Side Hustle Club: Welcome To The Newsletter
I'm really glad you're here! Now let's make some extra money
Thank you for subscribing to the newsletter! I know I said I’d start sending these out on Fridays but Friday came and it went. And now here we are on Monday…Let’s start this week with a bang!
I’m all about helping you put more money in your pocket.
I challenge you to think about how making extra money on your own makes you feel? For me, it’s a rush of dopamine that I can’t get enough of. I just want to keep doing it over and over again.
This week, I’ll personally be focusing on trying to find profitable items at my local Goodwill stores that I can sell on my eBay account.
Here are the publicaton’s three most-viewed stories of the last week. Enjoy!
How This Fiverr Writer ‘Made $378K in a Year’
And why you shouldn’t buy into the hype
Any writer will tell you freelance writing is extremely lucrative. You can make thousands of dollars using your own laptop in the comfort of your own home.
Finding paying clients can be difficult. Platforms like Fiverr and Upwork began to grow in popularity because they connected the bridge between writers and clients.
These platforms might seem like a solution to finding clients, but in reality, it can be quite competitive to start making money on platforms like Fiverr. I love to complain about how difficult it is for new writers to make money on these types of platforms.
Still, one freelancer started slow and scaled up her writing operation to the point where she’s now making $378K a year by writing for clients on Fiverr.
Her name is Alex Fasulo and I recently learned about her from an interview on Graham Stephen’s Iced Coffee Hour. Long story short, while watching the interview I began to understand how exactly she did it and also doubt it.
I don’t think writers should take this approach to writing and I‘m not just being salty, I promise. At first, I was actually really happy that someone was able to make this kind of money by just writing.
But then I realized she’s selling fake hope.
Quantity vs. Quality
In the interview, Fasulo basically talks about how she casually started on Fiverr not making much money every month and not worrying about it. I’ve been there, we’ve all been there.
Then, she realized that she could use it as an escape from her day job and decided to write full-time on Fiverr. Bold move in my opinion, but it worked in her favor. Basically, she realized she could use her knowledge to write requests quickly on Fiverr and get paid.
She says it takes her 32 minutes to write 2,000 words. That’s impressive, but let’s be honest; it has to be quantity over quality at that point.
In the interview I watched, she even mentioned that “if her name was going on these stories then it would take her days to write them but since her name isn’t attached it takes her less than an hour.”
She’s pumping out content with the mindset of quantity over quality.
For the clients I write for I try to take more time out of my day for more quality. I can’t just type thousands of works in an hour and expect it’ll be great. I have to go over it a few times.
Selling courses
This is where I started to get a little upset. She mentions selling courses, but she never mentions how much she makes and if it contributes to her writing income.
Let’s be real here, selling writing courses is marketing. Even though it involves writing, it’s just marketing to an audience. To include that in your income and then have other writers learn about you as if we have a chance to make that much money without selling a course is upsetting.
If I’m a new writer and I have no idea what I’m doing, I have a high chance of just blindly believing you and signing up for Fiverr. Now I’m wasting my time on a site that isn’t productive for me as a new writer. Then, I’m buying your courses trying to learn more. Finally, I’m landing at a point of defeat and giving up.
I don’t like the idea of selling writers — especially new ones — up the river by telling them how they can do everything you’re doing with little to no actionable steps.
It’s like saying your day job is a car salesman, but you actually make money selling bikes, planes, furniture, and drugs. You’re selling Jane Doe up the river by saying she too can make enough money to buy a mansion just by selling cars.
My Takeaway
If you’re a writer, try to read between the lines when it comes to learning about how much money other writers make from their work. I’m not simply saying every writer is stretching the truth, but some surely are.
If you’re a new writer, it can be difficult learning about what works and what doesn’t, but there are writers who actually write out every step of the process. These are the writers that you want to take notes from.
Or you could do what the rest of us do and by using a trial-and-error writing process until you figure out what works.
4 Unusual Items You Can Sell on eBay That You Probably Already Own
Your Trash, Someone Else’s Treasure
Everyone wants a side-hustle these days. And everyone has heard of eBay.
Maybe you’re thinking it’s over saturated with sellers today, or that you have nothing to sell.
