25 Businesses You Can Start for Less Than $100

Are there really businesses you can start for less than $100?

Laurie Davis started the dating website eFlirt.com with $50 and a Twitter account, reports Young, Fabulous and Self-Employed. Her successful enterprise has been profiled by the New York Times, The Washington Post, Good Morning America, and many other media outlets.

Starting something online may be an obvious choice, but the variety of businesses you can start for less than $100 might surprise you. Some can be started with no investment other than your time. The key is to find the lowest-cost way to make a sale and then parlay your profits into the next step. Some entrepreneurs have bootstrapped their way to millions using this basic formula.

You’ll have to decide for yourself when to “formalize” your company by creating a legal structure like an LLC, buying liability insurance, and such. For advice on these matters you can meet with volunteers at SCORE, and there are even places to get inexpensive legal help. Meanwhile, why not pull out a $100 bill and take a look at what you can do with it.

Businesses You Can Start for Less Than $100

Auto Parts

To demonstrate the range of potential businesses you can start for less than $100, we begin with an unlikely one.

Steve Farmer, upon graduating from college, decided to start a business wholesaling collision parts. He says, “Within two weeks, I had started my own business with $50 and built it up and ran it for almost three years.”

He used his car until he could afford a truck, and bootstrapped his way to success. Eventually, he sold that business, starting a new one, this time a specialty candy store, his new company’s website reports.

ClickBank E-Products

To start a digital products business with no investment, open an account at ClickBank.com for free and promote a few items on your Facebook page or blog.

Once you earn a few commissions, you can pay the $49.95 fee to start a vendor account. Then, create a PDF e-book on any topic you know well (or can research), and you can start selling immediately.

ClickBank takes $1 plus 7.5 percent of each sale, but you set the price and decide how much you want to share with the thousands of affiliates who can also sell your product (50 percent is common).

Some vendors claim to have made tens of millions of dollars in sales through ClickBank.

Used Books

When you see a textbook at a rummage sale, visit Bookscouter.com using your smartphone.

See what buyers are paying, and then offer half of that or less. The big margins are in textbooks, but online buyers accept many types of used books, and often pay for shipping with a printable label.

Retailing them yourself on Amazon.com is another option. On The Abundant Wife website, one woman tellsof selling books from around her house for $371.14 on Amazon — a good way to start with nothing.

Once you learn the market, you can parlay your profits into expansion, perhaps doing some online arbitrage by buying cheap used books from eBay auctions to sell to the big online vendors.

House Painting

In many states, like Florida for example, you do not need a license to be a painting contractor. And if you start with indoor painting, you can get by with a minimum of equipment.

You can learn some helpful tips from YouTube videos on house painting, free Home Depot workshops, and some practice painting around your own home. Matt Shoup tells U.S. News & World Report he started with $100 and went door-to-door, eventually building a painting business with annual revenues of $2.5 million.

Window Cleaning

Another one of the businesses you can start for less than $100 is a window cleaning business. However, to efficiently clean big retail store windows you may need more than $100 worth of equipment.

So start with homes and basic tools, and parlay your revenue into better ones.

You can learn the business online from any one of a number of tutorials.

Pet Sitting

Pet sitters charge as much as $100 for overnight stays, and $20 is typical for a 20-minute visit.

You can start by offering your services to friends and family and use the profits to build your professional credentials, perhaps by joining an organization like the National Association of Professional Pet Sitters.

To grow this business into a large income, you’ll eventually need employees or sub-contractors.

Taxi Service

With ride-sharing platforms like Uber, you can turn the car you already own into a business today without spending a dollar.

If all goes well, you might parlay the money you make into a regular taxi or chauffeur service.

Of course, once again, your goal if you want bigger profits is to eventually hire employees or sub-contractors.

Tutoring

Tutoring is also one of the businesses you can start for less than $100. It used to be more difficult to market your tutoring services, but online platforms make it easier than ever.

If you’re able to help students with academic subjects, sign up with a website like Tutor.com. If you prefer to tutor people on a wider variety of subjects, like chess, sports, cooking, or singing, try Wysant.com.

Tutors commonly charge up to $50 per hour, and although these websites take a healthy cut of that, they provide a no-cost way to start. From there you can build a local clientele and start hiring others to work for your business.

Tour Guide Service

Again, the Internet has made all the difference in lowering the barriers to starting a business.

Forget about business cards (at least at first) or trying to get travel agencies to recommend your guide service. If you know an area well, you simply sign up with a website like Vayable.com and let them find your customers for a cut of the revenue.

Once you know the ropes and make some money, you can encourage returning visitors to come to you (and your new employees) directly.

Tax Preparation

What better (and cheaper) way to learn a business than to get paid for your training?

