Average Investor

I feel like I have meditating all wrong for quite awhile. But it has helped for what I have done. I started studying some kriya yoga today and I am pretty excited about this. It sounds really interesting and I am going to see what it has to offer. But just the meditation suggestions seem to be well worth it from what I am checked out so far. I am going to try a kryia practice tomorrow and see how that goes too. Really working on optimizing my business as much as I can. I really need to leverage my time to make anything worthwhile it seems. This is likely the best opportunity in my life to get started with that as my living expenses are at least decent. I do worry a bit about losing health insurance possibly, but I will see how it goes. Funny enough though I could just invest back into the business to avoid that from awhile even if I hit the point. To be fair there is always some more to invest in. Not like I really need the cash personally, but it is nice to have a rainy day fund. I see the importance of sticking to my goal. I need to keep at it and keep improving. I want to do this because I enjoy it though and see value in helping others. The reselling part is going to be to make money, but I enjoy that too. I just think there is aspects to it that are not fully where I want to be at. But I do admit that I enjoy a good chunk of it. Today I am thankful for New reading material Relaxation day Positive thoughts

@montecristo You are right about that. I bought some boeing stock under $100 and figured when it was sitting around $180 it would be worth selling as it had too much continuous gains in a short period. I was right, but I also did not do anything because I liked the price point of my position. I am using vanguard and it would bring some fees to trade in my roth ira. But I think for tax reasons I would want to do it there. I am not really interested in making a regular income, but more so a long term income of dividends. I will try to add some extras to trade with in there and see how it goes! I will look into the fees a bit more and see what I am getting into.

@montecristo I thought about trading a before. I am not sure how much I would be all that into it. I do like investing a bit though, but I mostly just do long term stuff. It takes a lot of time to sit there and watch the news and all of that. But I do see how it can be really profitable though and enjoyable. I spent a lot of time researching and doing the news around the covid-19 for awhile. I don't think I could live like that daily though haha.

@supremeyingyang I currently just sell on eBay and Facebook marketplace. I halted Facebook sales for now though. Which kind of sucks because I actually bring in pretty good money locally. I just sell big lots of dvds lol. Both are really good platforms to sell on. I would like to cross post to mercari though too. Possibly a few others. I have an amazon account, but have not bothered to sell there yet. Most of the stuff I sell I don't really have a chance to be ungated on amazon to sell. That is a lot of stuff at once. While I admit I am guilty of running a bit of stuff at once it sounds like you already do the coding for the software development? If so and you want to do coding I would honestly just go right to that. But that is totally up to you. Investing is good in general. If you can make money while you sleep you are going to get much further financially. A business brings in the most money the fastest usually though and you can control it, so keep that in mind while investing. You can totally get some stuff cheap. You could even buy stuff from people on eBay cheap now and resell it. I bought myself a book that typically goes for $30+ for $19.5 for personal use. But before this I would not even of had a chance. The only one left of that same book for sale is $37. I could resale that because shipping is like $3 media mail. But I actually want the book. That and if you have really good knowledge of certain items you can favorite search results. Let's say if you realize people list lots of stuff without knowing much about it using certain phrases. Let's say a lot of toys. The seller may not be aware of individual values on those toys and could sell them really cheap and that is a good way to pick up lots. Or some people will buy from ebay, then sell it on amazon or the opposite because there is quite a price gap sometimes. Just something to keep in mind for a way you can do at home.

Been overloading myself a little bit. I definitely need to take care of myself well and make sure I am more recharged. I seem to get sick kind of often and I wonder if I am not exposed to enough germs or something. Now I have to say that I seem to recover fairly rapidly it seems like. I felt like garbage for like 24 hours and now I seem to be fine. So not really sure what he deal is with that. But I assume I caught some illness or maybe food poisoning briefly. I feel like I pressure myself too much to meet deadlines with the amount of time and energy I put into something. I need to relax a bit. Not stop what I am working towards, but it is really not the end of the world if I go a little slower on something or can't get to it. Of course I want to aim to reach my goals and work towards them as best I can though. Even with the journal entries sometimes it feels like I am just pumping out a habit just because. I really want to maximize the best use of this and not just do it to make it another check on the list. It feels like two days in a week is not enough time for me to produce a video at that. I am not really sure what I want to do. Of course I will become more efficient and better as I go though too. I just try to add to much new stuff and spend a lot of hours on something new to add to it. I see the value in it though, so I will keep at it even if I don't hit every dead line or get it right for awhile. Really liking my new book. I am excited to read it. I am really happy to have access to such good books. That is one of my favorite things to do anymore it seems like. There is so much good stuff to extract from a book. Each book seems to add this \change to my reality. Even if there is just a lesson or practice from each one that sticks it starts to add up. I think this is probably one of the most valuable things I am doing with my time. Today I am thankful for Not having covid-19 Awesome book Allowing myself time to grow and learn

