Make Money by Scalping Sports Tickets

People in the U.S. love attending championship sports events, but tickets are usually impossible to find, and are always bought up early by big corporations that use them as gifts to clients. This makes it really hard for average fans to get their tickets. 

Playoff tickets are hard to buy ahead of time because nobody knows which teams will be advancing to the playoffs until the last few days of the season. Well, Major League Baseball has created a program for buying ticket reservations ahead of time, before the actual events. You can reserve some tickets for your team right now, before they even qualify for the playoffs. Then, if they do qualify, you can buy the tickets at their regular price. This system enables ordinary fans to buy tickets for their favorite team before the tickets are snatched up by others. Of course, the reservation costs money, so you probably don't need to bother reserving tickets for the Orioles or the Royals right now, but it would probably be worthwhile for teams that are well in front of their divisions like Rangers, or maybe the Braves. 

Once you get your ticket you can either use it to attend the game, or stand around outside the event and scalp it to some sucker who didn't know about the reservation system

Reserve tickets here: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/tickets/ticket_reservations.jsp

Make Money by Enrolling Yourself in a Medical Test

Drug companies always have to go through a really long testing phase before they are approved to sell their drugs to patients. This process usually takes 10 to 20 years to complete, and drug companies spend significant time and money looking for people who qualify to enroll in a clinical trial. Most of these trials require the person to already have a certain disease or condition, but others are simply tests for vitamin supplements, and others are for common problems like colds, allergies, or the flu.

So, if you don't mind submitting yourself to needles, pills, and medical exams, you can go to http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/search/browse and look for an active clinical trial and enroll yourself in it as a human guinea pig. Pretty much all of these trials will pay you to be tested. go have a look. There may be something going on in your region, and you can pick up decent cash this way. The only risk is that these drugs have not been adequately tested yet, and they might come with ridiculous side effects. Thats why they are testing them.

Save Money by Never Paying for a Haircut

Seriously, how much do haircuts cost nowadays? Last time I went to happy hair the lady charged me $15.00 for a 10 minute clear cut. Then she had the nerve to say "How much would you like to put on your card?" This is the haircutter's way of saying "You need to tip me because your hair is gross." So, all told, a basic haircut costs almost $20 nowadays.
Well, Howtomakeadollar will not stand for this any longer. We aren't going to pay for anymore haircuts.

Why pay for a haircut when you can do it yourself?

A good way to get free haircuts is to get married and have your spouse do it. My wife has been giving me haircuts for almost two years now, and she's pretty good at it. All you need is a hair trimmer and a bunch of attachments that cut your hair at various lengths. I always get a size two attachments for the sides of my head, and then a 7 or 8 on top. A two blade cuts my hair very short, which is the way I like it. I would ordinarily get like eight or nine haircuts per year. At $15 each, this comes to about $120 that I am saving. Fortunately my wife does not make me tip her, so I come out ahead in that regard as well. 

Plan B, if your spouse refuses to cut your hair, is just let it grow out forever. This will be good for your marriage because it will promote healthy competition between you over who can hold out the longest. Ultimately, they are the ones that have to look at you every day, so I think you will win eventually. You just have to be willing to let your hair get really goofy.

Save money by refinancing all your debt

If you pay attention to the financial markets you probably heard that interest rates reached a 50 year low this week. I will leave it to the economists to discuss whether this is good for the economy or not, but for the average individual, this is a great news.

Most people in the U.S. owe money on their houses, and many people owe money on cars, credit cards, and school loans. For the purpose of this blog I'll primarily discuss why you should refinance your house right now, but almost any debt can be refinanced if you find the right lender.

Most people who are paying a 30 year mortgage on their house are paying about a 6.5% interest rate. This rate is usually a fixed rate that will remain exactly the same for the entire 30 year period. The exact rate you have will vary depending on what it was when you bought the house, but it won't change over time. Howtomakeadollar owns a house with a 5.875% interest rate. This was considered to be an historic low when the house was purchased, and Howtomakeadollar felt very good about the rate. However, this week the average rates are down below 4.5%, which is outrageously, astoundingly low, and some discount lenders are as low as 4.1%, which has never happened before in the history of the world. (seriously)

Lets say you owe $300,000 on your house. If you are paying this on a 30 year loan at a 6.5% rate, then your monthly payment will be 1896.20. Of course, when you factor in taxes and insurance, your payment will actually be significantly higher than this, but you don't have much control over those costs.

You do have control over your interest rate. Right now, if you refinance the same amount and qualify for a 4.1% rate, your payment will be 1449.60. So if you have a 6.5% rate you will pay 1896.20 per month, and if you refinance right now, you will pay 1449.60 per month. Thats $446.5 in monthly savings. It will take about a 30 min phone call, and some paperwork, but this rate will be fixed for the life of the loan, meaning you save $446.5 every single month for 360 months. Thats $160,776. Its definitely worth a phone call and some paperwork. Howtomakeadollar is in the process of refinancing its house today, and I recommend you do the same. 

