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Wow, three questions with very big answers! Forgive me in advance for what will be a long reply, and this is somewhat more personal than I'd usually discuss on a forum. First thing I did was to start a rather unconventional argicultural business, breeding rats. Yes, that sounds a bit crazy, but it was actually a reasonably good business, I'd guess that after expenses I was making about $80 per hour of my time; far more than anyone else in the business I know of, because I was good at making the whole process extremely efficient, meaning I used less feed, space, materials and most importantly time than anyone else, meaning I could sell quality you couldn't beat at prices only one competitor could beat, and he had unreliable supply. When starting that venture I had no money so built the required infrastructure primarily from materials I literally scavenged from the local tip. It took a fair bit of time but that's something I had plenty of. I was able to set that up in an unused building on a property owned by the parents of my new girlfriend, (she and her family for some reason saw something in me despite the fact I was penniless) I took the first job I was able to get (this was in 2008, so finding work was more difficult than at any time other than right now and did take some time), which was in an office, I utterly hated it but I was very capable and they paid me reasonably well. Making money from the business and my job, either of which would have been enough to get by on, I started saving and immediately began trading on the stock market, the timing was perfect with the GFC recovery happening right at that time. Once I was making enough money from the stocks and the business I quit my job, but fairly soon after was offered a new job in a medical research laboratory (something which did interest me, was related to my qualifications and paid better). Along the way during this episode of my life I also picked up freelance work such as writing articles for magazines, wildlife photography, part time editorial and proofreading work for a publishing company, and a few other bits and pieces here and there. As you can probably guess, after a year or so of pickup all sorts of work I was extremely busy, often working 80-100 hours per week and making good money for just about all the hours I was doing. Actually, my main motivation for making money the focus of my life during those years was my girlfriend, who while we were both broke and unemployed, said she wanted us to buy a house. I agreed, but she became very upset when I said we would either need to get a mortgage or spend time renting. She said she just wanted us to buy a house without needing to rent or borrow. I said that was impossible, she was so upset. About two years later I had enough money to buy a house outright and she was still sitting around playing computer games. I might have bought her a house but when I said I had enough to do it, she didn't say "Wow, you're a genius, that's amazing, no one else could have done that! We went from nothing to being able to buy a house in less than 10% of the time most people take to pay off a mortgage, I'm so proud of you, you've worked so hard, just incredible!", she said "See? My idea was much better than your long term mortgage plan!". She really was a lovely girl, heart of gold, but not too good a grasp on maths or money. I did leave give her a good chunk of money and paid off all her university debts when I left, and hope she is doing well now....the story of how I went from having something to nothing, well, that's a much longer story, but skipping details, I got ripped off by a now ex friend in a business deal, had a bad and expensive time with my next girlfriend, ended up spending about 3 years travelling abroad and enjoying myself (which you might understand I very much felt inclined to do after the previous 6 or so fairly intense years which included a lot of hard work and/or dealing with difficult people in unpleasant ways), then spent a further 3 years of blood, sweat and tears as well as all my money setting up a business which would have started generating a lot of income mid this year (I came so close and it looked like being closer to best case scenario than worst. If the pandemic had come 18 months later I'd actually have been financially quite comfortable, even 6 months later I'd have been doing okay). Fortunately I didn't go into debt setting up as many people do, so I was able to walk away with nothing rather than less than nothing....and on to your third question... honestly, I'm not quite sure just yet. Despite having had quite a colourful life which has included a generous share of painful lows, the last month has probably been the most challenging of my life. I spent my 21st birthday sleeping in the broken down car which was my home at the time, I lived day to day not knowing where I'd get my next meal or when I'd next be able to shower. Often I went hungry, and honestly, that period of my life was so much better than the nightmare I've had over the last month, which hasn't really had me in a position to strategically plan businesses etc, especially since I'm still in limbo in terms of where I'm going to live. I'm trapped in Melbourne and never planned to be here in the cold months of the year ever again, let alone consider living here. I may be able to return to Asia and salvage the situation (I'd lose at least two years even if I was able to return tomorrow, but it really was a good business model and I'd still like to do it if possible) or I may be stuck here long enough to necessitate setting something up in Australia. As you might guess I have business ideas from time to time and did sometimes think of things I'd like to do it I was living in Australia, but none of them are at all possible in a lockdown scenario, other than setting up the rat business again, which I'd probably do if I had a place to do it in. That one doesn't require much capital to set up (I literally did it