it turns around soon.

So lets get a new tally on this springs totals so we can push onward and upward!

$257 from various vending machines, $124 from loans and -$9 from the markets. That totals $372.

The new total is: $2414!

Step 19 - Another day another quarter (or more)

Well this week saw me add a few more dollars to the pot. Nothing exciting happened, Im afraid. I simply went to my largest vending route and collected from it. Now that the summer is over and all the beach tourists are gone, I don't expect as much money as I was getting. It will all return in the spring when the weather warms up and the tourists return.

This collection yielded $112.50, so adding that to the pot. This brings me to over $2000! a nice milestone in my journey.

New total is: $2042.50

So here is the little chart for this post.

Step 19 - Gumballs and Shiny things

Been a while since I posted, but don't think I've given up. Things are changing for certain, but still I push ever forward.

I went in mid September and got my last large collection from my vending location down at the beach. This haul was $297. No inventory was purchased as I merged a few of the machines together and have already gotten the fish food for the winter months for that particular machine. I went and collected from the other couple of slower machines, giving me another $43. My 'prize machine' has given a total of $75 towards the purchase of he PlayStation 3 I will give away. I suck at any kind of graphical design, so the sign isn't up yet. I did get one of the girls at work to make me one yesterday while she was bored, so that will go up and then it should make money faster.

All in all, a total of $405 more dollars towards the stake.

I purchased some more silver coins and my first gold piece. The gold piece is a 1/10 oz, not quite the 1oz I truly want, but hey, Gold and silver had taken a dip in price, so I jumped on it.

I have also taken a big interest in the FOREX market. That is the market where you buy and sell foreign currencies. I have been playing with demo accounts for the last couple of months and think I have enough confidence to try a small amount. If I can make some money with it, GREAT!

So here is the little chart for this post.

Step 19 - Another $350 for an hour and a half

Wow, well, this season is doing well at the beach. I went down to the arcade where my vending machines are and collected another $350. This took an hour and a half. I haven't refilled them yet, so some of the profits will be put back into that, but no more than $30 this time as I bought a 50lb bag of fish food last time. That's my money maker there, the fish food vending machine, who woulda thunk?

Edit: I went to another vending machine and used that money ($40) for inventory, so my total profits stay at $350 this month so far, woot!

Step 19 - Three HundredThirty Dollars in an hour!

Well, I have become to love my vending machines. I went to my largest location and took just over an hour to collect $330 in an hour! That was after I paid my commissions. I had to go and spend $85 on more inventory afterwards, but hey, not bad for an hours work. Man, if I could build 5 of those hours per week on a steady 4 week schedule, I'd be sitting good.

My little soda selling thing at work is making me money with no effort. So far I've sold three cases of sodas, netting me $24 profit. I would have made more by now, but I have been lazy about replacing the sodas when they ran out. Anyway, another $15 for more soda inventory and lets see if I can get some more.

So I get to add another $254 to the pot.

Vending Income - $330
Soda Income - $24
----------------------
Total $354
Inventory - $100 (candies and soda)
-----------------------
Net increase $254

Happy Independence Day

Independence Day is a national holiday, but I decided to make it my own personal holiday as well.

I had first made a goal of January 1 2009 as the day I begin to bank my entire paycheck. I have moved that day to July 4th 2009 merely to coincide with the national holiday.

This is one of the goals of my doubling project. So lets go one more year and have my own Independence Day! ;)

Step 19 - A few more bucks!

Ok, now that my sad news is out of the way, I have discovered a new way to make a few bucks. At this point it looks like about $40-50 a month.

I manage a small takeout/delivery restaurant. In that restaurant we sell 20oz sodas for $1.49. My employees simply steal them at that price as they figure they deserve a discount and the corporation does not allow discounts on sodas. I was in the Sam's club the other day and discovered I could buy 24oz sodas (same brand as I carry in my store) for .10 cheaper than my store pays for the 20oz directly from the company.

I bought a case and took it back to my store, my employees now buy my 24oz sodas for $1 each. When the entire case is gone, I make $8 profit. Thwy went through the first case in three days. If they keep that pace up, I could feasibly make $80 a month, with no shrinkage. I figure for a bit of shrinkage and some slow days to make me $40-50.

Hey, every little bit helps!

I also collected another $20 profit from one of my smaller vending machines.

Step 19 - Bad Karma strikes again

Well, remember that car that was towed away? It seems that there is a process they go through to get rid of the car. After all was said and done, the car sold for $700 less than the storage fees it incurred sitting on the lot. Therefore, I am now liable for those fees. $700! Ouch, what a lesson this whole fiasco is turning out to be. Sooo... guess my stake just took a $700 dive. I sold my silver and paid the rest.

Another step back and another lesson learned, oh well...

Article: Vending Machines

Flip over at The Double Challenge asked a few questions about vending on my comments. They were very good questions for anyone thinking about vending.

Vending is a great starter business. It is cheap, easy to maintain, easy to build upon, and an all cash business. Finding a location is the hardest part, you can either hire a professional locater or go out and find them yourself. There is one more option but it tends to be more expensive. That is buying existing routes already set up on location.

