(no subject)

[vicarz]

I don't understand the get rich quick scam. Any time you stay up too late, or get up too early, and click on the tv, you'll see the commercials for getting rich using some unspoken "system." Usually the system is buying real estate without spending any money, then flipping it for big bucks. That sounds possible, sure. It's just the whole insane idea of the commercial or seminar I don't understand...how do they miss it? Redneck Joe, let's visit the idea. Imagine you figure out a way to make insane money. You do, hoorah. Now what? What would you do? Party, tell people to fuck off, share the wealth, whatever you like - but I'll bet money what you won't do is: 1) design a program in writing for others to use, 2) spend money making a video to sell the program, 3) pay more money to play the video on late-night cable. I mean even if you were going to spread the wealth, wouldn't you do it for people you liked? Do you want people from other religions to learn your secret? How about your ex? How about the person who is banging you ex - for their $60-500 would you help them get rich quick? So I see how people fall for the scam, but how do they miss the obvious point that no one rich will 'sell their system' at great cost and effort?

Then again, I suppose the logic isn't that far off from having a stockbroker. It doesn't matter what you make or lose, he makes money by your activity alone. If Mr. StockGuy had the answers, he would be rich and sipping something on a beach next to Mr. ScamGuy. This is on my mind as I don't know what to do about stocks, and consider the motley fool. Tons of good-sounding advice, but...if they are so smart, why do they write articles for a web-page that is read by strangers?

Comments

[greatevil.livejournal.com]

shhh you'll let the secret out. I'm currently writing an infomercial... It's called "Send me you money" I think it will be a big hit.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

as long as it's also called "evangelism".

[greatevil.livejournal.com]

You told!!1

[railwaymadness]

I thought "design a program, make a video, play on late-night-cable" was the get rich quick scheme?

You're definitely better off with the get rich slowly scheme, though. You like having goals.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

If Mr. StockGuy had the answers, he would be rich and sipping something on a beach next to Mr. ScamGuy.

Perhaps you mean to say if you were Mr. StockGuy and had the answers, you would be sipping something on a beach next to Mr. ScamGuy.

Except, I suspect you'd get bored after a month or two.

Many people keep working after they've gotten rich. For some it's inertia. For others, they are sufficiently passionate about what they do that they couldn't conceive of not doing it for the rest of their lives. That's not to say that all stockbrokers are smart or honorable. But that they are out there. Look at Warren Buffet- he likes playing with huge sums of money. He gets off on it. And it spreads the risk around if it is primarily other people's money. *shrug*

An executive at a friend's employer called a meeting one day. The purpose of the meeting was to tell his employees that it turned out that he would be continuing to be their manager. Hurmmm? WTF? Well, it seems that he had been diagnosed the year prior with an agressive form of cancer and given a few months to live. He went to work every day for the next year, only mentioning the possibility of his death to his few direct reports.

If someone tapped you on the shoulder, and said 'hey you, you're going to die in three months', do you love your job enough that you'd keep going day after day? Or would you go off to a caribbean island and sip mai tais?

Mr ScamGuy, of course, is making lots of money. Off of video sales. Props to him.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Somebody wants a little of the smacky-smacky. I can tell.

Your points make sense. Of course I'd still do something if I was wealthy, and no matter how wealthy you are there is still something you want that is out of reach. If you have no purpose...well then you're ParisH.

Me, I like my job, but would not continue it if I won 10mil. I might do something for a non-profit, or just be a psycho gym geek. Or both.

Still, I would not help people get ahead that I did not know.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

Still, I would not help people get ahead that I did not know.

Really? You don't donate money to worthy causes? hrmmm....
http://www.livejournal.com/users/vicar/320826.html

It seems to me that consciously or no you subscribe to the theory of scarcity- that more for someone else automatically translates into less for you. This is not true at all.

If someone doesn't subscribe to the theory of scarcity, and moreover has an altruistic streak- then yes, it is entirely plausible that they would make their living by healping others get ahead. Even better if they make their living by gaining a percentage of what they earn for you. Its a hedge. They have to be good at what they do, or they get no income. But at the same time the money they manipulate on a daily basis is not their own, which means that they can have better perspective and not risk their own capital, just their income. It's like owning stocks *and* bonds.

