Fastest way to double $500, $1000, $2500, $5000, $10000?

> Enter these amounts into your financial
> calculator and multiply them by two :o)

There's a smart aleck in every crowd! ;-)

> But the thing is... what do YOU consider to
> be Safe.

That's dependent on the person of course -- I'm sure we all have a comfort zone somewhere between placing a bet on a horse race and putting the money in US Treasury Notes.

> Also, are you thinking along the lines of
> the return on Your Cash Investment, or on
> the investment overall?

No, you're complicating things. I have $500 in my pocket. I want $1000 in my pocket. What's the fastest way to get there? I don't care if I invest $50 to get the additional $500, or the whole $500 I have -- the object is to get $1000.

> Because if it's Your Cash you are mainly
> interested in, then there are ways to get
> returns of infinity... in real estate...
> using borrowed money and none of your own...

Yeah, but I don't care about "ROI", what I DO care about is "how much money do I have". If someone gives me a bag of aluminum cans and I sell them to the local recycling plant for $15.00, then my ROI is infinite, but I'm still $485 short of turning my $500 into $1000

> No matter which way you cut it though, the
> fastest and safest return will be to buy
> something and then sell it.

Ah, now we're getting to the ANSWER to my question! Looks like it's another vote for chatteling! :o)

> The amount of return you want will determine
> whether you buy before you sell, buy after
> you have made the sale or sell without
> actually buying.

Again, I only care about how quickly I can turn that $500 into $1000.

> You could, of course, Short Stock - could be
> very risky if you do not know what you are
> doing.

> Or Trade Currency Futures - Here's a post
> where one guy turned $10,000 into $187,000
> in one day:
> http://www.sowpub.com/cgi-bin/forum/webbbs_config.pl?read=1627
> - again a high risk venture.

For sure!

> Then again, I also consider having one
> single, solitary source of income as risky
> too.

And oddly enough that's how most people live their lives.

> “Imagine this... you are out of work, have
> no money coming in whatsoever and cannot get
> any on credit cards or in any other way. You
> are too proud to go on welfare, have no
> products to sell, no customer list, refuse
> to get money selling your body for sex,
> refuse to get a job working for someone else
> for a wage and you refuse to sell any of
> your possessions. Knowing what you know now,
> who you know now and having the resources
> you currently have at your disposal, what
> would you do to get yourself back on your
> feet before you ran out of money?

> You only have $1,000 left.”

Whew, that's a hard one . . . I'd have to break out the books! There's all kinds of odd jobs you could do to survive (window washing, curb painting, car washes, etc.), but none of those make much use of my programming skills . . .

I suppose I'd start by contacting the internet marketers I know and asking them what kind of programming projects they might be interested in.

OR find a popular CGI script, make a better one, and start selling it.

VERY thought provoking question -- especially in these times!

Best,

Paul