Make some money

What can you do to make some money?

A friend asked me what he could do to make some money. He wanted me to tell him something specific that he could go and do now. I explained there are to many variables to be specific as to what any one person could do to make money. A plan to make money needs to be specific to the person.

How much money and in what time frame? It helps to have set some goals, as those goals will give you a frame work from which to make decisions. If you are at your wits end and need money immediately then there is little that can be done short of selling something to get quick cash. Your motivation is the urgency of the situation and that is the wrong motivation to ever making any real money. On the other hand, if you have time to work a plan, then the possibilities are almost endless.

What skills do you bring to the task? Each person has a different set of skills and experiences from which to draw on as they decide what they can do that make money. That knowledge and skill set will help answer your question. For example a carpenter might build someone a deck, an accountant might do taxes and a housewife might baby sit and so on.

What is the time frame? The longer your time frame the more choices you will have of what to do. For example you can make a lot of money investing in real estate, but the time frame is three years plus. A young person investing in rental houses starting at age thirty can be a multi-millionaire by age fifty.

What do you have to work with? The assets that you posses or that you have access to will increase your options. For example if you have money you might make investments in stocks or real estate. A friend of mine started part time buying equipment at auctions with a $20,000 loan from his father. After a few years he built up a full time business. He buys anything of value that anyone has to to sell for quick cash, he then resells the items at higher prices the he paid by adding value, such as delivery, set up, terms and so on.

How are you motivated? If you are a self starter and disciplined you might try a part time self employment gig. If you need the structure of a job in which to operate efficiently then a part time job might be better. Most rich people are self motivated and tend towards independent thinking.

Are you a risk taker? Investing and starting a small business are risky and you need a certain mental attitude to deal with that risk. Fear of loss and the unknown stops most people. If you tend towards the risk-adverse, then your opportunities will be limited some what. It is still possible to get rich slowly, but you will just need more time and a long term outlook. Mutual funds and long term savings such as Roth-IRA's and 401K's are good choices.

How determined are you? Your determination or your willingness to make a plan and carry it through will determine your success. It takes a lot of fortitude to stay the course in the face of adversity, but it does pay off. Keep in mind all people who have made money and been successful, have been scared to death of their own decisions most of the time. It is that fear that makes them do their homework so that they take calculated risk, and prevents them from making to many mistakes. To succeed means that you win more times then you loose, not that you never lose. The education comes from the losses.

Believe in yourself? You are all that you have and your success or failure is on you. It is all up to you. Take the first step towards making money, the first step is the hardest part and then keep on walking.

Luck? You make your own luck with preparation and by taking action. One day a man came into my office and leased a corner of one of my properties to erect a cell tower on. $1,000 plus a 3% inflation adjustment a year, for thirty years. My secretary commented how lucky I was. Yes I was lucky, Thirty five years of part time real estate investing and owning properties has put me into a position to take advantage of some lucky situations. If I had not been investing in real estate I could not have gotten lucky.

The answer is? You have already started because you are reading this. Read all the articles, even the ones you are not interested in. You will leave gain lots of ideas and then the big problem will be keeping the motivation up to actually do something. Try writing your goals on an index card and tapping it to your morning mirror, mine stayed on my mirror for ten years, now they are habits.

Best wishes