Tag Archives: money

How Much Money Is a Lot of Money?

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Money keeps outgrowing me

Money has changed meaning to me as I grow older…

Of course inflation has had an impact on the worth of money, but I even see my kids valuing money similarly to the way I did as a kid, so I think what I type still applies today!

When $20 was a lot of money!

I once found about ten $20 dollar bills stuffed up on top of the kitchen cabinet as a kid! I quite literally thought I found some hidden treasure from the previous owners of the house and that I was rich!  At that point (I was 6 or 7), and I had never seen that much money.

At such a young age I thought I was rich! Heck, I even wanted to keep it a secret from my parents! My morals got the best of me though, and I told my mom about my discovery. She actually scolded me, telling me that I shouldn’t be getting into things. During the scolding, she told me she hides money for rainy days, and if I find other such hidden money… to leave it be.

When $100 was a lot of money!

Flash forward a few years (to the time when I was 10), and you’ll find that I’m impressed by the “Benjamins” at this age! While I didn’t own $100, occasionally I’d see them as my grandmother would count money from my grandparent’s businesses. While I didn’t think a few hundred would make me rich, I was still in awe of them!

When $100,000 was a lot of money!

During the age when I was 11 or 12 years old, I was playing video-games with my neighborhood buddies in one of their basement’s downstairs living room.  Just out of the blue, I started thinking about how much money I would need to live life without working. As I did the calculations in my head, I finally figured that $100,000 at 10% interest should be all I need!

Of course, I had no idea that the $10,000 I would make from my investments would be less than the poverty level for a family of 4 in the US nor did I consider taxes…

When $1,000,000 was a lot of money!

Before reading “The Millionaire Next Door”, I use to think 1 million would be the amount I should strive to achieve. I figured that if I made 10% on that amount, I would receive $100,000 annually. I thought I would be very rich at that point. I was 17 years old at this point in time.

When $2,000,000 is a lot of money!

After reading “The Millionaire Next Door”, I realized that I should up my target goal to $2,000,000! I’m not sure if I’ll ever reach that point, but it seems to the best answer. You see, if I had $2,000,000 I’d only have to achieve a 5% return annually to have the income from my investment earn my $100,000 annually. This is still a great target, so far!

Now I think 5 million or more would be a lot of money!

Yes, now I realize that not only do I have to have money from my investment earnings to spend, but I would also need a part of it to invest back into investments, so the portfolio could keep up with inflation. I also realize the 5 million might not be enough, and 10 or 20 million may be a much better number!

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get over 5 million though. It would be nice…

What do you think a lot of money is?

-MR

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Does Money Have Value?

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What do you think?  Does Money Have Value?

Sometimes I open my wallet and look at the paper money there within!  While the paper is a lovely shade of green with some very special effects in the print, I have to wonder if it’s really worth it!

I often wonder what would happen if aliens from another planet came down and saw us working away for a few, relatively small, rectangular pieces of paper?  Do you think that they would conclude that we aren’t the smartest animal on earth…  Perhaps they would give up on us and try to communicate with the dolphins instead?

Money has had different forms throughout the ages ranging from shells to such things as ancient metal knives (in china) and even stones!

The thing about paper money is that it has no intrinsic value!  The only way it has value is if a group or society believes that it has value, and are willing to trade other things (such a labor) for the belief of the value in that paper money.

At one time in the past, many countries backed up their paper currency with precious metals.  For example, in the United States, at one time in the not to long ago past, each dollar had a certain amount of gold locked away in a safe that was reserved to represent the money.

So at one time, paper money did have value, but the gold standard has been given up (in 1971), and now the money floats.  Now paper has nothing backing it up other than an a believe that it has value (and it does).

Even though I’m not currently buying gold, if something were to happen to my country, my paper money would become worthless (see the confederate currency for a great example).  However if I did own gold, even if something were to happen to make my countriy’s currency practically worthless, gold would still have value!

So tell me, what do you think, does money have value?  Do you think it would be worth it to diversify your investment portfolio by owning some precious metals?  Maybe 10%, or more?

-MR

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Making More Money By Working Two Jobs At The Same Time

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Apple iPhone

Smart Phones make it possible

It’s 6:00 am on a Saturday morning !  You might be thinking, “That guy sure is an early morning riser“, but that’s not so!  Normally, I’d be blissfully sleeping away in my comfy bed without a care in the world.  But this fine early Saturday morning, I’m working two jobs at the same time!  What I’m about to describe is a great way to get rich or at least make more money in a given day!

Which two jobs do I have going on?

  • First, I’m part of a team installing software for a big release for work (I’m telecommuting in to do the work).  We are currently waiting for a large SQL script to complete.
  • Secondly, I’m also typing this blog article for next Tuesday!  If I get this post done before the software is installed, I’ll do other tasks that need done related to this blog.

Why do two jobs at once?

Because it’s a great way to maximize both time and money!   If you can do the work for two jobs during the time of just one, you have the potential of making more money and saving time to do other things later in the day.  Using such a technique, you should effectively increase your rate of pay per hour!  Even small increases are better than no increase…

This is what I call a “maximizing working time“!

I know this is obvious, but I watch people who work such jobs that could be take advantage of in the way that I describe, but typically, I don’t see them doing it.

So which jobs have the potential to allow you to work another job at the same time?

  • Information booth worker(especially if there isn’t a lot of people asking questions)
  • Desk Security guard (again, especially if human traffic isn’t common)
  • Customer support (sitting by the phones waiting)
  • Gift wrappers
  • Ticket takers
  • Firefighters/EMS
  • Smaller store retail clerks/sale rep.
  • Auto Salesmen
  • and the list goes on and on…

Of course, the work mix can vary with each job!  So perhaps the information booth worker’s time is 30% her primary job, but 70% her side-job, while the opposite may be true for a gift wrapping position.

I know of a lady that works at an airline information booth, that also quilts (and takes orders for quilts) during that time she’s at work.  I asked if she constantly has to put the quilting projects down to help people.  She said not really, and especially when it gets later in the evening.  While I don’t know the exact amount of money she makes from selling her quilts; I do know that the money that she does make from selling the quilts pay for the big vacations that both she and her husband go on (the last one being a cruise in the Bahamas) every year.

Why haven’t people done this all along?

I believe that they just didn’t have the resources to do so in the past, but with advancements in technology, doing so is more feasible.

I just scratched the surface with this article!  It might even be possible to do 3 or more jobs at once… But I’m happy just doing 2 jobs today…

Do you personally know people who are able to perform two jobs at the same time?  Do you think it’s possible to overlap jobs so that you could work three or more jobs during a day, and not become burnt out?

-MR