Way more than Usual so have to close it up will do another later on thanks!
Q&A CLOSED
Comments
Jay rocksays
Currently in tech M&A banking as New 2nd yr analyst.
I have a side Ecommerce biz, and looking to do another Ecommerce biz.
Worth it to move into VC/growth equity or to stay in banking until I leave the corporate world forever? Current hours are really good and pay is normal but VC/growth might allow me to network with more tech companies.
Obvs this is all circumstantial and preference, but would love to hear thoughts.
Won’t make a difference honestly. If you are in good standing we’d stay put since you have to redo the entire political game again.
If the money is about the same and your hours are already good for you to do your thing, don’t get greedy. Get greedy when things take off with your side biz
Read the book Emotional Intelligence as per your recommendation. Great read. Question:
– How do you effectively identify the which emotion is used in advertising?
– How do we find out when it’s ok to start spending on ads again ?
1) reference the ad to a books you’ve read on the topic. If you can’t figure it out still, then practice reading sales letters online, there are many that walk you through step by step which sales tactic is being used
2) ads are now improving a bit, up 40%+ the last week so says some demand is coming, would wait until economy opens up in general unless you’re already in business
3) deleted this as it made no sense there is no maximization
What I wanted to understand was the second sentence you said.
“2) ads are now improving a bit, up 40%+ the last week so says some demand is coming, would wait until economy opens up in general unless you’re already in business”
Oh the cost of ads. So before it was costing around $3.00 CPM then it collapsed to around $1.00 now its back to $1.40-1.50
Forget exact measures but you can look it up online
Satoshisays
Hey guys, long time reader. I’ve driven my income up to $150k in MCL city plus some stock options and now working on the side business route (besides some rental houses).
For the side business route, I have a background in art (as well as career in data science) and have done well selling art (paintings, commissions, etc) as a small/limited side business. I was wondering if you had any ideas to scale this according to Efficiency? With a creative route like this, I know I need to find a way to automate and produce a digital product, otherwise it’s just a $/hr “consulting” type of business, with limited upside.
My idea is art “curation”. Along with commissions (and my personal network of artists), I am wondering your thoughts on selling art (mine and others) in corporate/commercial/residential spaces? I use an app to digitally “place” art in different spaces to sell it, then hustle to make it happen.
Another idea that may scale and be able to be automated more is to produce watercolors of people’s homes/dogs/etc. I am familiar with direct mail/email campaigns and with my data science background, I wonder if sending a postcard to homes with their house in the picture designed as a watercolor (scraped from zillow)? Then, I would have to produce the art (and outsource it eventually as house watercolors are mostly robotic and not creative).
See any promise behind these routes or obvious better options?
Depending on how much you need to make you could simply do it on a project base. Then when you build up a larger audience you train one person to do basic items (outsource a bit) and it should scale nicely.
Otherwise not sure honestly, we never did art. But. Thats how a lot of people start. Build a core customer base from zero and then look to scale later as it’s a slow grind
I was planning to buy a vacation house before pandemic. I’m 40 with two kids. I had the cash so long as I could backstop with Airbnb rental. Given rental income is off the table for at least 2 years.
Any thoughts on how far the price of these properties might fall? And when?
Also, what is your preferred method of alternative financing between: (1) Cash holdings of ~2.5 years (2) Selling stock bought over the past 10 years (3) Re-financing existing properties (4) raiding retirement (5) just putting 20% down and getting a cheap mortgage.
Around 120 days is the rules for USA (foreclosures). This may be extended but that will be when it gets ugly. So at this time that would be around July or so.
In rank order: 1) refinance, 2) existing cash after you’ve survived 1 year of this downturn, 3) just putting 20% down, 4) stock, 5) retirement
The preference above is based on risk and liquidation. Also taxes.
How do you deal with ad account suspensions for facebook and google in the weight loss niche? I’m always creating/buying new ad accounts and at best they can last about 1 or 2 months. Is that how the game is played nowadays? The support from facebook and google is very limited and they essentially suspend your account nowadays with boilerplate reasons while never responding to appeals.
Adapt or die. Even if you’re compliant you will likely get banned here and there. So you need to have a lot of accounts and try to build a long-term relationship with the platforms. They are essentially monopolies.
Unfortunately there is no “easy” answer as you know. It’s a grind and why you’re getting paid!
uni student double major in maths & econ graduating 2021 at a top 25 U.S. institution
paid w/ poverty scholarship + $30k total debt. bullshitted through with a 3.50 GPA, but didn’t learn much
SAT breakdown (overall top 5%)
top 1% reading/writing
top 4% math
plan is:
1. job as economic consultant or data analyst
2. concurrently do reputable online masters in stats and cs ($7k each, 1.5 years each) with better GPA
3. upgrade to quant role at a bank or other tech job
4. make investments and live in fixer-uppers
5. all else fails, a PhD in computational social science sounds interesting/impactful/well-paying
to start a side income, I’m considering affiliate through twitter/medium teaching formal econ and data analytics.
OR writing about asian culture, social skills, game, uni admissions, life in poverty. similar to Mr Latimore
wondering how my overall plan sounds.
should I break into affiliate with niche technical stuff, insecurities (asian social skills), or both under different names? both would be anonymous bc concerns for privacy and safety.
You are too reliant on education. Take your degree and get a high paying job (white collar) you have the background for this.
After 1 year on work force doing good work you’ll realize everything you learned adds no value. So you should then take savings and begin an online venture or even time for money exchange venture. This is explained in efficiency. Masters/PHD usually just leads to weird personality with no real significant increase in income long-term
23M living in NYC as a Software Engineer. Making 125K base (+options). Have ~30K saved in bank and ~30K in investments. Basically, don’t really see a point in investing anymore, and was wondering about your thoughts on this life-plan for the next 5 years.
Only save 25K in cash (used if shit hits the fan situation), and literally invest every single penny afterwards from 9-5 into making mobile apps (subscription-based biz model). My hours are pretty chill & flexible (40hrs week), I think I can spend at least 3 hrs per day on creating these new revenue streams. It’ll cost about ~25k per app (outsourcing, running ads), and about 6 months of personal coding time
That’s super common at mid to top tier tech companies in NYC.
Marcussays
What to do?
Take 165k/yr guaranteed as a startup CTO (upside limited at 180-200k, no stock/bonus/variable) and invest all in side hustle or take 100k/yr base for potentially 200-250k/yr in sales and invest less in side hustle?
Was previously a startup executive, hence deal is on the table for another CTO position, currently working my way up in sales though, it’s going ok but climate is rough due to virus.
Startup sales is 100k base, with 7.5% variable, no cap. Deal cycle up to 8 months, avg. deal size 300k.
Cash is ok to keep me floating for a couple of months, but I’m waiting for the downturn to invest, so I’d rather stay employed for the moment.
Sounds like you should take the higher cash flow item and then spend all your time working on a second form of income. No point in praying either of them work out, you need the cash for now to be safe/mentally stable and then just work on the second income line asap.
Thoughts on selling towards sports bettors? I’ve developed profitable sports betting models throughout multiple sports. I’ve started to sell packages with the plays and have seen success. I am also developing courses that teach how to make excel & R/ based models like mine. The goal is to always sell the plays and then develop a subscription-based education portal for sports bettors looking to gain knowledge from courses and well-moderated forums.
Yes this is viable your big risks: 1) getting banned from bookies, 2) competing with more complex algorithms later and 3) having an issue if the model doesn’t work suddenly.
Hey – do you have a website set up / followers on a social media platform? I have been looking for a partner and currently have a biz set up, if interested reply and we can find a way to get in contact.
1st off, want to thank WSPs for the good work here. Am a reader of efficiency and the other 2 books and by far the most sensible advice i come across that will benefit action takers
Have a qs with regards to career in Tech:
What do you think of the prospect of a career path in Data Science (Data analyst/scientist) which seems to be pretty in demand in recent years. I like it better than a pure software developer role as coding is not quite my passion and i am better with numerics rather than code but not sure if joining a 12 week boot camp be sufficient to land entry roles and have a better ROI as compared to a 3 year college degree program
That should remain in high demand. The issue you should think about is which skill is going to help you build a second income stream. We don’t know the answer to that but its the most important question. If one pays $140K the other $150K… But the $140K option gives you skills you need for a second stream, you have to go with that one.
If this situation taught people anything it should be that diversified income is incredibly valuable.