Search “tax preparation no experience” on job websites like Indeed.com. You’ll find plenty of companies willing to train you for jobs preparing tax returns (at least during tax season). Once you have a season under your belt, it’s time to strike out on your own.

You can start from home to keep costs low, and bootstrap your way into a multi-employee office in time.

Flooring Business

Toby Woodward has been in the flooring business for twenty-five years. He tells Construction News, “I started my business with $50 and a box of business cards.” His company, Aladdin Floors, started out doing just installation in order to avoid the need to invest in inventory.

Again, the lesson is clear: Look for the low-cost entry point and parlay revenues into expanding the business.

Cleaning Service

Again, think of the low-cost entry point to keep your startup costs under $100. You can clean houses with all of the supplies and equipment you already use for cleaning your own home, and then invest profits into specialized equipment for other clients.

Carrie H Johnson was divorced and living in low-income housing when she started a cleaning business with friends, she explains on her website. She built it into a multimillion dollar business with 165 employees.

Flea Market Vending

Flea markets are alive and well in many places around the country, and you can locate the ones closest to you with an online guide.

To start on a budget, find a market that lets you pay for a space by the day (often less than $20). While you’re there, look around for a low-cost niche you can invest your profit into.

What profit? That’s what you made by selling everything in your house that you otherwise would have given away or dumped at a rummage sale.

eBay Sales

Anyone can start on eBay for less than $100.

Start by selling things around the house that you no longer need. With the money you raise, you can look for a niche. For example, some vendors hit rummage sales and thrift stores for cheap goods they can resell.

Others buy in bulk from places like Liquidation.com and then sell items individually on eBay.

Homemade Soaps

If you can read and follow the directions of an online soap-making tutorial, you can gain some basic knowledge of the soap making craft. It involves relatively few materials and tools. To make soap you mix various forms of oil with lye and scents. A basic mold for 12 bars can be bought on Amazon for under $10.

Of course, you can’t compete with mass-manufactured soaps, so you’ll want to make specialty products. Finding a new scent or creative approach to packaging and marketing will help. You can sell to friends initially, or invest in a booth at a flea market or craft show.

What’s the potential? Anne-Marie Faiola turned her soap making hobby into a multimillion-dollar business.

Grocery Delivery

If you own a car you have what you need to start delivering groceries. While Webvan and others have failed to make grocery delivery work on a large scale, there is a market for small timers, as evidenced by the many shopping services that are online now.

To make delivery affordable for the customer and efficient enough for you to make a decent profit, you may have to service a very limited area. You might start by approaching elderly residents in a housing complex, promising delivery just two days per week in order to process as many orders as you can at once.

To keep payment processing simple, get a PayPal card reader, which attaches to your smartphone. PayPal takes just 2.7 percent of each swipe, with no hidden fees.

Errand Service

An errand service can be a natural business to tie into grocery delivery, or vice versa. Once again, if you already have a car you’re ready to get started. People often need someone to check on their dog at home, or run to the store if they are homebound.

To start with almost no cost, and to get a feel for what kind of work the business might involve, sign up with TaskRabbit.com, an online platform that connects people who need errands done with those willing to do them for an agreed-upon price. This eliminates the need to spend money on marketing yourself (at least at first).

You might discover a particular niche that suits you and is profitable. For example, if you get a lot of calls to bring pets to vet appointments, you might reposition yourself as a pet taxi service.

Freelance Bartending

You can learn how to mix any one of thousands of drinks with a free online cocktail guide, but to get hired as a freelance bartender it helps to have real experience. That doesn’t have to require a job though. You might volunteer to tend bar for charity events — a good way to get experience and market yourself to potential paying clients.

Entrepreneur.com reports the startup costs of freelance bartending at “under $2,000.” But you can keep it under $100 if you start with clients who have the necessary equipment or by bartending for parties where expectations are minimal. Entrepreneur.com says you can make “up to $300 per day when you tally up your wages and tips.”

The next step is hiring help at $10 per hour and billing clients $25 per hour for them.

Dog Training

This is one of those businesses you probably wouldn’t get into without previous experience. On the other hand, you can get an idea of tsomrhe skills needed online from the television personality and dog whisperer, Cesar Milan. There are also many dog training tutorials on YouTube. A stint at a local pet store might help too, and you’ll at least make minimum wage while you get your education and experience.

You can start the business at home to keep costs low. Pet owners can bring their dogs there as well as anyplace else. To build your reputation offer, to train the dogs of friends for free or at a discount, and be sure to get testimonials to put on your (eventual) website.

Drop-Shipped Products

What makes drop shipping so attractive is exactly what lands it on this list; there are no big startup costs or expensive investments in inventory. You can sell products online, collect payment, pay suppliers, and let them send out the products — even using your company logo if you like.

