Millionaire Quest: Short update

Hello Readers.

I know it's been a while since my last post. I'm currently preparing to give a presentation later this week, so have not found the time to attend to this blog properly. I will try to get back to posting soon. In my next entry, I think I will start to talk about my plan going forward in my quest to become a millionaire. Some things I have already started, and others, still planning/contemplating.

Stay tuned...

For The Guys: A Word About Dating

I have moved this post to the learning stuff site, where I can get more exposure. Advice like this deserves to be seen. See About Dating -Advice For Guys

Millionaire Quest: Entering the World of HYIPs cont'd

Good Day All.

In my last entry, I gave a synopsis of how I got involved with High Yield Investment Programs (HYIPs). I mentioned how last year this time, I was fully expecting to be able to retire in 7-8 months (from then), despite the fact of suffering a massive loss just a few months prior to this.

How did I manage to move from such a disaster to such great hope in so little time? Well, as it turned out, I had also joined a few more programs aside from the total fiasco one. Of these, one produced close to 90% per month, on an investment. Principal and profit would actually be returned each month.

At about the time when I discovered I had been scammed BIG TIME by the other guys, I discovered another program that paid 90% per month, and they were actually doing that for about 10 months up to that time. For the former, which I was already in, I had only invested a small amount, as I had little faith in it. For the latter, as I had just suffered great loss, I was very much reluctant to risk any more, so I only put a very small amount in. Oh how I now regret not putting the bulk of my funds in these, rather than handing them over to outright scammers! I would have made a tidy sum if I had.

Well as time progressed, I developed more confidence in these 90%ers, as I saw the results coming in. So I focused my funds in these programs, and managed to recover most, if not all, of my losses by January (last year). That is, if I were to withdraw everything, I'd have covered my losses. Based on these rates of returns, I had projected retirement by around July or August last year. Now I had a specific amount in mind that I wanted to reach, before doing any withdrawals. I was scheduled to reach that amount by the end of January or early February. Essentially the plan would be to withdraw some at that stage, which would have been enough to cover all my prior losses, and leave the rest to compound. Alas, Murphy's law came into effect at this point.

Just days before I was scheduled to be paid for one of the programs, trouble found its way in. The details are somewhat complicated. But the bottomline was simple. A big fat 0. That's right, I would get back nothing. I must say though that the operator of this HYIP was not a scammer, and it was due to malicious outside forces that caused the whole thing to end. It was still a sad end though. At least I still had my other 90% project going, or so I thought.

It was just a matter of weeks before the other 90% HYIP took a hit too. They had a series of unfortunate events in a short space of time, which essentially crashed the project. I had managed to withdraw all my capital before this, so I was not losing additional funds here. However, I had accumulated a decent sum in profits by this time, which now would never materialise, so there was still some emotional trauma to deal with. Of course, my retirement plans went right out the window. I can't say for sure whether the operators of this HYIP are scammers, but based on the evidence, it seems to be the case that these guys are honest, but just happened to have a string of bad luck. They are still in the process of trying to refund all those who suffered loss of capital.

Anyway, such is life. I should mention though, that the first HYIP I found from the google ads, which I mentioned in my last entry, turned out to be genuine, and is still operating. However, they have had some difficulties, which have slowed its progress. Nevertheless, things are progressing, and it might turn out very well indeed. They have said from the start that it would take a few years to become a millionaire, with the kind of small investment that I made. So things are not so off-track.

I should also mention that as of last week, for the first time in several months now, I have joined a new HYIP. This one is supposed to pay something like 60% per month. I have entered it with only a small amount. I'll give updates on how this is working out from time to time.

Millionaire Quest: Entering The World of HYIPs

Greetings All!

This is my first post for 2007. So let me thank all of you who kept up with reading my blog last year. It does help me going when I'm down, to know that so many of you out there are interested in seeing me progress.

Well last year seems to have gone by pretty fast, and without the results I was hoping for. Imagine, just a year ago I was expecting to retire in 7 to 8 months. Yes, my biggest concern at the time, was how I was going to explain to people, especially my parents, that I was already retiring. Considering I had no money to speak of then (still don't), you'd probably have concluded that I lost a screw or two up there. So what was my plan this time?

Back in the middle of 2005, I discovered High Yield Investment Programmes (HYIPs). I did a search on the web one day, looking for investment opportunities, and came across a very enticing offer in one of the google ads. Essentially I'd become a millionaire in 3 years, with an investment of as little as $50. It was an offer I could not pass up, so I got in! I still wanted to know more about this thing, to see if anyone could corroborate that this was real. In doing research on this programme, I came across a LOT more programmes offering some very high yields in short spaces of time. Of course, some were clearly ridiculous, like the hourly payers (ie. they pay on an hourly basis) that promised some huge returns. Those no doubt would require hourly prayers. But there were some that I thought worth trying out. Afterall, they didn't require much capital to get in, and I told myself that I would not spend more than a specific amount out of my pocket. I would just use the profits from these and build.

Well it wasn't long before I found another excellent offer. This one promised to give $35000 for an investment of $1000, after 6 months. Now $1000 was much more than I had given myself permission to spend on these ventures. But I'm not the pessimistic sort. The way I looked at it, $35000 was too much to pass up, rather than, $1000 is too much to risk. So I was in.