I’ve been very impressed at your ability to articulate complex topics (saw your recent tweet about this), understand the economy, make predictions etc. How would you say you developed the knowledge / mental models you have?
Is it just a matter of doing a lot of reading / life + biz experience? Or did you systematically cultivate it somehow?
I want to get “smarter” the right way instead of popping nootropics like average guy
1) probably due to wide range of economic experience. Unlike other finance websites usually run by people who grew up upper middle class and “made it”… IE. were given good resources to start. This website is run by people who didn’t have any financial resources and had to find ways to get ahead by finding what people wanted/needed.
2) Not sure if it was systematic. One critique of this blog which is TRUE, is that it’s a lot more cynical. If you want to get ahead with no resources you have to do your best to align incentives in your favor and realize no one is going to come save you. Again. This applies to making money/getting ahead not making friends or with people you’ve known for decades.
3) then you should “read to use”. Lots of people just read stuff to feel smarter (no value), you should start a project and read to solve the issue as you go along. Creates accountability.
Hi, I’m going to be a senior in college next year and this summer I am interning at a big tech company. I’m going to end up making around $20,000 before taxes this summer in a span of 3 months at the age of 21. What would you do with this kind of money at this age if you were in my shoes?
Really appreciate the blog and the books. Glad I found it this early. I am 21 years old, live in Sweden.
Would you say it is a good idea for me to start study computer-science this fall since it is free for me to study in Sweden? The computerscience-program will be going on for 5 years. Otherwise I will be going for sales.
I’ve been invested in Long Term Treasuries since mid 2018 (as part of an overall portfolio mix) and it’s done very well as rates have continued to fall. Even recently, as stocks sold off and other bond markets (Corporate, Junk, Municipal) were getting hammered, Long Term Treasuries have done really well.
My question is: In this current environment, should I expect this type of outperformance to continue or should I get out while the getting is still good?
The main reason I’m tempted to to hold this position is based on my assumption that the US will follow Japan (and now Europe) into the “Lost Decade(s)” and Long Term Japanese Bonds have been one of the only places that survived that (ongoing) period in Japan.
Early 20s. Enterprise BDR in NYC. 80k salary. 0 savings, 10k credit card debt. Living paycheck to paycheck.
Very good at prospecting and disciplined in learning products end to end.
Other than that, have 0 skills other than prospecting and communications (soft skill). Also have 0 interests other than music, movies, etc (the fun stuff).
Have 0 interest in drop shipping bad products and having people wait a month to receive it.
Also have 0 interest in being a sales consultant (great at the job but I dont like it and dont see my self being a bdr and then ae for the rest of my life).
Is it time to skill up and pivot? Would love to hear your opinion on what you would do to get out of this situation and thrive financially.
Time to skill up for sure. In the meantime your cash flow is too low. You have to do a time for money exchange for now, get off paycheck to paycheck this way and be debt free quickly.
So #1 get another income stream now even if time for money (fixing phone screens for example) and then #2 look to a new scalable skill.
Long term brazilian reader (including 3 books). I would like to ask you/suggest topic of the strategy that consists of looking for good brick and mortar business that will not survive (only due cash flow/credit issues) and replace them by the same thing (even in the same place). Is this a good strategy? What to look for in this case?
That’s a tough one as you don’t know if human behavior will be the same. The way you could do it is buy during the recovery.
So if you see people in the area going back to normal, buy then and replace it. You won’t get bottom pricing but you also lose the risk of not having demand. That’s a good way to make money since its about timing.
All that said, online is so much better it is comical, lower OPEX, no leverage and 24/7 customers
I’m 16 yo and hoping to go into Enterprise Software Sales.
Can I still be successful in sales if English isn’t my 1st language and I have a bit of an accent? Do you know anyone who is “killing in” in either IB or Sales who isn’t a native English speaker?
If that’s not an option. I’m quite good at maths(but not brilliant); considering the state of the finance sector (and the economy) would you advise I aim for a career in tech instead(of IB or sales)?
I have already started to learn about Computer Science and how to code. Should I focus on getting better at this? & then become a Software Engineer down the line [since I don’t really need to talk much (and my weakness isn’t that detrimental as it would be to the other 2 recommended careers)]
P.S.
I’m located in the UK, should I move to America when I’m looking to enter a career or do you think working in London should pay equally well.
1) yes to both, just need to practice and make sure your accent isn’t thick.
2) Rest of this is just a ramble, you have to figure out what you are good at yourself (coding, sales etc.). Then that determines your career. We can’t do the work for you
1. Do y’all always have SHTF hard cash at home or will you put it back into a bank when the recession is over?
2. I have been splitting my cardio days between long distance and sprints 50/50. Do y’all agree with this or would you weight towards one more than the other?
3. This is probably a question for the other readers, but I am having trouble deciding on this through online research. I am currently freelance tutoring on fiverr/upwork in the evening making about 100-200 a week, and am hoping to land some copywriting work as well to build a portfolio before offering my services separately on my own website. Does anyone have any guidance on if I should incorporate or not, or what factors to heavily consider in this decision?
Many thanks in advance to WSPs and the other high IQ readers here
1) we do have cash physical in safes. That’s part of the gold allocation as well. Won’t go back into a bank
2) Probably better to do 75% sprints, 25% cardio longer distance. Just change the length of the sprints
3) That’s great! You should contact all your consistent customers and bring it over to a new site. That’s pretty easy to do and yes incorporate ASAP in the best tax advantaged way you can. With $1,500 a week you can easily expense a lot of items (your internet bill, your cell phone bill, your computer item purchases, potentially part of your rent if you have a separate room for work etc.)
If I may clarify (poor wording on my part), I mean that one cardio day I do sprints, then next cardio day I do a long distance run, next cardio day sprints, etc. So are you saying do 3 sprint days for every long distance day?
31 Product Manger for Ad-tech company, based out of NYC
What are long views of living, working, and owning property in NYC? I could see a mass exodus after this whole ordeal closes. Would imagine residential property values plummeting and it’s typically always been good to own in NYC. That said, if businesses leave here, may not be as valuable to live and own property here.
Opened a brick/mortar wellness business in Nov 2019.
Had a steady start – 300+ unique customers, spending an average of 100 per visit. Membership (recurring payment) was increasing each month and customers loved the product/staff
To keep this going/get back on track – how would you approach promotion/marketing upon reopening?
1) Yes we have access to bloomberg terminals, will leave it at that. You don’t need one but if you have a way to get one with contacts you should
2) probably not, won’t be going to a gym until 2021. At home equipment is already good to go
Do you guys have an opinion on tail risk hedging (ie modelling the universa funds strategy of hedging 96-99.5% s&p500 with .5%-4% 2 months put options 30% out of the money selling and repurchasing monthly)?
I know I’m sacrificing ev but it would be an idea on how to get exposure to the stock market and benefiting from long term developments but having some insurance against the (almost) inevitable major drop as long as things are as volatile and shaky.
Most sources I follow tend to agree that we’re (still) in a bubble that will burst at some point further down the line but that covid was not that event yet.
Yes, the wealthier you get you can buy some put protections and you can take small short positions on levered groups since those will go down the fastest.
Haven’t covered this much in the past but its more of an individual choice, so… when volatility declines and is more stable look for put protection options
vol still expensive so now not the best time to re-hedge (buying fire insurance after your house has already burned down)
read spitznagel’s book; from memory the equity curve smoothing from put protection strategy adds ~2% to long term S&P500 portfolio CAGR (so 9% pa instead of 7%)
as an aside when implieds were trading at low-teens back in Feb….a 30% OTM front month put would have gone up 80 to 100x at the bottom tick in midd-march…you can see why this works even if you only have 0.5% of your portfolio in this
Can you please expand on the magnitude Tech is ahead of Finance (IBD) right now that you mentioned in “Time to Look Past the Outbreak”? Is it beneficial to change direction 180° and go into tech if one’s personal skill set is more aligned with IB and one is already well underway (i.e. top BB summer internship)?
Man. Based on the part you asked us to delete you are so far ahead it isn’t even funny.
On IBD, M&A will be fine. We’re saying to avoid the shops that primarily focus on fund raising. 0% yields and no IPOs will not be good. M&A is always around.
In terms of sales vs. IBD see prior comments. Choose what you’re good at. Feelings don’t matter. So find your skill and go down that career path. If you’re good in banking M&A then you’re set
What are your thoughts on “prepping” by stockpiling food/emergency supplies, especially with recent events? Will people be more conscious of being prepared to handle emergency situations now, and should they be?