When buying an existing route you might think they are being sold because they are not making any money. Usually, that is not the case. They are usually sold because the owner needs quick cash, is moving, is starting another business venture and doesnt want to deal with it anymore, or any other number of reasons. As with any other business, ask for proof of what the route makes and try not to pay any more than what it brings in in a year.

Filling the machines yourself is the easiest and most profitable way to run the route. You can pay someone if you like, but you have to pay them and trust is a very important factor in vending as the cash is very accessible.

I hope that helps, I'm not an expert, as I just started out myself not long ago. This post is a result of my own research from both the net and other vendors I have talked to. Have fun!

Step 19 - part 2 -

Well, looks like my vending route will do decently well.

This time, I pocketed $197.

Cash: $693
Assets: $924 ($600 in machines, 18oz silver $324)
Total: $1617

Step 19

Wow, looks like its been a bit since I posted. Well, it isn't from lack of activity, I can tell you.

Let's see, I had $1584 at last count. I bought another car to flip quickly, but it kinda got towed away. It needed a small bit of money put into it but I had to wait to find a part. My ex-roommate was ticked for kicking him out (long sad story, choose roomies very carefully!) and had it towed from my friend's work for a violation (no sticker.) I couldn't house it at my apartment complex for that very same reason, and they look frequently.

Anyway, by the time I found out about it over a week later, the recovery fee was too high for me to profit off of, so I let it go. That knocked me back $500.

1584 - $500 = 1084. ouch!!!

The good news is, the vending routes I had purchased with stake money ($600 worth.) made me $300! A rarity I'm certain, but a pleasant surprise nonetheless.

$1084 - $600 + $300 = $784

I also bought some silver, since I think it is going to do fairly well. They were at $16 an ounce. I bought 18 of them. $288 total.

$784 - $288 = $496

Now, I think I may show my stake a bit differently now...

Cash: $496
Assets: $888
Total: $1384

Almost back up to what I was before my loss. Hey, thats business!

Step 14-19 - Brokering a deal

February 8, 2008: Brokered a deal that shot me ahead a few steps.

Amount: $1584.65

I had the opportunity to put together a seller and a buyer for a car. I know a lot about these cars, as I've owned four of them. I know the market a little bit as I'm always looking for a good deal, even when I can't afford one. Call it a hobby. Anyway, I had an acquaintance that needed money fast and had one of these cars for sale, a convertible at that. Given the weather lately has been so warm, it was a good opportunity to raise the asking price and appeal to someone's emotions. I used my network of friends and found a buyer for the car. The purchase price wasn't that unusual, $2500 for a car that is 20 years old, but destined to be a classic (Its a 5.0 mustang convertible.) In this area they are particularly popular and difficult to come by at anywhere near the blue book price, which is around $1500. So no worries. I got the seller to agree that I get anything above his asking price (which was $1000, thats where the value of the deal came, he was asking way too little.) no matter what. He agreed.

I got the two together and actually handled the money (I have to protect my interests, yes?) and title for the two folks. Now I am the owner of 1500 brand new dollars, woot!

That gets to go into my stake, making it a whopping $1584.25, a good bit into Step 19. Nice, huh?

Now, I have to find a place to put that money to make it grow some more.

Step 14 - Part 1

Step: Turn $80 into $160

January 28, 2008: Carryover of $4.65 from the sale of two gift cards.

Amount: $84.65

Step 13 - $40 to $80 - Complete

January 28, 2008: The carryover from the sale of the two gift cards makes this step complete with additional carryover.
Amount: $80.00

Carryover to next step: $4.65

Step 12 - Turn $20 into $40

January 28, 2008: Sold a couple of $40 circuit city gift cards for $60 total.$40.00


Carryover to the next step = $44.65

Article - Why Don't People Finish?

This was a previous 'thought' in one of my Step 12 posts, but I feel the need to expand on this. Mr Goldsmith created a nice little frenzy with his report. People still find it every day and get on the bandwagon. They start blogs, much like this one, and excitedly climb the first few steps. The excitement build when they quickly blow through the first 4 or 5 steps. "This is easy" they think. True enough at the beginning levels. Something starts to happen around step 10 or 11, however. Simply finding a penny on the street no longer moves them significantly towards their goal. The goal at step 10 is to turn $5 into $10. Seemingly an easy enough task. But while finding a penny at step 1 moves you instantly to step 2. you would need to find some 500 pennies to move you from step 10 to 11. 500 times the effort. So that particular way of adding to the pot is no longer efficient. From there, it is up to the doubler to discover or create a new way to double their cash. From here, its sign up to read emails, or pay to click on ads or something of that nature. While this may get you to the next step or so, it quickly runs out of efficiency. Most people give up around this point. Is it any harder to turn $20 into $40 than it is to turn a nickel into a dime? Sure it is. But then again it isn't. The complexity comes not from doubling the money, but from the effort and energy involved in doing it.