Well, fear not! Because it is completely possible to find success as a new seller and trust me; EVERYONE has junk to sell. Here are 4 unique item niches to sell on eBay today!
Used Diaries
Have any old diaries laying around? People will actually buy YOUR diaries.
Yes; the ones where you spend five pages analyzing your crush’s smile in middle school.
In fact, these diaries don’t even have to be that interesting. Even just snippets of everyday life and/or the fight you had with your mom works.
How it Works
Just find diaries that are completed and in good condition (aka the binding isn’t falling apart) and list them!
Buy it now or auction; both work. But mess around and see what works best for you.
60% of my personal sales the first few months of reselling came from diaries. I sold over 35!
Many people have sold diaries on eBay. Whether it be their own or someone else’s!
The diaries can be from any year.
Great grandma’s diary?
Yes!
Your just finished diary? Yes!
Diaries are still a small niche, but rather profitable!
Look at the sold listings in the filter tab to base prices on.
Most sell for around $40 on eBay, but there is still a significant chunk that sells for more!
I’m sure your old self would be proud that your teen angst is worth money!
Broken electronics
Everyone has an old laptop or phone they don’t use.
Maybe they broke because you threw them across the room in anger because the screen was loading too slow.
Or you accidentally stepped on the laptop you placed on the floor before bed. ( I swear dad, it wasn’t me; I found it like that!)
No matter how it broke; make some money off them!
Buyers want these to use for parts.
So stop hoarding every electronic you’ve ever owned since the ’90s and start selling!
How it Works
Old cords, chargers, tablets, cameras… Anything that has electronic parts has the potential to be sold.
Past sellers’ experiences show that these sell for a pretty decent price. Especially more recent models.
Just make sure you know the exact model and year. And describe each imperfection on your listing in detail.
Be cautious with electronics however! My only two returns were electronic devices.
And the most returned items on eBay are electronics.
But broken electronics do save you a lot of return requests.
Make sure to specify if it is PC or Mac only. ( Common mistake!)
LEGO Pieces
Ah LEGOs — every kid in the USA has owned these.
Still popular, these tiny blocks can bring in extra cash quickly. You don’t even need complete kits. Just gather any LEGOs you have, take a picture and post them!
How it Works
Legos can be found at garage sales, Facebook Marketplace and from friends and family.
A lot of people are willing to part with their kids’ old toys.
Miniatures, as well as bricks can be sold separately.
LEGOs can take a while to sell if they are just bricks (a lot of people sell small bundles of bricks), but if you have an incomplete or complete set, then those will sell much faster.
Buyers love themed LEGOs. Especially characters!
Any star wars themed LEGO sell especially quickly. Make sure to wipe the jam your kids smeared on them off first though!
Another strategy is to buy kits of LEGOs that are popular and save them.
Some sellers will hold on to LEGOs for years before putting them online to sell.
Waiting on sets can mean a lot more money. Sometimes even tripling the original cost. (or more!)
Used Sketchbooks/ Handwritten Letters/ Postcards
Similar to diaries, people will buy your old sketches/ letters and postcards.
For the sketchbook, just make sure the sketchbook is full and has completed sketches.
Buyers tend to like personal memorabilia. I even sold old vintage photos.
Buying a sketchbook is like buying someone’s life experiences and thoughts. Maybe not any good experiences, but people will want to buy them regardless!
Handwritten letters/ postcards are also like a time capsule.
Buyers like to collect the history.
Easy ways to get these is to ask friends and family.
You can make a Facebook post asking if anyone has letters or postcards used, that you can have.
So simple!
Closing thoughts
What are your thoughts on these four items?
Anyone gonna set up a seller page?
eBay is so easy to get started with and so worth it!
The barrier to entry is low and it’s so simple ANYONE can do it!
It just takes research and a little bit of time.
Hopefully these tips help you!
Underground Secrets of a Successful Options Trader
10 lessons learned from a retail trader
I bet if you were to give truth serum to my Wharton Business School cohort, I would have been the last person they’d pick to be an active options trader — not only because of my background (black female who grew up in the projects) but also because I was an average student. I had my moments, but I also had a very demanding corporate job, and I was there JUST to get my MBA as quickly and as painlessly as I could.