last time with materials I scavenged for free, and a few hundred dollars to fill in the gaps, and setting up a second time would simply be to follow the business model I already worked out) but it takes a fair bit of time and most importantly, a stable, appropriate location to do it in. I would only make that a part time thing, but 20 hours per week on that would allow me approximately a full time wage, with enough free time to either set up either a main business or a full time job while treading water working on another business idea. If things were normal I'd be able to think of plenty of viable business ideas, but in these circumstances I'd actually need some time to think about it even if you gave me a million dollars and said I could use it to start a business. I am currently considering some options which generally I'd either not consider or would just think of as silly side ventures, but in these circumstances I have to consider options I generally wouldn't (even to the point where I recently literally stooped to applying for the dole!). I personally wouldn't ever have a conventional business like a cafe or retail store. I'd prefer to do something unusual which will either bring in a fortune or crash spectacularly. Having said that, while I still have no aversion to risk, I will never again put myself in a position where all my eggs are in one basket. As unlikely as it is that a black swan may come and destroy everything you own, your whole way of life and the future you've worked so hard for, my first hand experience confirms the extremely unlikely can happen, and if it will hurt you that much you don't want to leave yourself open to it.For me personally, clawing my way back up will probably involve capitalising on some of my personal strengths, experience and contacts which wouldn't necessarily apply to anyone else. I think Value Collector gave an excellent basic idea of how most people would best be able to deal with the current situation - get the best source of income you can, live as cheaply as you can (and I can tell you with utmost sincerity that the vast majority of Australians have no concept of how much more cheaply they could be living while still being more comfortable than most people in this world), and investing their savings into something sensible. I will only have similarly spectacular results as before if I again put in extremely hard yards, working both hard and smart, while simultaneously being frugal, or alternatively if I'm extraordinarily lucky.Well done if you read the whole post!
Wow, three questions with very big answers! Forgive me in advance for what will be a long reply, and this is somewhat more personal than I'd usually discuss on a forum. First thing I did was to start a rather unconventional argicultural business, breeding rats. Yes, that sounds a bit crazy, but it was actually a reasonably good business, I'd guess that after expenses I was making about $80 per hour of my time; far more than anyone else in the business I know of, because I was good at making the whole process extremely efficient, meaning I used less feed, space, materials and most importantly time than anyone else, meaning I could sell quality you couldn't beat at prices only one competitor could beat, and he had unreliable supply. When starting that venture I had no money so built the required infrastructure primarily from materials I literally scavenged from the local tip. It took a fair bit of time but that's something I had plenty of. I was able to set that up in an unused building on a property owned by the parents of my new girlfriend, (she and her family for some reason saw something in me despite the fact I was penniless) I took the first job I was able to get (this was in 2008, so finding work was more difficult than at any time other than right now and did take some time), which was in an office, I utterly hated it but I was very capable and they paid me reasonably well. Making money from the business and my job, either of which would have been enough to get by on, I started saving and immediately began trading on the stock market, the timing was perfect with the GFC recovery happening right at that time. Once I was making enough money from the stocks and the business I quit my job, but fairly soon after was offered a new job in a medical research laboratory (something which did interest me, was related to my qualifications and paid better). Along the way during this episode of my life I also picked up freelance work such as writing articles for magazines, wildlife photography, part time editorial and proofreading work for a publishing company, and a few other bits and pieces here and there. As you can probably guess, after a year or so of pickup all sorts of work I was extremely busy, often working 80-100 hours per week and making good money for just about all the hours I was doing. Actually, my main motivation for making money the focus of my life during those years was my girlfriend, who while we were both broke and unemployed, said she wanted us to buy a house. I agreed, but she became very upset when I said we would either need to get a mortgage or spend time renting. She said she just wanted us to buy a house without needing to rent or borrow. I said that was impossible, she was so upset. About two years later I had enough money to buy a house outright and she was still sitting around playing computer games. I might have bought her a house but when I said I had enough to do it, she didn't say "Wow, you're a genius, that's amazing, no one else could have done that! We went from nothing to being able to buy a house in less than 10% of the time most people take to pay off a mortgage, I'm so proud of you, you've worked so hard, just incredible!", she said "See? My idea was much better than your long term mortgage plan!". She really was a lovely girl, heart of gold, but not too good a grasp on maths or money. I did leave give her a good chunk of money and paid off all her university debts when I left, and hope she is doing well now.
