David Makes Cents .com

On my main page I’m pretty sure I said something about the fact that I had planned to show all my readers what I am doing to make money. So far I haven’t been doing that. Well I am not going to make it up to you (sorry), but I do plan to start telling a little more about my investing strategies I use to make a few extra dollars.

Economy

Right now the economy is sort of on the fritz. Things are jumping up and down from day to day based on daily news and such. For the people with a little extra cash to play around with, this is the perfect time to make a little extra cash. My brother started doing this before I did. He has had some good success with it so I have been trying it out too.

So what am I doing?

I am investing in gold. The main strategy may sound overly simplistic, but it is. I buy low and sell high. I wait for gold to dip down for a few days then I jump in. Usually within 1-3 weeks it will go back up and I will sell. The market is pretty volatile so it has been yo-yo-ing around like this for a while. Here is a 30 day chart of the price of gold.

Where to buy it:

Personally I buy from kitco. They seem to be the leader in tracking precious metals and they are a pretty safe place to buy and sell from. What I use are their “pool” accounts. This means that I am buying gold, but I don’t have to go through the hassle of shipping it to my house then shipping it back out when I am ready to sell (usually less than a month). With this type of account, you can buy and sell anytime, in real time.

When to sell:

This whole strategy might not be for you if you would freak out if you lost a few percentage points on your investment. Like I said, it is risky because the market is volatile. But with great risk comes great reward. The main reason I feel now is a good time to invest in gold is since the economy is doing poorly. This should drive up the price of gold (and already has). Once I think the economy is starting to turn to the good side, I will be out (like a fat kid in dodgeball). This is because the price of gold could go down and not come back up and then I would just be out of luck. I feel like I will be able to keep on playing the dips for at least a year though. I always keep up with financial news though. This way I get a general idea of how the market is doing.

How I have done so far

Well this was my first time doing it so I don’t have a lot of impressive results. But so far I am up about 3% over the last two days. Not a bad rate of return, but I have not sold yet so this return isn’t really locked in yet. It could go back down. I have only bought 6 oz. of gold which is a lot of money, somewhere around $5k. I will keep you posted on how I am doing on my investment later.

Filed under: Economy, Investing, Uncategorized by David - 6 Comments →

Sorry I haven’t been updating my site lately. I have had many tests in my classes recently and I have been working on them before I work on this blog. Sorry but I have to have priorities. I’ll probably stop posting around the end of this month too because finals are right around the corner and I will need to study like crazy for those.

Up 0.697%

Ouch, this isn’t nearly as good as I would like it to be. I need to find some more income sources. I didn’t even earn 1% return on my money for the month and this accounts for me working at my job too. Currently I am brainstorming new ideas to make money. Also I am trying to invest more of my money, but it is hard since the economy is doing poorly, my options are limited.

Sources of Income:

Job: $283

Prosper: $24.30

Adsense: $8.03

Gold: -$150

I did increase my income a lot from last month although I still don’t earn very much at all. I picked up a few extra hours at work which helped increase my earnings a little. Also I put some money into gold. I bought on a dip and was planning on letting it go back over $1,000 before I sold. Unfortunately yesterday it dropped some more and I lost about $50 per oz. I had bought 3. When the market dropped what do u think I did? Sold? Wrong, I bought some more. Today it is already up 2% and I made around $60 on my new purchase. The market hasn’t even closed yet so I am not including today’s markup as gold can be pretty volatile. I felt like it was a pretty good investment so when it dropped, I didn’t run away, I bought more. This is the most basic tip for investing: Buy low, sell high.

Prosper has still been doing well for me. Still no defaults, I am keeping my fingers crossed that everyone I have lent to will continue to pay up. I am almost earning a $1 a day on my $2,000 investment. I am a little skeptical to add more to the account because the economy is weak and if anyone I am lending to loses their job, they could have a hard time finding more work and paying me back.

Accounts

Roth IRA: $8,628

Bank: $10,817

Gold: $2,709

Prosper: $2,032

I figured it would be a good idea for me to start tracking my accounts as well that way when I look back I can tell where I made my money, not just how much I made for the month. I figure more data can’t hurt. Maybe next month I will also track what percentages each month changed. If I am really ambitious, I could even start a spreadsheet that way it easily crunches the numbers for me.

If anyone has any decent income ideas for me to try out. I would be glad to hear them. Over the summer I should have sufficient free time to try new things out. This is only a month away and I would like to figure what I am doing soon(besides the 40hrs a week). So I will keep on brainstorming and get back to you.

Filed under: Monthly Goal Update, Uncategorized by David - No Comments →