Just for fun - if you had a million dollars

[EMS83]

Another for savings/investing.  Pay off our house or buy a new one outright first, pay off our vehicle, live on not much/year.

[eternalsummer]

Here's a link to a woven label machine (not necessarily the one I'd buy, though):

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQf67H52jLAOAJWKUpmQnRezUDGUUmy-UXNq0p8gmdLV_DNdXS7

 

 

[kubiac]

Either put it all in aggressive-growth mutual funds or try to find a well-maintained three-bedroom, two-bath single-family home in a good school district around here to buy and use as a rental.

[KungFuPanda]

Are we ever gonna learn more about that label machine thing?

[MamaBearTeacher]

I’d buy three, maybe four of the tiny little dilapidated houses south of our cute little Main Street. They are adorable little things (if you look carefully) but have suffered a lot of neglect. It’s not high crime, and in a well regarded school district. Walkable to the library, restaurants, a private liberal arts college and farmers market. I figure if I could buy about three of these things, fix them up, give them some attractive landscaping, they’d start a cascade of gentrification. Most of them are single story, so could be attractive to older downsizers given the right neighborhood vibe.

 

My guess is that most would go for about 90 to 120k and would require about 50 to 100k in improvements. Rents would be at $1,000 to $1,200 per month. Is that any good?

I want to understand this.  

 

So, it might take you over 10 years to make back your money and start making a profit?

[Guest]

We own rental properties, but one of my “fantasy†property concepts has long been to own a rentable space for weddings (and other events, of course). But I would want to make it fantastically ideal for weddings. Beautiful gardens with a spectacular view, with both indoor and outdoor ceremony sites and reception sites. And, because I am a serious amateur photographer, it would have 100 nooks and niches for photo ops.

 

One rental investment we almost made -and which I believe would have been a cash cow - was storage units. Far fewer headaches than rental homes. Most people just rent them, cram them with grandma’s belongings they can’t deal with right now, put the rental fee on auto-pay, and then mostly forget about it. And, presumably, no lead certifications, no tenants brawling/getting high/posting threatening letters on the neighbor’s door/keeping cats sereptitiously...Managing properties is good, but it has its drawbacks...

[SamanthaCarter]

Yes, that’s why I couldn’t do it without a million dollars to start with.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Guest]

I’d buy three, maybe four of the tiny little dilapidated houses south of our cute little Main Street. They are adorable little things (if you look carefully) but have suffered a lot of neglect. It’s not high crime, and in a well regarded school district. Walkable to the library, restaurants, a private liberal arts college and farmers market. I figure if I could buy about three of these things, fix them up, give them some attractive landscaping, they’d start a cascade of gentrification. Most of them are single story, so could be attractive to older downsizers given the right neighborhood vibe.

 

My guess is that most would go for about 90 to 120k and would require about 50 to 100k in improvements. Rents would be at $1,000 to $1,200 per month. Is that any good?

Your last paragraph is not far from what we have done. My DH looks for houses that can be bought for less than $100K (although one of our rentals was more than that). He does not spend that much on renos; probably around 50-60k at the most, but keep in mind, he is extremely handy and capable, so few things are hired out. What I’m saying is, you want it in good repair and reasonably nice-looking, but don’t Chip-and-Joanna-Gaines reno it - nobody will refuse to rent it because the cabinets aren’t their favorite color.

 

Our rents are higher than that, but of course, that depends on many factors. But just as an example, one of our houses is a 2 bed, 1 bath, built in 1940s. Purchased very dilapidated for under $100k (I think around $80k), probably about $40k in renos (large amunt of personal effort). Right in town, walkable neighborhood, convenient to interstate, commutable to DC or Baltimore. Rents for $1,450/mth. They pay utilities. (Lovely couple; wish all renters could be so dreamy.)

 

Here’s my flip tip for anyone who seriously wants to do this: have a real estate agent who works with you directly and understands your goals. They will know about properties coming available oftentimes before they are listed. This is the better way to get the best buy price. My DH is fanatical about getting the best buy rate. He lets many deals pass by because the buyer will not sell it low enough.

[Terabith]

Are we ever gonna learn more about that label machine thing?

 

I know.  That was the most random, but also the most detailed, thought out post ever.  I read it aloud to my family.  Obviously a lot of time and passion has gone into thinking about that.

[Sarah CB]

Are we ever gonna learn more about that label machine thing?

 

I'm waiting to hear how it's going to make us all rich.

