Paintball

[SpinDoctor15]

Someone on another forum posted a question about how to pay for their paintball addiction, and I put together a response to that thread. I'm posting a version of it here, as I'd like to share some thoughts about how to pay for our favorite hobby! Often times, people get stuck in this "rat-race," where they are always chasing that next paycheck or payraise, and get sucked into the world of consumer debt. They never have anything to show for their hard work in life, it's a struggle to always fill the next tank of gas, buy the next load of groceries, or even go paintballing! But, there is hope, and I would like to share some experience of mine to encourage you to save money and be able to afford the things you want in life! Read on, and if you have any questions about finances or investments, please feel free to PM me, I love talking about this stuff.

The simple problem with not having enough money, is not knowing how to handle it when you DO have money! People just don't know what they TRULY WANT. They don't know what will really make them happy, and they spend their money on frivolous items that don't give them any net gain in happines. I'm 24 years old, and I live in Los Angeles, CA, where the average home price on the West side of town (where I live) is somewhere around $800,000 and up! This poses a challenge to anyone's paycheck, it pretty much forces most lower and middle-class folks to rent an apartment, and the higher cost of living means you have to make lifestyle adjustments. This is just to give some perspective.

Rule #1: SAVE, SAVE, SAVE! I make a lot of sacrifices to save money and put away for retirement. I pack my lunch pretty much every day, sold my truck for a Honda (get ~24 mpg city, and I still walk to stores/etc. when I can), go to the local Farmer's Market for all my fruits/vegetables for cheap deals on organic stuff!, and try really hard NOT to spend on impulse. It's all about priorities. When I get a small windfall of money (tax return, birthday, etc.) I put it away. It's as if I never even had the money! The benefit to you is huge if you can do that. Get out of the mentality of living paycheck to paycheck, and don't always expect the next lump sum or gift to save you financially.

RULE #2: GET SOME ADVICE! I think that as a young person, you should try and talk with someone who gives sound financial advice and start small, investing anything you can. Even if you can save up just $300-$500 and invest that amount in a mutual fund, you have the potential to earn SO MUCH! I use a personal financial advisor who helps me steer my savings into good, solid mutual funds. Case-in-point, even after the 3-4% fee that he makes as my advisor, one of the funds he helped me choose made over 22% net earnings last year (from 26% gross). That's huge! That means, if you put $500 into a mutual fund, and let it sit for a year, you'd have $610 at the end of that time, and wouldn't have done a bit of extra work for it! Now, take into account compound interest, and you've got a lot of earning potential to look forward to! In fact, if you had $20,000 in that fund, you'd now have an extra $440 (which you should re-invest of course) in one year for doing absolutely nothing (other than being wise, and saving your money!).

RULE #3: BE CREATIVE! Enough about the financial talk, you want to know how to make some real cash in the next year or two to fund your paintball addiction! You can always work small jobs like lawn-mowing, snow-shoveling, babysitting, etc. but what about making money through paintball itself? I scour the internet for deals on paintball equipment. I Look for large packages (including marker, air tanks, hoppers, barrels, etc.) that can be scooped up for a relatively decent price. Usually, I'm interested in a particular item included in the package, and I aim to sell off ALL of the other items in the package, and save that one item, hoping to break even. By parting out the pieces of the package, you have the potential to earn more (the sum total is worth less than the individual parts!). Here's an example from an eBay package I scored 3 years ago:

I paid $700 with shipping for: 99 STO Autococker, 68/4500 SP Max-Flo tank, 68/3000 AGD Flatline tank, Halo A hopper, 12V Revolution hopper, full Freak barrel kit, Dye barrel, extra Dye .45 frame, Pod pack w/5 pods, and 2 gear bags. That's a lot of stuff! All of it was in great working order (the cocker needed timing of course). To spare the gory details I ended up selling off everything but the Autococker with the Freak kit, AGD Flatline, and hopper; which I then traded/sold those items for an AGD Sydarm; which I also recently sold! Sum total, I made $255 out of the deal. That means I had cash-in-hand of $955 at the end. I then bought a MiniMag package off PBNation for $300, it included the MiniMag, 68/4500 tank, 68/3000 tank, hopper, barrels, regs, drop forwards, etc. I ended up selling off most of the items for $300 and managed to keep the MiniMag with Intelliframe and Dye Ultralite for free (essentially)!

If you save up enough to buy a large package of things for a relatively cheap sum, you can sell all the pieces separately and make a profit! You need to find the really good deals though. Wait until the right time to buy something, make sure the seller is reputable, the stuff works, and the deal is sweet. Then make your move. It's a big game, and you can make a lot of money if you're patient and don't get too attached to the items you are buying/selling. In other words, you can't eat up your profit and keep everything you buy, no matter how cool it is!

