Want to make more money? Of course you do. Make time to think differently so you can discover new investment and business opportunities
In 2020, the S&P 500 closed up almost 18% for another record all-time high! This was despite the global pandemic crushing businesses and jobs.
Just think about this situation for a little bit. Is it not a little bit ironic that more jobs creates more stock market wealth, but once you have lots of stock market wealth you no longer have to work?
I’m reminded about the parable of the Mexican fisherman who gets ridiculed by an executive with a fancy MBA for why the fisherman doesn’t want more than his catch. The whole point about investing our money is so that our money will one day work so hard for us that we don’t have to.
Make Time To Think Differently
Here I am an unemployed guy looking for work as a masseuse’s guinea pig in Bora Bora and for what? To earn $25 an hour while getting rubbed down by some lovely lady on the beach after two hours of tennis and one hour of scuba diving? Forget that!
What I should be doing is spending my hours trying to uncover potential multi-bagger investment opportunities that people have overlooked. My biggest regret when I was in my early 20s was not having enough money to invest in this one stock that exploded by 50X in a matter of months. I’ll tell you about this story in a future post.
Risk-on is risk-on. People overbid like crazy for things in a bull market. Bubbles will eventually form, but before the burst you can make a ton of money in the process.
Everybody likes to talk about how dotcom millionaires went bust in 2000. I personally know a handful of dotcommers who did quite well. The same goes for real estate. We are talking millions of dollars in the bank before the age of 30.
Not everybody got crushed like the media makes it out to be. Those who succeeded in cashing out have quietly gone about their ways.
New Initiative To Make More Money
From now on I will spend at least 15 minutes once a week looking for investment ideas, publicly traded or private. I’m going to spend time thinking differently. I’ll alternate the time for new online entrepreneurial ideas as well. I’m not going to over promise by saying 30 minutes or 1 hour because I know that won’t happen.
Most of us spend too little time using our imaginations. We wake up, brush our teeth, get dressed, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, poop, and repeat the cycle over and over again.
Let’s make room for some meditation, some investment idea hunting, and some creativity. I bet if we set aside more time to think differently, we can do much more, be much more, and earn much more.
Ideas To Make More Money
* Is there a product you swear by that you use all the time? Perhaps it’s a publicly traded stock you can look into.
* Is a company in a foreign country replicating the success of an established player? Samsung vs. Apple, Yandex vs. Google, Hyundai Motor vs. Honda, etc.
* Is there something you are particularly good at or fond of that you can leverage into something more?
* Is there a problem that bothers you where you see a solution?
* Do you see something mediocre which you can do better?
* Where is fear the greatest? Some of the greatest opportunities come out of darkness.
Start your own online business
It’s been around six years since I started Financial Samurai and I’m actually earning a good passive and active income stream online now.
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. Blogging for a living is great!
If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, see how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes like min with my step-by-step tutorial. You never know where the journey will take you!
The net worth composition of the richest people all have business equity due to entrepreneurship. If you want to make more money, think differently by being a business owner.
Related: How Do You Expect To Make Money If You Don’t Produce Anything?
Photo: A Mexican fisherman with a huge catch. 2021.
Sam great post, you got my entreprenurial juices flowing. I am working on a Mezcal (similar to tequilla) business up near the Bay Area, we are currently looking for investors to take it to the next level. We make the spirits the traditional way in the villages of Oaxaca Mexico and have been reviewed by the New York times to much acclaim. If you are interested in learning more just send me an email.
Another one of your recent posts mentioned something similar. After reading that I made a point to spend more time searching out new investment opportunities rather than purely focusing on what I already owned.
I started researching a relatively new industry and eventually ended up buying some shares in the current industry leader. They reported earnings last week and shares have risen more than 20% over the last 5 days. So, ummm…thanks for the motivation to search out new opportunities!
Congrats! Does this mean steak dinner on you wen we meet up next?!
Chinese Internet stocks are on fuego today! Hope things don’t end in tears or years!
Sounds good Roshan. I look forward to talking to you more about your endeavor!
