Even though the original poster was quickly banned, he brought up an interesting thread here regarding credit card arbitrage: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-27755.html It's interesting because I'm wondering what other sorts of hustles guys are doing out there right now.
I'm not talking about full-time/seasonal stuff like import/exporting cars or Christmas trees, that have been featured in other hustle posts... but things that fit within your lifestyle and don't change the dynamics of your life, with very little time investment. For instance, I'll be the first to share:
I think I'm a born hustler. Back in the late 80's, I would go on Costco runs with my parents, buy bulk candies and then sell them on campus out of my backpack. Some weeks, I would clear $100 in profit (for a 9 year old kid, that's some "fuck you money") and was so successful, the student store finally complained to the principal and shut me down. I was also the kid that would sign up to collect donations for all kinds of school activities (jog-a-thon, library fundraiser, etc) and would then just pocket the cash the adults gave me. Even back then I realized how easy this stuff was.
Unfortunately, my fatal flaw is that as much as I love to hustle, I don't like to work very hard. I had a few failed businesses early on and one spectacular run during the housing boom... knowing my poor work ethic, I have currently set myself up with a really cushy job, lots of vacation time and a very reasonable work load. I love my job, but it does get a little boring.
So to keep my mind sharp, for the past few years I've been supplementing my decent 9-5 income with side hustles which take very little time. And going over my annual expense/income spreadsheets, I'm pretty surprised at the amount of money I've made in the past few years from these side gigs.
Some of my everyday hustles I'm running currently:
1. Sign up for all "applicable" class action settlements: http://www.Topclassactions.com is the definitive resource for finding information on class action lawsuits throughout the US. Needless to say, you're only supposed to sign up for the ones that pertain to your situation, but I'm sure many of you are cosmopolitan gentlemen and thus eligible for most of these payouts. I know I am. You'd be very surprised to see what some of these dish out! My biggest check was for $1800 for a racial discrimination settlement against Abercrombie, and I routinely get $200+ checks from constantly doing these settlements. Even the $15-$20 settlements are often very easy and paperwork takes 2 minutes to complete. I keep a steady rotation of these going, as the checks usually take 6-12 months to get paid out, and they keep on coming in like clockwork month after month. Annually, I think I average around $1500-$2500 a year from these settlement checks and this is the easiest source of income I make.
2. Internet Reviews and Posts: I write as a guest columnist for a travel blogger and also used to write paid reviews for a Yelp wannabe site. I also jumped on GManifesto's call for social media help and I think I made about $80 off of 45 minutes of work. The travel blogger bit pays the most at a couple of hundred dollars a month, and it only takes me about three to four hours to write out my allotted posts. Total: $4500 annually.
3. Travel consulting: Through a number of different strategies, I amass anywhere from 300,000-500,000 air miles and hotel points annually. How I do that is beyond the scope of this thread, but needless to say, there's a robust secondary market for these travel points. I'd estimate I make around $5000 annually from this venture and keep the stress very low as I only work with close friends. I did make one exception here in this thread: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-27141.html
Things I'm looking to get into:
1. Becoming a Lyft driver: Lyft is a ridesharing service that allows regular people to essentially use their own cars as a quasi-taxi service. I've used it extensively around town, and the drivers are normally quite happy with how the split is calculated. I'm told it's not unheard of to make $800 in a busy weekend (granted you have to deal with drunkards after last call in the party areas) but to be conservative, I could work one weekend a month (perfectly acceptable) and book $400 conservatively. That's $4,800 annually.
2. Freelancing: I've been very interested in BeyondBorders and a couple of other guys' posts who make their living doing freelance writing. I understand there's quite the barrier to entry, and I'm not looking to quit my 9-5, but it'd be great to burrow deep in the beginning, make a decent name for myself and then live off of repeat customers. I'd be more than happy making a couple hundred dollars a month. Lets say an even $3000 a year for 10 hours a month.
3. Reselling on Ebay/Craigslist: I've only done this a few times, but it seems like a pretty interesting gig. I have a buddy who used to work for bowflex who would get me those adjustable dumbbell racks for 80% off. I'd then post them on craigslist for $75 less than retail without any sales tax and would sell them at the local car wash parking lot. Had another friend who did this with a connection at Best Buy, who made lots of money.
4. Currency Arbitrage in Argentina: There's another post on RVF that sums it up perfectly. Just type in "arbitrage" and "argentina" and you should find it. I did this a few times, but need to further explore to truly monetize it.
