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A Quick Way to $5,000 of Pure Profit – And More

By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud, President, Investment U
Monday, December 1, 2003: Issue #294

Let the madness begin! A Florida woman was trampled and knocked unconscious by shoppers over the weekend. A mob of shoppers scrambling for cheap DVD players at the opening of a Super WalMart bowled over the first woman in line, knocking her out.

The Shopping Olympics sure have begun and people are already paying on plastic. Visa announced that spending on its cards during the two days after Thanksgiving was up 12%, to $6.5 billion.

Pulling out the plastic is as much an annual ritual as the holiday itself. So I thought I’d offer up three ideas that could help you replenish those accounts quickly – and maybe even emerge from the holiday season way in the black for a change…

1) A Quick $5,000 To Pay For Gifts

Chances are you can sell $5,000 worth of junk around your house on eBay in the next two weeks. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t done it myself but junk sells on eBay. I sold a worthless power cord to a digital camera I lost for $50 I sold a book I bought 10 years ago for $15 (and which I was going to throw away) for $80 I sold a junky “travel” guitar for so much money, I asked the guy to pay me less than his winning bid. (He declined.) I’ve sold a few fairly new-but-used things (one for over $1,000 and one for over $500) that sold for more on eBay than I paid for them new!

I’ve sold thousands of dollars worth of junk on eBay. And I haven’t missed any of it! If you can find some time, clean out your garage clean out your closets and get rid of all that stuff. But don’t throw it away sell it on eBay!

Junk really sells on eBay, and these few weeks before Christmas are probably the best time to get top dollar for your junk! You’ve got $5,000 worth of junk around I’d bet, if you’re willing to put in the effort. You may not think it’s worth money but someone out there does. Make it a free Christmas this year courtesy of eBay. Sell your junk now, for a quick $5,000.

2) Feared Football Star In Tears His investments Saved Him From Ruin

Lawrence Taylor, one of pro football’s most feared defensive players in the 1980s, broke down in tears on “60 Minutes” last night.

After retiring from football, “L.T.” went on a long binge of cocaine and prostitutes. “My place was almost like a crack house,” he said.

Taylor was blowing $1,000 a day on coke and women. Fortunately, some of his money was tied up in investments – enough to live the rest of his life comfortably, even after the years of debauchery.

Taylor has now been clean for five years. But he knows the danger is always just around the corner. If he hadn’t kept some of his money tied up in investments – and out of his easy reach – he might have been another “riches-to-rags” story.

Now he’s starting over. “L.T.” is a good reminder of the benefits of forced saving – stuffing your retirement accounts so that you can’t really get to it and setting aside money every month. L.T. has the luxury of another chance. Many other football players – and regular folks – who don’t save may not have anything left when a rainy day comes.

Beyond the huge tax benefits of stuffing your retirement accounts, you’re making your money hard to get to – which, as Lawrence Taylor shows, may be a good thing. Stuff those retirement accounts Pay yourself first!

3) Even Joe Theismann Still Does His Homework

My wife and I bumped into Joe Theismann on Friday night

Theismann was a famous pro football quarterback in the 1970s and 1980s with the Washington Redskins. Today he’s a TV commentator/analyst for ESPN. But going way back, he played college football at Notre Dame

I had to tell my dad, Dave Sjuggerud, about it You see, my dad played football for the Naval Academy with Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach in the early 1960s. Navy had a good team back then having made it to the national championship game, where my dad caught four passes for 52 yards. Back then, Notre Dame was a big Navy rival – they play every year. My dad played for the last Navy team to beat Notre Dame – 40 years ago. So my dad’s got a 40-year Notre Dame grudge Navy almost won this year again.

My dad asked if I talked to Theismann. My dad could have talked about the old days. But me, I didn’t have much to say. So I didn’t bother him. But I did get to thinking Why is this guy in Jacksonville on a Friday, when the game isn’t until late Sunday night?

As I thought about it, it struck me that Joe was in town to do his homework

Frankly, I always thought the commentators were making it up when they’d say “I talked to that player the other day, and he had a fire in his eyes he told me he was ready to play.” But that’s what Joe must have been up to – doing his on-the-ground analysis.

Good for him. For me to find great investments, I need to do my homework. There’s no substitute. I need to crunch the numbers. And I need to do the on-the-ground research – checking out the product, or visiting the country, or whatever it may be.

It’s nice to see that even the guys who have been around for many years at the top of their game – whether it’s a Joe Theismann in sports, or a Jim Rogers in investing (traveling around the world) – know that, in order to continue to do well, you’ve got to keep doing your homework.

Get lazy or complacent, or start believing your own hype, and you’ll get what’s coming to you. If folks that are already great at what they do still do their homework, then you and I have no excuse ever.

Financial Freedom Is as Easy as 1-2-3

So there are three investment thoughts for the holidays:

Raise a quick $5,000 by selling your junk on eBay.
Keep up the forced savings, stuffing your retirement accounts.
Even the greats still do their homework so we have no excuse not to do ours.

Good Investing,

Steve

Today’s Investment U Cribsheet

For more on selling on eBay, visit eBay’s website at www.ebay.com. If things aren’t clear enough there, try your local bookstore for one of the “Dummies” guides to eBay.
For you football fans, for more on Lawrence Taylor’s interview, go to www.60minutes.com. For more on my dad’s Cotton Bowl game, you can download this page: http://www.navysports.com/uploads/files/Pages-231-.pdf