[Sarah CB]

 

Here’s my flip tip for anyone who seriously wants to do this: have a real estate agent who works with you directly and understands your goals. They will know about properties coming available oftentimes before they are listed. This is the better way to get the best buy price. My DH is fanatical about getting the best buy rate. He lets many deals pass by because the buyer will not sell it low enough.

 

I had never seriously thought about real estate before this thread. I don't know why... We are moving to a city that is very touristy and has some of the highest housing costs in the country. The vacancy rate is at something like 0.6%. My sister and brother-in-law are very successful realtors. Hmmm.

[eternalsummer]

It won't make any of you rich, but it would make me rich :)

 

I'd say that most people who already run a small business could take a million dollars and turn it into 5 million in a few years.  My small business is clothing labels.

 

I linked to a woven label machine, a photo of one.  You can find youtube videos of them in action.  Basically, the way we do labels now is the "I had $100 to start this business" option; a woven machine is the "I have $100k to start this business" option, and with a million I could do woven plus a few other options - twill/cotton tape (which has always been my favorite kind), recycled satin, etc.

 

 

Basically, if you know a market well - I know labels, but not really anything else - and you are interested in business, you can often see where the holes in the market are, where the opportunities for growth are.  In the labels market, and I am totally tell you all a secret here but it won't matter because none of you are obsessed by clothing labels, there is an eco-friendly hole for small runs and modern design.  So right now we make organic cotton labels, I have an excellent sense of design, and we do small runs, but we can only do printed labels.  They're great, don't get me wrong, but what would be greater would be woven organic cotton labels.

 

Now, you can buy woven polyester labels, and you can buy woven cotton labels, but I am not sure you can even buy woven organic cotton labels.  Even to the extent that you can buy woven polyester labels (which are scratchy and plasticky), you generally have to provide the design, or the options are limited and dated, and you have to order a zillion of them at a time, and they're produced in China. (ETA: there are some produced in the US or elsewhere, but mostly you order them from China).

 

For satin labels, there are a few US makers, and the entry point is actually relatively low - $1000 or so.  I have thought a lot of times about adding satin labels, but I haven't found a recycled poly satin (because it has to be poly) that would stand up to the cheaper machines.  So either I'd have to get someone to custom-produce me some recycled satin ribbon, in which case you're talking $, or I'd have to get a fancier machine, in which case you're also talking $ - and without either case, I don't know that I'd have a product, yet, that would really stand out.

 

 

 

Plus, and here's the key, growing a small business from something you, your husband, and maybe another relative can do to something that you'd need 5-10 employees for means a very different level of commitment.  At that point you can't just take a vacation on a whim and take the business with you in your trunk; you can't move every year to a new state; you have to file reams of paperwork, etc.

Edited March 5, 2018 by eternalsummer

[eternalsummer]

Everything is lucrative (at least, I am pretty sure this is the case).   I don't really know enough about most other industries to say how I would use a million dollars to make more money in them, though.  I could probably figure it out with most craft-related, especially fiber-related, industries, but it would take several years of getting to know the process and the market and etc.  For something like say hairdressing, or architecture, I have no idea and I doubt I ever would have any idea.

 

I would say most people on these forums are pretty knowledgeable about homeschooling - more than your average joe, of course, and I'd venture to say more than your average homeschooler.  You know the holes in homeschooling, the products or services you need but can't seem to get, or maybe one you know you have (product or service idea/potential) but are not sure if other people need or want.  There's opportunity in the homeschooling community for money-making for sure, and especially since A. the government provides a fair amount of the cash in some states (and I would venture to guess that will expand to other states in the next decade or so) and B. homeschooling is in a period of expansion, and a lot of the expansion is by people who seem more interested in outside assistance than previous generations of homeschoolers.

 

ETA; and when you combine that with demand for afterschooling - people seem more interested than ever, to me, in things like tutoring and extracurricular enrichment of an academic nature, and just a way to shore up their kids' educations either from schools that may not be great or for the increase in competitiveness of college admissions and merit aid.

Edited March 5, 2018 by eternalsummer

[eternalsummer]

Ah, yes!  Well, I think part of it is due to the resergence in fiber arts in the last 15 years - more young people picking up sewing, knitting, etc.  And what happened (at least this is my theory) is that the people who were already set up to make labels for fiber products were geared toward the previous market - large scale producers and smaller makers whose design inclinations tended toward the 50s-80s aesthetics.