Six months is quite a while to just sit back and wait for the big one. So to occupy myself, I did some more reading. These guys making the $35000 offer, also had another programme going. Basically you could double your money in 4 to 6 weeks. Also, they had options for taking out your money (principal+profit) at the end of each week. Not bad, I thought. I could just put a little in for a week or two, then take my capital, and reinvest the profits. So that's what I started doing. I did it for a week or two, and it worked fine. But then I started to look at their other options. The most lucrative was double your money after 4 weeks. But it would require leaving it for a full month, before being able to withdraw principal, AND, the minimum for this one was...well let's just say thousands.

Ok, that's a lot to be playing around with when you don't have much, and things are so risky. I did some thinking, and weighed my options. I saw that these guys already had a perfect 6 month track record for paying, and I was sure that if I could handle my stock market losses, then I could surely handle this if it turned sour. I guess you already figured that it did go sour.

If I recall correctly, it was less than two weeks before the programme folded up. They didn't disappear entirely in that period. Actually they made it seem that their servers were hacked, and that they'd be returning soon. Well after they had a good laugh, they confessed to being a scam from the start, then had a bigger laugh, and then they were gone. With my money. Well that did hurt a bit more than I was expecting. Yet this was all wrapped up by around September 2005. So how come by January, I was still having grand plans of retiring in just over half a year?

I'll tell you more next time.

Millionaire Quest: Internet Business, a First Attempt (Part 2)

This is part 2 of the story. Make sure to read part 1 before reading this.
Internet Business, a First Attempt (part1)

...we produced a nice looking little site. Ah! It was finished. Now to just start making money.

It was at this point that we realised we had a slight problem. The site was pretty much finished, but we had no jobs or resumes to post. Remember this is a job site. So the idea is that those seeking a job could come, search it and see the various openings. Also, for those looking for employees, they could come, post their jobs as well as search, and see the resumes of available folks. Now the dilemma becomes evident when either the employer or jobseeker comes to the site. The employer is meant to come and post his job, but if he comes and sees no resumes online, then what incentive does he have to post his job? Similarly, when the jobseeker comes and sees no jobs posted, what incentive does he have to post his resume?

We just never anticipated how much of a problem this would become. I thought of ways to overcome this hurdle. The most appealing solution I could think of, was to hire a pretty sales girl, who could do the leg-work required to get the database filled, and who I might also take on as a wife (if she proved useful). I was already looking forward to the interview process:

(Assuming the girl is pretty enough to get to the question stage...)
Me: So, do you have a boyfriend?
Girl: Ahh...Yes
Me: NEXT!


However, we just didn't have the money for this. (I know what you're thinking, but no, I never did figure out how to get a girl to work for free, or on the thought of future returns. And even with such incentives as getting a regular smile and a pat on the back from me are not enough to keep them long enough to get the job done; sooner than later they will feel the need to buy another pair of shoes, and then will start to miss the monetary compensation). So alas, we were unable to make progress.

The website became totally non-functional last year when the hosting company did some stuff which caused a malfunction in the way the site works. We never bothered to fix it. But, we still pay for website hosting! Maybe one day we'll put the site to some use and finally begin to see some returns. It could happen.

Millionaire Quest: Internet Business, a First Attempt (Part 1)

The main problem in getting to be a millionaire, is that first million. Just that first million. That's my obstacle right now, and has been for a little while.

As I have related in a previous entry, in my quest so far to be a millionaire, I have tried several things, which all seemed to fail to varying degrees. I've started recounting the sad tale of my involvement in the stock market. I shall say more on that issue another time. For now, I want to reflect on a different attempt to reach that first million.

Some years ago, I worked for a software company that started to aggressively reduce its workforce. The company went from about 400 people to less than 100 in about the space of a month. That is an interesting story by itself, so I won't get into that here (watch the movie Office Space for further reference). I barely escaped losing my job, but one of my friends wasn't so lucky. Now being an expatriate ( we both were), it was difficult for him to readily find another job, unless he decided to move back home. So weeks went by and no luck.

It was at this time, that I came up with a brilliant way that both of us could become rich. My friend was looking for a job, and I wanted to have options at my finger tips, just in case they decided to give me the letter and the pink slip too. The solution became obvious- start a job site! We could generate income by charging folks to post jobs, search resumes and/or to post advertisements. And of course it should make finding a job easier for us.

Now even back then, there were enough job sites around to make getting into this business difficult. However, as you would expect, my idea had something unique to it. The job site wouldn't be just another one, but it would be for a particular niche.

My friend and I discussed it, and naturally we were excited. It was a winning idea! I had numerous visions of being interviewed on TV shows, for us to relate how we achieved such success, how we turned a sour situation around in our favour. So we started the planning and working together on the Big Idea. Although we were programmers, it was our first experience in website development, so there was a learning curve for us. Nevertheless, as we could see the $$$ at the end, we persevered. We went through many toils and tribulations. Once when we were nearing the completion of the site, the hosting company goofed, and lost all our files forever. As luck would have it, the computer that I kept the backups on, was tampered with at about the same time, and the files were totally gone. We basically had to start from scratch. Nevertheless, more than a year later after we started this project, we produced a nice looking little site. Ah! It was finished. Now to just start making money.

I will continue the story in the next entry soon to come...

For The Girls: How to get the guy

I've moved this post to the learning stuff site. It is actually a million dollar post, and was being wasted here where there is little exposure.