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Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

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Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#41

Post by jackowayed »

I know it's risky, but I wouldn't count out the stock market.

With the whole financial meltdown, the stock market tanked, and there was no doubt they'd go back up. A year ago, even though I was 15, only had a grand or so, and needed the money a year and a half from then for college, I considered the stock market because I knew they were going to shoot back up (and they did).

So if it were a year ago, I would be screaming stock market at you. But now the Dow is back over 10k, so I see it as a much more risky move. That seems pretty high considering the current state of the economy.

But if you see it fall back down toward 8k, I would buy, as one can be pretty certain that it will be back around 10k sometime in the next 2 years. Also, right now, interest rates are in the toilet, but stock dividends from most companies are actually paying decent rates.

Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#42

Post by jackowayed »

petervandijck wrote: post #40

The internet thing to do would be to make a member-only site where you teach people everything you know about making money on the appstore, and charge 97$/m subscription. Run that for a year or two, then sell it.

At first that sounds crazy (run a get-rich-quick scheme, and that will get you rich quick!), but that's actually a pretty good idea.

Assuming you can pinpoint some of the secrets to your success (or, more importantly, things that sound like they will help people succeed), you can write a book, start a subscription website, etc selling those tips. Saying "I'm making $24k from a wide variety of apps, and it's just me in my free time" is a pretty good selling point.

Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#43

Post by sreitshamer »

Invest in yourself! Working for yourself can make you a lot happier. Since your living costs are low you're in a great position to build a business using that cash.

EDIT: Plus by starting a company you'll immediately promote yourself to CEO. If you ever get a job again in the future, it'll be at a higher level, more pay, etc.

Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#44

Post by cellis »

Mz wrote: post #36
cellis wrote: post #18

I once read "Never give financial advice for free: if it is good advice, you won't get credit, and if it is bad advice -- you'll get the blame". You should consider why anyone here would give you advice on how to turn xx,xxx into millions quickly. HN is full of smart people who are fully capable of getting their hands on that much in vc/other leverage and doing it themselves. Any advice they give you, from a purely c…

If anyone knew of a way to turn 24k into millions, why would they say how to do it for free? Because people are social creatures and often take great pleasure in talking about something they know a lot about and may have difficulty finding many people that really want to listen/discuss it. Besides, as gets stated here often, a great idea isn't worth much. You still have to put in the time and effort to get any payoff…

Someone smart enough to create a black box (which a million dollar business never turns out to be) that takes input of 24,000 and returns as output 2.4 million is not going to give it away at a marginal cost.

He's asking, in essence, how to get rich quick. If i have a grq idea, i'm either already doing it and getting rich, or planning on doing it (raising capital, finding co-founders, et al).

Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#45

Post by rsheridan6 »

What you're looking for is a get rich quick scheme, but you're not going to find one here (not a legit one, anyway).

Here's an idea: have your cousin in the Illinois state legislature throw you some lucrative contracts. That's the kind of get rich quick scheme that works. Don't have a cousin in the Illinois state legislature? Then you'll have to do something that requires more time investment if you want both a reasonable chance of success and a high, rapid ROI.

Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#46

Post by dkersten »

noodle wrote: post #37
icey wrote: post #5

First, congratulations; that's a pretty impressive feat on the app store. Have you thought about taking some of the income and using it to hire other developers to increase the number of apps that you've got being developed at once? It seems like you know what works and doesn't work on the app store, so it would probably make sense to start trying to make your efforts scale up.

i echo the congrats and everything else icey says, basically. things that i would add: - consider just sitting on (some/most of) the money for a while. you don't need to make a big hasty plan and execute just because you have some cash to spend right now. thats not to say do nothing. just don't throw all your resources at something immediately just because you have the resources to burn. - diversify. as you said, the…

Perhaps port to other smart phones, like the Nokia n900 or Android phones. I Don't know if this is worthwhile, but perhaps worth keeping an eye on.

Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#49

Post by bioweek »

petewailes wrote: post #24

Build a business using it. Pithy version: 1. Look for a niche that hang around online, but don't know much about web stuff. Mumsy things, crafts... anything that's a tightly knit niche 2. Find their forums/blogs etc, and ask them what would make their lives easier? What would be the one thing that would be awesome that they want. 3. Build it. Possibly hire people to help you 4. Have a free, lightly crippled version (…

I'd love to try your advice but I've never been able to find such a niche. Everytime I try to think of one, I get "niche block". Any ideas?

Re: Ask HN: I made $24k over the last month. Now what?

#50

Post by jeromec »

I think the answer heavily depends on how confident you are in yourself. Do you feel your success was a fluke, or could you mimic it with something else? Having 24K in capital is great, but if you know anything about the tech startup space you'll know it's no sure ticket to riches. You need to board a train that can take you higher, and that either means something you do yourself or tagging along with someone else. Both are uncertain roads, so my best advice is to research and weigh your decisions carefully. You might come back and ask HN a 'Should I invest money in this?' question.
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