Two months ago we barely had two pennies to rub together. But then we discovered matched betting and now we’ve got over £1,000 in the coffers (actually more like £1,500 at the time of writing this). It has been quite a ride, folks.
Matched betting gave the funds an initial boost but should also provide a few hundred pounds of recurring income each month, provided that we keep our efforts up and don’t get banned by the various bookmakers we’re with.
We’ve quickly moved out of the bleak situation we were in and to the point where we’ve finally got a few chips to play with at the casino table. About time too…
Don’t get me wrong, none of us are thinking that a measly £1.5k makes us big time, but what it does do is present us with a challenge of what to do with this little stash.
We can’t just have £1.5k sitting in a bank account doing nothing
Now, if it were me on my own and I’d come into a spare £1.5k, I’d whip it straight into my stocks and shares ISA, invested in some low cost ETFs, and get that money working for me.
And admittedly that’s one of the options that’s available to this project. It’s certainly more attractive than just leaving it in our instant access bank account earning next to nothing.
It might not sound like the height of excitement, but it does have the potential to generate decent returns if the current Brexit-shambles we’re in means that the stock market takes a dip that we can use to our advantage. Timing the market is notoriously difficult, but if you’re playing the long game, returns should be positive.
As I said, I’d be strongly in favour of this approach in my personal life, which really represents the slow and steady strategy.
But, best case, we’re not going to be able to more than double our money over several years. The annual return on the stock market over the last 10 years has been around 6% according to the motley fool, so realistically we’ll be plodding along slowly.
Shares are great, but will they give us the returns we need for this project?
Whilst slow and steady is the mantra for my personal savings (what little remains of them after forking out for a recent home extension), it’s not going to propel this blog’s project forward very quickly.
Sure, over time it might be the route to financial independence, but it’s not necessary the leap that we all envisaged making when we started up this project. Remember, the point of this blog is to stretch beyond what we’re already doing in our personal lives and try out new money-making ideas.
So, an alternative option is to take our funds and gamble them into a project that might be more risky. Of course, that gamble should be a calculated one but, worst case, we lose it all and end up back where we started 6 months ago (although with much more knowledge about how to make the money back in the future).
It’s no Biggie if the idea fails. It’s not like any of us are relying on the £1.5k we’ve built up so far to put food on the table or pay the bills.
But exactly what to do with it?
It’s always been the case that the more money you have, the more opportunities you have to make more money. And clearly having only £1.5k only opens so many doors. For instance, we’re not going to be getting into the property game on that sort of stash.
The thing that jumps out to me instead is the possibility of opening an online business. £1.5k should be plenty to get some stock, open a website and give it some publicity too. And if it fails then it fails gently too, we just lose our stake and work out what we need to do with 1,000 unsold pairs of socks we’ve imported from China.
This idea really appeals to me. On the downside it’s a lot more work than the stocks and shares ISA, but it’s got the potential to provide much greater returns. In addition, it’s the sort of thing we’re likely to learn more lessons from (which has a value in its self), as well as make a more interesting story for the readers of this blog.
Start from scratch or buy an existing business?
We could definitely start from the bottom, beginning a new business from scratch. But when we were having this discussion Dave mentioned to us that he’s previously looked at buying an already established business and trying to give it a boost.
People are looking to sell businesses all the time through sites like this one: https://exchangemarketplace.com/ and the thinking would be that this could give us a head start on setting it all up, and a much needed idea to get us going with.
Amounts invested will be a little higher, since you’re paying someone else for the work they did setting it up, and it still might turn out to be a lemon, but it’s another possible alternative. Personally, I struggle to understand why, if someone had a really great money-making idea, they would let it go for the sort of money that we could offer. But you never know.
We’re at a crossroads here. Help us work out where to go next
I’ve raised these conundrums with my fellow Money Mountain team members and we’re going to have a meeting on 7the February to discuss which of the ideas we pursue further.
It feels like we’re at a major crossroads in the early life of our project and we really need the help of you, our readers, to decide where to go with this next. What do you want to see us do and try with our £1.5k?
Below I’ve put a simple poll, but if you’ve got particular suggestions or advice, or maybe you just want to heckle or encourage us, let us know in the comments below. Don’t forget, 10% of our total returns for the year belong to our readers, so this is a decision that affects us all.
Purely from a reader’s perspective, I say gamble it all on some crazy scheme. Should make good reading!
We’ll see what we can do! 😁 We aim to please.