 

So once you had all these new people enter the marketplace, both making things for themselves and making things for others in their own new small  businesses, the previous label market wasn't sufficient - they wanted smaller runs, a modern aesthetic, newer fibers (or I guess more traditional fibers, but you know what I mean - naturals, organics, etc.)

 

You can see the same phenomenon with something like Spoonflower.  Spoonflower makes, I am fairly certain, an absolute killing.  They saw the burgeoning market in small runs of fabric for people who started collecting and obsessing about new, modern, small-scale designers, and realized there was a niche for custom printing.  I remember people on Etsy, right around when Spoonflower started or maybe slightly before, did screenprinted runs of 1-2 yards for like a zillion dollars.  Really I am pretty sure it was $40 a yard or more.

 

So Spoonflower's founders must have said, hey, we know how to print small runs of eco-friendly fabric (or at least we have an idea of how we might do this), and wouldn't it be cool if you crowd-sourced the designs and/or allowed people to have their own designs printed?

 

And they just went with it and it was great.

 

 

anyway as you can tell I like fabric :)  Yarn and I have more of a love-hate relationship.

[eternalsummer]

The need I see in our community is food for seniors who aren't interested in cooking.  We need a senior diner, the current ones are serving high salt processed previously frozen meals. If you can basically grab the old school lunch ladies - the ones who peeled potatoes etc -- and serve a homemade nutritious dinner for $5 a plate, you'll have all the biz. You have to want to work for your money though, volume is where you'll make it as they aren't going to go for $15 plates since the senior center is giving them lunch at $2/plate.

 

I've thought of something like this too, although I didn't think of seniors, which makes a lot of sense.

 

Population of old people is increasing and will continue to do so for at least a decade, and because there are fewer multi-generation homes (at least this is my understanding), there will be more demand both for community and for basic services.  

 

 

Food is one of the few things I'm interested in besides fiber arts - I am what you might call food-motivated.  Here are some things I never understood and would maybe consider if I were trying to start a food industry business:

 

1.  Why can't you drive-through something healthy?  I don't mean get the salad at McDonald's, or even a sandwich at Subway (which doesn't usually have a drive-thru anyway, right?), but why isn't there a chain where you drive through and pick up an orange already sectioned into slices, a boiled egg, and some sort of vegetable finger food?  Or something else, I dunno, whatever.  You could cater to gluten-free people, people with allergies, vegans, and low-carbers.  Maybe this only seems like a glaring hole to me because I am often out running errands and think, "I'm so hungry, why are my choices french fries or a burrito?"

 

It might be a demographics issue but you'd think with the rise of diabetes and other specialty diets, there would be at least some demand for healthy low-carb options.

 

2.  Why doesn't anyone deliver hamburgers?  Pizza delivery is a huge industry, they have sandwich delivery places, Chinese always delivers - but I've lived like one place, a college town, where you could order a hamburger. 

[Guest]

I've thought of something like this too, although I didn't think of seniors, which makes a lot of sense.

 

Population of old people is increasing and will continue to do so for at least a decade, and because there are fewer multi-generation homes (at least this is my understanding), there will be more demand both for community and for basic services.

 

 

Food is one of the few things I'm interested in besides fiber arts - I am what you might call food-motivated. Here are some things I never understood and would maybe consider if I were trying to start a food industry business:

 

1. Why can't you drive-through something healthy? I don't mean get the salad at McDonald's, or even a sandwich at Subway (which doesn't usually have a drive-thru anyway, right?), but why isn't there a chain where you drive through and pick up an orange already sectioned into slices, a boiled egg, and some sort of vegetable finger food? Or something else, I dunno, whatever. You could cater to gluten-free people, people with allergies, vegans, and low-carbers. Maybe this only seems like a glaring hole to me because I am often out running errands and think, "I'm so hungry, why are my choices french fries or a burrito?"

 

It might be a demographics issue but you'd think with the rise of diabetes and other specialty diets, there would be at least some demand for healthy low-carb options.

 

2. Why doesn't anyone deliver hamburgers? Pizza delivery is a huge industry, they have sandwich delivery places, Chinese always delivers - but I've lived like one place, a college town, where you could order a hamburger.

I think part of the reason why it is close to impossible to drive through purchase healthy, whole food options, is because such foods are highly perishable. It would be easier for a garbagey-food company that already operates drive-throughs offers a healthy *choice* amongst the garbagey options - this is why McD’s can offer a salad. The small number of salad-buyers are propped by the billions of burger buyers. A new restaurant - Green Plate Fresh - would face a challenge having fresh options available daily and would face loss every evening throwing away all the no-longer-fresh oranges and boiled eggs.

