Going from a Ten Dollar Gig to a Thousand Dollar Gig

Matt

Administrator
Staff member


Last night I had the audacity to scoff at the people on twitter who were all excited about this ticketmaster deal out there. The deal: $10 rebate when you buy something at Ticketmaster. The angle: $0.50 tickets, the scale, lots of cards. I thought it was a waste of time, but others are out there making up to $200 for an hours work.

So, how can I scoff? For one, I’m British, so scoffing comes quite naturally to me. But the real picture is that I scoff at gigs that involve little brain work, and constant repetition to scale. There’s a place for such gigs – but they are to be handled via automation, not by real human labor, for me at least.

Poor people should jump on these gigs


Ain’t nothing wrong with being poor, but if you want to stop it, you have to start earning more (or spending less). For a while, you may find that such gigs can make major changes to your wealth, and they may help push you through a wealth shift event (akin to the concept of moving from lower to middle class). Working hard to bring in more money, reduce debt, and bolster savings is fantastic. The issue I’m seeing with it is that people don’t know when they are rich or poor, or when a gig is worth $10 or $1000.

You need a filter


While it may seem that the most important tool in wealth shifting is earning more, spending less.. it is actually learning to filter out what is good and what is not, and the confidence to say:


No, my time is too valuable, stop wasting it.

When people try this they may be faced with a reaction of scorn by poor, simple minded people in the pack. You’re going to have to just let them whinge and move on to evolve.

Learn when to use leverage


If you want to take on more things, start extending the concept of time is money. If a gig can earn $1000 in a day, but takes 5 hours to complete, can you pay someone $500 to do it for you? This can mean that your hourly effort is reduced to just 10 minutes of management for $500, if you set up the system properly.

You wanna be rich?


Monetary wealth is side effect of efficient living and decision making. You don’t get given $1 Billion dollars and suddenly decide to live like your time has value, if you think wrong now, you’ll think wrong with a windfall. You’ll go broke. The national society for financial education cites that around 70% of people with a windfall go broke within 3 years- from classics like lottery winners to those with an inheritance. You get rich by acting right, and not chasing around deals like a headless chicken.

$1000 gigs


The big gigs of course pay a lot more than this, but it’s all the same idea, you decide to spend time on things that reap better rewards. While everyone is looking for a million dollar idea, the real secret is to find things that pay off in perpetuity, and create recurring passive or active income at a higher level.

Real world examples – last night when people were loading up their Amex card for a $9 hit, I was reading this article and learning about the taxation of trust capital gains. It’s not for everyone, but that hour where I ‘earned nothing’ and could be ‘making money’ I was increasing knowledge and specialization in a topic that will make me money, way more than $9 per Amex card.

Another example – ticketmaster, the real gigs are in resale of high value tickets, we talk about this in Level 2 of the forum (reselling section) and someone recently brought up a seriously important tip for hedging. There is a lot of skill and effort required for this, but the investment in knowledge may well pay a lot more than $9 per card.

Want another example? Look at twitter for Tahsir, and check out his blue M4. Do you know what’s going on there?

You wanna be poor?


That’s cool too. Nothing wrong with wanting to be poor and just doing the little gigs. Ultimately, rich or poor do not dictate happiness. I see this desire to be poor when I hear the phrase ‘yeah, that’s too complicated‘. Interestingly, that is what I say when I see these ticketmaster deals, with a slight clarification:


yeah, that’s too complicated, for the return’
All too nebulous for you?


Remember that you are the worst barometer out there. If you look at yourself today, total up all your income from employment, add on all your side hustles and gigs, and come to a monthly figure, how much is that figure? Now, don’t compare it to where you were before. The improvement is great, but you are limiting your potential to your old self, the inefficient old you is the barometer, and the anchor to your upside potential. Instead, think about what you really want or need to earn, and try to find ways to reach that.

Don’t hoard redundant skills


You need to futureproof your goals. If your only skill in life outside of your day job is knowing how to ask Walmart to load a Bluebird card, you just became redundant when they pivot from this. You need skills that are adaptable and offer long term, future value. If you do this properly, you can protect not only your side hustle income, but create things that will supercede your regular job.

Learn the process, not the output


This goes back to the idea of your time being more valuable than a direct trade. Using reselling as an example, learning how to set up a shop, how the supply chain works, what the expected P/L would be, and what tools are required to scale it are the more valuable investments. This means that you actually learn how a business works, and should you so wish, you can start up the next Walmart one day. The products to sell are of course important, but much less so than the system. Reselling is the best gig I can think of right now, as it teaches real entrepreneurial skills, and profits can be exceptional. With the right system in place, you can easily see 5 figure monthly profits from this.

Conclusion


If you follow just the tricks of the hobby as laid out for you, and chase after Amex deals, you’ll likely be up shit creek in a year or two when this thing comes crumbling down. Instead of blindly tossing away your time in exchange for a small gig, try to work towards a bigger goal, and then look at every hour you take away from that on such deals as preventing you from reaching the goal. There may still be times that you participate in silly, $10 gigs, but doing so should feel painful, as the big plan is worth that much more.

Question: What skill or knowledge gap do you think is preventing you from elevating to $1000 gigs, and how can we help get you there?


The post Going from a Ten Dollar Gig to a Thousand Dollar Gig appeared first on Saverocity Travel.

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smittytabb

Moderator
Staff member
Small gigs are a time suck and I, for one, spend too much time on them. This post is an inspirational wake up call for me. But I will say that different stages of life can make a difference in your argument. I have been in your stage. You haven't been in mine. I would never have made the choices I make now when my children were growing up or when I was working multiple jobs. My life was way too busy for MS. My organizational skills were being used for things that were more important to the life I was living at the time. All the stresses and pressures of that stage of life are over for me and time has opened up in ways I did not fully anticipate when I was at a different stage. That doesn't mean my time is worth less, but that it has fewer constraints by my own choice. At any rate, thanks for the food for thought.
 

Matt

Administrator
Staff member
Small gigs are a time suck and I, for one, spend too much time on them. This post is an inspirational wake up call for me. But I will say that different stages of life can make a difference in your argument. I have been in your stage. You haven't been in mine. I would never have made the choices I make now when my children were growing up or when I was working multiple jobs. My life was way too busy for MS. My organizational skills were being used for things that were more important. All the stresses and pressures of that stage of life are over for me and time has opened up in ways I did not fully anticipate when I was at a different stage. That doesn't mean my time is worth less, but that it has fewer constraints by my own choice. At any rate, thanks for the food for thought.
Perspective/wisdom/experience is key for sure. While I haven't seen it all, I've been through wealth shifts, so when I see people talking about 'there is no opportunity cost' etc I think it is because all they have seen is one version of their world, and not different ones.

Life is always changing, as can be our view on it, providing that we challenge ourselves.
 
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