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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?

#121

Post by Skriticos »

lrm242 wrote: post #29

Hrm, I think you're forgetting about the most important money making tool available: compound growth. Let's assume the following: You invest your current 24,000 and each month you add 20,000 to your investment. Let's further assume that you can achieve an annual return of 3.5% and that return is evenly distributed over the year. In this scenario you'd end up with $520k after two years. You're half way to being a mill…

Remember, that's not inflation adjusted. It's a common banking advice though. (Not a stupid one).

As for your problem, do what most people say here: invest in the best asset you know: your business model. If you are very lazy, then just simply figure out how to let someone else do the work.

And I wonder if you meant that question seriously? The wording sounds awfully naive.

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

#122

Post by mechanical_fish »

nandemo wrote: post #111
mechanical_fish wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, listen to patio11. I do NOT want to invest in the stock market, or invest in anything long term like bonds or property. I want to somehow use the money to make more money quickly (within a 2 year time span). Excuse me if I'm too harsh, but you should spend some of the money on a membership in Gamblers' Anonymous. Because you talk like a bad gambler. The hallmark of bad gamblers is that, if ever they get ahead, t…

I disagree. Investing in the stock market is far from safe. Not even an index fund over a 30-year period; we don't know what will happen in the next 30 years.

I didn't say to invest solely in the stock market. Some in stock funds. Some in international stock funds. Some in bonds. Some in a bank savings account. It's called diversification for a reason. You can buy more than one Vanguard fund almost as easily as you can buy one.

Time to plug Bernstein again:

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfo...

What you don't want to do is spend all your time reading hysterical ravings on the Internet and then somehow conclude that it is actually safer to blow all your money at the track, or on some crazy scheme to "double your money in two years". I don't care how scary the stock market is: It is less scary than whatever you plan to do to double your money in two years.

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

#123

Post by kyro »

You have the method by which you can generate lots of money in a short period of time; you just proved that to us with that $24k. But you say your problem is the time and effort expended to create your apps, so I'd suggest you take a portion of your money to hire others, create more apps, and saturate the App Store. What's it to you if the App Store won't last forever? You want something quick, so exploit it while it's there.

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

#124

Post by jerf »

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.

The poster expressed the sentiment that the app store ecosystem is fragile and the income will end. If you believe that, investing in hiring more programmers for apps would be a move counter to your own beliefs.

Since I tend to agree with that assessment, I couldn't recommend doubling down on building apps.

There may be other good reasons to consider that, such as moving in another direction (consultancy, which raises the interesting question: is there a such thing as iPhone app consultancy?), but not for that reason alone.

Edit: Google says that there is such a thing. It strikes me as likely that would be more stable long term, and, potentially, even more lucrative.

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

#125

Post by jayliew »

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.

You have a revenue generator model that's proven and works.

Why not do more of it? Scale up?

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

#126

Post by Readmore »

gregcmartin wrote: post #11

Seriously what ericb said, milk the app store and advertise your apps online if you can, keep it going but the investment climate is lame everywhere. I am now in the same situation where I had 30k cash for the first time with no debt and I essentially put it in a safety deposit box at the bank so I won't spend it. If you look at money market, CD's etc, they all stink right now so just lock it up. If you have not boug…

Do not buy a house right now unless you really understand your local market and it's very different than the national average. Home prices are going to drop like a rock this Spring.

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

#127

Post by notauser »

nandemo wrote: post #111
mechanical_fish wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, listen to patio11. I do NOT want to invest in the stock market, or invest in anything long term like bonds or property. I want to somehow use the money to make more money quickly (within a 2 year time span). Excuse me if I'm too harsh, but you should spend some of the money on a membership in Gamblers' Anonymous. Because you talk like a bad gambler. The hallmark of bad gamblers is that, if ever they get ahead, t…

I disagree. Investing in the stock market is far from safe. Not even an index fund over a 30-year period; we don't know what will happen in the next 30 years.

Up to a point that's correct, but not substantially so.

Index funds are typically managed (for a very low fee) in such a way that they track the market. That means that to lose all your money the entire market has to completely collapse to $0, which hasn't yet happened and probably won't.

This is different from investing in a single company (or indeed in a house) - single company stocks have frequently reached $0, and houses can get caught up in natural disasters. Gold melts, paper money burns, people die, startups fail... but the weighted average of the market only suffers from a little bit of irrationality every now and again.

EDIT: It's also possible that the company managing the tracker could go bust and/or make a huge mistake. That did happened to one UK index fund and cost the participants about 10% of their accumulated capital. Spreading money around is the only way to limit your losses when the universe decides to hand you a truck full of bad luck.

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

#129

Post by icey »

jerf wrote: post #124
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.

The poster expressed the sentiment that the app store ecosystem is fragile and the income will end. If you believe that, investing in hiring more programmers for apps would be a move counter to your own beliefs. Since I tend to agree with that assessment, I couldn't recommend doubling down on building apps. There may be other good reasons to consider that, such as moving in another direction (consultancy, which raise…

Noodle had an excellent point about diversifying, so I won't go into that too much.

However, there is still a metric shit-ton of money to be made on the app store. I don't see people leaving it in droves immediately. He knows how to make money in this environment right now, so in my opinion he should spend at least some of the money he wants to invest on something he already knows how to do well.

I just don't see the wisdom in avoiding a marketplace you already know how to make money on; even if it has a chance of going away. Max has already proven that he is able to identify a market and take advantage of it once, who is to say he couldn't take advantage of the "next big thing"?

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

#130

Post by azf »

So, you'll probably get about $100k until the income is gone. If you keep working, you have 50-50 chance to keep going for a longer periods of time - most likely less than that.

There's no way to multiply that little money in just few years by investing it without jeopardizing it all. You won't even qualify as a professional investor as you don't have enough money for it, so your options would be limited anyway.

If I was you, I would try to milk the app store as long as it's good and network like crazy while doing so. Focus on quality, not quantity - find out the guys who actually get top-notch shit done. Get yourself known, you should be able to build some steady secondary income by telling how you did it and how iPhone apps should be done.

When your app store income is drying up, you should already have $100+k in the bank. Go through your network and find some other overachievers who are bootstrapping a startup with a solid business plan and who need your skills. Apply some of your capital as a seed money to get leverage. Work your ass off for a while. Profit. Retire or repeat.

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