Playing With Money - And Making More

Ready to start playing with your money? Not interested in complicated businesses or boring bank C.D.'s? Here are some methods that aren't quite a business because you can do them once, or just when you feel like it. Start small and the risk is small. Loan Sharking Years ago a friend got a good job when I loaned him $ to buy the necessary tools. I charged a $ per week loan fee (don't call it interest) until he paid in full. That's more than % annual interest, and yes, we're still friends. Check the laws in your area if you try this, and take collateral. I don't loanshark any longer, but in my early twenties I loaned as much as $, at a time ($/month loan fee), and only once was stiffed on a small loan. Investing In Other's Expertise John showed me several car magazines before I understood why an old fiberglass car was a good deal at $,. What's a Corvette? He convinced me to put up the money, and after a new transmission for $, he sold the Corvette for $,, netting us $,. I took half the profit ($) for putting up the money for the two weeks. I've done this many times with friends who know cars but don't have cash. Incidentally, if I had paid a $ cash advance fee and % interest to raise the money with a credit card, my profit would still have been over $, and John did all the work. I love playing with money. Do you have any friends who know about boats? Buying Estates My wife and I met a couple who buy out estates, sell some of it at flea markets, then run the rest through auctions. They've made a living at this for years. After negotiating to buy a whole house full of stuff, thay load up their trailer. If they don't want to do the flea market thing, they auction everything on Sunday afternoon for a nice profit. If you're a good judge of value and have an auction nearby, you could also do this with rummage sales. Offer $ for everything, then auction it off piece-by-piece. An auction near us lets anyone in, with no fee to enter - just a % commission on anything sold. Playing With The Casino's Money When I worked the roulette wheel at a casino I saw many people foolishly writing down the numbers that came up. Their theories were mostly nonsense. Casinos welcome these players and even hand them the pen and paper. One man, however, was actually scientific about it. He found a bias in the wheel, after "charting" it for more than , spins. A number pays to , but one of the numbers, due to manufacturing imperfections or whatever, was appearing in spins, instead of the average in spins. He bet $ a spin, and he profited $ for every spins of the wheel in the long run, or about $ per hour. Since the ups and downs are dramatic, this is not for the faint-hearted. Even though he made tens of thousands, I saw him lose as much as $ in a night. Remember too that not all wheels have biases (the casino eventually replaced that wheel). Have you ever tried "card counting" in blackjack?...