Ever calculated how much it would be worth today? From $1,000 to $10,000 is huge though! Hope you used that money for some other investment.
No, I never did, but I’m sure it would have gone up at least an additional 10x. I used most of the money for a down payment on a house.
I’m sure your return on cash of your house was huge too!
Nothing wrong with looking for big capital gains. In fact, that is how I was able to secure enough of a downpayment to buy my first condo in SF 10+ years ago. Need to bet to win.
I’ll always tell younger folks to take more investment risks while they still can. By the time you build a sizable nut, whatever that definition may be, you naturally will become risk adverse.
You’ll enjoy this post: https://www.financialsamurai.com/2013/05/06/rule-72t-to-withdraw-money-penalty-free-from-ira-for-early-retirement/
I like dividend stocks primarily, but I like to play the extremely riskylong shot odds of some of the cancer drug development companies with drugs in pretrials. SNTI or CTIX. You hahve to have a little fun with it.
I quite like this idea, actually! A friend of mine does a “taking stock” type thing of her life each week and calls it her “state of the union” checkin. Applying this idea to think creatively about investment possibilities is awesome, and easily achieved.
Very appropriate terms. My Should I Invest In China Post was my version of taking stock of things and looking for new ideas.
I’ve been doing this for the past year or so and I’ve come up with a bunch of interesting business ideas around energy efficiency and saving energy in residential homes. All my ideas have failed once I really dug into them, but that’s just part of the process… or so I’m told.
It really is. You gotta try and try again, especially while you still have a steady income stream.
I’m surprised that you hadn’t gone down this avenue until this time Same. After all, you could consider your “job” either increasing your portfolios, or at a minimum paying your future taxes as you get into your 59.5 years of age.
I’m thinking that when I retire in another 13-14 years, then I will have the job to do the same.
Glad to see you’re considering some risk taking for a change. :-)
It’s because I lost my greed for more money after I reached my financial nut goal, and now with all this time I’m finding the greed again.
The rolled over IRA of $400,000 is a perfect portfolio to punt around. If it goes to $0, it will suck but I never counted on it in retirement anyway. It would be fun to try and grow it to $1-$2 million in 10 years. Let’s see!
Recently I’ve been setting aside 5-20 minutes/day 4-5 times a week now to get more fit. Even just a small amount of time can go a long way. I used to think what’s the point of 5 minutes, but there’s actually a lot you can do in 5 minutes! So I totally agree that the same thing applies to investing, brainstorming ideas, and learning more about personal finance overall.
Fitness… my nemesis. You are right. Even just 5 minutes of situps, pushups, whatever a day adds up over 365 days!
The suggestion to spend some time daily or weekly looking for new investment opportunities is excellent. However, I would exercise more caution when describing bull market success stories. I don’t doubt the intelligence of those who “cashed out”, as you described, but we are talking about short-term market timing, which in my experience is rather futile. I prefer an investing approach which revolves around finding solid long-term investment opportunities instead of attempting to time the market ups and downs
I highlight bull market success stories b/c there have been WAY MORE highlights of failures from the schadenfreude public.
You may enjoy this post: https://www.financialsamurai.com/2013/03/03/how-to-lose-a-million-dollars-and-live-to-see-another-day/
Excellent idea! 3M has a policy similar to this for their employees, particularly their scientists. It was one of those moments that invented “post it”. For me, the additional time pointed me into blogging. Years ago, the additional time pointed me into income property.
Good example of the Post It note! It’s so easy to get in a routine and be a zombie.
I’m still mostly holding back and staying too conservative. I’m like a greyhound at the gate though. Soon…
I’ve been waiting for a pullback since S&P 500 1,555 as well to no avail. But, with my 401(k) conversion to an IRA, I went balls to the wall in China stocks and Apple during their last results. I do have a SDS hedge on though.
Yes! Investing as a life philosophy. More important than your financial assets, it’s all about how you invest your time, energy and thoughts. My goal this year is to start investing in my X-factor.
Sounds good Marcel. Might be the best thing you’ve done. I don’t include any of my online endeavor in my net worth, but one day, I will, and I believe it could make up a substantial portion if I keep at it.