Luck is really defined by the amount of opportunities that you take. The more you increase them, then you will likely get better results. I would recommend working on your speaking skills, attire, and resume. Also, start to follow up on your applications as well. By that I mean by actually going in and talking to the manager about you application a few times, even if they just blow you off. I should also mention that a lot of stuff is probably not going to be hiring as much during the pandemic aside from stuff like Amazon, grocery stores, etc.

You're killing it man! I am so happy to see how far this has come. It has really turned into something excellent already. I know you can position yourself to move higher up in that industry. Just keep your head down and keep refining your skills.

I spent 80 hours a week for awhile to really get this off the ground. But I wanted it to be my income so bad that I was willing to do anything for it. But it is a lot of work for sure. It depends how much you enjoy it to be honest. I get inspired to do it and feel good doing it a lot of the time. Plus I really enjoy going out and looking for items. That is by far my favorite part.

@supremeyingyang What I do to avoid that is try to have a lot of items in the store. So I will generally be able to cover my expenses just from shipping stuff for awhile and it kicks me into gear more if it slows down. But having a big variety of items and a lot of them can help. It all depends on what business model works best for you. I like doing that and have a good mix of cheap and more expensive items. It really helps my store stay more active throughout the year too. If you just sold clothes for example there are seasons that are poor for them and times where only certain ones do well. But that is not to say that just having a couple niches is bad either if you are really good at them. To be fair I do take offers on items often. But I make a profit on them regardless. I don't always have to get the most recent sold. I am taking some offers on stuff I just listed, but not much off the asking. Just moving products as I am uncertain what the next few months could hold. Rather have a good surplus of cash coming in now. Not to mention a lot of the items that are selling are a bit harder to move. Which I assume is the result of amazon slowing down their non essentials and some larger business competitors in the same field have closed up shop for the time being. So now is a good time for me to move those expensive music cds, dvds, etc. A lot of the time when I buy stuff I will have an item that pays for all of it and the rest can kind of just sell for whatever really. That usually results in me having a big pile of stuff laying around though lol. But I do get to it gradually. I just sell the one most expensive item from that group. Learning the most about shipping is really going to be in your favor. That is one of the biggest expenses and you can cut it down dramatically by investing time into learning more about the options you have. Of course if you can find better items and stuff, then that is good. But for example I have made some really big sales on large speakers. People practically give away high end speakers, when they move and stuff in the summer because they are hard to sell or most assume the don't have value. I can take those and I will ship 100lbs packages to people and make hundreds for just a few hours of work. But that is something that most will not do, so I can easily pick those kind of items up having my knowledge of shipping.

@kellyon What kind of industry are you in? What platform are you trying to bring clients to?

@supremeyingyang I really like garage sales the most. But thrift stores are good too especially if you frequent one enough. There is really no limit to the categories you can enter. That is why I sell such a broad range of stuff. It is good to specialize in probably like 3 areas though. But the more you do it and the more you go you will start to pick up on it more. Always try to buy new old stock stuff. You could find something like a old windows 7 copy for example new and that would sell well. I have sold those for $90 within the last year. Don't be afraid to take some risks sometimes. That is really what has made me improve the most. You get burnt on something, then you will likely not make that mistake again. You will also learn a lot in the process. I usually do that by buying things in big quantities that I want to learn about for a low price. You can do storage units or buy bulk wholesale stuff. I have a guy that will deliver 4000 dvds to my house all at once. You can make connection like that with all sorts of categories like books, cds, etc. A lot of it comes down to knowing more though and getting more practice. I can get so many items now that I have a hard time selling them all. I have got a lot of stuff at thrift stores, but I really do favor garage sales much more. Lot better deals usually and a you can barter. Are you in the US? Edit: Are you looking to buy while in lock down or just in general? I should have asked that lol.