So, it’s entirely possible that what I’m about to share WAS taught at Wharton… “maybe I missed class on the day they taught high school.” That said, I’m a firm believer that words don’t teach nearly as well as life experience does. You can take an entrepreneurship class at the best business school in the world, but there’s nothing like starting your own business. In that spirit, I’m sharing the 10 most important lessons I learned to become a successful options trader. These are hard-earned lessons gained from doing many thousands of trades (over several years) with my own money…real money…in real-time.
1. Self Awareness and Self-Care
Maybe it’s COVID, maybe it’s GameStop…I don’t know — but lately, a lot of people in my orbit have asked me about investing and trading.
I tell them this: The stock market is a great way to generate wealth, but you don’t have to be an active trader to participate. Investors who consistently set aside money in low-cost index funds that track the market (“set it and forget it”) have historically done pretty well.
I enjoy trading options. I like the action, the intellectual challenge, the game — it’s fun, but it’s not for everyone. There’s more than one way to do it. What matters most is figuring out what works for you, which means self-awareness.
Self-awareness, I believe, is a by-product of self-care. For me, it’s my morning meditation, working out, taking a walk, taking a nap, taking a breath, or spending time with people I like to be around- basically doing things that make me smile and feel good. I’ve resumed another habit that contributes to my well-being — journaling. Each day, I write down at least 5 things that made me feel good; along with the answers to 2 questions: (1) who am I; and (2) what do I want. Iyanla Vanzant gave me the idea of incorporating these questions into my daily practice (from youtube…I don’t know Iyanla personally, although I wish I did :) They’re big questions, I’ll admit, but I try not to take them too seriously. I journal whatever comes to mind. I’m often pleasantly surprised by the insights I gain from the stream of consciousness.
The daily practice of tuning into the things that give me joy, the things that I like and don’t like, has served me well in every single area of my life.
2. No One Knows Anything
Full disclosure…I used to be an executive at a large, publicly-traded company. In my role, I had access to non-public information. I was one of the people industry analysts talked to about the company. I wasn’t a trader back then, but if you were to ask me to predict the direction of my own company’s stock on any given day, I’m sure I would have been right no more than 50% of the time. I’m not talking about outlier events like a dreadful earnings report, corporate scandal, operational disaster, or some fantastical upside event. I’m talking about “on any given day.” If an insider is unable to consistently, and accurately predict the direction of their own company’s stock, how can anyone else?I believe markets are just too damned hard. Why? One reason is that market participants are human beings who have different time horizons, motivations, goals, opinions, and behaviors. Morgan Housel captures this in his book Psychology of Money…
“Investors often innocently take cues from other investors who are playing a different game than they are…How much should you pay for Google stock today? The answer depends on who you are. Do you have a 30-year time horizon…Are you looking to sell within a year….If you’re a trader, then the smart price is…who cares! You’re just trying to squeeze out a few bucks before lunchtime.”
Want more evidence of the disparate motivations of market participants? Look no further than the recent Reddit stock price moves.
The idea of being bearish or bullish is meaningless without context.
I also believe that stock picking is over-rated. It can be the catalyst for putting on a trade (nothing wrong with that), but long-term success depends on effective risk management. A technical analyst may look at a chart and see triangles, head and shoulder patterns, diagonals, whatever. I may look at the same chart and see…God knows what. Anyone can draw a trend line on a stock chart, but the markets are not obligated to obey them. The same is true for fundamental analysts, market pundits, and gurus. Your guess, your opinion about a stock is as good as mine or anyone else’s. I know of no single method that is reliably predictive of price action (unless you’re interested in breaking the law). The key to trading success, I believe, is iterating your way to a framework that works for you and consistently applying it. I reveal the main pillars of my framework in #10 Rinse and Repeat.
3. Have a Business Plan
I treat my trading account like a business, my little hedge fund if you will. I have a fairly detailed framework that guides my trading decisions, but I also think it’s important to answer “big picture” questions like (1) Do I want to start by trading with real money, or do I want to “paper-trade” until I’m more comfortable; (2) how much money do I want to put up; (3) What’s my risk tolerance; (4) How often do I want to trade; (5) What’s my availability to trade; (6) Do I prefer one set of products over another (stocks, options, futures, commodities, FOREX, etc.); (7) What are my goals for win rate and monthly returns. On that score, some people may say “I want the highest possible win rate, with the highest possible returns, while taking the least amount of risk — dah!” But, markets, and indeed life, isn’t quite that simple.
