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I'm in college, what next?
 

I'm 20 years old. I'm in college. I hate it and consider dropping out everyday. I dual enrolled in high school so I have been able to only take 2-3 classes a semester while still keeping up with my classmates and have time to run my business. I love selling on eBay and Amazon and been making great money.

I have had two jobs working for other companies and just couldn't comprehend the 10/hr at Best Buy while I was making them over $500 per hour in sales with no commission.

My business has been exponentially growing this year and I can't be grateful enough. What are the next steps though? I have a house with the basement as my office and "warehouse". I still have plenty of room down there to expand on products. I can't fully rely on eBay and Amazon.

I dumped a pretty penny on an attempted drop shipping website and that didn't work out. Couldn't get the right traffic... I wish I knew computer coding and SEO more.

Just looking for some opinions on what I should do next? My goal for a couple years has been to buy a nissan 370z but I feel that I need to be able to buy 5 of them before I blow the cash on one. :FF:

I'm working on maxing out my roth IRA and putting some money into the stock market and I'm pretty heavily invested in crypto.

But seriously, I need some more income streams. What happens in 5-10 years when eBay and Amazon aren't even a thing to be able to sell on anymore?

Would love suggestions or just thoughts about income streams for this thread. Any input would be great. I cannot thank this forum enough. It all started when I got my dads eBay account and moms eBay account linked and banned forever :laugh:They still bitch at me about it haha

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Real estates
Buy houses in Detroit for $15k, remodel it with $12k, flip it for a huge profit or rent it out

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

I live a few states away and my credit isn't built up too well. Not sure that will work out for now but will definitely keep that on the back burner. I'm considering buying some land.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

do you live at home though? it sounds like you do.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

I have a couple roommates and the house has a full basement that you could rent out if we wanted too.

I obviously pay a higher share of the rent as the basement is used as my storage/office strictly but this is my living situation for now.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

what are you passionate about?

sounds like you are either listening to your parents or you are oddly looking for security at a very young age. I guess I am getting at, what is your goals and why are you concerned about maxing out IRA at age 20? I am not saying there is anything wrong with this, just trying to wrap my head around the thought process.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

That's the one thing I have yet to figure out. I do not have any major hobbies that intrigued me. I honestly believe I have a money addiction.. which I hope doesn't turn into a gambling addiction. That plays apart in wanting to put money away in an IRA for my future.

Edit: I don't believe I am listing to my parents at all. We have arguments all the time about what I want to do in the future. I just threw that in there because I was running two eBay accounts at age 13 or something with no knowledge of anything :pound: especially taxes.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Max out your IRA and invest in Bitcoin.
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Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

dangg houses in Detroit are cheap..

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Thank you for bringing up IRA cause I'm 23 and still don't have one. I'm opening one up tomorrow for sure.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

if you want to go big, you need to plan on having your own place. that is what i wanted to get at. if you want to keep living with roommates, then plan on getting an office. at some point, dealing with parents and/or roommates is going to hinder your focus on your business.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Everyone will have a different take on it, and it boils down to circumstance.

If I was in your predicament, this is what I would do:

1. Continue with studies, get the relevant qualifications, that would be Plan B, where you could pursue the career you were planning on doing anyway.

2. Whilst studying, expand eBay business.

3. Once graduated, focus on your existing businesses. Use the skills/understanding you've developed to explore other opportunities.

That way you get the best of both worlds.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

So, it sounds more like you are addicted to making money, more than money itself.

My suggestion is to figure out what money game excites you the most right now and focus on that. Once you mastered that one aspect and can figure out how to do it over and over again, your feeling or need of security will go away because you will have developed a skill to make money on demand. At that point you can focus on the next game and master that. Being diversified is great but focus always outperforms.

At 20 years old, it is nearly impossible to know what will tickle your fancy in five years, never mind decade or two later.

The very first thing I would do is create a measurable goal that is a challenge yet also seems possible to you. If that is making 60K to blow on a liability then so be it. At the same time, I would learn to buy assets that pay for those liabilities. Example is raise 60K, buy a cash-flowing property, hire a manager and use the passive income to buy the car.

As for the stock market, it is great and all but you have little control and never leverage. It is extremely rare to have market investments that are going to perform similar to business. I personally will always chose myself over the market as a money making tool.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

I don't understand why you're saying you can't rely on Amazon/eBay as your primary income. If you can keep up with the right stuff to sell you can easily make a comfortable living off of selling online. Not even necessary to have your own website but it's a plus.. I guess. I was on here this time last year talking about how I'd just bought my first house for cash at 22yrs old. You can do it too man.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Thanks for all of the responses. I really appreciate it.

I completely agree about the living situation. I hope to live completely separate once the lease is up.

Yankee, I like your addition about security. I think it's just a mental game for me.

My rule of thumb is never paying for something with a loan (car, house, etc.) and pay interest. I'm going to pay in full like your house at 22 you achieved.

And think about it, eBay and Amazon really might not be here to be able sell on in 5 years no matter how big your account is or what products you have.

I ****ing wish I invested in btc before the split. I had 10k that I was gonna dump into but decided to keep my funds in fiat. And these new currencies actually seem to be doing OK.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Form a target amount for your retirement and for emergency fund. For example: 15mil for retirement and 15mil for emergency fund. Now keep working until you get those amount in your bank account. If you don't have them, then you still have to keep working.
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Run multiple portable Firefox, 1 user account
How to add new PP to eBay
How to clean photos
Best image resizer

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

You're completely right. I guess it's just a weird feeling actually having money in the bank for the first time without needing it to spend it on something etc.

I'm going to continue college as a backup plan. I lost the state scholarship because I didn't care enough to get A's and had that mentality C's get degrees, so I'm paying college out of pocket this semester. So so so stupid of me.

I'd rather be talking to my supplier on Skype than reading my textbook :heh:

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Now, that is a goal! one million dollars, once you figure things out is not overly unattainable. 30 million is an altogether different game!

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

So you're looking for side income. But you don't want to earn from ebay or amazon because

they ban your accounts isn't ?. Let me confirm i can give you more and cool ideas

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

At times from a business perspective, putting things on a low at a low rate may be worth it just to give yourself more cash flow. If over 10 years I pay 20k in interest, but within the 10 years I made another.. 40k+ then it would make sense to go with the loan for more cash flow

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

I operate my online shop for about 18 years. Before I sold my stuff only on ebay but then I got banned and started an online shop. Stealth here, stealth there, it's nice extra money but unfortunately won't last for ever. Every venture I have a stealth account for I also operate an online shop for. Every ebay customer goes in my mailing list for the online shop. So if you are interested in doing online business long term, I'd recommend to do it with online shops and maybe paying some guys who know their **** for SEO. "Computer Coding" is not something that can't be learned, you can start slow and build skills up peu a peu. It's fun. Personally I finished law school 10 years ago but never worked as a lawyer all my money is earned by online biz. And it's much more fun than sitting in someones office working to make money for somebody else. Well, whatever, lol, just trying to motivate you to keep going, don't drop out of college tho, it's always good to have for a plan B.

Re: I'm in college, what next?
 

Well, your situation is pretty common for students that have to work and earn their money, that’s the situation if you are living alone, if you are not, you may consider slowing down a bit with business until you graduate. Anyway, I’ve enrolled this year in one of the ias coaching centres in chennai, and being from a pretty poor family, I have to work part time after lectures. It is not that bad, because they allow you to choose whenever you want to study during the week or during the weekend. Well, my work allows me to study during the week so it’s not a problem. You can also try to speak with some higher-up in the university, maybe he can help you with this.