Thinking about getting an e-commerce business up and running focusing on this niche, so interested in hearing your thoughts. Thanks!
Unsure how people will react, our guess is you’ll be too late. If you had this idea, it should have been running before the pandemic not now (everything is shut).
Unclear as it is still new so haven’t even thought about it honestly. Just own the main protocols and that’s really it. If it’s only a couple hundred grand of exposure thinking deeply is a waste of time
No one even knows which chains will be around and which oracles will be around. So… just keep it simple
Might I suggest checking out Chainlink as it almost has a monopoly on the whole oracle space and is enterprise-designed.
VFsays
I own an affiliate marketing website in the CBD space.
Did 300k last year. Everything was good until got hit with Google algo update and traffic nosedived.
Still makes money with minimal work (1 hr / day) but much less money.
After many times trying to sell it for 30x multiple of 1 month net profit – I settled for selling 51% of the company (to my Dad) for a very small multiple.
But the traffic is down to 20% of what it used to be at it’s highs.
Do I sell the remaining 49% and move on or keep it.
I have tried everything I could do already to “fix” it.
Ah then maybe you can go ahead and sell it. Tough call honestly but if you sold half already not a major deal
anonymoussays
Sounds like you are relying on SEO/Organic traffic if google algo change is affecting your traffic? For future reference, implement script for webpush on your websites, good open rates if don’t abuse too much since last chrome update this is essentially free traffic. And also go the paid traffic route if you have a working website to drive customers (google/FB might not like it but could try on premium high volume native sources)
1) Your #1 recommendation is learn sales. How does one learn sales without actually doing it? I agree with you that you cannot learn sales by reading books. If you are actually doing sales to learn it, its already a big step forward. But how does one start to learn sales?
2) I understand your fair market value calculation. If economy slowing down, does the formula still remain ~7% CAGR?
3) Read last post few times but couldn’t understand relationship between fund flow and incentives. If its just me, ignore but if anyone else had same opinion, would love to get a quick explanation.
1) copywriting has been covered 100x here and in books. Online ads watch conversions. Affiliate marketing etc.
2) its a long term item so at current prices appears over valued, implies a 8.5% or so CAGR well above normal
3) If you only have positive returns in stocks, you’re forcing people (incentivizing them) to take more risk.
1) it could work but right now it’s not even a molecule compared to google/facebook. So you can learn it in case the time comes but you’re not getting rich without google/facebook
2) depends on nature of biz. Never do 50/50 partnerships, one guy always does a ton more. So look into tax rules in your state and make a decision. Long-term you end up with an S-corp most of the time
I live in the Bay Area, am finishing up Computer Science degree this December. I received an unexpected windfall of $2.5 million after my mother’s death, as well as an inheritance of paid off property worth $1.8 million.
While keeping $500K in reserve funds in a permanent CD ladder, I plan on waiting for a dip in housing later this year either buy two million-dollar single family homes with potential for ADU expansion, or one $1.5-million dollar single family home in a premium area and a $500 condo.
Question is: do you think real estate in premium areas will outperform in the coming 5- to 10-years?
I think yes, because the coming downturn will broaden income inequality and intensify class distinctions. The upper-middle class will spend more (not less) to distinguish themselves from the middle class, who will begin spending less out of necessity.
Sorry to hear about that. Overall it seems that you’re set for life
Our guess is that property only in nice areas will go up (say beach front). Major cities like SF/NYC likely go down. The average condo there isn’t in a spectacular area next to the water or with a nice view. Instead those cities will need to see price compression as people leave/move out. Massive unemployment
I have the same concern about the shift to remote work. Some of SF proper has really gone to hell, there’s no reason to live there and risk getting assaulted by a crackhead if you can work remote.
A property I’m targeting is roughly $1.3 million and incidentally it is next to the water with a beautiful view. It’s surrounded by $2 million homes in a posh suburb with premium schools. I found it scanning probate records, and am entering the slow wait of buying it through the probate system.
Thanks for the input and your writing over the years. I made a U-turn and became more serious and career-focused about three years ago, thanks in part to this blog, and seeing me get my act together made my mother happy.
7Been cutting down on ad spend on affiliate site for health products at this time. How should I focus on getting traffic – SEO?
After health product affiliate website logo, traffic, besides my site layout which I’m going to update, what else should I spend on to optimize my website? Will have ~1k to spend on biz per month after living expenses, based on outline in spending for someone who hasn’t made it yet.
I’ve asked regarding setting up llc in Wyoming for online biz, but I’ve been reading around that I won’t be able to avoid paying taxes regarding the state that I live in (California) associated with the llc and that it seems to complicate things tax-wise. Is this the way to go?
Sounds like you’re fine. You just need the backend optimized to deal with traffic when economy is ready to go
In the meantime: 1) create a bunch of ads to test, 2) create a bunch of sales emails and 3) create a bunch of blog posts if your website has a content section for SEO.
Not sure on that one, just depends on how big you get etc. We’re not familiar with the rules for those two states (Ie. how they interrelate). Down the line you want an S-corp in a tax free state (assuming USA based).
A single member LLC is treated as a disregarded entity for tax purposes, so income it earns gets reported as if you earned it yourself. Your state of residence can tax all of your income. So yes, even with Wyoming LLC, you will pay California income tax.
S corps are regarded entities, but they are passthroughs. For a very small business, likely get the same outcome (income flows through and California taxes it on your personal return).
If you want to avoid CA personal income taxes, either move or start a C Corp. Query whether the tax savings are worth it though. They can be, but not always.
#1.If you guys were 21 today, how much time would you invest studying coding and CompSci basics (regardless of industry/talent)?
#2.You guys have mentioned leaving Wall Street and being bearish on financial services and bullish on tech. Is it logical to conclude you guys are *bullish* on Fintech/Decentralized Finance space in the coming decade?
#3. Can’t deadlift or squat heavy in this environment: what are alternatives?
1) Not sure how to answer, we wouldn’t bother. We’d need to know if we were good at it first. If good at it then would spend enough time to land a top tier career in it
2) Yes we are. that said M&A will still be around and is the safer group
3) Dumbbell squats and deadlifts that’s certainly doable. Can be done by holding heavy objects as well like a tire
Hi Guys, I own a carpet cleaning business in Western Canada since 2016. Been following you guys since 2017 and reading Efficiency has improved my life and business. Recently started an online store for selling a niche product to diversify and learn online sales (been reading your book recommendations). Business grossed over $160k last year.
I turn 30 this summer, plan to grow my business (develop new income streams) and in other areas as well. I’d like to hear about your ideas on what I should do next or rather what is to be avoided as our economy was in rough shape before and is going to be even worse.
On a glance you should look into offering some do it yourself products as well. The reality is services will be hit (can’t avoid it) and good thing you already diversified.
See what people need and offer some consumable products they can use to have full services done 1x every 3 months instead of 1x a month for example. Yes it sucks but it will make sure you survive
Then look to expand market by selling the supplies to areas you wouldn’t be able to service
Hope this makes sense, but instead of sitting around hoping demand comes back think of ways the customer will adapt and use your brand/comapany to sell it. Hurting margins isn’t fun but being profitable is 100000x better than being in the red
if you are skilled in multiple areas like dating and political analysis, should you make two different blogs, or just one with different sections?
like you have tags for economy, personal finance, dating, etc on the same blog. would you have made a separate one if you wanted to turn blogs into revenue streams?
Been a reader of yours for a long time but failed to take action – and I am now behind. No use crying about it.
Following your advice to use 5% of my net worth as a hedge in the current climate while I build my income steams. Put 2.5% into BTC, want to do the same with TIPS.
Do you have a recommendation on which TIPS to buy – as in 5, 10 or 30 year at this current time? Thank you so much for everything
No. Unfortunately have to flip it on you. Stated that you’re behind this means you should start another form of income. TIPS at 2-4% is not going to make you rich any time this century!
Not sure if you’re doing responses as Q and A is closed, no worries. I just meant as a hedge as recommended in one of our other posts. Am working on second income stream.
Anonymoussays
32 yo – ~$50k in net worth hunting for additional passive ways to boost net worth.
Have equity in company I run sales for but got a late start as evidenced by net worth so playing a bit of catch up e.g. working on side hustles/add’l income streams.
What are your thoughts on house hacking (buy ~4 bed 2 bath 2 kitchen house, then rent by room) to passively build wealth through RE and housing expense elimination?
