Since starting this whole journey into financial betterment I have been reading that in order to really make any real money and be financially secure you have to accumulate assets and begin investing. Sounds great! My only stumbling block seems to be that I know absolutely nothing about stocks, mutual funds, etc. I watched “Trading Places” again to bone up on my Wall Street strategies, but I don’t think dressing as a fat Jamaican on a train and duping two old guys into buying concentrated OJ is really the way to go. (Was that too obscure a reference for ya? Netflix it. It really holds up(wink, wink)).
So I know that the stock market exists and apparently one could use it to make money, but you know, it just aint my thing.
So then, what to do?
I came up with the idea of starting a boot-strap business. Wait for it…
Fire wood. Yeah fire wood. Here in rural Maine lots of people burn wood for heat, and subsequently need to purchase wood. Every investment has risk associated with it and I believe firewood is a pretty low risk endeavor. Here’s why:
1. I don’t need a lot of money to get started.
2. I already own a top of the line chainsaw
3. I enjoy working in the woods and with wood
4. Eventually someone will buy the wood
5. I can do it in my spare time
There are other good reasons but I think I’m getting my point across. So, the financial breakdown goes like this. I can buy log-length hardwood from a local guy for $100 a cord, delivered to my land. Cut and split wood here is going for $225 a cord. That’s a profit of $1250 (55% profit in one year for those of you keeping track at home). The wood is dumped in a pile. I buck it into stove length pieces and split it. Now I have some options here, I can split it by hand or buy a wood splitter. I know splitting by hand would take me about 10 hours per cord of wood. I want to begin with 10 cords so while splitting by hand is free (I already have a maul) it will cost me 100 hours of work time. Time is money so lets look at a splitter. A good quality splitter will run me around $1600. Not bad but since the object is to make money the first year I need to do some tweaking. I could get 20 cords of wood. That would yield a profit higher that the 10 cords and get me the splitter I need. Alas, I can’t afford 20 cords (hell, I still don’t know how I’ll swing the 10). Then came the ah, ha moment. Rentals baby! I can rent a commercial size splitter for a weekend for $95 bucks. SWEET! I can split all 10 cords in one weekend no problem.
So that’s the plan for the first investment/business/asset accumulation. Like I said there is risk involved, but damn the torpedoes and full split ahead!