Ask HN: How to turn $1,000 into $10,000 in a relatively short period of time? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to turn $1,000 into $10,000 in a relatively short period of time?

13 pointsjmonegro24 comments

I want to hear your ideas. Short as in less than 6 months, which I think is appropriate.

Buy a lawn mower and an old truck for under a grand. Go around your neighborhood and offer to mow lawns for $50 1 time per month or more. Stop once you have 33 customers. Mow lawns everyday for 6 months.

50x33=1650x6=9,900. minimum. Hire help at $25 a lawn to scale.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of fuel for the truck and the lawn mower, as well as maintenance and any government fees. Otherwise, I like your plan.

Is that the going rate for lawn service around you? Neighborhood services typically charge ~$30 around me for mowing.

Gambling. Amounts of this magnitude can be easily obtained in widely available gambling houses, and it is 100% legal.

Of course, the downside is that the method is note completely reliable. To maximize your odds of success avoid games of skill or games with numerous independent probabilities. For instance, stopping by a Las Vegas casino and putting down all $1000 on 3 numbers on a roulette wheel would pay out 11:1 (thus achieving your objective with $1000 left over) and has a 8.82% chance of success.

Of course, it has a 91.2% chance of FAILURE... but I am guessing nearly all other options would be worse.

Go to the casino, bet it all on black (50/50 for $2000), then bet it all on red (25% for $4000), then bet on 1st 3rd 1-12 (8.33%), you'll end up with $2000 to play sic-bo with. Good luck!

Buy cocaine and sell it to kids at the college's gates.

I almost down-voted this because it's illegal and I thought it was a sarcastic remark, but then I thought about it some more and, aside from working at a job or doing consulting, it sounds like one of the few realistic ways to do what you want to do. The downside risk is obviously pretty huge though - I wouldn't recommend it.

how does one downvote?

Only adults can downvote!

I would do marijuana instead because its a bigger market: coke is still considered a hard drug, weed more popular. Not sure what the margins are, but you can certainly move volume without fear when dealing with college kids. I don't think dealers will try and put you out.

You can also grow your own and wholesale to student dealers. Cocaine your stuck with finding a middleman.

Use the first $1000 to live while you find a decent job, then work for 6 months.

on the side, I will add.

Then you'll need something nice and risky if you want that kind of ROI.

If there was a magical way of doing this don't you think everyone would???

Plus even if you did have a great idea for a start up (which I am guessing you don't) most fail.

Anyway, what are your skills? We can't give you much advice without that info - otherwise yes, the illegal is the only way to go... but seriously, what can you do? What could you normally earn in the open market? What are your costs? Do you want to have earnt 10k, or have 10k cash in hand? Can you live on next to nothing? Or will you need to earn 20 or 30k in that time?

Put the money into a brokerage account (I would do optionshouse.com) and purchase Call options for a biotech company with impending FDA approval.

THIS IS WHAT I WOULD DO:

Consider ARNA Jan 11 calls (4 strike). Currently at ~1.55 The stock will need to be around 15-16 for you to earn 10x.

The FDA decision should be around October 22, 2010

If they are denied you lose all. If they are approved, you have a chance to be pretty close to 10 bagger

Everyone DO YOUR DD before investing

> If they are denied you lose all.

I can vouch for this from a personal (similar) experience: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SSS.V&t=3m

You don't even need FDA rejection to lose your shirt, in this case it was an unprecedented (compared to prior trials) improvement of patients in the placebo control group.

Sometimes in investing it seems that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

This is certainly true. There are many, many risks. Without getting into too much detail:

- delay (past Jan 11 expiration) - denial - partial approval

All possible outcomes that would wipe out the $1,000.

I would still consider this option superior to gambling or any illegal activities -- but that is a personal choice.

Flip side of the coin: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SSS.V&t=2y&l=on&...

That said, I wouldn't recommend using the stock market as the best way to turn $1k into $10k.

Two dumb, easy ways:

1. Go to Vegas, make some big bets. You'll probably lose it all, but you might not.

2. Lever up and bet on stock options. You'll probably lose it all, but you might not.

And one smart way:

3. Go find a client who needs a website built. Charge him $9000 to do it, and finish within 6 months.

Bet big on the world cup - http://smarkets.com/sport/football/world-cup-2010

Could try finding consult/contract work.

why do random versions of how to turn $x into $y in z time seem to be the most common Ask HN of late?

Because people want something for nothing. It's annoying though. If there was an easy and reliable way to get 10,000 from 1,000, we'd do it over and over and all be millionaires.

Drug dealing.

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