There are a few caveats of course. Lets say you have already made payments on your house for 5 years, so you only have 25 years left. By refinancing you will now be back to 30 years, which means that you will be paying interest for a total of 35 years (5 already paid, plus 30 more) This means that the total interest paid over the 35 years may be higher than what you would pay on the current plan over the next 25 years. If this is the case, then I recommend refinancing down to a 20 year or a 15 year loan. This will give you an even lower interest rate, and will pay off your loan in a shorter period of time. It may not save you money every month, but you will get an even lower interest rate (probably in the low 3s), so you will be paying the same amount you currently pay, but for fewer years.

If you decide to refinance you should shop around for the lowest rate that you qualify for. All lenders that I have dealt with require the same four things, so you may as well have everything ready.
you will need:
1. A copy of your last monthly mortgage statement
2. W2 forms from 2009 and 2008
3. Proof that the house is insured
4. Two recent pay stubs
I could talk for hours about the logistics of this and how to calculate your costs, but Its getting late.


Here is a helpful mortgage calculator that lets you experiment with interest rates

How To Make Money At Christmastime (Supplemented)

A few more ways to make money around Christmas:

1.  Sal's vacation Army
This idea involves tapping into the Pavlovian urge to toss change into a red bucket at the sound of a bell around Christmastime.

1.  Dress up as Santa
2.  Buy a red cauldron (a bucket may work, but for best results use a cauldron, preferably with hanger)
3.  Buy a bell
4.  Position yourself outside of a popular store with said cauldron and bell.  You may wish to seek out a different entrance than the Salvation Army volunteer who is most likely stationed at the main entrance.
5.  Ring the bell vigorously.  Most people should not notice that you are not affiliated with Salvation Army in any way, but just in case, you could attach a sign to your cauldron that says "For Sal's vacation Army", with the "S" and "Army" in larger font.  This may fool the rest.
6.  Learn to live with the guilt.

2.  Post-Christmas Resale
You have most likely received a moderate to above-moderate amount of free things recently.  Some people call them gifts.  I like to think of them as opportunities to make money.  Immediately sell all of these "gifts" on ebay for maximum profit.

3.  Recycled Wrapping Paper
There is a segment of the population that actively looks to purchase things that are recycled, and another segment that loves finding bargains on Christmas items after Christmas.  Where these two segments intersect, you can find a profit.
1. Save a few empty cardboard wrapping paper rolls.
2. Gently unwrap any gifts you receive and keep the wrapping paper.  To maximize the amount of reusable paper, you could also offer (demand) to unwrap everyone else's gifts as well.
3.  Roll the used wrapping paper back onto the empty cardboard rolls.  You can combine different sizes and types of wrapping paper onto the same roll.  Secure the roll with a few rubber bands, tape, or even some used ribbon for extra flair.
4.  Sell the rolls to an environmentally conscious vendor.  Or sell them yourself from a cart outside of Target.
5.  For variation you could make a few rolls using paper that was completely trashed when the gifts were opened.  These you can sell for half price.

10 Ways to Make Money at Christmastime*

*Contains only four actual ideas


There are lots of ways to make money at Christmastime. In fact, that is what the holiday is all about! It is a holiday that is based on and dependent on commercialization. Thats the meaning of Christmas. So if you aren't making loads of money off Christmas, you are probably one of the dupes who is spending it. Don't be a dupe.

As with everything else on this blog, some of these ideas are kind of good, others are not.

Business Ideas

1. Plastic Junk With Santa on It: 
 1. Find someone on Facebook who looks like they are from Taiwan or the Philippines.
 2. Friend them.
 3. Ask them to mass produce about 10,000 cheap plastic items with a picture of Santa Claus on them. These  items can be anything from napkins to mud flaps to frisbees. Most people in Taiwan or the Philippines should have no trouble filling this order.
 4. If you are feeling particularly cynical you can have a picture of baby Jesus instead of Santa.
 5. Once the shipment arrives, sell everything to Wal-Mart.

2. Christmas Tree Removal
 1. Go around after Christmas and offer to take people's Christmas trees for a dollar
 2. Put all the trees in a big pile in the middle of a field. This pile should be enormous, with at least 50 trees in it.
 3. Soak the trees with gasoline
 4. Advertise a big Christmas tree bonfire on New Years Eve
 5. Sell tickets to the event
 6. Sell hot chocolate
 7. Set the trees on fire at midnight
 8. Optional: Put a few loud firecrackers in the middle of the pile of trees so that it makes cool noises and pops lots of big sparks.

