What Is The Best Skill / Thing you have done to EARN / MAKE Money?

dealman on 07/05/2017 - 10:02
Last edited 07/05/2017 - 10:03

G'day,

Ripping off from the Save Money thread.. What Is The Best Skill That You Have Learnt to ** EARN / MAKE ** Money?

There's always a plethora of books and posts spewing all about how to save money and how to make that last dollar last longer, I want to flip that question on its head.
The biggest point is your saving is always limited by what you have earned. Why limit yourself to a fixed pie and figure out smart ways to slice and dice it, rather why not think of how else you can make the pie bigger.

I want to know what's the biggest thing you have done to earn / make more money, could be decisions early or later in life, education, investments financial or otherwise, property, whatever else.

Tell us what is the best thing you've done.

For Me, I moved to Australia.

Thanks for all the deals and I look forward to reading what you think.

Have a good one,

General Discussion

Comments

  • retiredfeline on 07/05/2017 - 10:06
    +4

    Invested in myself through higher education.

    • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 10:06

      What did you study ?

      • altomic on 07/05/2017 - 10:08
        +5

        eneloops

      • retiredfeline on 07/05/2017 - 10:08

        EE and CS. Also at best I would be an engineer in a third world country if I hadn't furthered my studies overseas.

    • try2bhelpful on 07/05/2017 - 10:09
      +2

      +1 on that. Did a degree in IT technology in the 80s. We were treated like Gods back then, now we are treated like dirt but the pay is still pretty good - for now.

  • altomic on 07/05/2017 - 10:07
    +1

    buy low, sell high

    • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 10:13

      buy low, sell high

      WHat ?

      • altomic on 07/05/2017 - 10:22
        +1

        I sell stuff on ebay. when I find a good product then it can provide the opportunity to make some ok money on the side. at one stage I was making $20 profit a day selling a very minor item that I bought for a couple of $ and then sold for 10x the cost price. $20 a day profit * 7 days a week =$140 * 52 weeks = ~$7000. whilst this seems ok, it has to be taken in to account that this took me 5 minutes a day and was a single product. unfortunately (for me) other sellers picked up on the item and started to undercut my prices and my monopoly has gone.I still sell the same product (amongst other) but only at 200% profit.

        (1) Identify a product in demand/or where demand would occur if the product was in the market
        (2) buy the product at a low price
        (3) sell the product at a high price
        (4) profit

        • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 11:41

          very interesting, Once you stop selling the item, feel free to reveal what the item is , very curious as to what it could be.

        • emperor on 07/05/2017 - 12:24

          Just curious why'd people buy stuffs at higher price if they can search and buy same stuff at lower price on ebay itself. Or is it buy at ebay and sell on other sites?

        • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 13:28
          +1

          @emperor:

          Many reasons, simply lazy, better reviews, better listing, better photos, for exp might be the same product but different value when bought in Bunnings vs at local flea market, Better Search ranking, etc,

        • wukachuka on 07/05/2017 - 15:42
          +3

          @emperor:
          Sometimes i look for something on Ebay that i know i can get from banggood/gearbest for a lower price solely because i want it sooner than a couple of weeks.
          Then on Ebay you find the same item x1000 from sellers that all say china/hong kong, but there is normally at least a couple of people selling who already have the item and are IN Australia, which means i get it in a few days.

          As i understand it…

          The standard method to make money that way is to find an item (look at ebay listings for an item, look at number sold, you are looking for high volume fast sale items like usb cables for phones etc, something people dont wanna wait for the slow boat from china to buy), then source it wholesale from aliexpress, once you get your box of goodies, chuck on ebay as local postage, $$ profit.

        • Sage on 20/07/2019 - 22:57

          5 minutes? how about the time posting it and printing out a label etc. Takes me over an hour.

      • Baebs on 07/05/2017 - 13:05

        Ol flipperoo

  • try2bhelpful on 07/05/2017 - 10:18

    This is an interesting question. In the 80s, when inflation was pretty rampant, I would say buy a house and pay it off as fast as you can. The interest rates were high, but if you poured money into the loan and ate into the principal, then the value increased faster than inflation. Always tricky if you lose your job, but, hopefully the extra payments built up a buffer. Apart from that buying good blue chip shares was also a pretty good bet, the dividends are certainly better than in the bank, but there is the risk on the share price. In my case the house, share options and Super have paid off - hopefully we will be retiring soon. Not sure what I would do if starting now.

    • kiitos on 08/05/2017 - 09:27

      Can I rudely ask how much you'll be retiring with, and what age you are? I have no idea how to gauge how much support etc we'll need to retire on.

      • try2bhelpful on 08/05/2017 - 11:02
        +1

        Honestly I'm not sure how much I need either, but we have paid off our home, which is worth roughly $1.5 mill, we have roughly another $1 mill in shares and money in the bank and we have roughly another $1 mill in super. We are both around 55 years old.