I have access to VA home loan (no money down).
If you do think house hacking is a good idea what specific trend/variables would you look to determine timing to buy a single-family property?
Yes it will work. As outlined in our book we prefer online income stream before real estate. But if you have access to special loans you could certainly go down the RE path. We would beg you to wait 4 months though as we have to see how many people default and how bad prices get. IE. prepare to start in second half of year at earliest
@Anonymous This is exactly how I earned my first $50K at about the same age you are, using a government grant as down payment on a foreclosure. Gives you a place to live while you bring in money. Just don’t overpay and purchase in a solid or gentrifying area which will hold its property value. I moved for work too far away to be an effective absentee landlord and ended up selling mine. I have no side income since I’ve been waiting for house prices to fall to buy another, so it’s risky if it’s your only side hustle. I need to do what WSPs says and build up a website though I have no skill in this arena, b/c it truly sucks to have no backup plan. It just sucks more and more the older you are.
I’ve recovered from a pretty common illness that has almost no treatment.
I was thinking starting a mailing list/blog around my story+ strategies to help with it. Run affiliate before developing info products & niche product site around it. Is this a good use of my time as I’m not a medical professional? This illness has over 200,000 google searches a month with little competition & treatment
I’ve also started a service biz. Email marketing for ecom companies. Making 2k/month which is awesome but it takes a lot of time & it’s hard to find good copywriters to outsource to so doing most of the work myself.
Which should I focus harder on?
Any help is much appreciated
For accumulating and maintaining crypto portfolio, what metrics do you use to buy/sell based on price?
I’ve been buying/selling BTC with ~50% of monthly profits from second income (e-comm biz) for past two years using mayer multiple to buy or sell rather than DCA.
Mayer multiple is (current price/200 day MA).
If multiple is lower than average then buy more, and if higher than average then buy less etc.
Does learning how to fix cars count as a trade? Am thinking of learning how to fix wrecked cars and flip them for a profit.
2) Have a relative in the business of fixing cars. How to convince him to let me work for him to learn this? I asked him previously and I could tell he wasn’t taking me seriously. Could be because I currently hold a job in finance.
Thank you for whatever you do for your readers and stay healthy!
1. How has Trump done so far as president? Outsmarted by Chinese?
2. Do you think certified tracking app+antibody testing+rapid testing will let the economy go back to near normal?
3. Based off of answer to above question… do you think this is a bear rally or the real rise? Got in at 2550, will probably sell tomorrow at 2790 and then get back in <2400.
1) havent noticed any change. People are emotional and think we are big supporters. We actually don’t vote, don’t read any political news so don’t know or care. Just there for the money on the bets. Yes we still think he wins
2) Yes but wouldn’t bank on it happening, will be ugly for rest of year at minimum even if parts open up
3) yes we think it goes down from here and noted fair value is around 2,200-2,300. Somehow we got the bottom right and rebought but went back to neutral again at 2640 (no longer buying)
Don’t hope for anything beyond just a first look haha, if you don’t want don’t click on any links, btw most of them don’t work, it is just my first website, so i want to know what do you think of it.
When you were learning how to write copy, what was your actual practice method? (1000 words per day, writing ads long hand, writing garbage ads until they worked online).
Bought all books referenced in the book, and I know how you outline your ads (basic framework from efficiency) but I want to know how to get better before spending if I still suck.
Step 1) read about 3 books
Step 2) then read all sales letters and tried to pinpoint what the selling points were
Step 3) repeat step 2 at work etc. until it was easy to spot
Step 4) create the ads and test
Step 5) repeat until conversion is good
25, NW 115k, (Mostly cash ready to build secondary income). I was CFO/COO at a Fintech startup. Grew it from 0 to a $18m valuation. Was fired and Lost >100k salary + equity. (lawyers involved). Now Having trouble finding work due to Covid.
Past work experience in small M&A IB and VC 100k salary job and simply focus all time on a side income? Or should I wait, prep and hold out for a ‘career’ position when the economy reopens?
You said that tech was much better than finance. Do you mean strictly coding positions, or does CFO/COO count (as long as there is some equity)?
Apologies if slightly rambling, I suppose I’m mostly stressed from the lost income and my fault for not having the second income up already! Lesson learned!)
1) time for money exchange anything to get cash flow positive
2) after economy opens look for new position
3) tech still kills finance, if you’re the CFO of a start up that is just a start up.
Semi-decent web designer looking to get back into affiliate marketing. Haven’t run any affiliate campaigns since adult sector was making good money, pre 2010.
When looking for new affiliate niches, would you still recommend the topics covered in ‘efficiency’ (page 79), after this mess is all over?
Or do you see a completely different set of wants/needs during and after the current crisis?
I’m thinking more about developing a media site that uses affiliate marketing as business model, rather than building super-niche product sites and sending paid traffic for quick sales. But curious about which model would you recommend right now?
Those niches are not going to change ever. Unless you believe people will suddenly become self aware and secure (they wont)
Coming out of this you’ll probably have more interest in health/wellness as people may have healthcare concerns etc. So we’d wager on health being #1
Honestly do not know, no one can answer that. Both will work. If you’re looking for low risk = niche, if you want higher risk higher reward then use the former
Can you comment on the downstream effects of what’s going on today? Millions are unemployed so they can’t pay their rents / mortgages, businesses aren’t able to cover their overhead with no revenue coming in so many don’t make their rent and vendor payments.
1) What do you guys see happening when these loan payments aren’t met? Would love to hear your answer for how it’ll impact banks, those that are unemployed, and companies over the next 2-5 years.
2) Is there a limit to the number of unemployed folks that the gov can pay out?
3) What do you see happening with the markets and over what timeframe? My guess is this rally ends soon and we go back down 30-40% from here. Thoughts?
We covered all this already?
1) lots of bankruptcies and defaults in 120 days. Big get bigger buying small players with cheap ddebt
2) government has to print money build infrastrucutre to create jobs for people unemployed
3) we do think its over valued again
Not trying to be rude literally all of this was already covered on front page of website in prior posts so check them out
Dad is going to retire within 5 years (getting old). Told him there was a potential recession coming back in 2018 (He didn’t listen). Now his 401k went from 660k to 450k and he went into cash (sold at 2,400).
I told him to average back in if it goes a bit lower and do 50% gov bonds and 50% VOO.
Currently in tech M&A banking as New 2nd yr analyst.
I have a side Ecommerce biz, and looking to do another Ecommerce biz.
Worth it to move into VC/growth equity or to stay in banking until I leave the corporate world forever? Current hours are really good and pay is normal but VC/growth might allow me to network with more tech companies.
Obvs this is all circumstantial and preference, but would love to hear thoughts.
Won’t make a difference honestly. If you are in good standing we’d stay put since you have to redo the entire political game again.
If the money is about the same and your hours are already good for you to do your thing, don’t get greedy. Get greedy when things take off with your side biz
Read the book Emotional Intelligence as per your recommendation. Great read. Question:
– How do you effectively identify the which emotion is used in advertising?
– How do we find out when it’s ok to start spending on ads again ?
1) reference the ad to a books you’ve read on the topic. If you can’t figure it out still, then practice reading sales letters online, there are many that walk you through step by step which sales tactic is being used
2) ads are now improving a bit, up 40%+ the last week so says some demand is coming, would wait until economy opens up in general unless you’re already in business
3) deleted this as it made no sense there is no maximization
Short, sweet and to the point. Thanks
The 3rd question is a reference to one of your old post.
Hey WSP,
on (2), what exactly is up?
I haven’t dabbled in ads yet so sorry if this comes across as stupid. Thanks.
No clue what you’re trying to ask here.
Hey WSP,
What I wanted to understand was the second sentence you said.
“2) ads are now improving a bit, up 40%+ the last week so says some demand is coming, would wait until economy opens up in general unless you’re already in business”
What is up 40%?
Thank you
Oh the cost of ads. So before it was costing around $3.00 CPM then it collapsed to around $1.00 now its back to $1.40-1.50
Forget exact measures but you can look it up online
Hey guys, long time reader. I’ve driven my income up to $150k in MCL city plus some stock options and now working on the side business route (besides some rental houses).
For the side business route, I have a background in art (as well as career in data science) and have done well selling art (paintings, commissions, etc) as a small/limited side business. I was wondering if you had any ideas to scale this according to Efficiency? With a creative route like this, I know I need to find a way to automate and produce a digital product, otherwise it’s just a $/hr “consulting” type of business, with limited upside.