3. Gift flipping
 1. Figure out which electronic gadgets are likely to be in high demand at Christmas
 2. Buy as many of them as possible
 3. Sell them on Ebay for more than you bought them for
Side Note: A friend of mine bought two Nintendo Wii's a few years ago when they were new. He sold one on Ebay on Dec. 20 for $603, and sold another on Dec. 23 for over $800. They had cost him about $250 each.

4. Following FedEx trucks around
 1. Drive around until you see a FedEx or UPS truck
 2. Follow it
 3. Do not look suspicious
 4. Wait until the driver stops and leaves a box on someone's porch
 5. Wait until the driver drives away
 6. Run over to the porch and grab whatever they left
 7. Open  it up and see what it is. It is probably one of five things: A power tool, An electronic gadget, Jewelry, A bag of mixed nuts, A cheap plastic thing with Santa on it.
8. Take it home and sell it
Side note: This is actually a pretty big problem at Christmas, so if you are expecting a delivery, you should try to be home when it arrives, or you should leave instructions for the driver to put it somewhere that is not visible from the street.

How To Make Money on Black Friday

Business Idea: Set up a snack stand outside of a popular store on Black Friday.

Business Description: People voluntarily choose to wake up ridiculously early in the morning to stand in line in the cold to possibly buy things they probably don't need.  You can help\take advantage of them.

Business Resources: Snack food, hot drinks, hot packs, ponchos (optional), and card table.

Step-by-Step Business Plan:

1. Wake up early in the morning on Black Friday

2. Gather up whatever snack food you have lying around.  Or plan ahead and buy\make donuts, muffins, bagels, etc.

3. Make a pot of coffee or hot water for tea and hot chocolate and pour into a thermos.  Don't forget cream, sugar, tea bags, and hot chocolate packs.

4. (optional) Take ponchos to sell if raining, hot packs (pre-heated) if really cold, and a card table to display your wares.
5. Dress warmly.

6. Drive to a popular store hours before its advertised opening time.  Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target are viable options.
7. Set up the table and arrange the food and drink on it for display.  If you are an over-achiever, place the sign that you made ahead of time on the table as well.

8. Sell food and drink to the hungry horde.  Try not to ridicule them too much since they represent your customer base.
9. Continue to operate your snack stand throughout the morning.  Some people may not be hungry right away, but after spending hours standing in line to get into the store, and then standing in line to get out of the store, many of them will be famished.  Set your prices accordingly.  The more famished your customers are, the more money you can charge.  You can try to lure people in by offering free hot drinks, since heating up a bunch of hot water and providing tea bags or hot chocolate packs will not cost you too much, strategically place a tip jar on your table, and sell the baked goods for profit.

Feasibility Quotient: 85

Business Risks: You may need a permit to operate a snack stand on store property.  If someone asks to see your permit, offer them a scone.

Business Competitors: Stores with snack stands\restaurants inside.  Avoid these stores.

Business Growth Opportunities:  This is a scalable business model.  The more time and money you put into your stand (such as offering gourmet drinks or hot breakfast sandwiches, etc), the more you can potentially make out of it. 

Gift Cards Are A Scam

Gift cards are an easy gift, and most people love to give and/or receive them.  They provide the giver with the illusion of sincerity and the recipient with the promise of a future shopping spree.  Win-win, right?  Wrong.  Do not buy gift cards.  They are a scam.  The only scenario for which it would be fortuitous to purchase a gift card would be if you were on your way to a store/restaurant and were already planning on spending a set amount of money, and you can purchase that set amount of money in gift cards from a store that will give you cash back or gas money for buying gift cards from them.  Merchants make money off of gift cards because they get cash in hand for the exchange of future goods or services.  They can reinvest your money and earn interest on it while you have nothing, until you use the gift card.  When you use the gift card, you are locked into spending it at a certain store and you may be forced to purchase more than you want, just to use up the balance of the gift card.  This forces you to spend money in order to use something that was likely received as a gift.  The other option is to spend as close to the gift card amount without going over, which will inevitably leave a usually small amount of money on the card, which will eventually expire.  This is exactly what the merchant wants, because if enough people do this, it will add up to a significant amount of money earned by the merchant for doing nothing at all.

That being said, a smart way to earn money would be to sell gift cards.  If you own a bakery, a hair salon, a drive-in movie theater, etc., supply gift cards for your customers to purchase.  You can also provide incentive for customers to purchase more gift cards than they would ever need by offering a free $5 card for buying, say, $50 or more in gift cards from you.  If you do not own a business, you could attempt to coordinate with local business to sell gift cards for them.  Arrange to receive a commission for each card sold and suddenly you're making money with little investment on your part.