RULE #4: EDUCATION! Remember, the person who thinks money is the root of all evil is incorrect. The LOVE of money can be evil, and there's a difference. We often talk about how education is the key to a good future. While this is true of academic education, you also need financial smarts! It's something that has been put on the back burner by the school system and parents alike, but it's one of the most important things to learn in order to be successful in this world! Don't be afraid to educate yourself about money, it'd be ignorant not to.

RULE #5: BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF Keep good track of your finances. Start an MS Excel document or Word document that tracks your earnings/expenditures. You'll see VERY quickly how much you spend on useless crap. This helps me find where I've spent too much on say... going out to dinner, buying CDs or DVDs, and yes, even buying too much paintball crap. I made a goal for purchasing my Hurricane, and that was that I needed to earn at least $500 profit from selling paintball items before I could commit to that purchase and spend some of my paycheck on it. In being honest with myself, I realized that I needed to sell things for a net profit of $500, not just sell a bunch of items and end up with $500. The reason being, I already had sunk cost in the items that I would be selling, and by getting rid of them, that would just put me back on level ground. So, I needed to earn more money than I had spent originally, my net profit needed to be $500. Needless to say, I had to get rid of a lot of things that I didn't want to, but honestly I'm happy I did. I realized that I didn't need to have so much crap lying around, when what I truly wanted was the Hurricane! This goes back to one of my original statements. Know what makes you happy, and know what you want.

Good luck, and if you need any help with financial advice, PM me, I'm more than happy to talk about how to save money and still fund your hobbies!

[pork sword]

excellent post...I particularly like the points made in #3 (all are very good points, just #3 struck a chord with me...that's how I fund some of paintball for myself)

there are deals out there to make money off of if you look around. Ebay is a great place to find some of them, because not everyone knows what they have.

another good idea to bypass field fees & perhaps some relief on paint is to volunteer to ref at local fields and help out wherever needed as well. This will also get you into good graces with the owners of the field as well, which can help the burden down the line too.

awesome post though...I hope some people take heed to what you've pointed out. I know I will for certain.

[greenmtnphantom]

I work for a financial services company and just to drive home the power of compund interest, most mutual funds can average at least a minimum of 10% growth annually, if at age 28 you have 28,000 in the find, and NEVER add another penny to it when you retire at age 62 you will have a little over 1.25 million dollars in that account.

Interested in what your invest ment is worth use the rule of 72, (discovered by Ben Franklin) this says that if you divid 72 by the interest you are earning you will get the number of years it takes your investment to double. For example 72/12=6 so if you can get 12% your money will double every 6 years, so lets say you invest only $100 now, 2012 it's $200, 2018 it's $400, I think you can do the math from there, and thats just from that one $100 investment!

[SpinDoctor15]

"Compounding is the greatest mathematical discovery of all time." - Albert Einstein

[Z50]

Originally Posted by greenmtnphantom

I work for a financial services company and just to drive home the power of compund interest, most mutual funds can average at least a minimum of 10% growth annually, if at age 28 you have 28,000 in the find, and NEVER add another penny to it when you retire at age 62 you will have a little over 1.25 million dollars in that account.

These numbers are wonderful but you need to apply a practical viewpoint as well. 1.25 million is a huge amount of money right now, but in 34 years what will that mean? When my mother was graduating from high school her father bought a house for $30,000 a little over 30 years later and that house is valued at $180,000. The investment in your 10% growth fund is still far better then the house, and worlds better then PGPs but having 1.25 million in 34 years is about the same as having about $200,000 now. You also need to understand that a lot of people who are married and have kids at 28 can not possibly put away 28,000 and forget about it. Those who were in a similar situation need to look back and realize that fact and not kick them selves for not putting 28,000 in a bank so many years ago. If it were easy to have 1.25 million then we all would.

[greenmtnphantom]

Originally Posted by Z50

These numbers are wonderful but you need to apply a practical viewpoint as well. 1.25 million is a huge amount of money right now, but in 34 years what will that mean? When my mother was graduating from high school her father bought a house for $30,000 a little over 30 years later and that house is valued at $180,000. The investment in your 10% growth fund is still far better then the house, and worlds better then PGPs but having 1.25 million in 34 years is about the same as having about $200,000 now. You also need to understand that a lot of people who are married and have kids at 28 can not possibly put away 28,000 and forget about it. Those who were in a similar situation need to look back and realize that fact and not kick them selves for not putting 28,000 in a bank so many years ago. If it were easy to have 1.25 million then we all would.