My idea is art “curation”. Along with commissions (and my personal network of artists), I am wondering your thoughts on selling art (mine and others) in corporate/commercial/residential spaces? I use an app to digitally “place” art in different spaces to sell it, then hustle to make it happen.
Another idea that may scale and be able to be automated more is to produce watercolors of people’s homes/dogs/etc. I am familiar with direct mail/email campaigns and with my data science background, I wonder if sending a postcard to homes with their house in the picture designed as a watercolor (scraped from zillow)? Then, I would have to produce the art (and outsource it eventually as house watercolors are mostly robotic and not creative).
See any promise behind these routes or obvious better options?
Depending on how much you need to make you could simply do it on a project base. Then when you build up a larger audience you train one person to do basic items (outsource a bit) and it should scale nicely.
Otherwise not sure honestly, we never did art. But. Thats how a lot of people start. Build a core customer base from zero and then look to scale later as it’s a slow grind
You could look at using your artwork for print-on-demand products and scaling those out
Is there a way to PM – I also have a side hustle selling art so would be interested in connecting (1644338 is transaction id)
I was planning to buy a vacation house before pandemic. I’m 40 with two kids. I had the cash so long as I could backstop with Airbnb rental. Given rental income is off the table for at least 2 years.
Any thoughts on how far the price of these properties might fall? And when?
Also, what is your preferred method of alternative financing between: (1) Cash holdings of ~2.5 years (2) Selling stock bought over the past 10 years (3) Re-financing existing properties (4) raiding retirement (5) just putting 20% down and getting a cheap mortgage.
Around 120 days is the rules for USA (foreclosures). This may be extended but that will be when it gets ugly. So at this time that would be around July or so.
In rank order: 1) refinance, 2) existing cash after you’ve survived 1 year of this downturn, 3) just putting 20% down, 4) stock, 5) retirement
The preference above is based on risk and liquidation. Also taxes.
How do you deal with ad account suspensions for facebook and google in the weight loss niche? I’m always creating/buying new ad accounts and at best they can last about 1 or 2 months. Is that how the game is played nowadays? The support from facebook and google is very limited and they essentially suspend your account nowadays with boilerplate reasons while never responding to appeals.
Adapt or die. Even if you’re compliant you will likely get banned here and there. So you need to have a lot of accounts and try to build a long-term relationship with the platforms. They are essentially monopolies.
Unfortunately there is no “easy” answer as you know. It’s a grind and why you’re getting paid!
hope you’re doing well & staying healthy.
uni student double major in maths & econ graduating 2021 at a top 25 U.S. institution
paid w/ poverty scholarship + $30k total debt. bullshitted through with a 3.50 GPA, but didn’t learn much
SAT breakdown (overall top 5%)
top 1% reading/writing
top 4% math
plan is:
1. job as economic consultant or data analyst
2. concurrently do reputable online masters in stats and cs ($7k each, 1.5 years each) with better GPA
3. upgrade to quant role at a bank or other tech job
4. make investments and live in fixer-uppers
5. all else fails, a PhD in computational social science sounds interesting/impactful/well-paying
to start a side income, I’m considering affiliate through twitter/medium teaching formal econ and data analytics.
OR writing about asian culture, social skills, game, uni admissions, life in poverty. similar to Mr Latimore
wondering how my overall plan sounds.
should I break into affiliate with niche technical stuff, insecurities (asian social skills), or both under different names? both would be anonymous bc concerns for privacy and safety.
thank you for your time.
You are too reliant on education. Take your degree and get a high paying job (white collar) you have the background for this.
After 1 year on work force doing good work you’ll realize everything you learned adds no value. So you should then take savings and begin an online venture or even time for money exchange venture. This is explained in efficiency. Masters/PHD usually just leads to weird personality with no real significant increase in income long-term
23M living in NYC as a Software Engineer. Making 125K base (+options). Have ~30K saved in bank and ~30K in investments. Basically, don’t really see a point in investing anymore, and was wondering about your thoughts on this life-plan for the next 5 years.
Only save 25K in cash (used if shit hits the fan situation), and literally invest every single penny afterwards from 9-5 into making mobile apps (subscription-based biz model). My hours are pretty chill & flexible (40hrs week), I think I can spend at least 3 hrs per day on creating these new revenue streams. It’ll cost about ~25k per app (outsourcing, running ads), and about 6 months of personal coding time
100% yes. If you’re able to succeed building apps thats a fantastic way to generate income
Glad you’re realizing (early) that saving $10-20K never makes you rich! You feel stable but not going to go anywhere over the long term.
So long story short great idea!
hey, can u edit my name to something different like “nyc_coder” or smth. preferably would not want my name public.
looking now
What are your thoughts on buying an online store, such as through empire flippers or the shopify exchange marketplace?
I dont have online store business experience so was wondering of this is a good way to build a business? Any guidance is appreciated.
What kind of company do you work at where you get 125k+options out of school?
That’s super common at mid to top tier tech companies in NYC.
What to do?
Take 165k/yr guaranteed as a startup CTO (upside limited at 180-200k, no stock/bonus/variable) and invest all in side hustle or take 100k/yr base for potentially 200-250k/yr in sales and invest less in side hustle?
Was previously a startup executive, hence deal is on the table for another CTO position, currently working my way up in sales though, it’s going ok but climate is rough due to virus.
Startup sales is 100k base, with 7.5% variable, no cap. Deal cycle up to 8 months, avg. deal size 300k.
Cash is ok to keep me floating for a couple of months, but I’m waiting for the downturn to invest, so I’d rather stay employed for the moment.
Sounds like you should take the higher cash flow item and then spend all your time working on a second form of income. No point in praying either of them work out, you need the cash for now to be safe/mentally stable and then just work on the second income line asap.
Thoughts on selling towards sports bettors? I’ve developed profitable sports betting models throughout multiple sports. I’ve started to sell packages with the plays and have seen success. I am also developing courses that teach how to make excel & R/ based models like mine. The goal is to always sell the plays and then develop a subscription-based education portal for sports bettors looking to gain knowledge from courses and well-moderated forums.
Thanks for all you do.
Yes this is viable your big risks: 1) getting banned from bookies, 2) competing with more complex algorithms later and 3) having an issue if the model doesn’t work suddenly.
Long-term you can become a bookie.
Hey – do you have a website set up / followers on a social media platform? I have been looking for a partner and currently have a biz set up, if interested reply and we can find a way to get in contact.
1st off, want to thank WSPs for the good work here. Am a reader of efficiency and the other 2 books and by far the most sensible advice i come across that will benefit action takers
Have a qs with regards to career in Tech:
What do you think of the prospect of a career path in Data Science (Data analyst/scientist) which seems to be pretty in demand in recent years. I like it better than a pure software developer role as coding is not quite my passion and i am better with numerics rather than code but not sure if joining a 12 week boot camp be sufficient to land entry roles and have a better ROI as compared to a 3 year college degree program
Thanks
That should remain in high demand. The issue you should think about is which skill is going to help you build a second income stream. We don’t know the answer to that but its the most important question. If one pays $140K the other $150K… But the $140K option gives you skills you need for a second stream, you have to go with that one.
If this situation taught people anything it should be that diversified income is incredibly valuable.
I’ve been very impressed at your ability to articulate complex topics (saw your recent tweet about this), understand the economy, make predictions etc. How would you say you developed the knowledge / mental models you have?
Is it just a matter of doing a lot of reading / life + biz experience? Or did you systematically cultivate it somehow?
I want to get “smarter” the right way instead of popping nootropics like average guy
1) probably due to wide range of economic experience. Unlike other finance websites usually run by people who grew up upper middle class and “made it”… IE. were given good resources to start. This website is run by people who didn’t have any financial resources and had to find ways to get ahead by finding what people wanted/needed.
2) Not sure if it was systematic. One critique of this blog which is TRUE, is that it’s a lot more cynical. If you want to get ahead with no resources you have to do your best to align incentives in your favor and realize no one is going to come save you. Again. This applies to making money/getting ahead not making friends or with people you’ve known for decades.
3) then you should “read to use”. Lots of people just read stuff to feel smarter (no value), you should start a project and read to solve the issue as you go along. Creates accountability.
Hi, I’m going to be a senior in college next year and this summer I am interning at a big tech company. I’m going to end up making around $20,000 before taxes this summer in a span of 3 months at the age of 21. What would you do with this kind of money at this age if you were in my shoes?