Over 80 items listed in 3 days. That is really good considering yesterday was a bit of wash with how much time I spent setting it all up to be more efficient. Although, it was really worth it. I am going to get myself to set up a system to cross post next week though. I think I have mastered ebay enough at this point and I need to make sure that I have more traffic coming in. Not only that if something happens to ebay or something, then it would not be good. Granted I had been using local sales to offset that it is not the case anymore. I am going to make sure that I am on top of that. I am going to finish making my facebook page and all of my branding stuff too. I am excited about that. I am going to work on doing some green screen stuff tomorrow. Then doing some toast masters at night. It is going to be really fun I think. It will be really good practice for what is to come. I have some really cool stuff I am working on and I am excited to see how it goes. I am really starting to improve. I have been working my ass off in all areas I feel like. But I love all of the stuff I am doing. It makes hard to even find time to post on here it seems like sometimes just from that. I am really happy to have all of this good stuff in my life. I am really glad I bought the stocks when I did. I wish I had more capital to fund them. But I am going to keep adding what I can while it is in a bear market. I am really lucky to have the opportunity to do this. I have wanted to have stocks for so long, but they have always been too expensive since I had any interest. I think now more than ever it shows how important crypto currency is too. Having a trillion dollars just pumped into the economy is not a good way to keep solving problems and inflates stuff. Shows how much we work for something that is just created out of thin air that we place value on. Today I am thankful for Enjoying my work! Grinding out a lot of items! Health and wellness

@Anna1 Yeah, it is a tough one. It has taken me over 2 years of constant dedication. I went from someone who ate taco bell all the time to eliminating meat, added sugar, dairy, oil, processed food, frozen foods (besides fruit), etc. I don't think everyone needs to go that in depth. To be fair I could have never seen myself doing that in the past, so it really is possible. Takes patience though. Your taste buds also adjust after about 3 months. So fruits and vegetables taste really good now. I even make my own sauces and stuff too. I have to admit I invest probably about 1-2 hours into making food a day, so that is an extra drain if you don't have the time. There is a good balance for everyone though. I also eat nearly the same thing daily, but with making my own sauce and stuff it changes. The smoothie always has a variety of different fruits and other things added. I have a big mix of vegetables that go in, so not really a lack of stuff. The most helpful thing I did for improvement was just working on doing one meal and making that as best I could. I started with just the smoothie and that progressively spilled into all the other things I ate. I eat a lot of different nuts throughout the day too. Nuts are an incredible food source and require no prep time. Yeah, I am not sure what can even be done with stuff like that. It's really a shame how it works like that. In the future I will have a bit of stock pile I think from now on lol.

@Anna1 Yeah, I agree with you lol. I got irritated because I am eating sauerkraut with regular water and not purified water lmao. So my problems sound pretty superficial. I had just made a big effort to remove all that kind of stuff and I had a whole bunch of them stored that were with regular water I was not eating. They were $1, so I bought like 20 or so at the time haha. So I lucked out with that. I had been trying to eat only organic too, but that is not fully the case. It is what it is. I am happy to just be able to eat and if I have to eat stuff I eliminated to survive, then I would. I assume there is plenty enough for everyone. But because there is fear and panic, then everyone has to buy it all up. Which ironically just makes people have to go to the store more.

@Anna1I had to pay $10 for the delivery and they forgot an item I seemed to get charged for. I found around 4pm to be a good time to go when I did. Because they would restock for people getting off of work. Good luck to you too! I had seen costco does online orders if you are a member. I am going to try to get some cashews coming in if they have them lol.

@Preety_India I am sorry to hear that. That's pretty rough. I am a strict eater and that would drive me nuts. I am lucky that I have as much as I do. If I aim to buy more expensive items, then they are usually in stock. But that is not ideal.

I still go for a run, but don't really get all that close to people. It is outside, so I don't assume it is as risky there. Not to mention I jog past them typically. Try to go earlier and when it is raining. When it is both of those I hardly see anyone lol.

