How I Converted An Investment To Make More Money

Updated: December 25, 2014

Investments are not only passive instruments that make money for us.

They can also be a source of funds, if ever we want to pursue an active income opportunity.

This is one lesson that Craig, our guest blogger for today, discovered in recent years.

Below, he shares how he made more money by taking out his passive income investments, and worked it on an opportunity he saw.

Let’s read what exactly he did, but keep in mind that Craig lives in the U.S. and is an investment savvy individual with a high risk tolerance.

I advise that you take the lessons here, and not use his example as a concrete action plan that you can apply for your own, unless you also have the resources and expertise that he had.

His story starts below:

Let’s cut through the normal pleasantries and just come right out and say we want to make money. And not just livable wages, but real money – early retirement money, trip to the Bahamas money.

Is this really possible, or is it a suburban legend, born of real estate marketers, lenders, and bankers who have since skipped town with a barrel of cash?

The truth is, it’s both.

Getting rich is made of myth and reality. It’s possible, but it’s certainly not easy or painless. It takes sacrifice, devotion, and smarts.

Personally, I like making fast cash… but not through get-rich-quick schemes, I’m talking about something different here. What I mean is that, as long as I can, I want to rake in as much active income as I can.

We’re young and active only once, so while investments are great, I occasionally liquidate those investments if I find there’s an active opportunity that I can pursue, and below is one of those occasions.

Phase 1: I sold my stocks

I had a reasonable holding in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other commodities. But the U.S. market is actually not at it’s best right now.

So I decided to take cash for gold and unloaded some of my paper investments. Many of those stocks would take a lot of years to build considerable value, so I thought, I should just sell them and do something active with it.

Phase 2: Discovering the online game

There’s a new game in town that’s happening all over the internet. No, I’m not talking about the lottery… I’m talking about the blogosphere and social media marketing.

Seeing this as a possible starting point where I can “set camp” – I created niche websites and monetized it with affiliate marketing links and AdSense to start things off.

Creating online real estate, I discovered, required very little cash out. And most of the tasks, you can actually outsource. So this one’s a great semi-passive investment that has potentially high return in the future.

Phase 3: From online, to offline real estate

I created several niche websites about real estate, as this is something that I have much interest in. The prep plan was to use these websites not only to make money online, but likewise to establish a jumping point where I would take the opportunity offline.

The current state of the housing market in the U.S. is horrendous. But I know that it’s one of the best times to make money off real estate.

A lot of people are searching for solutions online, reading stories and seeking advise from wherever they can. I used my niche websites to give them the information that they want, and then upsold my skills and offered my real estate services to them.

The end point, I created leads which allowed me to flip properties. Using the money I first had in stocks, I used them to pay the downpayment to buy homes which I would later sell to other people who are looking to invest in the real estate buyer’s market.

Sounds easy? Not really. But I would say simple, with a lot of hard work and focus involved – and I know that’s something you can likewise manage for your own time and finances.

This guest post is contributed by Craig Davidson, a real estate broker from Ohio.

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