        • mskeggs on 08/05/2017 - 11:30

          The superfund association, who have an interest in overstating it, says you need a touch over $600k for a couple to retire at 65 and have a 'comfortable' retirement.
          That includes an occasional overseas holiday, getting a new car every 10yrs and having a house paid off.
          I think it would also take into account drawing down the balance to hit nil when the actuaries say you will kark it (mid-80s for 65yro).

          I would be very confident of retiring at 55 if I had $1m in savings and $1m in super. You could draw $2k a week to live on without any concern. Have a chat to the accountant on how to structure it for best tax advantage, as rules on transition to retirement have recently changed.

        • try2bhelpful on 08/05/2017 - 14:01

          @mskeggs: Thanks for the input. Yeah, we have no kids so we are thinking we can live on what we have and then leave the house to the nieces and nephews when we kark it. Hopefully we can hold out as long as possible before going into "the home".

        • mskeggs on 08/05/2017 - 14:07
          +1

          @try2bhelpful:
          Great to hear, Aunty try2bhelpful.
          You know I'll visit.

        • try2bhelpful on 08/05/2017 - 14:08

          @mskeggs: Bring alcohol and chocolates - I will go out quicker that way.

        • kiitos on 09/05/2017 - 23:56

          Thanks @try2bhelpful! Sounds like you're pretty well there, well done. We have two kids in late primary/early high school, so our expenses are still high, with a bonus orthodontics thrown in for good measure.

        • try2bhelpful on 10/05/2017 - 14:26

          @kiitos: When I was a kid if the teeth worked that was good enough, they didn't have to be straight. I've got a number of fillings, some still going after 40 odd years some replaced, but never had braces. I had my top wisdom teeth removed by the dentist at Uni, I think it cost me 8 dollars per tooth from memory. He did try to sew through my lip, so maybe not the best dentist. Best of luck with your future.

    • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 11:27

      Have you done this sort of thing?

  • [Deactivated] on 07/05/2017 - 11:07

    luck and taking a calculated risk.

  • airzone on 07/05/2017 - 12:00

    I normally win at blackjack in the casino…

  • captobvious on 07/05/2017 - 12:14

    went to adfa straight after high school, got paid to study, then went on deployments. came home to a healthy nest egg and bought first house outright. Then just made money off investments. buy sell. then ex pat overseas saved more money bought a few more homes, sydney property boom, sold some made more money.

    • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 12:16

      Awesome, good work, thanks for sharing.

      • captobvious on 07/05/2017 - 12:19
        +1

        in a nutshell anyway. There was hard work, more study, career progression in between.

        • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 12:22

          And some luck and some smart investments..

        • Savas on 20/09/2017 - 16:30

          any tips? failed the assessment day

  • Donaldhump on 07/05/2017 - 12:21

    Data science masters degree.

    Do what I love, get paid well, sit down all day

    • ihbh on 11/05/2017 - 19:14

      Make sure you mix it up with standing up, walking around now and then - helps with general health and longevity.

  • slow on 07/05/2017 - 12:41
    +3

    Was a human guinea pig for a drug trial in London in the 90s - 1200 pounds for basically doing nothing. It was a fortune for a backpacker in those days

    • dealman on 07/05/2017 - 12:52
      +4

      And now you have 12 fingers?

      • wukachuka on 07/05/2017 - 20:30
        +1

        Time to buy a guitar and cash in on it!

  • Cheap Steve on 07/05/2017 - 22:57
    +6

    1. Went into a finance career straight out of uni and stayed there.

    2. Bought the worst house in the best street in the best suburb.

    3. Built my finance knowledge on a low pay but in a company where I could gain high level expertise that would set me up for the rest of my life. I chose knowledge over money and was easily the lowest paid of all of my friends in my twenties.

    4. Took my knowledge and set up my own business and backed myself. Now I can enjoy working or not working to the beat of my own drum. Highly recommend self employment to anyone prepared to take the leap of faith.

    So to summarise; study finance, get a shitty job, buy a shitty house and tell your boss to FO!

  • mskeggs on 08/05/2017 - 09:42
    +1

    Communication skills/sales.
    I know calling it sales will put a lot of people off, but being able to communicate clearly, and being persuasive/overcoming objections is a very valuable set of skills in nearly every job. Everyone knows about the colleague who isn't as good a performer but markets themselves well. Let me put it to you that if you are that great performer, and you also market yourself well you can justify the top pay rates, promotions etc.

    You can do this while retaining integrity, even though some choose not to.

  • mattyman on 08/05/2017 - 11:03
    +2

    Learn how to use Google properly and train your internet BS filter to detect BS articles.

    You can learn pretty much anything.

    Currently holding down a job as an Info Sys Admin with no degree or diploma with a very decent pay packet.

    If I don't know something. I Google it to find the answer. Most people don't.

  • ihbh on 11/05/2017 - 19:19

    Investing early, investing substantially and investing based on value allowed me to not be a slave of a high-paying career.

    • dealman on 11/05/2017 - 22:04

      love that line..

      slave of a high-paying career.

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