There are many  drop-ship product suppliers online. Some provide a variety of products, or, if you’re going to specialize in one product or product line, you can locate a manufacturer that drop-ships. Just do your research and be sure you’ve found a reputable company.

A website is one way to make sales, although not the only way. You can also sell on auction sites like eBay.com.

Social Media Management

Businesses need help managing their social media presence.

In particular, they need to tweet on Twitter and post on Facebook in order to raise awareness of their companies and promote their products. You may already know how to use these and many other social media platforms.

Learn a little more with online tutorials on how to become a social media consultant. Then contact everyone you know to see if they need this valuable service. Scaling up will require hiring others at some point, so you can focus on getting new clients.

Startup cost? Zero.

Virtual Assistant

If you have a phone, a computer, and Internet access, you can be a virtual assistant (VA). This is one of the hot new businesses you can start for less than $100

The work can be very different with each client, but may include preparing reports, researching, editing, social media management, appointment-setting and many other services.

On her website, VA Amy Andrews says “I can tell you from personal experience, it’s a great work-at-home opportunity and something many people could do.”

Of course, to make it into more than a decent freelance income, your goal will have to be to hire others at some point.

Scrap Metal Recycling

A search of your garage and shed might be all you need to start a scrap metal recycling business. It’s one of those businesses you can start for less than $100.

Copper and aluminum are the most valuable of the common metals, and almost every community has one or more scrap metal buyers. Once you’ve made your first sale, start looking for new supplies.

You can find all the advice you need in an online scrap metal discussion forum. How big can you grow a business like this? Stephen Greer went to Hong Kong with almost nothing after college and built a scrap metal recycling business worth $250 million, according to his book, ” Starting from Scrap: An Entrepreneurial Success Story.”

Consulting

Okay, so you know enough about a subject to advise others, but you don’t have the money to properly launch a consulting business. Start anyhow!

Spend $10 for business cards from a low-cost provider. Put up a website for $60 for the first year with a domain and website hosting package.

Once you have a few customers who value your knowledge more than a fancy presentation, you can spend some of your profits to build a more professional organization.

Logo Design

If you’re artistically inclined, designing logos is a relatively simple business to start. You can service the high-end, doing very unique logos, or provide low-cost designs that start from templates and are modified to suit the client.

One of the easiest ways to get started is on Fiverr.com. A look at the stats for the logo designers thereshows the size of the market. The top rated logo designer has over 6,000 customer reviews.

Fiverr.com takes a dollar of each $5 sale, so you might wonder how sellers make money. It’s all about the extra services. Many of the logo designers there keep it really simple for a basic sale (add a company name to a template), but offer extra services that can add $100 or more to an order.

Find that first sale with little or no capital investment and then use the profit to expand. That’s how you start a business for less than $100.

Do you have a low-cost startup story to share? Are you aware of other businesses you can start for less than $100?

Full article > http://tinyurl.com/jsa4efy

The Rise Of Stealth Wealth: Ways To Stay Invisible From Society If You Have Money

Becoming wealthy has never been easier in America thanks to quantitative easing, improved financial education, an improving economy, a widening safety net, and a bull market in stocks and real estate. Surviving as a wealthy person on the other hand, has never been tougher. The government goes after you if you make much more than $200,000 a year (medicare tax, AMT, deduction phaseout, credit eliminations, education tax, net investment income tax). If the government doesn’t get you, regular citizens will. Who did you cheat or rob to get to where you are? This is a real problem for those who want to make it big in the land of dreams and hand guns.

Freedom is one of America’s greatest attributes. Yet, if you go too far on the income curve you’ll start feeling like a prisoner to society. Despite the rich giving more to charity in one year than many others will give in their lifetimes, people will protest their wealth and hate them forever. Class warfare is no fun, even if you do have the financial means to own a bazooka.

Most readers here are ambitious folks who want to improve their financial health. Thanks to disciplined savings and investing habits, in another 10 years, I’m sure everybody is going to be that much wealthier. But once you get to where you are going, you’ll wonder what’s next. Never lose site of the fact that it’s really the journey to financial independence that’s most rewarding.

When society turns their back on you for being successful, just recollect on all your struggles and take a deep breath. Be proud of your accomplishments because you know you’re not just doing it for yourself, but for your family as well. You don’t have to be ashamed for not being the dumb ass in high school who thought it was cool to skip class every week to smoke weed. You shouldn’t feel bad that you worked summer internships during college while your buddies went off to play. And you should certainly not feel embarrassed by your frugal habits and smart investments once you found a job.

Unfortunately, society has a fantastic way of discrediting your achievements. “Nobody is self made,” and “You didn’t build that,” are my two favorite retorts. Just try taking yourself completely out of the equation and see where that logic goes when there’s nobody to think, dream, and execute. When you are outnumbered, resistance is futile. You must blend in and rage with the rest of them.

