Before I get started, let me get one thing straight. This blog post is going to be misunderstood, I already know that. By no means am I trying to tell you to hang out with rich people just for their money, hang out with them because you truly see them as friends.
For a moment, think about your 5 closet friends. Take each of their salaries and add them up. Now divide that figure by 5.
That final number is going to be roughly how much money you’ll make each year. And if you are happy with that amount, that’s great… you can save yourself the trouble and stop reading this blog post.
But if you aren’t happy with your income, the best thing you can do is to start hanging out with richer people. And no, I don’t mean you should ditch your broke friends, but you should also make new friends who are more ambitious.
Here are some of the ways I was able to make money in 2009 by hanging out with successful people.
20% monthly returns in the stock market
Lets face it, making money in the stock market isn’t easy. For every success story there are thousands of failure stories.
At the beginning of the year a friend of mine, Andrew Warner, introduced me to Timothy Sykes. Tim is well known for trading penny stocks and although many people think he is a scam artist, he is actually helping the Average Joe make a lot of money.
A few months ago Tim came to visit me in Seattle. We hung out, I gave him some marketing advice and he proposed that I open up a $50,000 stock market account with Interactive Brokers. I did so and with the advice I got from Tim Alerts, I have been able to make roughly 15 to 20% returns on a monthly basis.
Investment opportunities
I have been presented with 13 serious investment opportunities this year and I have invested in 5 of them. All of these opportunities came from wealthy friends of mine. If I was not friends with them, I would have never been offered any of these opportunities.
Now granted, I can lose money in any of those investments, but so far all of them are looking good.
For example, one of them is a 296 unit apartment complex in Washington. I haven’t seen it and I don’t know much about real estate, but I am currently getting a 10% return on my money each year (hopefully it continues) and eventually when the complex sells I should get a 2x return on my investment.
Easy access to cash
I love buying distressed companies. They usually sell for less than what they are really worth and if you hold onto them for a few years you can make a decent return on your investment.
Over the course of the year I tried to buy a few distressed companies, but most of them didn’t go through.
Luckily enough, I had the opportunity to buy one in the 6 figure range, but I didn’t want to take on all of the risk. So I hit up one of my friends and he pulled together the majority of the money within a few days.
Free shares in successful startups
Well technically nothing is free, but a lot of my friends have been investing in startups for years. Although all of them won’t do well, a good portion of their companies are doing well.
Whenever they think there is a good company I can provide value to, usually through my marketing efforts, they introduce me to them. And although I may not be able to help all of the companies they introduce me to, I tend to join on as an advisor to the ones I can help.
As an advisor I usually give these companies advice whenever they ask me for it and in return I get shares in their company. Luckily for me, advising a handful of companies isn’t too time consuming, yet it allows me to have my hand in multiple cookie jars.
A wealth of advice
I don’t have a lot of money, so I can’t afford to lose it. And what you probably realize is that it is easier to lose money than it is to make it. And it isn’t through stupid things like gambling or ponzi schemes, but it is typically over business opportunities.
A dumb mistake can take you back to the days when you were broke and struggling. Luckily, my wealthy friends are smart and know the common mistakes that ignorant entrepreneurs like myself typically make.
Instead of them letting me make many of these mistakes, they try and stop me ahead of time. They are always watching out for my best interest… even when I don’t realize it.
Having friends like that is always valuable because once you make a bit of money, they’ll make sure that you don’t lose it and they’ll hopefully even help you make more money.
Conclusion
I know that this blog post may have sounded superficial, but everything I said it is true.
Don’t just go out there and force friendships with a ton of rich people because that won’t help you make more money. You have to build “real” friendships, which means that you need something in common with these people and more importantly you have to enjoy each others company.
Update: If you are having trouble meeting rich people, consider going to: local networking events, business seminars, conferences (you can volunteer and get in for free), country clubs, hotels or upscale bars, and the Internet (forums, websites, blogs, social networks).
