Ok, then you might try ‘psuedo-capital’ which is other people’s money. You either borrow it from them or you ask them to be co-investors. But if you’re going to go into OPM, you must know what you’re doing, have the training, license and track record. Working with OPM is no joke. Even the Government is going to breath down your neck.
I think that the OP is looking for sources for grants and other free money. Google on “grants” and see what you get.
Which country do you live in? I assume it’s not the US as I don’t see how you’d pay fifty percent in taxes in America.
BTW, didn’t you just answer your own OP?
From here, 39.6 is the top income tax rate.
From here, self-employment taxis 15.3%.
That adds up to 54.9%.
This assumes that the poster who said 50% is self-employed and earning a LOT, but yes, it (exceeding 50%) can be done.
To the OP: You note you’re not the best at controlling impulse buys / budgeting. To be brutally honest, there’s your problem right there. Reduce that and you’ll be in a lot better shape to save up for the future. Beyond that, the suggestions in the thread for ways of maximizing your income potential.
The long-term goal of having enough assets to live off of them is a dandy one, but short of a lottery win, it ain’t happening without some serious work NOW. Save up enough to get into stocks, become psychic (or just very lucky) to make sure those investments grow… Owning investment property is dandy but is a hell of a lot of work from what I’ve heard. And you still need to have enough cash to get into the game.
I started a business with about $75,000 in grant money and another $250,000 in tax credits specifically designed to be sold to generate cashflow. I also borrowed a lot more than that, and raised even more than that in a few private placement rounds.
Debt and equity are, in a corporate finance sense, exactly how to raise capital. But Gateway just wants to be rich, which isn’t the same as raising capital at all. You raise capital because you have something to invest it in - maybe a new business or real estate deal or an complex computerized investment strategy. You don’t raise capital so you can buy some shares of stock. The correct way to ask that question would be “how to I make some money so I can buy some stock?”
The answer to that hasn’t changed much for a long time:
Come up with a product or service for which other people are willing to pay you. If you’re trying to get ahead, this may mean doing something on evenings or weekends in addition to your day job. Make/sell widgets online. Write a very popular blog that attracts an audience, and put ads on your site that generate revenue. Buy large quantities of a product at bulk rates, then resell smaller quantities to individual customers at higher prices. I do all of these things and manage to supplement my day job income by 15-20 percent.
Apart from that, I think Mama Zappa is onto something:
Get better at managing your exisiting cash flows. Do this right now, so you can begin raising investable capital now instead of later; generating a return on your investment requires time, so if you want to maximize returns, you need to maximize the time.
One suggestion along these lines. I recommend that you participate in your employer’s 401(k) plan. One reason is that the money is taken out of your paycheck before you ever see it. Or have your bank automatically move money from checking to savings each month. It may sound silly but if you can’t see it, you can’t spend it.
There’s theft, fraud, and grifting. Having ethics may be somewhat problematic though. Have you ethics?
You’d be surprised how many people would consider smashing parking meters and taking the money “theft” while considering not paying what they owe in taxes as just “good business sense”.
Its surprising because the amount of damage and monetary loss over all is usually much less in the parking meter scenario than it is in the tax scenario.
This post is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation to buy and use baseball bats against parking meters…
If you plan to do this legaly I know of know other way to get started besides sacrifice and hard work. I lost everything at 40 years old, I had invested everything into leveraged property and in 1989 the market busted. I closed my business and for the next 15 years worked 2 and sometimes 3 jobs but I did put everything back together.
Do you mind me asking what type of business his was, and how you went about applying for these grants?
It was a technology company. We developed and manufactured consumer electronics products. Most of the grants came from one particular state created but locally managed grant program that just happened to be starting right when I wanted to start my business. I made my initial contact by crashing an event they were holding for local economic development folks and local politicians. After that they were pretty excited to have found me and worked with me closely to get an application written that they could approve. The other grants I found through connections I made along the way.
For those just getting started with investing, I strongly recommend investing clubs. The clubs usually have low costs to get started, and both of the ones I’ve been involved with require $30/month as a minimum investment. The group pools the money in a single brokerage account. Members suggest stocks and the group votes on what to buy and sell. Not only are you able to deal in bulk the way an individual probably couldn’t, but you learn quite a bit about investing through the interaction with other people. So, for example, my current group has about 150,000 in assets. My interest in the group is only about 4% of those assets and we have one lady who just joined who only owns 0.3%. But both of us can be part of a group that makes $10,000 stock transactions every week and our value in the group grows as the stocks that we own increase in value.
The OP should also look at interest-bearing checking accounts. Right now, quite a bit of my money is earning 3% in an account at Harborstone bank.
I don’t agree that the OP should work with an investing club. Instead I’d recommend that he/she invest in low-cost index funds through Vanguard or another fund family. Perhaps he/she might invest in the three-fund portfolio described here.
Originally Posted by Dewey Finn
Which country do you live in? I assume it’s not the US as I don’t see how you’d pay fifty percent in taxes in America
I live in Australia
[quote=“FAL01, post:35, topic:679343”]
Originally Posted by Dewey Finn
Which country do you live in? I assume it’s not the US as I don’t see how you’d pay fifty percent in taxes in America
I live in Australia
In that case, I can’t comment as I have no idea what the tax rates are in Australia. Still even if you were taxed at the fifty-percent rate on a second income, wouldn’t it still be worth it?
I was going to start by saying that a third way to raise capital is to sell some of your stuff (if you have any), but then I read this:
As a first step, I suggest that you invest about $12 in one or both of these books:
Debt-Free Forever: Take Control of Your Money and Your Life
All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan
It sounds like you don’t currently have debt, which is a great thing. You can skip the parts of these books about getting out of debt, and get right to budgeting, avoiding impulse spending, setting up an emergency fund, and having savings that you can use to invest. You’re not magically going to obtain enough money to get rich through passive income. But if you build the right foundation by learning how to manage your money, you can eventually have enough to make your investments work for you.
FYI, I had problems with impulse spending and living beyond my income, and with the help of the linked books, I was able to put myself on a budget that works, which has allowed me to substantially raise the amounts I am investing.
SS stops after 100k, and the top marginal rate only kicks in at 400k, so you wouldn’t ever have to pay both on a given dollar of income.
True, but some states like CA will hit you up for another 10% or more. So it’s definitely possible to be paying 50% in taxes as a US citizen if you define the terms broadly enough.