@Preety_India I bet your sales are doing well on that stuff right now! Especially more "emergency" geared kind of stuff. I have been listing mostly music cds and dvds right now. Mostly because I have a bunch to get through that I already pulled. Most are long tail kind of items. But I do find dvds worth $30-40 sometimes and I have found a few $50 music cds. Trying to get over the 1000 listings while they have the free ones for a month. At 770 right now and listed 70 over the last 3 days. Workout dvds are doing well right now. Going to be doing larger items next week though. Have some big electronics etc.

@Anna1 Yeah, a lot of it is way overblown. I was pretty lucky on a few items. I eat quinoa for dinner every day. So I am not sure what I am going to do when I run out and there might not be any lol. I am going to probably just start cooking some more beans with it and cut my use. I have maybe a month or so. I drink a smoothie everyday and don't have much issues getting the ingredients. I have just been doing house delivery on items now. I put all the fruits and veggies through apple cider vinegar, then wash off with water. I add a bit of the apple cider vinegar to the smoothie as well. No issues so far, but who knows really. I figure they are not going to run out of organic stuff because it would go bad too fast lol.

@Anna1 Yeah, I think the media has had a big problem with getting people scared about it. Not that it is not a serious issue, but more in the fact that they just get people to panic. People do a lot riskier and unhealthy things all the time. Granted the elder population I can understand being more concerned. I am coming more to terms with just dying whenever I do and if I decide I like it or not it will happen. So I am just going on about my business. Of course still being mindful of the danger of it. Good for you on not being scared of it. I would not want to be around the rush of it all if it got super busy. I think we really lucked out in the US in regards to the rate of spreading. My town literally has 3 cases.

@Anna1 Yeah, I have fedex and usps pick it up right off the porch! I am very lucky that I can still do this currently. Since you are in the medical field I imagine things are crazy?

@supremeyingyang I make a living doing it. I sell locally too, but not doing any of that right now. The income will vary really. How much I am listing, time of year, etc. I do it as a main thing, but only spend a few days a week on it right now. I don't earn any crazy amounts of income. Enough to live though. If I just did this, then I would make much more. But that does not bother me too much. I sell everything really. I specialize in things like video games, electronics, collectibles, Dvds, and music CDs. I sell really everything though. If you want any help, then I would be happy to help. I know quite a bit around the whole thing. I would like to expand onto more platforms soon. Aiming mostly to hit 1000 listings within the next month.

Doing really well with my online toast masters. This is going to be great practice for making videos. I did my icebreaker in both groups so far. It is kind of nice doing it online for a bit. It is still helping me keep my sleeping schedule around too. I think that is going to be one of the most worthwhile habits that I have. Working on getting a lot of stuff listed for sale. I am really going to ramp up my online sales. I do need to keep working towards cross listing though probably to try to bring in more sales. I want to keep working on making this as efficient as possible. Once I have a lot more of the ground work done for that this should be seamless. Got a scanner set up for small item pictures and is amazing. Switched to some new photo viewing software that really helped too. Really want to aim to get the business a lot more profitable and efficient. I think that I can do a lot of improvements still. I do want to gear it more and more towards hiring. But if I perfect the process I would really get the most for my money too. I just feel so lucky for how things have been going lately. I am so lucky to enjoy the work that I do. Today I am thankful for Doing well on my speech and improving Getting tasks done that I did not want to do Having a great life

Ooops accidentally posted here instead of journal.

@Identity Thank you. I have been doing this for a bit and can guide someone well for sure. I've been really nerding out on stocks right now. I think investing in those over the next several months is going to be really good for me in the future. I have been wanting to buy stocks, but thought they have been too expensive for quite awhile. I think there is some big opportunities there. I need to keep my income flow doing well to contribute to that more though. I have to admit I sold an emergency water storage for almost $180 today. It is not an item prohibited from being marked up and that was the going rate (some actually sold for $250). Trying to stay away from most of that stuff though. But if someone has other survival gear like a swiss army knife for example is selling well right now. I don't want to be the guy taking stuff from people in dire need or anything like that. I actually had the water thing before this was a big deal and forgot to list it. It just goes into someones tub and holds 100 gallons. I will put it more in perspective of the customer though of what they may want and see what else I can do. I honestly have so much crap to sell at this rate I need to do that mostly lol.