My favorite hustles of the past:
1. 0% Cash advances: My family friend got me into this, and at one point I had about $200,000 in cash I had garnered through 0% cash advances. I then invested this money in a bunch of online checking accounts that were paying out 5-6% interest. I'd pay off the minimum monthly payments on the 0% credit cards, collect the monthly interest and the spread was my profit. I only did it for a year and a half, but aside from the logistics of applying for the cards and setting up the accounts, it was an easy $10,000 annually. Of course, with interest rates being what they are now, this is impossible without a huge amount of risk investing the money in other venues.
2. 5% cash back AARP card: As referenced in the "Credit card arbitrage" thread, I would buy thousands of $1 coins from the US Mint at cost, deposit them as legal tender in my bank accounts and then pay off my AARP card balance with the funds. The 5% cash back rate was good for 6 months and was ostensibly a teaser to get grandma/grandpa to put their livings costs on a credit card instead of holding up the goddamn line at Safeway writing a check. Anyway, in 6 months, I hit this pretty hard and bought around $300,000 in $1 coins. Shlepping close to 3 tons of coins over 6 months was not easy on my car's transmission or my back, but the $15k in tax free money (rebates aren't considered taxable income) was a welcome relief.
3. Sushi chef: My family has a Japanese restaurant and for a few years, I managed and worked behind the sushi bar. Having made a lot of contacts in that field, I exited the restaurant industry but would still act as a "mercenary chef" for restaurant owners who needed quick, reliable help behind the sushi bar. This would usually happen when several chefs would quit at once, an all too often occurrence. Pay would usually be a prorated fee of $1000 a week for dinner shifts (would drive directly from work to the restaurant) plus tips and would never be more than 10 days at the most.
What I do with my money: I invest half of my "hustle money" in P2P lending with Lending Club and Prosper. It's not completely risk-free, but my default rate has thus been quite low and I've made consistent returns of 7%+. This has allowed me to further leverage my hustle money by adding a multiplier effect. The other half, I allow myself to blow on gaming girls and traveling, the two great loves of my life.
In Conclusion:
I hope that this post doesn't come across as self-congratulatory, but ideally, more of a way to inspire discussion and give back to the RVF community. "Game" is very appealing because it's the ultimate form of psychological hustle to me, and without this forum and Roosh's writings, I know I would lead a much sadder life.
In the past three years, I've never made less than $15,000 annually from these hustles and in 2011, I set a record at just over $27,000. That's a pretty significant percentage of my 9-5 salary, plus it allows a lot of my expenses to be counted as tax breaks. Ultimately, what I'm saying is that you can really make some decent coin without really affecting your life all that much.
I'm hoping that this thread encourages a lot of sharing and passing around of ideas: I always have time for another hustle or two.
I'm not talking about full-time/seasonal stuff like import/exporting cars or Christmas trees, that have been featured in other hustle posts... but things that fit within your lifestyle and don't change the dynamics of your life, with very little time investment. For instance, I'll be the first to share:
I think I'm a born hustler. Back in the late 80's, I would go on Costco runs with my parents, buy bulk candies and then sell them on campus out of my backpack. Some weeks, I would clear $100 in profit (for a 9 year old kid, that's some "fuck you money") and was so successful, the student store finally complained to the principal and shut me down. I was also the kid that would sign up to collect donations for all kinds of school activities (jog-a-thon, library fundraiser, etc) and would then just pocket the cash the adults gave me. Even back then I realized how easy this stuff was.
Unfortunately, my fatal flaw is that as much as I love to hustle, I don't like to work very hard. I had a few failed businesses early on and one spectacular run during the housing boom... knowing my poor work ethic, I have currently set myself up with a really cushy job, lots of vacation time and a very reasonable work load. I love my job, but it does get a little boring.
So to keep my mind sharp, for the past few years I've been supplementing my decent 9-5 income with side hustles which take very little time. And going over my annual expense/income spreadsheets, I'm pretty surprised at the amount of money I've made in the past few years from these side gigs.
Some of my everyday hustles I'm running currently:
1. Sign up for all "applicable" class action settlements: http://www.Topclassactions.com is the definitive resource for finding information on class action lawsuits throughout the US. Needless to say, you're only supposed to sign up for the ones that pertain to your situation, but I'm sure many of you are cosmopolitan gentlemen and thus eligible for most of these payouts. I know I am. You'd be very surprised to see what some of these dish out! My biggest check was for $1800 for a racial discrimination settlement against Abercrombie, and I routinely get $200+ checks from constantly doing these settlements. Even the $15-$20 settlements are often very easy and paperwork takes 2 minutes to complete. I keep a steady rotation of these going, as the checks usually take 6-12 months to get paid out, and they keep on coming in like clockwork month after month. Annually, I think I average around $1500-$2500 a year from these settlement checks and this is the easiest source of income I make.
