Making money in HS/College

[The Protagonist]

Hello there

I'm a senior in high school and I will be entering my first year of college next year. I would like to make some money, and the obvious answer would be to get a job, no? Well I probably could do so easily, but I don't want to. Reason being the average job that people my age work is usually in the mall and minimum wage. But if I recognize time as my most important variable, how is it justified stacking boxes for 5 hours a day to make $35? That's just boring and not challenging not to mention that you make only $35..

I have skills and I'm fairly intelligent so I'm looking for a way to harness that to make money.

Here's a brief outline of my skills:

-Scored 1440/1600 on my SATs
-IQ is 133
-I'm a pretty fast learner at most things, especially when I'm motivated, and nothing motivates like the dollar
-I know a ton of things about computers, built my own
-Know a lot about bodybuilding and nutrition

I know it's a meager list, but I am always willing to learn, I have that 'whatever it takes I'll do it' attitude. I have currently saved up $5,000 and I was thinking of playing around with the stock market to make some money, I'm in it for the quick gains right now. A friend of mine bought DivX stock at $18 and now its at $25, he has a few hundred shares and he made a killing. Good for him of course, I was thinking of doing that, would have to learn the ropes of it through a simulation first of course ... If any of you cool people have any tips for me that would be greatly appreciated..

thanks

A.D.

[DustinBow]

Howdy,

You sound a lot like me when I was your age... haha makes me sound old. I'm 25 and I can certainly understand where you're coming from. In fact I had almost identical stats.

My suggestion: The Internet is a very useful tool for making money. Information is valuable. You said you have a very specific niche related knowledge base... you should begin marketing online with that.

You can start by doing some affiliate marketing for programs that have established info products and work your way up from there.

Its much less risky than the stock market and you'll have the potential to earn as much as you want.

I've posted a few times about it at my blog: MarketingOrange.com

Dustin

[thadroe]

Originally Posted by The Protagonist

I know it's a meager list, but I am always willing to learn, I have that 'whatever it takes I'll do it' attitude. I have currently saved up $5,000 and I was thinking of playing around with the stock market to make some money, I'm in it for the quick gains right now. A friend of mine bought DivX stock at $18 and now its at $25, he has a few hundred shares and he made a killing. Good for him of course, I was thinking of doing that, would have to learn the ropes of it through a simulation first of course ... If any of you cool people have any tips for me that would be greatly appreciated..

thanks

A.D.

Hi AD,

I'd just be cautious doing this...I just say that from experience. I had the same plan in college...had about 10K at the time...I did well for a while, got a big head, then had my ass handed to me on a couple bad trades. I've been a broker for 11 years now and rarely see anyone consistently make good money trading on a short term basis.

Maybe try to do something with your bodybuilding/health interest. There are a ton of ways to monetize something like that online.

Thad

[KarlN]

Hi A.D,

you have a lot of advantages, the way I see it. You are young, proficent with computers and internet, you most likely have no real "need" of making enough money to support yourself and don't have any family yet.

I will give you two pieces of advice, pay special attention to the first.

The most valuable thing you can do for your future is to start a business that will have something, anything to do with what you will be studying. If you want to study engineering, start a business making rapid-prototyping models for companies (you just take their order and place it somewhere else). If you want to study english, start a business selling dictionaries or a course for foreigners who want to learn english.

The second point is: Keep your service simple! You only want a toe into the water, to see where you can make money in that field. Your service will change a lot over the first few months, and somewhere along the way you will hit a gold ore; a place where you have your own market with great profits.

The first part here is a no-brainer, but the second: just trust me! You're an intelligent guy, just keep switching your services around and asking your customers along the way. They will tell you what product or service they are looking for. It took me about three-four months of making $20 a month to find that service, but then my income jumped to $1000 a month with about 30 hours work a month.

Quick note on making money on the internet: It is slow! It rarely pays off, and at that it doesn't pay off very good. Blogs make no money, and calling it passive income is ridiculous. Passive income is having three people working for you, you just checking in every few days to see if everything is doing alright.

Regards,
Karl

[RT Wolf]

Originally Posted by The Protagonist

-I'm a pretty fast learner at most things, especially when I'm motivated, and nothing motivates like the dollar

Until you got that dollar. I would highly suggest learning the basics of economics if you don't know it already, but acquiring money becomes a matter of diminishing marginal returns. More info here:

Diminishing returns - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Still, I can sympathize, so good luck!

[The Protagonist]

Thank You for your well written replies

I would like to add, what I want is around $1,000 + a month in income. I am seriously looking at the stock market, and plan on doing a simulation as Investopedia and learning the ropes. Also teaching my self to read charts, I know a guy who is 21 and making a few million a year with hedge funds (manager) because he is an ace with charts.

I understand your statement, KarlN, on how blogs are slow money. Very true, Steve Pavlina, Tucker Max, Arianna Huffington are up there because their blogs have tons of value, and ATM I really don't see anything I can write about that hasn't already been said. Plus I would not like the notion of writing long articles on a daily basis.

btw what do you do that earns you about $1,000 a month, because that is what I'm shooting for.

[RT Wolf]

^ Just so you know, reading charts isn't the only way to make money in the stock market. Consider looking into value investing, as well, even if it's a cursory glance. Also look into other strategies people employ on the stock market, because you never know when a good idea will pop up.

[KarlN]

I sell printed sweatshirts to schools. I supply exactly the same service as 10 other companies, but we print beautiful catalogues, have a lot of products they don't offer, and we hire professional design people to make the logos for the schools.

See if you can start something like that for yourself. It is very easy, you're just the middle man in ordering and sorting things out.

[daisygrl]

I didn't make much money in college either so I was forced to take out student loans to fund my education. I hope I can get a good paying job to pay off my debt as I want to purchase a home soon.