Already answered in this post…
Really appreciate the blog and the books. Glad I found it this early. I am 21 years old, live in Sweden.
Would you say it is a good idea for me to start study computer-science this fall since it is free for me to study in Sweden? The computerscience-program will be going on for 5 years. Otherwise I will be going for sales.
Yes software or enterprise sales. Doing both and seeing what you’re good at is a fantastic strategy. Easier to sell yourself as well.
I’ve been invested in Long Term Treasuries since mid 2018 (as part of an overall portfolio mix) and it’s done very well as rates have continued to fall. Even recently, as stocks sold off and other bond markets (Corporate, Junk, Municipal) were getting hammered, Long Term Treasuries have done really well.
My question is: In this current environment, should I expect this type of outperformance to continue or should I get out while the getting is still good?
The main reason I’m tempted to to hold this position is based on my assumption that the US will follow Japan (and now Europe) into the “Lost Decade(s)” and Long Term Japanese Bonds have been one of the only places that survived that (ongoing) period in Japan.
Our opinion is you sell some of it. The massive increase is tough to pass up and rates going to zero is about as ideal as it can get.
Sit on a little more cash and wait for a new opportunity in 3-6 months
How do you see things playing out with deflation and inflation over the the course of the next several years?
We lean on inflation, the Fed said “unlimited QE” meaning they will do whatever it takes to avoid significant deflation
Early 20s. Enterprise BDR in NYC. 80k salary. 0 savings, 10k credit card debt. Living paycheck to paycheck.
Very good at prospecting and disciplined in learning products end to end.
Other than that, have 0 skills other than prospecting and communications (soft skill). Also have 0 interests other than music, movies, etc (the fun stuff).
Have 0 interest in drop shipping bad products and having people wait a month to receive it.
Also have 0 interest in being a sales consultant (great at the job but I dont like it and dont see my self being a bdr and then ae for the rest of my life).
Is it time to skill up and pivot? Would love to hear your opinion on what you would do to get out of this situation and thrive financially.
Thank you
Time to skill up for sure. In the meantime your cash flow is too low. You have to do a time for money exchange for now, get off paycheck to paycheck this way and be debt free quickly.
So #1 get another income stream now even if time for money (fixing phone screens for example) and then #2 look to a new scalable skill.
Treading water doesn’t feel good
Long term brazilian reader (including 3 books). I would like to ask you/suggest topic of the strategy that consists of looking for good brick and mortar business that will not survive (only due cash flow/credit issues) and replace them by the same thing (even in the same place). Is this a good strategy? What to look for in this case?
(sorry for posting in Twitter)
That’s a tough one as you don’t know if human behavior will be the same. The way you could do it is buy during the recovery.
So if you see people in the area going back to normal, buy then and replace it. You won’t get bottom pricing but you also lose the risk of not having demand. That’s a good way to make money since its about timing.
All that said, online is so much better it is comical, lower OPEX, no leverage and 24/7 customers
Good points. Thanks!
I’m 16 yo and hoping to go into Enterprise Software Sales.
Can I still be successful in sales if English isn’t my 1st language and I have a bit of an accent? Do you know anyone who is “killing in” in either IB or Sales who isn’t a native English speaker?
If that’s not an option. I’m quite good at maths(but not brilliant); considering the state of the finance sector (and the economy) would you advise I aim for a career in tech instead(of IB or sales)?
I have already started to learn about Computer Science and how to code. Should I focus on getting better at this? & then become a Software Engineer down the line [since I don’t really need to talk much (and my weakness isn’t that detrimental as it would be to the other 2 recommended careers)]
P.S.
I’m located in the UK, should I move to America when I’m looking to enter a career or do you think working in London should pay equally well.
1) yes to both, just need to practice and make sure your accent isn’t thick.
2) Rest of this is just a ramble, you have to figure out what you are good at yourself (coding, sales etc.). Then that determines your career. We can’t do the work for you
1. Do y’all always have SHTF hard cash at home or will you put it back into a bank when the recession is over?
2. I have been splitting my cardio days between long distance and sprints 50/50. Do y’all agree with this or would you weight towards one more than the other?
3. This is probably a question for the other readers, but I am having trouble deciding on this through online research. I am currently freelance tutoring on fiverr/upwork in the evening making about 100-200 a week, and am hoping to land some copywriting work as well to build a portfolio before offering my services separately on my own website. Does anyone have any guidance on if I should incorporate or not, or what factors to heavily consider in this decision?
Many thanks in advance to WSPs and the other high IQ readers here
1) we do have cash physical in safes. That’s part of the gold allocation as well. Won’t go back into a bank
2) Probably better to do 75% sprints, 25% cardio longer distance. Just change the length of the sprints
3) That’s great! You should contact all your consistent customers and bring it over to a new site. That’s pretty easy to do and yes incorporate ASAP in the best tax advantaged way you can. With $1,500 a week you can easily expense a lot of items (your internet bill, your cell phone bill, your computer item purchases, potentially part of your rent if you have a separate room for work etc.)
If I may clarify (poor wording on my part), I mean that one cardio day I do sprints, then next cardio day I do a long distance run, next cardio day sprints, etc. So are you saying do 3 sprint days for every long distance day?
yes 3:1
31 Product Manger for Ad-tech company, based out of NYC
What are long views of living, working, and owning property in NYC? I could see a mass exodus after this whole ordeal closes. Would imagine residential property values plummeting and it’s typically always been good to own in NYC. That said, if businesses leave here, may not be as valuable to live and own property here.
Would wait 12 months and see how it plays out.
Currently our guess is prices decline for at least a year, people leave NYC
Opened a brick/mortar wellness business in Nov 2019.
Had a steady start – 300+ unique customers, spending an average of 100 per visit. Membership (recurring payment) was increasing each month and customers loved the product/staff
To keep this going/get back on track – how would you approach promotion/marketing upon reopening?
Unfortunately we don’t know we don’t operate brick and mortars. Our only guess would be an email ad campaign but… again we don’t know
1. Do you have Bloomberg Terminal at home? If so, why?
2. Will you be going back to a public gym after the lockdown?
Thanks!
1) Yes we have access to bloomberg terminals, will leave it at that. You don’t need one but if you have a way to get one with contacts you should
2) probably not, won’t be going to a gym until 2021. At home equipment is already good to go
Do you guys have an opinion on tail risk hedging (ie modelling the universa funds strategy of hedging 96-99.5% s&p500 with .5%-4% 2 months put options 30% out of the money selling and repurchasing monthly)?
I know I’m sacrificing ev but it would be an idea on how to get exposure to the stock market and benefiting from long term developments but having some insurance against the (almost) inevitable major drop as long as things are as volatile and shaky.
Most sources I follow tend to agree that we’re (still) in a bubble that will burst at some point further down the line but that covid was not that event yet.
Yes, the wealthier you get you can buy some put protections and you can take small short positions on levered groups since those will go down the fastest.
Haven’t covered this much in the past but its more of an individual choice, so… when volatility declines and is more stable look for put protection options
vol still expensive so now not the best time to re-hedge (buying fire insurance after your house has already burned down)
read spitznagel’s book; from memory the equity curve smoothing from put protection strategy adds ~2% to long term S&P500 portfolio CAGR (so 9% pa instead of 7%)
as an aside when implieds were trading at low-teens back in Feb….a 30% OTM front month put would have gone up 80 to 100x at the bottom tick in midd-march…you can see why this works even if you only have 0.5% of your portfolio in this
This is accurate great post
Can you please expand on the magnitude Tech is ahead of Finance (IBD) right now that you mentioned in “Time to Look Past the Outbreak”? Is it beneficial to change direction 180° and go into tech if one’s personal skill set is more aligned with IB and one is already well underway (i.e. top BB summer internship)?
Man. Based on the part you asked us to delete you are so far ahead it isn’t even funny.
On IBD, M&A will be fine. We’re saying to avoid the shops that primarily focus on fund raising. 0% yields and no IPOs will not be good. M&A is always around.
In terms of sales vs. IBD see prior comments. Choose what you’re good at. Feelings don’t matter. So find your skill and go down that career path. If you’re good in banking M&A then you’re set
What are your thoughts on “prepping” by stockpiling food/emergency supplies, especially with recent events? Will people be more conscious of being prepared to handle emergency situations now, and should they be?
Thinking about getting an e-commerce business up and running focusing on this niche, so interested in hearing your thoughts. Thanks!