A well-run business also tracks expenses. In trading parlance, that’s fees and commissions. Here, selecting the right trading platform is key. I’ve tried a bunch of them. If you’re shopping for a platform, you want to choose one that has a good reputation, the features you like, and a competitive fee structure.
4. Stay in the Game
I’ve heard it said many times that most businesses fail because they run out of cash. The team is smart and energetic; the product or service meets a need in the market but the business closed shop because it ran out of money before the “whatever” had a chance to take off; or before the team figured out how to execute.
For traders, losses are part of the game — they just are. The key to staying in the game is effective risk management — don’t turn small losses into big ones.
One of the most surprising insights I gained from my post-corporate life was how much I enjoy taking risks. My penchant for risk-taking turned into an expensive lesson.
My biggest mistake as a trader, and there isn’t even a close 2nd, was turning small losses into big ones. Football fans may appreciate the analogy of a quarterback who holds onto the ball, waiting for his wide receiver to get open down the field so he can make a big play. He pats the ball, then drops back while he waits. Meanwhile, the pocket collapses and the next thing you know, he’s sacked for a big loss (even worse, he turns the ball over). Instead of spiking the ball, accepting the loss of downs, and “living to fight another day”, he turns a small loss into a disastrous one. I’ve done that more times than I care to remember.
My lesson is summed up in this quote by Nassim Taleb — “You can be risk-loving yet completely averse to ruin.” To win the game, you must stay in the game. I’m sure someone else said that first…must have been a trader.
5. TNSTAAFL
There’s No Such Thing As a Free Lunch, in trading or life.
There is virtually no chance of losing money by putting it in an FDIC bank, but the returns are microscopic. When we put money in the bank, we accept low returns in exchange for safety, in other words: low risk/low reward.
On the other hand, if I were to invest in crazy Cousin Vinny’s start-up, it may be like throwing my money in the garbage. But what if Vinny is crazy like a fox — what if he’s the next Jeff Bezos? Because the risk is high (risk of losing money PLUS potentially awkward family gatherings), I simply will not settle for a measly 1% (or less) return. If Vinny’s start-up is a hit, I want to get paid: high risk/high reward.
Regardless of risk tolerance, my trading plan obeys this tenet: low risk/low reward; high risk/high reward.
6. Liquidity is Key
I ONLY trade liquid stocks. I like the Wikipedia definition of liquidity that goes something like…” market liquidity is the ability to quickly buy or sell an asset without causing a drastic change in the asset’s price. Cash is the most liquid asset because it can be exchanged for goods and services quickly…there is no trade-off between speed and value.”
The opposite is true for an asset like a house. The homeowner who is desperate to sell their house may accept less than market value to make a quick sale. An impatient buyer may over-pay for a house they really want. A house is an illiquid asset because the buyer/seller may sacrifice cash for speed. Perhaps we can all relate to that…being a buyer who over-pays or a seller who takes a deep discount. Traders call this “slippage.” That may be ok for the “one-off” purchase or sale; it’s not ok for a trader who makes hundreds of trades a year.
The key idea here is that a liquid market generally has lots of participants (volume). As a consequence, buyers and sellers will settle on a “fair price”.
Take Apple (AAPL), a stock that millions of people trade every day. Let’s say the “bid price” (the price buyers are willing to pay) is $135.01 and the “ask price” (the price sellers will accept for it) is $135.05. The difference (“bid/ask spread”) is only 4 cents. In that case, you can either buy or sell AAPL at a price that’s very close to the mid-price of $135.03. Here the “slippage” is only a few pennies. By contrast, when a house goes on the market, there’s usually only a handful of participants, and oftentimes, a big disparity between what buyers and sellers deem to be a fair price.
For me, a stock (or an underlying in the options world) is liquid when the volume is in the millions and the “bid/ask” spread is a few cents.