With the below suggestions you’ll be able to better walk amongst the shadows without fear of retribution any longer. Your family will be more guarded from bullies lurking to recondition your children every chance they get. Once you finish reading this post, never speak of its matters beyond your immediate family and friends again. We’ve got to protect our own little community on the web.

A GUIDE TO STEALTH WEALTH

When Forbes came out with its Top 10 Wealthiest Chinese in China, there was huge outrage by the public and a massive anti-corruption crackdown ensued. Half of those guys fell off the list or went to jail within a couple years. As America attempts to reverse Capitalism due to widening income inequality, blending in as a middle class citizen has never been more vital. Below are 15  recommendations to help you assimilate better in society. (Read: Definitions Of A Middle Class Income)

1) Never drive a nice car to work or to any public setting. Drive the most economical, safe car you know so that when you ultimately run into your co-workers, they’ll think you’re frugal or poor. Take public transportation and proclaim your love for buses and trains profusely. You don’t want to roll into the office in a Benzo and have your boss see you. His or her immediate thought will be to cut your bonus since you are doing so well.

Driving up to an employee salary negotiation meeting in a Bentley isn’t going to work in your favor either. Instead of choosing a new Range Rover Sport and deducting the vehicle as a business expense, consider a more moderate BMW X3 or Jeep Grand Cherokee instead. When cops huddle for breakfast thinking about which car they want to ticket, do you think they are going for the guy in a 10 year old Toyota Corolla? Cops make $50-$60,000 a year on average and are on a mission. (Read: The 1/10th Rule For Car Buying Everyone Should Follow)

2) Be careful who you give your home address to. People love to snoop on Zillow.com to see what you paid for your house. Not only will they see what you paid for your house, they’ll also be able to tell whether you’re under water or making huge equity. Instead of giving an exact address, you can give them cross streets and a description of the house. e.g. I’m at the corner of Jackson and Teller. Brown wood shingle house. You can’t miss it. Inevitably, they will find out your exact address if they pay attention, but delay that information for as long as possible. Your house is your sacred abode. Protect its privacy. I recommend claiming your house on Zillow and trying to make the house look as bad as possible. Property tax assessors look at Zillow all the time now to try and jack up your taxes!

3) Always say it’s fake. Whether it’s your Panerai watch, Birkin bag, Armani suit, or Loubotin shoes, always tell the person who asks that it’s fake. Resist the urge to brag about your material things. You’re already an established individual. You can tell them you got it at Ross, Target, or at a flea market overseas and marvel with them how good knock-offs are nowadays. The quality things that you buy are for your own pleasure after all. Pretend you don’t know brands or how much things cost. Just say you like how it looks.

4) Never reveal your full income. Without question, never reveal the full extent to how much you make. Only those who are insecure, seek adoration, or want to make money by teaching you how to make money enjoy flaunting their wealth. There’s definitely an inverse correlation with how much wealth you have and how much you show. You’re an invisible tycoon remember? If you have a particularly high income level and you’re hanging around with people who make a fraction of what you make, be cognizant not to talk about your vacations or things you’ve bought. Be aware that the median national household income is $52,000. Earning anything more than 2X your state’s median household income will put you under fire.

5) Spread your assets around. Do not become one of the biggest land owners in your community. Do not become one of the biggest shareholders in a private equity deal unless you really, really believe in it. Spread your investable assets around so people can’t really tell how much you have. Diversification also ensures that your wealth doesn’t take a beating in case of violent downturns either. Take a look at The Recommended Net Worth Allocation By Age Or Work Experience post for more.

6) Get out of your bubble. Once you know your State’s median household income and average net worth, adjust your outlook accordingly. Not everybody had nurturing parents, attended great schools, worked hard, got a lucky break etc. Some people are born into poverty, and it’s damn hard to get out because of negative influences all around. Believe that people truly want to do better. When you do, realize that despite all your hard work, you are luckier than most as well. The better understanding you have of others, the less chance you’ll come across as an arrogant snob and the better you can assimilate.

7) Pretend you do not understand. You might be a brilliant person, but brilliant people are intimidating. Instead, pretend you don’t fully understand what another is saying by asking questions. Don’t think you’re better than others just because you see solutions easily. Guard your intelligence like you guard your full income and wealth. It’s better to start your intelligence at a base level and dial it up if the occasion requires. Some of the smartest people I know have this eery look about them that screams stone cold aloofness. You know they are already thinking multi-variably, but from the outside it seems like they are a dull brick wall. Read: Are You Smart Enough To Act Dumb Enough To Get Ahead?

8) Praise others for their success. Always be encouraging and positive of other people’s milestones. People who are insecure tend to be the ones who want to toot their horn the most. You know the types who constantly post pictures of themselves online, name drop who they hung out with the other day, or constantly share how great they are. Once in a while is absolutely fine. All the time just cries for desperation and attention. Try really hard to bite your tongue and not “one-up” someone else despite any successes you have. Give glory to them. Be happy for others and never belittle their achievements.