Unsure how people will react, our guess is you’ll be too late. If you had this idea, it should have been running before the pandemic not now (everything is shut).
So if you push us on it we would avoid
How important do you think oracles will play in the evolution of the blockchain space in connecting off-chain data?
Unclear as it is still new so haven’t even thought about it honestly. Just own the main protocols and that’s really it. If it’s only a couple hundred grand of exposure thinking deeply is a waste of time
No one even knows which chains will be around and which oracles will be around. So… just keep it simple
Might I suggest checking out Chainlink as it almost has a monopoly on the whole oracle space and is enterprise-designed.
I own an affiliate marketing website in the CBD space.
Did 300k last year. Everything was good until got hit with Google algo update and traffic nosedived.
Still makes money with minimal work (1 hr / day) but much less money.
After many times trying to sell it for 30x multiple of 1 month net profit – I settled for selling 51% of the company (to my Dad) for a very small multiple.
But the traffic is down to 20% of what it used to be at it’s highs.
Do I sell the remaining 49% and move on or keep it.
I have tried everything I could do already to “fix” it.
Thanks guys.
Would keep it and try to fix it. Why would traffic be up during this time? See what it looks like after this lockdown is complete
Thanks
Traffic death is not b/c of pandemic
It’s been dying slow death since last fall
Ah then maybe you can go ahead and sell it. Tough call honestly but if you sold half already not a major deal
Sounds like you are relying on SEO/Organic traffic if google algo change is affecting your traffic? For future reference, implement script for webpush on your websites, good open rates if don’t abuse too much since last chrome update this is essentially free traffic. And also go the paid traffic route if you have a working website to drive customers (google/FB might not like it but could try on premium high volume native sources)
1) Your #1 recommendation is learn sales. How does one learn sales without actually doing it? I agree with you that you cannot learn sales by reading books. If you are actually doing sales to learn it, its already a big step forward. But how does one start to learn sales?
2) I understand your fair market value calculation. If economy slowing down, does the formula still remain ~7% CAGR?
3) Read last post few times but couldn’t understand relationship between fund flow and incentives. If its just me, ignore but if anyone else had same opinion, would love to get a quick explanation.
1) copywriting has been covered 100x here and in books. Online ads watch conversions. Affiliate marketing etc.
2) its a long term item so at current prices appears over valued, implies a 8.5% or so CAGR well above normal
3) If you only have positive returns in stocks, you’re forcing people (incentivizing them) to take more risk.
Since ads are a big expense in online businesses, what’s your view on BAT and Brave browser? It’s still very small, but with some potential.
Do you suggest keeping online businesses as of sole proprietor? Or do you make a LLC, partnership, etc. depending on the nature of the business?
1) it could work but right now it’s not even a molecule compared to google/facebook. So you can learn it in case the time comes but you’re not getting rich without google/facebook
2) depends on nature of biz. Never do 50/50 partnerships, one guy always does a ton more. So look into tax rules in your state and make a decision. Long-term you end up with an S-corp most of the time
Planning to expand Main Street biz within a year or so. Worth moving cash into T.I.P.S. or a T.I.P.S. etf?
Sure it’ll be better than cash at this point. But we’re talking about peanuts in terms of returns
I live in the Bay Area, am finishing up Computer Science degree this December. I received an unexpected windfall of $2.5 million after my mother’s death, as well as an inheritance of paid off property worth $1.8 million.
While keeping $500K in reserve funds in a permanent CD ladder, I plan on waiting for a dip in housing later this year either buy two million-dollar single family homes with potential for ADU expansion, or one $1.5-million dollar single family home in a premium area and a $500 condo.
Question is: do you think real estate in premium areas will outperform in the coming 5- to 10-years?
I think yes, because the coming downturn will broaden income inequality and intensify class distinctions. The upper-middle class will spend more (not less) to distinguish themselves from the middle class, who will begin spending less out of necessity.
Sorry to hear about that. Overall it seems that you’re set for life
Our guess is that property only in nice areas will go up (say beach front). Major cities like SF/NYC likely go down. The average condo there isn’t in a spectacular area next to the water or with a nice view. Instead those cities will need to see price compression as people leave/move out. Massive unemployment
I have the same concern about the shift to remote work. Some of SF proper has really gone to hell, there’s no reason to live there and risk getting assaulted by a crackhead if you can work remote.
A property I’m targeting is roughly $1.3 million and incidentally it is next to the water with a beautiful view. It’s surrounded by $2 million homes in a posh suburb with premium schools. I found it scanning probate records, and am entering the slow wait of buying it through the probate system.
Thanks for the input and your writing over the years. I made a U-turn and became more serious and career-focused about three years ago, thanks in part to this blog, and seeing me get my act together made my mother happy.
That’s fantastic and good luck!
7Been cutting down on ad spend on affiliate site for health products at this time. How should I focus on getting traffic – SEO?
After health product affiliate website logo, traffic, besides my site layout which I’m going to update, what else should I spend on to optimize my website? Will have ~1k to spend on biz per month after living expenses, based on outline in spending for someone who hasn’t made it yet.
I’ve asked regarding setting up llc in Wyoming for online biz, but I’ve been reading around that I won’t be able to avoid paying taxes regarding the state that I live in (California) associated with the llc and that it seems to complicate things tax-wise. Is this the way to go?
Sounds like you’re fine. You just need the backend optimized to deal with traffic when economy is ready to go
In the meantime: 1) create a bunch of ads to test, 2) create a bunch of sales emails and 3) create a bunch of blog posts if your website has a content section for SEO.
Not sure on that one, just depends on how big you get etc. We’re not familiar with the rules for those two states (Ie. how they interrelate). Down the line you want an S-corp in a tax free state (assuming USA based).
A single member LLC is treated as a disregarded entity for tax purposes, so income it earns gets reported as if you earned it yourself. Your state of residence can tax all of your income. So yes, even with Wyoming LLC, you will pay California income tax.
S corps are regarded entities, but they are passthroughs. For a very small business, likely get the same outcome (income flows through and California taxes it on your personal return).
If you want to avoid CA personal income taxes, either move or start a C Corp. Query whether the tax savings are worth it though. They can be, but not always.
#1.If you guys were 21 today, how much time would you invest studying coding and CompSci basics (regardless of industry/talent)?
#2.You guys have mentioned leaving Wall Street and being bearish on financial services and bullish on tech. Is it logical to conclude you guys are *bullish* on Fintech/Decentralized Finance space in the coming decade?
#3. Can’t deadlift or squat heavy in this environment: what are alternatives?
1) Not sure how to answer, we wouldn’t bother. We’d need to know if we were good at it first. If good at it then would spend enough time to land a top tier career in it
2) Yes we are. that said M&A will still be around and is the safer group
3) Dumbbell squats and deadlifts that’s certainly doable. Can be done by holding heavy objects as well like a tire
Additionally, Kettlebell swings and single leg RDLs for deadlift sub, pistol squats and lunges for squat sub.
Hi Guys, I own a carpet cleaning business in Western Canada since 2016. Been following you guys since 2017 and reading Efficiency has improved my life and business. Recently started an online store for selling a niche product to diversify and learn online sales (been reading your book recommendations). Business grossed over $160k last year.
I turn 30 this summer, plan to grow my business (develop new income streams) and in other areas as well. I’d like to hear about your ideas on what I should do next or rather what is to be avoided as our economy was in rough shape before and is going to be even worse.
Thank you.
On a glance you should look into offering some do it yourself products as well. The reality is services will be hit (can’t avoid it) and good thing you already diversified.
See what people need and offer some consumable products they can use to have full services done 1x every 3 months instead of 1x a month for example. Yes it sucks but it will make sure you survive
Then look to expand market by selling the supplies to areas you wouldn’t be able to service
Hope this makes sense, but instead of sitting around hoping demand comes back think of ways the customer will adapt and use your brand/comapany to sell it. Hurting margins isn’t fun but being profitable is 100000x better than being in the red
Your answer makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much Guys!
Shopify okay to use for an e-commerce apparel company or do you still recommend other platforms?
Perfectly fine
if you are skilled in multiple areas like dating and political analysis, should you make two different blogs, or just one with different sections?
like you have tags for economy, personal finance, dating, etc on the same blog. would you have made a separate one if you wanted to turn blogs into revenue streams?
Not sure really depends. It could be a niche that overlaps all of it. But… if you can split them and have enough info that would be ideal
Been a reader of yours for a long time but failed to take action – and I am now behind. No use crying about it.