7. Respect Leverage
Leverage is using borrowed money to make money. Businesses use leverage as rocket fuel to propel their growth, but it’s a double-edged sword. It can take out businesses that don’t understand or respect it.
Let’s say I buy 10 shares of CGC stock for $50/share. If I were trading in a margin account, instead of needing $500, I would only need $250 (I could borrow the rest from my broker). That’s leverage — using borrowed money to take a bigger position.
I like to think of leverage as the ratio between risk (max loss) and the cash needed to place the trade. In this case, the leverage is 2:1. The risk is that the stock goes from $50 to $0, in which case I’d lose $500, but the capital needed is only $250.
Options traders can use much more leverage than 2:1 (some of my current positions use 5:1 leverage). With leverage, we have the potential to amplify both our profits and our losses.
Traders must be aware of the distinction between the risk they’re taking and the cash needed to establish a position. For me, that means holding relatively small positions and managing losses before they get out of hand.
8. Buy or Sell?
There are only 2 types of options contracts — calls and puts, but there are a gazillion ways to organize those calls and puts to establish a position: iron condors, iron flies, calendar spreads, vertical spreads, straddles, strangles, naked calls, naked puts, covered calls, collars, ratio spreads — you get the idea.
Let’s say I like Tesla (TSLA) and I expect the stock price to go up. Two ways (among many) in which I could express a long opinion using options are: (1) buy a call option; or (2) sell a put option. Which strategy do I choose? Here’s how I decide: Regardless of the market…when prices are low, I’d rather be a buyer, and when prices are high, I’d rather be a seller.
The theoretical price of an option depends on six things: (1) the price of the underlying stock; (2) interest rates; (3) strike price; (4) days to expiration; (5) dividends; and (6) volatility. For options traders, volatility, specifically implied volatility (IV) is critically important. IV is the “expected move” (+/-) of the underlying stock. IV and option prices are positively correlated, in other words, they go up and down together. When the IV of the underlying stock is high, option prices are “expensive”. When the IV of the underlying stock is low, option prices are “cheap”.
Deciding on whether an IV is high enough to sell or low enough to buy is somewhat nuanced and subjective. But the overall strategy is pretty uncomplicated: buy low and sell high.
9. Making Money is More Important Than Being Right
Did you hear what happened to GameStop (GME)? GME is a retail company that sells physical video games. In 2 weeks, the price went from about $20 to just under $500 a share, a mind-blowing 2,400% increase! I’m thinking, there’s no way GME’s valuation supports a $500 price…are you kidding me — did they just discover the cure for cancer? This is a social media-created bubble! But who cares what I think, GME’s price (at least for a while) kept going up. I’ve learned (the hard way) that the market doesn’t care what I think. As Economist John Maynard Keynes said… “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”
10. Rinse and Repeat
I’m a successful trader not because I’m a good stock picker (I’m not); it’s because I’ve stayed in the game long enough to settle on a set of mechanics that work for me, and I consistently apply them. Here’s a summary of what I do and don’t do:
Don’t Trade to Eat — my trading account is less than 10% of my liquid net worth. If you’re a newbie, consider trading with fake money (paper trading), or starting with less than 10%. Depending on your age and tolerance for risk, you may be comfortable allocating a different percentage. Whatever your target, make sure you can absorb losses without jeopardizing your standard of living.
Trade Entry: (1)I only trade liquid underlyings; (2) I buy options when Implied Volatility (IV) is low and sell options when IV is high; (3) my opening options trades have 30–60 days to expiration; (4) each new position uses no more than 1–3% of my account balance; and (5) depending on my options strategy, my profit target is generally 25–50%.
Risk Management: (1)my entire portfolio uses a maximum of only 50% of the cash in my account; (2) if my loss on any single position reaches 1–1.25% of my balance, I close the position; (3) I never add to a losing trade; and (4) I generally don’t hold positions to expiration.
“The Greeks” — For the non-options trader, a discussion about “the greeks” may sound like…Greek, so I’ll spare you the details. Suffice to say, the 3 most important greeks I monitor and manage are (1) delta; (2) theta, and (3) gamma.
Much to my surprise, I’ve discovered that trading options is one of “my things.” I hope your life’s journey leads you to discover YOUR THING…in investing and in every single area of your life.