2. Internet Reviews and Posts: I write as a guest columnist for a travel blogger and also used to write paid reviews for a Yelp wannabe site. I also jumped on GManifesto's call for social media help and I think I made about $80 off of 45 minutes of work. The travel blogger bit pays the most at a couple of hundred dollars a month, and it only takes me about three to four hours to write out my allotted posts. Total: $4500 annually.
3. Travel consulting: Through a number of different strategies, I amass anywhere from 300,000-500,000 air miles and hotel points annually. How I do that is beyond the scope of this thread, but needless to say, there's a robust secondary market for these travel points. I'd estimate I make around $5000 annually from this venture and keep the stress very low as I only work with close friends. I did make one exception here in this thread: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-27141.html
Things I'm looking to get into:
1. Becoming a Lyft driver: Lyft is a ridesharing service that allows regular people to essentially use their own cars as a quasi-taxi service. I've used it extensively around town, and the drivers are normally quite happy with how the split is calculated. I'm told it's not unheard of to make $800 in a busy weekend (granted you have to deal with drunkards after last call in the party areas) but to be conservative, I could work one weekend a month (perfectly acceptable) and book $400 conservatively. That's $4,800 annually.
2. Freelancing: I've been very interested in BeyondBorders and a couple of other guys' posts who make their living doing freelance writing. I understand there's quite the barrier to entry, and I'm not looking to quit my 9-5, but it'd be great to burrow deep in the beginning, make a decent name for myself and then live off of repeat customers. I'd be more than happy making a couple hundred dollars a month. Lets say an even $3000 a year for 10 hours a month.
3. Reselling on Ebay/Craigslist: I've only done this a few times, but it seems like a pretty interesting gig. I have a buddy who used to work for bowflex who would get me those adjustable dumbbell racks for 80% off. I'd then post them on craigslist for $75 less than retail without any sales tax and would sell them at the local car wash parking lot. Had another friend who did this with a connection at Best Buy, who made lots of money.
4. Currency Arbitrage in Argentina: There's another post on RVF that sums it up perfectly. Just type in "arbitrage" and "argentina" and you should find it. I did this a few times, but need to further explore to truly monetize it.
My favorite hustles of the past:
1. 0% Cash advances: My family friend got me into this, and at one point I had about $200,000 in cash I had garnered through 0% cash advances. I then invested this money in a bunch of online checking accounts that were paying out 5-6% interest. I'd pay off the minimum monthly payments on the 0% credit cards, collect the monthly interest and the spread was my profit. I only did it for a year and a half, but aside from the logistics of applying for the cards and setting up the accounts, it was an easy $10,000 annually. Of course, with interest rates being what they are now, this is impossible without a huge amount of risk investing the money in other venues.
2. 5% cash back AARP card: As referenced in the "Credit card arbitrage" thread, I would buy thousands of $1 coins from the US Mint at cost, deposit them as legal tender in my bank accounts and then pay off my AARP card balance with the funds. The 5% cash back rate was good for 6 months and was ostensibly a teaser to get grandma/grandpa to put their livings costs on a credit card instead of holding up the goddamn line at Safeway writing a check. Anyway, in 6 months, I hit this pretty hard and bought around $300,000 in $1 coins. Shlepping close to 3 tons of coins over 6 months was not easy on my car's transmission or my back, but the $15k in tax free money (rebates aren't considered taxable income) was a welcome relief.
3. Sushi chef: My family has a Japanese restaurant and for a few years, I managed and worked behind the sushi bar. Having made a lot of contacts in that field, I exited the restaurant industry but would still act as a "mercenary chef" for restaurant owners who needed quick, reliable help behind the sushi bar. This would usually happen when several chefs would quit at once, an all too often occurrence. Pay would usually be a prorated fee of $1000 a week for dinner shifts (would drive directly from work to the restaurant) plus tips and would never be more than 10 days at the most.
What I do with my money: I invest half of my "hustle money" in P2P lending with Lending Club and Prosper. It's not completely risk-free, but my default rate has thus been quite low and I've made consistent returns of 7%+. This has allowed me to further leverage my hustle money by adding a multiplier effect. The other half, I allow myself to blow on gaming girls and traveling, the two great loves of my life.
In Conclusion:
I hope that this post doesn't come across as self-congratulatory, but ideally, more of a way to inspire discussion and give back to the RVF community. "Game" is very appealing because it's the ultimate form of psychological hustle to me, and without this forum and Roosh's writings, I know I would lead a much sadder life.
In the past three years, I've never made less than $15,000 annually from these hustles and in 2011, I set a record at just over $27,000. That's a pretty significant percentage of my 9-5 salary, plus it allows a lot of my expenses to be counted as tax breaks. Ultimately, what I'm saying is that you can really make some decent coin without really affecting your life all that much.
I'm hoping that this thread encourages a lot of sharing and passing around of ideas: I always have time for another hustle or two.