 

Secondly, at least part of the reason there is demand for garbagey fast food is because it is garbagey - the desire has been created by food forumulations that are super-palatable and by no small measure addictive themselves. It’s like - why do people go to establishments where the primary consumable available for purchase is alcohol or caffeinated drinks (bars; coffee shops)? Indeed, when Starbucks launched their concept, they were ridiculed with questions such as, “Why would people go to a store to buy an expensive cup of coffee?!†Well, because those beverages are at least mildly, and possibly strongly, addictive. That is why people will go. Some people go every day. So here it is, food that one does not require and would most often be better off without, yet people do go out of their way to obtain it and they spend (often waste) money that could be better used on it.

 

All that is to say, without the garbagey factor of addicitve substances, the motivation to swing by a drive thru and pick up healthy whole foods is low. Only the most die-hard vegan or exceptionally health-conscious would do it - and this is a population that is accustomed to working around such inconveniences.

 

I do not mean to say it is a bad idea, the foregoing notwithstanding. I just think there are specific market factors such as the two I just noted that make it less likely. In some demographics, I can imagine mom-and-pop shops doing this to profitable effect. But as far as a national (or international) franchise doing it, I think it would steuggle for wide profitability.

 

PS. - I think, too, that one reason pizza and maybe even Chinese food does well with delivery is because pizza has a uniquely large profit margin over materials. I usually make homemade pizza but on the rare times when I buy it, I think how stupidly expensive it is to buy over making it. So, it isn’t hard to see how the original pizza deliverers (was it Dominoes? Not sure...) said, “Guys, we could afford to even drive the pizza TO people and still make out well. The profit margin is great and let’s gamble on the idea that people don’t want to leave their houses to get the pizza. They will even pay more if only we’ll just bring it to them.†This would not be true for burgers because it would only work out if someone is buying, say, six or seven burgers. And then each burger takes separate materials to make and package, unlike pizza, which is a small amount of labor for the number of people fed.

 

Although I know the guy who started Zappos shoes had a “business†at Harvard buying pizzas at the school and delivering them to the dorms of other students. So yeah, money can certainly be made off the inertia of others, even on a small scale.

[Splash]

Purchase a mobile home park or apartment 6plex type building.  Income coming in every month.

[umsami]

Besides buying fancy French ketchup....like dijon ketchup.....

 

I'd probably use a portion to buy utility stocks.  They are safe, reliable, often give good dividends, etc

 

I'd use a portion to either invest in a franchise needed for my area or invest in a business idea of my own.

 

I'd build two houses in an area where DH lived that had very few rental properties, and desperately needed them.   

[eternalsummer]

I think part of the reason why it is close to impossible to drive through purchase healthy, whole food options, is because such foods are highly perishable. It would be easier for a garbagey-food company that already operates drive-throughs offers a healthy *choice* amongst the garbagey options - this is why McD’s can offer a salad. The small number of salad-buyers are propped by the billions of burger buyers. A new restaurant - Green Plate Fresh - would face a challenge having fresh options available daily and would face loss every evening throwing away all the no-longer-fresh oranges and boiled eggs.

 

Secondly, at least part of the reason there is demand for garbagey fast food is because it is garbagey - the desire has been created by food forumulations that are super-palatable and by no small measure addictive themselves. It’s like - why do people go to establishments where the primary consumable available for purchase is alcohol or caffeinated drinks (bars; coffee shops)? Indeed, when Starbucks launched their concept, they were ridiculed with questions such as, “Why would people go to a store to buy an expensive cup of coffee?!†Well, because those beverages are at least mildly, and possibly strongly, addictive. That is why people will go. Some people go every day. So here it is, food that one does not require and would most often be better off without, yet people do go out of their way to obtain it and they spend (often waste) money that could be better used on it.

 

All that is to say, without the garbagey factor of addicitve substances, the motivation to swing by a drive thru and pick up healthy whole foods is low. Only the most die-hard vegan or exceptionally health-conscious would do it - and this is a population that is accustomed to working around such inconveniences.

 

I do not mean to say it is a bad idea, the foregoing notwithstanding. I just think there are specific market factors such as the two I just noted that make it less likely. In some demographics, I can imagine mom-and-pop shops doing this to profitable effect. But as far as a national (or international) franchise doing it, I think it would steuggle for wide profitability.