9) Volunteer to be on various charitable boards. Although charitable boards are a breeding ground for some of the wealthiest people, it’s hard to get attacked if your name is prominently on the brochure for good. Your role as a charity board member is mainly to fundraise since it is assumed you are relatively well-connected. Rich people attract other rich people, who enjoy rallying around a cause. The more money you can raise for the charity, the less bad things other people will have to say about your wealth.

10) Always stay humble. Sooner or later, people will figure out you are not as poor as you make yourself out to look. When they do, they will realize how humble and unassuming you were all those times they were talking about their wealth and their achievements. You know those movies where a girl falls in love with an ordinary guy she meets at a park, but he turns out to be a prince instead? You want to be that guy. They’ll love you even more and you may even affect their financial lives in a positive way. Related: Grow Stronger By Humbling Yourself Each Year

Full article > http://tinyurl.com/ybvwkbuo

The Five Best Free Financial Resources

How to Get Free Advice and a Financial Education

When it comes to investing, the absolute best things you can have in your arsenal are a solid financial education and good research tools. In fact, the most dangerous thing you can do is start investing without fully understanding what you're doing.

You're already a mile ahead of most would-be investors with your subscription to Wealth Daily, but there are even more resources out there that are almost as good at giving you a leg-up on the competition (i.e. Wall Street).

The Paralysis of Analysis

One of the biggest problems facing retail investors isn't a lack of information, but the exact opposite: an overload. Trust me, I understand. If you search for "investment advice" on Google, literally millions of results pop up. Some are great resources, some are just trying to get your money, and some are downright terrible. Trying to sort through all of that and find the valuable information could take a lifetime.

So, what happens? You might get so overloaded with information that you can't even make a move. Either you're confronted by contradictory advice, or you're stuck sifting through page upon page of analysis until you finally give up. It's true that you never fail if you never try, but it's also true that you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

I've been working in the financial world since I left the U.S. Army, and I can sometimes get caught up in the whirlwind of opinions, data, and analysis. Through years of practice, I've learned how to separate the good from the bad and break through the paralysis. I learned a lot in school when I got my finance and economics degrees, but I also picked up some tricks along the way as I worked my way up from sales assistant to senior analyst. 

I also found some great resources for furthering my education as I climbed the corporate ladder and some equally amazing tools for pinpointing the best investments. And to help you become the smartest investor on the block, I'm going to share the five best resources and tools I've found (and use myself). These will help you break the paralysis of analysis and find the best investments for your trading portfolio.

My Five Top Financial Resources

Resource #5: Wikinvest.com

Here's a site that compiles news stories and analysis articles that you can filter by just about anything.

Break them down by company to find everything on a particular stock. Filter by industry to see what's going on with all the companies in it. Sort stories by funds and indices, commodity, currency, geographic region, and even topic.

If you're interested in only seeing stories about China, or green investments, or government policies around the world, you can get all of that here. But that's not all. You can link your brokerage account and import your portfolio so you can track it and any relevant news. And you can get some great tips on personal finance, how to invest, trading stock options, and even definitions of some common financial terms.

You'll have to sign up to access the information, but there's no charge whatsoever for all of that incredibly useful data.

Resource #4: StockTwits.com

StockTwits is the Twitter of investing. Sure, there's a lot of investment advice on Twitter — I'm on there @AllBeingsEqual, and so are all of my fellow editors here at Wealth Daily (and you should definitely follow us) — but, unlike Twitter, StockTwits is a community made up entirely of people trading stocks and sharing ideas.

By getting involved, you'll be able to see exactly what both experts and retail investors are up to in the markets. What's possibly the best part of all that is seeing where others are investing, getting different opinions and views you might not have considered, and seeing what stocks are trending (and whether it’s a positive or negative trend).

You can use that information to spot big moves before they happen or even challenge the status quo and go against the current. Whether you're a contrarian or find comfort investing with others, you'll find some great information here.

Resource #3: Finviz.com

This site offers a lot of really cool information and analysis. You can keep up to date on all of the latest news related to finance and economics.

There's a tab that will let you research futures trading — something very few sites offer. You can backtest some stock ideas to see how your investment strategies would have performed in the past. But the absolute best part is the stock screener tool it offers.

I use it all the time to narrow down a huge universe into a manageable list. You can choose what kinds of criteria you want in an investment, and the screener will pull up all of the stocks that match what you're looking for. Select from technical indicators like recent performance, moving averages, even patterns like head and shoulders, wedge up, or double bottom.