Didn't mean to cause anyone to kick themselves, I was just trying to show the importance of compund interest. I am 24 today and know that in my possition there is hardly any chance of having elve 1/2 that saved and put away by age 28. The point is even if it's $5 or $25 a month the earlier you start saving it and the longer you save it the more it's worth in the long run.

As far as what the money is going to be worth in 34 years, hard tellin' not knowin'! If we can find someone that can do that and be right about it we should all use him as a financial advisor! The best I can tell you is guess at what the average infaltion is going to be for the next 30 years. I can tell you this much though, all mutual funds have a fund mamager who is paid to make sure that fund makes money, usually on a percentage, if he or she can't make that fund grow faster than inflation, and grow safely find another fund!

[aqua_scummm]

#42: Don't eat. Ever

[Azzy]

You want some sound financial advice? Check out http://www.daveramsey.com/radio/home/. He's got a good show, some good advice, and answers emails on your debt issues.

Dont get into debt. Save, wait, dont buy into the "I need it now so i'll charge it" scam.

[SpinDoctor15]

Dave Ramsey is certainly not bad, but I still recommend going with a personal financial advisor. Ramsey is another in the long line of 'rhetoric financial gurus' as I call them. The reason I say that, is that the people preaching (literally, in Ramsey's case) financial wisdom will give much of the same advice as any other guru, it's just that people don't listen! That's why there will always be those guys who make tons of money on seminars and books, the general populace thinks they will make millions if they just buy the books! Yet, they can't give up their addiction to credit cards and consumer items, and hence, they think books and listening to smart people will solve all their problems. It goes back to my bullet #5, Be Honest With Yourself and your finances!

A personal financial advisor can work with you to tailor investments to your own comfortability level. Of course, it helps to start out with a few thousand dollars, as that's a sizeable chunk of change to work with. Personal financial advisors make money when you make money (i.e. they get a percentage of the amount you put in, AND the dividends and re-investments). They can't afford to put you in losing funds, as they would ruin their reputation and not make any money! That's why I think you should go with a smart, individual person. I DO NOT recommend going with one of the businesses that are also insurance companies (i.e. Allstate Financial services). Those guys can afford to slash and burn customers on their investments, as people still buy insurance, and the insurance business will carry them along. If their investments fail, there's really no one to point the finger at other than Allstate itself. You can get mad at the agent all you want, but it's Allstate proper that makes the decisions on what funds to offer. A small-time guy has a lot more time to put in the hard research and analysis necessary to find the really stellar funds/fund managers. I don't have that time, so I hire someone smart to do it for me...

It's sort of like the argument of grocery stores vs. Farmer's Markets (private vendors). The grocery store doesn't care whether you have a good time at the store or even get the best value for your money, they just want you to buy stuff, pay up, and leave. A small-time vendor cares about people, and needs to provide a good product at a good price and be friendly. That's why I go to Farmer's Markets, the vendors get to know you, and it's much more fun than shopping in the isles of doom with flourescent track lighting to guide you to misery.

So, when you're ready, go with a personal financial investment advisor. Interview the person you're thinking of using, and ask friends or family if they know of anyone who's a good advisor. For now, stick you're money in a savings account, or at least open an ING Direct "Orange" Savings Account, or use the PayPal Money Market fund (Option to automatically tie your account balance to the PayPal Money Market fund). Both of those give respectable returns: ~6% for ING, 5.02% for PayPal right now, and they don't have the term limits that a CD does. A CD will have a 12, 24, or 36+ month term where you get a guaranteed percentage, but you can't touch your money for that period of time. The bank that put your money in a CD will lend that money to a person getting a mortgage at 6.5% and make money on it. ING or Paypal Money Markets are just like a savings account, only they earn a TON more than a savings account, and you can transfer money in and out with a few days time. Banks LOVE savings accounts, as they only provide like 0.15% return, and the money you put in there can be lent to mortgage seekers at a healthy 6.5% or more, as stated earlier.

Ok, enough babble, keep those comments comin'!

[Azzy]

I hear what you are saying, Im not one to jump head first into just what one person is saying. He does have some good advice, but any advice is only as good as you follow. I have seen that it works, and I am on his "Debt Snowball" plan and for me, it's working.

I would never keep more than a few dollars in paypal however, they have too much that works for them, and not much for you. That is in their best interest, which works well for them and their stockholders.

Find a FDIC insured credit union, most have free or low fee checking, and free savings. Set that up as connected to your paypal account, put money in a money market account that pulls from that same checking, and work fromt ehre. Your interest may not be the average 4% paypal, but you should get an average of 2-3%