...the story of how I went from having something to nothing, well, that's a much longer story, but skipping details, I got ripped off by a now ex friend in a business deal, had a bad and expensive time with my next girlfriend, ended up spending about 3 years travelling abroad and enjoying myself (which you might understand I very much felt inclined to do after the previous 6 or so fairly intense years which included a lot of hard work and/or dealing with difficult people in unpleasant ways), then spent a further 3 years of blood, sweat and tears as well as all my money setting up a business which would have started generating a lot of income mid this year (I came so close and it looked like being closer to best case scenario than worst. If the pandemic had come 18 months later I'd actually have been financially quite comfortable, even 6 months later I'd have been doing okay). Fortunately I didn't go into debt setting up as many people do, so I was able to walk away with nothing rather than less than nothing.
...and on to your third question... honestly, I'm not quite sure just yet. Despite having had quite a colourful life which has included a generous share of painful lows, the last month has probably been the most challenging of my life. I spent my 21st birthday sleeping in the broken down car which was my home at the time, I lived day to day not knowing where I'd get my next meal or when I'd next be able to shower. Often I went hungry, and honestly, that period of my life was so much better than the nightmare I've had over the last month, which hasn't really had me in a position to strategically plan businesses etc, especially since I'm still in limbo in terms of where I'm going to live. I'm trapped in Melbourne and never planned to be here in the cold months of the year ever again, let alone consider living here. I may be able to return to Asia and salvage the situation (I'd lose at least two years even if I was able to return tomorrow, but it really was a good business model and I'd still like to do it if possible) or I may be stuck here long enough to necessitate setting something up in Australia. As you might guess I have business ideas from time to time and did sometimes think of things I'd like to do it I was living in Australia, but none of them are at all possible in a lockdown scenario, other than setting up the rat business again, which I'd probably do if I had a place to do it in. That one doesn't require much capital to set up (I literally did it last time with materials I scavenged for free, and a few hundred dollars to fill in the gaps, and setting up a second time would simply be to follow the business model I already worked out) but it takes a fair bit of time and most importantly, a stable, appropriate location to do it in. I would only make that a part time thing, but 20 hours per week on that would allow me approximately a full time wage, with enough free time to either set up either a main business or a full time job while treading water working on another business idea. If things were normal I'd be able to think of plenty of viable business ideas, but in these circumstances I'd actually need some time to think about it even if you gave me a million dollars and said I could use it to start a business. I am currently considering some options which generally I'd either not consider or would just think of as silly side ventures, but in these circumstances I have to consider options I generally wouldn't (even to the point where I recently literally stooped to applying for the dole!). I personally wouldn't ever have a conventional business like a cafe or retail store. I'd prefer to do something unusual which will either bring in a fortune or crash spectacularly. Having said that, while I still have no aversion to risk, I will never again put myself in a position where all my eggs are in one basket. As unlikely as it is that a black swan may come and destroy everything you own, your whole way of life and the future you've worked so hard for, my first hand experience confirms the extremely unlikely can happen, and if it will hurt you that much you don't want to leave yourself open to it.
For me personally, clawing my way back up will probably involve capitalising on some of my personal strengths, experience and contacts which wouldn't necessarily apply to anyone else. I think Value Collector gave an excellent basic idea of how most people would best be able to deal with the current situation - get the best source of income you can, live as cheaply as you can (and I can tell you with utmost sincerity that the vast majority of Australians have no concept of how much more cheaply they could be living while still being more comfortable than most people in this world), and investing their savings into something sensible. I will only have similarly spectacular results as before if I again put in extremely hard yards, working both hard and smart, while simultaneously being frugal, or alternatively if I'm extraordinarily lucky.
Well done if you read the whole post!
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