People do not mind doing something if it means not changing routine or putting any serious effort into it. It takes brain power and some time to turn $20 into $40. When it comes to putting effort into the project, people begin to question the effort/payoff ratio. If I spend 20 hours turning $20 into $40, I made a dollar an hour. Given they had to take time out of their normal routine and spend 20 of their precious freetime hours doing something that only returned a dollar per hour, most people say 'screw it' and drop the project.

Keep in mind as you work on your project, that what seems inefficient now is still helping you. The middle steps deal with a small amount of money, and its hard to find good real investments that will help you. You are also already past the step where you can panhandle a significant amount of a step too. Stick with it and you will find money all over.

Step 12 - Turn $20 into $40

January 27, 2008: Added another 1.67 I had of pocket change.
Amount: $24.65

Step 12 - Turn $20 into $40

January 8, 2008: The last $1 carried over from the last step is now added to the pot, this will bring my new total to $21.
Amount: $21.00


January 9, 2008: Added .84 to the pot. .12 found money and .72 pocket change.
Amount: $21.84


January 11, 2008: Found .55 on the apt floor after guests left. Maybe I should invite them over more often.
Amount: $22.39

January 12, 2008: Added .49 pocket change.
Amount: $22.88

January 13, 2008: Found .10 on the ground.
Amount: $22.98


Thoughts:
Now, in addition to adding pocket change and found money, it is time to start figuring out how to invest the money and let it double.

Lets look at our options. We can invest it, loan it out for interest, purchase something and resell it.

Option 1: Invest - probably the safest way, but then not the most efficient at doubling as it takes a while. Unless we can find some great investment. My goal is to double this in a week or two.

Option 2: Loan it out - possibly a faster doubling than investing, but higher risk. Without collateral, you need a lot of trust in the person.

Option 3: Purchase and resell. The most likely way to double efficiently. I'll look into that.


How to do it: still grabbing loose change and adding pocket change.

Step 11 Turn $10 into $20

January 5, 2008:
The rest of the coin jar I found is now added to the stake, giving me $16.63 total.

Amount: $16.63


January 8, 2008:
The rest of my pocket change translates to another $4.37

I will add the $3.37 to complete the step and carryover the last $1 to the next step.

Amount: $20.00

How to do it: add pocket change periodically.

Step 9 - Step 10

January 4, 2008: Found a quarter at work.

Amount: $3.06

January 5, 2008: During a hefty apartment cleaning discovered a jar of coins. The amount in the jar will send me into step 11. Inside was $13.57. Nice find. I will first scale the stake down to the max for step 10 for the blog's sake and readd the rest in the next step.

Amount: $10.00






How to do it: Still keeping an eye out for change wherever it may be.

Step 5 - Step 8 - Up to $2.80

December 27, 2007:
Found a dime on the ground while at work.

Amount: .20


December 30, 2007:
Found another dime on the ground in the apartment, since I have roommates, I figure its most likely not mine, so I added it to the pot.

Amount: .30

January 4, 2008
Was given a small bag of change by my friend. Inside was 2.77 of various dimes, nickels, and pennies. This brings me to step 9.

Amount: 2.81


How to do it: still scanning the ground and pocketing loose change.

Step 4 - .04 to .08

Found a penny and a nickel. This puts me into step 4.

Amount: .10

How to do it: Look on the ground.

Steps 2 and 3 - up to .04

Found three pennies on the ground. This completes steps 2 and 3.

Total amount: .04

How to do it: Keep scanning the ground for loose change. There is more than you think lying around.

Step 1 - The first penny

I found a penny while sweeping the floor. So it begins...

Amount: .01

How to do it: Simply find or ask for a penny.

Thin Air Millionaire

This blog is about making a million dollars from scratch! This is my blog about an interesting 28-step concept that I read about. You must start by finding or getting a penny from someone. I removed many of the original rules to increase the efficiency of the plan. If you want those rules, just Google 'Double your way to a million'. Anyway, here are my rules:

The Rules:

1. Your million may include both cash and assets, as long as it gets to a million


2. You may add your pocket change to the pot.


3. You graduate through the 28 steps by doubling your money at each step. Unlike the original, carryover is allowed from one step to the next.


4. You may make as many transactions as necessary to complete a step.
5. There is no time limit to any step.


6. Do not remove money to do anything other than further your game to the next step.
   


7. You may use loans or debt to increase your assets to earn your million as long as the payments for the debt are made from the money the pot earns.


8. You may also accept any charity or free items to grow your pot. This is anything anyone wants to give you. If you can use it, sell it, or trade it, do so.


9. You may sell items you already own to help you, as needed.

The steps are as follows:

1. .01
2. .02
3. .04
4. .08
5. .16
6. .32
7. .64
8. 1.28
9. 2.56
10. 5.00 (for simplicity's sake)
11. 10.00
12. 20.00
13. 40.00
14. 80.00
15. 160.00
16. 320.00
17. 640.00
18. 1,280.00
19. 2,560.00
20. 5,000.00 (again, for simplicity)
21. 10,000.00
22. 20,000.00
23. 40,000.00
24. 80,000.00
25. 160,000.00
26. 320,000.00
27. 640,000.00
28. 1,280,000.00

Let the game begin!

UPDATE: I decided to implement this nifty little thermometer for the million dollar goal...