Or you can use fundamental criteria — choose from all of the different valuation ratios, any type of margin, even insider activity. And you can select from descriptive criteria like exchange, country of origin, sector or industry, market cap, and dividend yield.

Once you've got all of your criteria selected, the screener will give you a list of all the stocks that match. Then you know you're not wasting any time researching companies that wouldn't fit into your investing strategy.

Resource #2: PortfolioVisualizer.com

This is an incredibly cool site! You can do some ridiculously complex analysis here. I mean anything from running factor analysis to checking asset correlations to running a Monte Carlo simulation, if that's your thing.

You can even run timing models to check investing strategies and analyze portfolios to find efficient frontiers (comparing risk vs. reward to find the optimal portfolio for your own personal risk appetite).

But what's probably the best (and most useful) tool on the site is the portfolio backtester. If you've got an idea about an industry or a particular allocation strategy, you can input the stocks and allocations here (along with the dates you want to check). Then you submit the portfolio and, within a few seconds, get the performance of your portfolio in comparison to the market.

You can even see how it would do with regular contributions, dividend reinvestments, and scheduled rebalancing. It's the best free backtesting service I've ever come across, and it's amazingly simple to use. I love it!

The Best Free Investment You'll Ever Make

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After getting your report, you’ll begin receiving the Wealth Daily e-Letter, delivered to your inbox daily.

Resource #1: Investopedia.com

This is probably my personal favorite resource out there (other than my fellow editors here at Wealth Daily, of course). The site offers stock and forex simulators, news links, guides, and even exam study tips for the CFA.

But the part that makes it my number one resource is the free tutorials it offers. If there's ever a financial term or concept you're unsure of, it's explained in beautifully simplistic detail here. You'll increase your financial lexicon by at least 100% when you start using this site.

Even pros need a refresher sometimes. When there's a model I haven't used in a while that would be the best way to analyze a company, I head straight over here. And the world of investing is chockfull of complex ideas, concepts, and terminology that, if you don't use them all the time, can be intimidating and downright confusing as all get out.

I mentioned Monte Carlo simulations above. That's something many people aren't familiar with. "Efficient frontiers" is a term that might intimidate if you're just getting started. But once you've got a simple-to-understand explanation, you'll use them to become an even better investor.

Like I said, the absolute best thing all investors can do for themselves is learn more. Education doesn't ever stop, and this site is a great place to expand your knowledge.

Bonus Resource: Wealth Daily

Those resources are really great. They're honestly my five favorites, and I use them a lot myself. But you’ve already got the best free resource on the web with your subscription to Wealth Daily.

You can search our archives and find articles on just about any topic you’re interested in. You can send feedback to ask us to write about something we haven’t already. You can even take advantage of our excellent premium investing and trading services and get all of the hottest investment ideas from some of the brightest minds in finance.

When you combine what you get from the experts here at Wealth Daily with the five resources I listed above, there's practically no limit to the success you'll have investing. So get rid of that analysis paralysis and get your money working for you. There's no better way to secure a comfortable future and true financial freedom than investing.

To investing with integrity (and all the best resources),

Jason Williams
Wealth Daily

Surviving the Coming Economic Collapse

While some may consider such a discussion a waste of time, more and more people are coming to the conclusion that preparations of some sort are warranted in our current troubled environment — on many fronts.

How much preparation individuals are willing to do is usually in direct correlation to their belief that something catastrophic could happen, making life as we know it a much more difficult task.

It is a proven fact throughout history that when disruptions of any kind occur, those who made even the smallest preparations typically fare much better than those who gave no thought at all in this regard.

Today I want to share with you a list I have compiled of the things that could potentially happen — and that threaten our way of life in a small or large degree.

There is no way to predict these things, but anyone with common sense can see that the possibility is likely we could experience one or more of these events at some point in the future...

Any single event or combination of events could cause terrible and debilitating circumstances for a short or long period of time:

• Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, tornados, volcanic eruptions, solar flares, earthquakes, and other geophysical events
• Possibility of wars, nuclear wars, nuclear reactor meltdowns, and radiation fallout
• Financial meltdown (derivative, debt crisis, economic collapse and/or bond implosion) causing currencies to implode and governments to topple
• Problems with the exploration, delivery, or production of oil, the lifeblood of modern economies
• Spread of disease such as the Black Plague or a bird flu pandemic
• Power grid failure
• Political anarchy or revolution
• Racial strife or civil war
• Electromagnetic pulse event
  

With any of these scenarios listed above (and there is a host of others I have probably not even thought about), you could have localized, national, or global unrest and even war for an indefinite period of time depending on the scope and duration of the event(s).

An item that is not on the list — but could be equally devastating to individual families — is the loss of a job.

Losing a job can be a catastrophic event if one is not properly prepared. Most families find themselves living paycheck to paycheck with little in the way of savings and almost nothing in the way of preparations.

