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?
Love the post and the concept of thinking about the bigger picture, I am concerned that some in the hobby (small h) are depending on these $10 gigs for a lifetime of earnings.
As they are short in time spans, I like to think of them as savings opportunities. Let a real job pay the freight (don’t forget to save 10% + if you can) and add the $10 gig income to the savings plan.
It feels good to win and they $10 will add up over time and compounding
I also worry that people who focus on the small picture don’t benefit from the compounding, it’s all a connected mindset- feed me, so I can eat vs how can I eat.
I love you.
Love you too!
True that. it also takes skill to identify the 10 cent money makers that can be hugely scaled to millions in profit
Yep- for real, there’s some deals like that out there, but it’s all about the system.
Interesting and refreshingly blunt perspective. I have recently come to the conclusion that I spend time chasing some deals I should not, specifically gift card churning. That is like squeezing juice from a lemon rind. My goal is about $100/hr for my otherwise free time. Perhaps you’re right though that the opportunity cost of spending your time chasing smaller repetitive deals is that you miss out on learning more profitable techniques or grasping an otherwise critical piece of profitable knowledge that can be adapted in the future. Knowing just the basics of reselling though, I can’t help but feel that it’s quite a bit more time consuming than hitting the occasional deal and would be untenable to learn/manage for anyone that has a full time career inclusive of frequent travel. Thoughts?
I think it requires a certain approach and efficiency to work.
Well than I’ll have to look into it. 🙂
Excellent advice!!
If you don’t want to be poor…Just be born with a trust fund!
If you don’t want to be poor, read the post again.
LOL, if you knew the first thing about Matt, or about many of the posters here, you would feel foolish saying such a thing. I, for one, went from comfortably middle class to using food shelves after a financially disastrous divorce.
Not-being-poor does not follow from being-born-rich. It follows from having the opportunity, the timing and the drive to learn lessons about using one’s time well, rather than assuming that making anything equals better than nothing.
Sometimes, it makes more sense to be poorer for a time, in payment for the ability to make more, later.
I started reselling last year, in fits and starts. It’s in reading some of the valuable information here that I’m learning to take my tiny investments, that earned me a few dollars here and there, to a decent return on a very part-time endeavor. With the side effect of increasing CC spend, as well.
Should I decide to expand that part time job, the skills I am learning will help to make it worth much more for not much more time.
I did the Amex Checkout deal standing in line at WM for MO. 🙂
To be honest, automation is going to be killing Twitter Sync sooner rather than later:
* #AmexOfficeDepot was gone in 6 hours or so
* #AmexStaples was gone in just over 2 hours
Neither of those deals was alive long enough for @AmexOffers to tweet an announcement. The next deal will be gone in 45 minutes or less.
I fully expect Amex to take countermeasures.
Yep, automation is the future… Just like the flash boys
Titan material. I suggest that you add “Thought leader” to the top of your blog.
Boom!
Or just follow your own advice and use your time more efficiently – instead of original material just recycle 100% Boardingarea content and rename the blog One View from the Wing at a Time. Then sit back and watch the money roll in!
#money
I wrestle with these types of posts that you do quite a bit. I’m not necessarily sure I agree with you in this one, but at least it gets me thinking.
But quick question regarding an example you gave (spend 5hrs to make $1000 or spend $500 to save 5hrs). So if I spend 5hrs to make $1000, then my time is worth $200/hr….vs….spending $500 to not work for 5hrs i.e. my time is worth $100/hr. So spending 5hrs to make $1000 is the better deal, right?
Or am I not thinking this through carefully enough?
In that example I say you spend 10 minutes to make $500, meaning your hourly rate is $3000
SO, so patronizing.
Oh hush
I want to see ChasingThePoints’ response to this post.
Good post but it is NOT true that you can “easily” scale reselling into 5 figures a month. Some of you are aware I am now currently full time reselling, focused on building what I think is going to be a very, very profitable company dedicated to online selling. It involves a LOT of very hard and often boring or laborious work, a keen intellect and the ability to build robust, efficient and scalable systems. I have only been in the reselling biz a few weeks and I have already seen it has a lot of average people making a little bit of money and a few very talented people making a fortune. My hope is I can become a part of the second club
Thats a grind brother. What type of personal upheaval happened in your life to cause this switch ?