Think of it as them being an agent. They have the contacts & knowledge, you have the talent. They're managing your talent (or cash, in this case) to make money for *both* of you.

Yes, it's possible to be a renaissance man and do everything from home remodelling to gourmet cooking to car repair to stock trading *yourself*, but its Very Difficult to attain the level of mastery that someone who devotes all their professional time to it has.

I outsource my dinners, and my cloth weaving, and fund management. Because I've found people who can do it better than I can, myself, for a price I'm willing to pay.

As for the smacking around, I thought you'd never offer!

[vicar.livejournal.com]

No fair using my own words and actions against me!

I don't believe that more for others means less for me - quite the contrary. If poverty was addressed much crime would similarly be reduced. Less bling would be wasted on risk factors created by crime and downtrodden neighborhoods.

Outsourcing to experts makes sense, but I don't think I want to pay for a prostitute! Things I can do myself...

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

Outsourcing to experts makes sense, but I don't think I want to pay for a prostitute! Things I can do myself...

I believe my quote was "for a price I'm willing to pay". Re: prostitutes, well... just because wendy's has staggering volume doesn't mean that they can cook a decent hamburger. Or that I want to pay them for it.

However you might one day decide to financially support some person you'd like to keep in your bed on a long-term basis. Marriage: the ultimate sex-for-security scam.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

"Prostitution is legal, the only part that makes it illegal is the term of the contract." Very nice comparison to staggering volume.

Now as for financially supporting someone - unlikely. I am totally creeped out by the idea of one of a partner's considerations being that I am a meal-ticket. I greatly prefer people who are in or above my income bracket for that reason, except for people like teachers who instead of expectedly non-lucrative careers that are respectable. Hell, I'm only in law school so I can hook up with some lawyer and be a stay-at-home myself! Er...maybe not.

I don't trust myself to be able to see through someone's lies. Oh, and sex stops when you get married, right?

[wabmart.livejournal.com]

The infomercials are a hair's breadth above pyramid schemes. The *real* money's in Amway.

As for investments, I think there is a difference. I don't know all the ins and outs of various IRAs and mutual funds designed to grow my money at various rates (none of them "get rich quick", but faster than a bank's interest) and with various nice tax shelters like the Roth has. I don't know what to buy now to position myself for the real estate market in 5-10 years, the possible parenting expenses farther down the line, or the "golden years".

Bill Morgan (the point man for me with AmEx) does know the properties of the various AmEx products and how people have well- or ill-used them in the past. He's a salesman, really, only instead of a line of vacuums he's selling a line of investment plans. Does he know how to pick the stocks and such that make up the funds? No. The fund managers know that sort of thing. Do they have a "secret"? Maybe, maybe not. I can look at their past performance, though, and see how well they've made the choices in the past before I decide to put my money into their funds. Best of all, they know that if I don't feel they're performing up to snuff that I can take my money back -- they've got an incentive to do well, which the infomercial guys don't have.

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Funds have killed me, thats why my porfolio has only recently risen to -2.5%. The big money-maker for me has been CAT. Stocks rule because they pay dividends, while funds charge fees.

[wabmart.livejournal.com]

see? You can pull your money out of that fund, while the people who went to the seminar are out that cash and there's no penalty to the guy giving it to do a good job.

The details of investments are hazy to me at best. Generally, AmEx has done right by my parents and, so far, by me.

[turbogrrl.livejournal.com]

To follow up about AmEx, I have to say that their SPS (strategic portfolio service) accounts are really interesting: You can move your funds in and out of *any* of the funds that they can invest you in (which, as far as I can tell, included pretty much all of the funds from major players, including some otherwise closed funds) *with no penalty*. Yes, the fees are higher, but you don't get locked into any one fund for a minimum of time.

[translucent-eye.livejournal.com]

Hey...is all your investing outsourced, or do you do some of it yourself?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_blackjack_/]

Rrrr. Smash the state! Punk Rock! Boots! Hair dye...

[atrum-exsilium.livejournal.com]

hey bro, its M O N T Y again =) I am all stealthy now and shit

[vicar.livejournal.com]

Welcome back nigga~! Missed ya!