 

PS. - I think, too, that one reason pizza and maybe even Chinese food does well with delivery is because pizza has a uniquely large profit margin over materials. I usually make homemade pizza but on the rare times when I buy it, I think how stupidly expensive it is to buy over making it. So, it isn’t hard to see how the original pizza deliverers (was it Dominoes? Not sure...) said, “Guys, we could afford to even drive the pizza TO people and still make out well. The profit margin is great and let’s gamble on the idea that people don’t want to leave their houses to get the pizza. They will even pay more if only we’ll just bring it to them.†This would not be true for burgers because it would only work out if someone is buying, say, six or seven burgers. And then each burger takes separate materials to make and package, unlike pizza, which is a small amount of labor for the number of people fed.

 

Although I know the guy who started Zappos shoes had a “business†at Harvard buying pizzas at the school and delivering them to the dorms of other students. So yeah, money can certainly be made off the inertia of others, even on a small scale.

 

 

Jimmy John's delivers sandwiches; I can't see how the profit margin over materials is significantly different for a roast beef sandwich than for a hamburger, and the sandwiches are made and packaged separately.

Maybe it has something to do with sogginess during transport - but then, when we ordered burgers in college they were never soggy.

 

I hadn't considered the addiction angle for fast food, that is probably true.  You'd definitely want to start something like that in a health-conscious market (or maybe not, maybe you'd want to start it in a highly diabetic market and just push really hard on the health angle).  The perish-ability is I think something that can be got around, but maybe not - I don't know the food industry well.  Does McDonald's take a loss on their salads?  You would have to charge more per meal, but you'd have to charge more anyway probably just to signal quality.

[Ravin]

I would pay off our student loans, a loan I took out to pay for medical expenses, and my car loan, put a hefty down payment on a house so that we could afford a 15 year mortgage payment, and probably buy DH a new car (outright). If there was any money left I'd take the kids on vacation somewhere with a beach.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Ravin

[Guest]

Jimmy John's delivers sandwiches; I can't see how the profit margin over materials is significantly different for a roast beef sandwich than for a hamburger, and the sandwiches are made and packaged separately.

Maybe it has something to do with sogginess during transport - but then, when we ordered burgers in college they were never soggy.

 

I hadn't considered the addiction angle for fast food, that is probably true. You'd definitely want to start something like that in a health-conscious market (or maybe not, maybe you'd want to start it in a highly diabetic market and just push really hard on the health angle). The perish-ability is I think something that can be got around, but maybe not - I don't know the food industry well. Does McDonald's take a loss on their salads? You would have to charge more per meal, but you'd have to charge more anyway probably just to signal quality.

I don’t know much about Jimmy Johns, so I don’t know why it works for them, but my sister has told me before that their delivery radius is very small. So maybe that is part of the equation and maybe they never place a JJ in a more rural location. (Pure speculation - I have never had their food.) i have thought many times that I wish I could drive thru a Subway because my choices can be healthy there. But the assembly line where you see the food in front of you is central to Subway’s business model, so perhaps that is why.

 

I can’t claim to know so much about the food service industry but I know that fast food franchises are required to have uniform food sourcing so that pricing can also be uniform and food tastes consistent to customers. It seems that would be a lot more difficult with all fresh/whole foods. Again, I can see why it works if it is one choice available at a McDs, but not if ALL the menu items are supposed to be this way.

 

As far as demographics, it would have to be located where the population is very health-conscious. It doesn’t work to try to impose it on a demographic because they “need†it more, kwim? In a city near me, there are a couple of vegan/vegetarian restaurants, but there is a demographic that supports having those restaurants there. There are other areas in which every available restaurant is one greasy BBQ joint next to another, so to speak. You can’t find a green bean that hasn’t been boiled for an hour in salt pork and if you ask for a water to drink they look at you like you have three heads.

[Melissa in Australia]

I think the 1 million dream that we all had to write about in Primary school 30 + years ago should be 1 billion. One million won't even buy a small  house in most cities here

 

 

[Melissa in Australia]

If I had 1 billion dollars then I would buy a large house near a university and rent it out to students. Going by what my dd is having to fork out I would have a large income. She is paying $300 per WEEK  just for a bedroom. :svengo: And that is a special discounted rate, others in the same building are paying $350 per week.

[Guest]

I think the 1 million dream that we all had to write about in Primary school 30 + years ago should be 1 billion. One million won't even buy a small house in most cities here

Yeah, things change. I remember when I was a kid, someone who was “a millionaire†was really, really rich. Now, there are lots and lots of millionaires.