Interesting points and one I often think about as I ignore some deals because of the time I would spend completing them. Gift card reselling is one for me. I do it but not that often. I try to find ones that I can have shipped to my office and resell electronically. That’s so when I’m tied into a conf call I can knock them out without much effort. Otherwise I’m spending tons of time loading, labeling, and shipping for a few dollars profit and some points/miles.
Personally I couldn’t disagree more with this post but I like the perspective and the variety of opinions people can and should have. I’m not poor, my aim is not to be rich. I make more than enough from my day job and just do this hobby to kill time, get some exercise on my bike, and make a few extra bucks instead of the usual money eating hobbies I used to have in my former life . I don’t care if I make $1, $10, or $100 off any given gig. I do it anyway as long as there’s some kind of money to be made. My personal time value is close to nothing. Heck I don’t even use the money I make for anything productive. I put it into a taxable account buying a few index fund shares once in a while or just splurge it like the $1500 gaming rig which is en route to my home right now or the $800 bike I got a few months back.
A bit at a time . I’ve only recently managed to use Bluebird ( only worthwhile for sign up bonuses ) . I am looking for a better deal for Visa gift cards though . Your thoughts about not thinking small are very significant though . Right now I’m wrapped up with gaining miles for travel . You have just reminded me of something I have told others before : ” Keep looking ahead to the next thing ” I am reluctant to move too fast . I want to feel that I understand what I am doing before adding more complexity . But I should have already started learning for the future , you are right .
Daryl, I couldn’t agree more! Start where you are and build from there. This post, while filled with sage advice, should also come with a caveat; balance present mindedness with forward thinking.
While it may be true that if i keep my eyes focused only on the path beneath my feet I might miss the signs directing me up the mountain path, it is also true that if I start looking up too soon I’m likely to lose my footing and trip.
Like you, I’ve only recently discovered bluebird, and at this point, even that learning curve is steep for someone with little financial background. I am a relatively quick learner once I’ve been exposed to new information, but I see the risks involved in taking on too much too soon here.
For now I will strive to be content with earning enough miles for a relaxing vacation with my family, but I will remain curious about what else is out there. I will keep reading, and pondering things like automation (though admittedly at this point I have only a vague sense of what that even means.) And will continue to evaluate the cost of the time I’m spending against the real value of the results.
Timely. I had just read this article the other day: http://www.wsj.com/articles/do-you-know-what-your-time-is-really-worth-1437500727 (google “Do you know what your time is really worth” and click through google to avoid the paywall) and then use the calculator they link to on yourself. http://programs.clearerthinking.org/what_is_your_time_really_worth_to_you.html
If you hadn’t thought about it before, it should help open up your eyes to when it’s worth doing something for a measly few bucks and when it’s not. I have one friend whose rule of thumb is, “if it takes longer than 5 minutes to profit/save $15, I’m not doing it.” Everyone’s rule of thumb will be different.
I did the Ticketmaster thing the 2nd (out of like 5?) times it came around. 7 cards actually took me 45 minutes because I had to verify each card by SMS and had to re-do each card 3x (re-verifying each card by SMS each time too) because it kept erroring out and saying I was not in the US. Extremely frustrating and I’m not sure why I even bothered to finish the job. 😛
This comment was not directed at Matt, obviously, but to anyone reading his post and the comment threads and hadn’t thought of what their personal time was worth before. 😉
Think this post is perfect actually…vital to look at the big picture, in my mind building passive income. Recently went from a low regular paycheck to purchasing a decently successful small business which takes up most of my time. It is the opposite of “passive”. Although it was a necessary move as paycheck job ended, I want a 5-10 year plan to build and re-sell business and create something genuinely more passive. I actually enjoy working quite a bit but I want to earn really great money doing it…
we always come back to real estate fantasy but I’m nervous about that one…
Look at Tahsir’s M4? Tahsir is not to be looked up to when he has squatters in illegal Airbnbs
I’m not sure you understood the comment.