-[Attention Starving Artists]-

"Making money so you can make music"

What's the difference between a musician and two large cheese pizzas?  Two large cheese pizzas can feed a family of four.

     This is just a joke, but it brings up an important point for us aspiring musicians.  Making money with music is a very difficult thing.  I have developed this website to try and help change that for the shredding community, but I want every single one of you who come to this website to prosper, and that is not something I can accomplish on my own.

     The problem for many of us is that we are holding out for a miracle.  Our music is so cool that as soon as the record contract genie (the a&r dude) hears us he will sign us to a 7 album deal, we'll become millionaires, have hot chicks and hot cars, and live happily ever after.

     I held out for ten years on that dream.  I avoided taking any job that would get in the way of my music.  I refused to work on weekends so that I could play out with my band.  I avoided any job that required mandatory overtime for I did not want it cutting into my practice time.  As a result I ended up living in hard poverty for 10 years.  I watched my twenties come and go and the miracle contract never came.

     Turning 30 was a turning point for me.  I realized the only way I was going ever have this miracle life that I have been dreaming of was to create it myself.  When I was twenty I started looking for alternative ways of making money, and now, after over 11 years of research, I have come across information that not only is helping me, but I feel can help many of you as well.

     Let's look at a major dilemma we face as shredders.  To become truly proficient at your instrument it takes massive amounts of time devoted to practice, study, listening, and performing.  If you work a job that demands too much of your time you do not have enough time to devote to your art.  We all need to make a living, so what do we do?

     The answer to this problem is complex but I believe I can condense it down into one sentence.  You need to create streams of passive income through business ventures and investing.  So what is Passive income?  Passive income is income that you do not physically have to work for.  You buy a stock for $500 and 6 moths later it's worth $1000. (a capital gain)  That's passive income.  You buy a rental property and receive $500 a month in rent. (residual income or cash flow) That is passive income.

     I would like to unveil to you a formula for making money that took me 10 years to come across.  For a long time I had all the pieces, but did not understand how they fit together, but now I do.  It is really quite simple once you understand it. 

     My wealth-building formula - step 1: chose something to sell, step 2: have a plan, step 3: use leverage, step 4: compound your profits.

     Now let's watch this formula in action.  I am going to make an extreme point here.  Everybody knows the saying "it takes money to make money".  I will agree that it does take some money to make money, but it doesn't have to be your own.  I would like to change that saying to "it takes imagination to make money."  To make my ultra-extreme point I am going to show you a scenario on how it is possible to turn $0.90 into a multi-million dollar empire.

     We will start our venture by selling the "Genuine Maine Rock" on EBay.  The cost to post this is $0.90.  The idea is to create a small fad like the pet rock.

     We plan to turn $0.90 into a multi-million dollar empire.  We have chosen the "Genuine Maine Rock" to sell on EBay to start.  It is highly unlikely that you will make this item into a million dollar business, possible, but unlikely.  Our plan will work like this, use EBay to generate thousands, use the stock market to compound those profits into hundreds of thousands, use real estate to compound the profits from the stock market into millions.

     Let's say our EBay rock business becomes a small fad and generates $10,000 before fizzling out.  I take that money and put into something called a call option on Sirius Satellite Radio because I believe that stock is heading for the moon in the next couple of years.  I buy the option with a $5.00 strike and it expires in January of 2007.  This gives me the right to buy this stock at $5 a share until January of 2007.  The current cost is for this option is $1.65.  (I bought it for $1.50 this morning.)  We buy 60 contracts for $9,900.   Let's say the stock goes to $15 on or before Jan 2007. The $1.65 that I paid would become worth $10.00.  Our $9,900 would become about $60,000.  Take out $50,000 and go to a foreclosure auction.  Pick up a house worth over $100,000 for less than $50,000 and immediately sell the property.  This is called flipping.  Keep building money in the stock market and keep flipping properties until you hit your first million.  Once you hit a million take half of that money and buy a large multi-unit rental property and use the other half to continue building capital.  Let's say you pick up a 20 unit building for $500,000 with a monthly cashflow of $8,000.  You pay a property management company to take care of the building so that you are not tied up "fixing toilets at midnight".  You never have to work again and you can keep building your fortune as high as you want to go.

     Now real life does not go as smoothly as putting a plan on paper like this one, but my point is very clear.  This is how rich people play the game.  Notice how I leveraged your capital by buying foreclosed homes and reselling them.  I also used a different form of leverage by hiring.  I kept compounding my profits.  I would take profits form EBay and put it into the stock market, I took profits from the stock market and put them into real estate.  I continue this process until I reach my financial goals.

     I need to put a disclaimer in here about Sirius Satellite Radio.  I feel very strongly about this stock and believe it is going up.  I own both shares of the stock and options on the stock.  I am not, however, a licensed broker.  I accept no liability for anyone purchasing this stock based on my opinion.  When you invest you need to do your homework and consult with professionals.  Bottom line: this stock can lose money so buy it only if you have done your homework and feel it is a good move.

     Bringing this back to music, I realized that the only way I will ever get to play music for a living is if I build a fortune so that I do not have to work.  Investing and starting businesses is hard work, but it is worth it if it will buy you your freedom.

     The "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series by Robert Kiosake explains in great detail the principles I have presented here.  The "Wall Street Money Machine" by Wade B. Cook explains stock and option investing better than any other book on investing I have ever come across. (and I have read hundreds).  Robert G. Allen is a real estate guru with several books on nothing down real estate investing, as well as others.

     Investing is important.  You want to spend your time playing your instrument, not slaving away making other people rich.  I will update this site from time to time with ideas to help make you money.  I am currently working on ways for you to invest in artists that post on this site and in the site itself.  It my dream to grow this site to the point that I can compete with Shrapnel Records or perhaps even the majors like Sony.

     I have posted links to sites that will help you with your financial education.  Check out the links area of the website.
 

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