For years, I had brought up the issue of preparedness to a close friend of mine.

When I first started talking about it, my friend and his wife basically blew me off... but I kept bringing the topic up.

Eventually they thought it prudent to at least get some sort of food storage together. Their family was accustomed to an upper middle class income and living comfortably in suburbia with their three children...

About a year after making their food preparations, the breadwinner of the family lost his job and ended up working a series of almost minimum wage jobs trying to make ends meet.

He kept applying for better-paying jobs in his field of expertise — but no matter how qualified he was nobody was interested in hiring someone at his previous salary level or his age (late fifties).

The family's lifestyle was devastated and they eventually lost their home...

In a recent conversation with this friend, he told me that without their food storage, things would have been immeasurably more difficult. He thanked me for being a good friend and pushing the issue when he and his wife weren’t listening.

The family is now living a greatly reduced lifestyle, but keeping their heads above water and continuing with their preparations.

I share this story because on an individual basis, there is a host of things that can happen in which being prepared could make a huge difference.

We often, as a people in general, terms take things for granted and think 'this' or 'that' will never happen to us. In addition to a major job loss due to a myriad of reasons, you could lose your health or the ability to do your job.

Unfortunately, things of this nature are happening to more and more people every day. In fact, I'm certain all of us have been affected to some degree by similar stories of friends and relatives.

Our Current State of Affairs

The world in general seems afflicted on so many different fronts.

When you look at the list above, any rational person could easily see one or more of these scenarios occur within their lifetime.

Aside from the geophysical things that seem to be going haywire, and could be explained simply as the planet’s cycles, there are plenty of man-made catastrophes that loom on the horizon...

Never has the planet had as many people as it does now. With increased population numbers, there is increased pressure for resources.

This is a key point on why you want to stay invested in commodities of all kinds.

More countries seek nuclear devices than ever before and recent advancements in technology make this much easier than any time before in history.

Biological and chemical weapons are also much easier to manufacture — and are being stored by an increasing number of very scary countries.

Oil markets are tighter than ever as demand from countries like China and India increases, but new supply cannot keep up with the increasing demand.

The financial debacle of the world economies needs no introduction to my readers. In short, bad times — really bad times — for any number of reasons could and probably will be coming to a location near you.

Unless you and your family take this possibility quite seriously, if and when something does happen, you could very well find yourself in some extremely difficult circumstances. Just look at the latest news coming out of Greece, as reported by Reuters, below...

This is happening right now — and it’s only going to spread.

When the political and economic systems of entire nations collapse the consequences are devastating.

Earlier this year pharmacies and hospitals in Greece were unable to provide life saving medicines due to a shortages caused by a freeze in the flow of credit from manufacturers to distributors to patients. A collapse in the country’s economy has forced many Greeks to turn to black market barter economies and has left millions financially devastated, with no hope of finding an income stream for the foreseeable future.

The credit system of the entire country is in shambles. So much so that reports are emerging about food shortages and hunger within the Greek prison system, suggesting that serious problems in the food delivery chain have begun to materialize.

As Nigel Farage warned recently, we are beginning to see the rise of extreme political parties as a consequence of the total and utter desperation of the populace.

Today the news gets even worse. Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE) announced an emergency meeting to deal with what can only be construed as a tell-tale sign that this crisis is very rapidly reaching critical mass and may spiral out of control in the very near future:

Greece’s power regulator RAE told Reuters on Friday it was calling an emergency meeting next week to avert a collapse of the debt-stricken country’s electricity and natural gas system.

“RAE is taking crisis initiatives throughout next week to avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system,” the regulator’s chief Nikos Vasilakos told Reuters.

RAE took the decision after receiving a letter from Greece’s natural gas company DEPA, which threatened to cut supplies to electricity producers if they failed to settle their arrears with the company.

You may have thought the financial collapse of 2008 was bad. That was just a warm-up.

The main event is staring us in the face, and the whole of Europe has front-row seats.

What is happening in Europe is just a precursor for what will eventually be coming to the United States...

I personally witnessed what can happen within a very short period of time when food is no longer available to the public.

I was in my early twenties, living in Paris, France.

Because of an extended truckers' strike, the food stores were cleared out within 24 hours of the announcement. Within five days, normally law-abiding citizens took to the streets and began threatening anyone who had food...

Those with no food quickly crossed the line of sanity and started desperately looking to take food from those who had it by any means necessary.

These events were never properly covered by the news media (what a surprise!), but I saw firsthand how uncivilized a so-called "modern country" can become within a matter of days because of a lack of food.

If I had not witnessed this myself, I probably would not believe this could happen so easily.

And even as a strong young man, I found myself quite frightened at times before the trucks started rolling again.

That particular truckers' strike lasted three weeks — but it left me with a lasting impression.