Following your advice to use 5% of my net worth as a hedge in the current climate while I build my income steams. Put 2.5% into BTC, want to do the same with TIPS.
Do you have a recommendation on which TIPS to buy – as in 5, 10 or 30 year at this current time? Thank you so much for everything
No. Unfortunately have to flip it on you. Stated that you’re behind this means you should start another form of income. TIPS at 2-4% is not going to make you rich any time this century!
Not sure if you’re doing responses as Q and A is closed, no worries. I just meant as a hedge as recommended in one of our other posts. Am working on second income stream.
32 yo – ~$50k in net worth hunting for additional passive ways to boost net worth.
Have equity in company I run sales for but got a late start as evidenced by net worth so playing a bit of catch up e.g. working on side hustles/add’l income streams.
What are your thoughts on house hacking (buy ~4 bed 2 bath 2 kitchen house, then rent by room) to passively build wealth through RE and housing expense elimination?
I have access to VA home loan (no money down).
If you do think house hacking is a good idea what specific trend/variables would you look to determine timing to buy a single-family property?
Yes it will work. As outlined in our book we prefer online income stream before real estate. But if you have access to special loans you could certainly go down the RE path. We would beg you to wait 4 months though as we have to see how many people default and how bad prices get. IE. prepare to start in second half of year at earliest
@Anonymous This is exactly how I earned my first $50K at about the same age you are, using a government grant as down payment on a foreclosure. Gives you a place to live while you bring in money. Just don’t overpay and purchase in a solid or gentrifying area which will hold its property value. I moved for work too far away to be an effective absentee landlord and ended up selling mine. I have no side income since I’ve been waiting for house prices to fall to buy another, so it’s risky if it’s your only side hustle. I need to do what WSPs says and build up a website though I have no skill in this arena, b/c it truly sucks to have no backup plan. It just sucks more and more the older you are.
What skill in regards to online sales do you think will be the most valuable over the next 3 years?
Same three: 1) video/photo/copywriting, 2) email sales letters and 3) writing skills
Any views on NLP / Hypnosis?
Never really got into it. The theme is to just remember a major success before starting work so you’re in an enhanced positive state
I’ve recovered from a pretty common illness that has almost no treatment.
I was thinking starting a mailing list/blog around my story+ strategies to help with it. Run affiliate before developing info products & niche product site around it. Is this a good use of my time as I’m not a medical professional? This illness has over 200,000 google searches a month with little competition & treatment
I’ve also started a service biz. Email marketing for ecom companies. Making 2k/month which is awesome but it takes a lot of time & it’s hard to find good copywriters to outsource to so doing most of the work myself.
Which should I focus harder on?
Any help is much appreciated
Not going to like this but do both. Get your health straight and just do both.
For accumulating and maintaining crypto portfolio, what metrics do you use to buy/sell based on price?
I’ve been buying/selling BTC with ~50% of monthly profits from second income (e-comm biz) for past two years using mayer multiple to buy or sell rather than DCA.
Mayer multiple is (current price/200 day MA).
If multiple is lower than average then buy more, and if higher than average then buy less etc.
Again we don’t. We just announce our buys on twitter and that’s it.
No fundamentals needed just look at how bad the decline was in a month. that’s really it.
Hi WSP:
1) With respect to this post on twitter:
https://twitter.com/WallStPlayboys/status/1247932710925946880?s=20
Does learning how to fix cars count as a trade? Am thinking of learning how to fix wrecked cars and flip them for a profit.
2) Have a relative in the business of fixing cars. How to convince him to let me work for him to learn this? I asked him previously and I could tell he wasn’t taking me seriously. Could be because I currently hold a job in finance.
Thank you for whatever you do for your readers and stay healthy!
1) yes it can work. Just keep up to date with what cars are in demand. Going to be massive change in autos after this.
2) No clue as we haven’t tried to do that. Getting other people to help you is usually an awful strategy. Go learn it yourself via trade
1. How has Trump done so far as president? Outsmarted by Chinese?
2. Do you think certified tracking app+antibody testing+rapid testing will let the economy go back to near normal?
3. Based off of answer to above question… do you think this is a bear rally or the real rise? Got in at 2550, will probably sell tomorrow at 2790 and then get back in <2400.
1) havent noticed any change. People are emotional and think we are big supporters. We actually don’t vote, don’t read any political news so don’t know or care. Just there for the money on the bets. Yes we still think he wins
2) Yes but wouldn’t bank on it happening, will be ugly for rest of year at minimum even if parts open up
3) yes we think it goes down from here and noted fair value is around 2,200-2,300. Somehow we got the bottom right and rebought but went back to neutral again at 2640 (no longer buying)
Can you take a look and give me any recommendations or honest opinions please?
Thank you in advance, you have teached me a lot.
Hahaha nice try but definitely not going to website to review all of it and tell you what to do
Don’t hope for anything beyond just a first look haha, if you don’t want don’t click on any links, btw most of them don’t work, it is just my first website, so i want to know what do you think of it.
There is no products yet.
Come back when you have something more specific
When you were learning how to write copy, what was your actual practice method? (1000 words per day, writing ads long hand, writing garbage ads until they worked online).
Bought all books referenced in the book, and I know how you outline your ads (basic framework from efficiency) but I want to know how to get better before spending if I still suck.
Step 1) read about 3 books
Step 2) then read all sales letters and tried to pinpoint what the selling points were
Step 3) repeat step 2 at work etc. until it was easy to spot
Step 4) create the ads and test
Step 5) repeat until conversion is good
This is super helpful, thank you
25, NW 115k, (Mostly cash ready to build secondary income). I was CFO/COO at a Fintech startup. Grew it from 0 to a $18m valuation. Was fired and Lost >100k salary + equity. (lawyers involved). Now Having trouble finding work due to Covid.
Past work experience in small M&A IB and VC 100k salary job and simply focus all time on a side income? Or should I wait, prep and hold out for a ‘career’ position when the economy reopens?
You said that tech was much better than finance. Do you mean strictly coding positions, or does CFO/COO count (as long as there is some equity)?
Apologies if slightly rambling, I suppose I’m mostly stressed from the lost income and my fault for not having the second income up already! Lesson learned!)
Cheers and thank you again for your help!
1) time for money exchange anything to get cash flow positive
2) after economy opens look for new position
3) tech still kills finance, if you’re the CFO of a start up that is just a start up.
Semi-decent web designer looking to get back into affiliate marketing. Haven’t run any affiliate campaigns since adult sector was making good money, pre 2010.
When looking for new affiliate niches, would you still recommend the topics covered in ‘efficiency’ (page 79), after this mess is all over?
Or do you see a completely different set of wants/needs during and after the current crisis?
I’m thinking more about developing a media site that uses affiliate marketing as business model, rather than building super-niche product sites and sending paid traffic for quick sales. But curious about which model would you recommend right now?
Those niches are not going to change ever. Unless you believe people will suddenly become self aware and secure (they wont)
Coming out of this you’ll probably have more interest in health/wellness as people may have healthcare concerns etc. So we’d wager on health being #1
Honestly do not know, no one can answer that. Both will work. If you’re looking for low risk = niche, if you want higher risk higher reward then use the former
Can you comment on the downstream effects of what’s going on today? Millions are unemployed so they can’t pay their rents / mortgages, businesses aren’t able to cover their overhead with no revenue coming in so many don’t make their rent and vendor payments.
1) What do you guys see happening when these loan payments aren’t met? Would love to hear your answer for how it’ll impact banks, those that are unemployed, and companies over the next 2-5 years.
2) Is there a limit to the number of unemployed folks that the gov can pay out?
3) What do you see happening with the markets and over what timeframe? My guess is this rally ends soon and we go back down 30-40% from here. Thoughts?
We covered all this already?
1) lots of bankruptcies and defaults in 120 days. Big get bigger buying small players with cheap ddebt
2) government has to print money build infrastrucutre to create jobs for people unemployed
3) we do think its over valued again
Not trying to be rude literally all of this was already covered on front page of website in prior posts so check them out
Dad is going to retire within 5 years (getting old). Told him there was a potential recession coming back in 2018 (He didn’t listen). Now his 401k went from 660k to 450k and he went into cash (sold at 2,400).
I told him to average back in if it goes a bit lower and do 50% gov bonds and 50% VOO.
I guess that is all he can do at this point?
That’s pretty much it yes, try to help him out get back up to $600 or so over the next few years
same lesson, never retire in a bull market