The following are Items to Consider that I feel are prudent as you make your own preparations based on the problems that could potentially threaten our way of life.

Each of the items below could fill a book... but my intent is to at least get you thinking about the most important things related to being prepared.

1. Should I stay or should I go?

 Many have already decided where they will go if and when any such disaster occurs. One of the questions I get more than any other regarding this topic is: Should I stay in the United States or leave to another country?

Personally, I know many who have already left the United States — and they have never looked back. I have been invited to their retreats in Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, and the Caribbean Islands, and they seem very happy with their decision to leave.

This is a huge decision. My hope is that the following discussion may be of some help when thinking about this topic.

Because I travel internationally so much in my search for quality mining assets, I often compare notes on my trips with other folks (geologists, newsletter writers, etc.) about their travels...

One of the realizations you see firsthand as you travel extensively worldwide is the extreme wealth, extreme poverty, and extreme corruption that exists in all of its world flavors.

If you think the United States is corrupt, you should try going to Peru, or Bolivia, or Panama. And if you think those countries are corrupt, you haven’t see anything compared to Russia, Haiti, India, or some places in Africa...

The fact is corruption and the growing global police state is EVERYWHERE!

So while we certainly see much to complain about in the United States, which is definitely going the wrong way fast, from what I have seen in most other places on the planet, the U.S. is still less corrupt than most. There are bad apples everywhere throughout politics, local police, FBI agents, and most certainly the court system — but for every bad apple, there are probably three times as many honorable people who are truly just trying to do their jobs.

Leaving the country is a decision you must make before the event takes place due to the sheer amount of time and effort it takes to accomplish such a task.

You must also think about being away from family and friends who don’t share your enthusiasm to leave the country and what affect that could have on everyone over time.

For most, I think it’s probably best to just hunker down in your own country (U.S. or Canada) and prepare as much as you can. If you can afford a retreat cabin somewhere far away from the big cities, that would probably be best — but again, you still need to get there once the event occurs.

Studies have clearly shown that once a SHTF (Sh*t Hits The Fan) event occurs, you have two to three days to get to where you ultimately want to hunker down. After that, travel becomes extremely dangerous and it is unlikely you will reach your final destination.

Highways will become kill zones targeted by the bad guys. To a gang of armed looters who forgot to prepare or plan ahead before the event, there is not a better target than an RV loaded down with stored food, ammo, and gold.

Don’t be foolish and attempt travel once things have gone south: If you need to get somewhere, plan to leave the moment the event happens and arrive where you want to be within 72 hours.

This may require several false starts (meaning the situation looked bad at first, but didn’t materialize, and you need to return home) on your part as events start to unfold. But it's better to be safe than sorry if you are planning to get somewhere when an event happens.

Military strategists know from historical accounts of what happens when governments fail or when SHTF events affect a country: The rule of thumb is that roads are to be avoided at all costs.

If you cannot afford a retreat cabin of some sort, there are things you can do to hunker down in your own home...

First, you need to stock up and find a way to defend it. Like-minded friends and neighbors can be a huge support network — as long as they have prepared as well.

There is a great book (it's not well-edited, but has solid content) on how to live in your home and defend it called Holding Your Ground: Preparing for Defense if it All Falls Apart by Joe Nobody, which in itself is a lesson in laying low.

This book isn’t about turning your home into a concrete bunker armed to the teeth; it's more about using cosmetic deception to fool would-be marauders into thinking your place has already been hit. It includes plenty of clever techniques that go far beyond "shooting back."

Ultimately, everyone must decide for themselves based on finances, family concerns, and individual preferences what he can or cannot do in his preparations.

Hopefully, this discussion will help you make the best choices for what is in your best interest.

2. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

This is a good motto to live by, despite how you think about things.

Individuals can still hope for the best (that things can and will eventually work out), but what good is your prosperity going to do if you don’t have anything to eat or a safe place to hang out for an extended period of time?

Why not prepare while you still can — when things are readily available and can still be purchased at cheap prices? The coming hyper-inflation will make any such purchases beforehand look very intelligent...

To prepare for the worst, you need a plan. Why are most people so against doing basic preparations that could be the difference on how they survive — or whether they survive?

History shows time and again that those who prepare always fare better than those who did not. Having a plan and being determined to act on that plan will always be the best way to handle any contingencies, should they occur.

After disaster strikes, your mind is going to be racing around like a car on a race track. Pre-planning and having a written set of measures to take will make someone’s life go much smoother when the SHTF.

Your own personal plan is ONLY what best fits what you are going to do during and after a disaster.

People should also have back-up plans — Plans B and C, at least — because nothing ever seems to go as planned. Haphazard approaches to the aftermaths of catastrophes are kind of like a chicken running around without its head.

Full article > http://tinyurl.com/y9lqo8fo