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Ask HN: What´s the easiest, legal way to make 1 million bucks?

10 points by tetrisman ↗ HN
Seriously, I am sure lots of HN´ers have found many ways to do this, but as with most things in life, there´s always a better away. Would like to see your thoughts/experience either from you or from someone you know.

Thanx

19 comments

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madhouse
Inherit, I would say.
petervandijck
Or a divorce settlement from a very rich person, which is similar.
riferguson
"Easy", as in least effort on your part, or "easy", as in highest probability of success?

Not at all the same thing.

zbanks
Great point. That million-dollar homepage experiment where the guy sold pixels for $1 each took almost no effort on his part. "Easy"

The likelihood it would ever work again? Very very very slim. Not easy.

dasil003
It depends on your circumstances. A million dollars is pretty hard for most people to get, but it's certainly going to be easier if you're moving in circles that are used to dealing with those type of numbers.

Consider the "easiest" way to get $20,000. If you live in the US in most places you can probably get it by working at McDonalds for a year. If you are from a rural area in a third world country it's like the million dollar question.

I think this is the philosophy behind flipping startups. If you can prove you can develop something good and useful, then $50M is basically chump change for a large corporation to acquire you. On the other hand, generating enough profit where you can pay yourself a million dollars a year is a very daunting task.

rumpelstiltskin
Marry a millionaire, avoid a prenup, then divorce them.

P.S. Replace 'easiest' with 'most efficient' and then you'll have a nice discussion.

keefe
if you avoid nitpicking details, you'll have nicer discussions too.
pierre_M
It's not really nitpicking, "easiest" isn't well-defined. Quickest, lowest effort, or highest probability of working? I know a way to make a million dollars in the next 24 hours, but its probability of working is very low. I also know a way of making a million dollars with 99.9% probability, but it involves decades of hard work and thrift. I also have several intermediate plans, which still involve a lot of hard work and a probability of success which I am frankly completely unqualified to estimate. And finally I have several high-probability low-effort quick ways to do it, like the grandparent, which are nonetheless contingent on you having other things lined up in your life (eg a millionaire who wants to marry you, or rich parents, or a chest of pirate gold buried in your backyard.)

Which one would you like?

bradgessler
"endure a million dollars worth of pain"
pierre_M
Trite BS. I don't know what the going conversion rate between pain and dollars is, but I'm sure if you go down to your local homeless shelter you can find someone who has suffered many millions of dollars' worth of pain and doesn't have two dimes to rub together.
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il
Does anyone else think posts like this are trite, vapid crap that doesn't belong on HN?

What could you possibly hope to learn from this thread? If I knew an easy way to make a million bucks, I wouldn't tell you, I would just do it. Then I would scale up and replicate it 1000 times over.

I've spoken to a lot of people in the direct response industry who have made millions in simple, unglamorous businesses(like manufacturing a simple plastic thing in China and selling it via direct mail).

None of them made their money by making posts like this one.

If you insist on getting an answer: The best way to make 1 million bucks is to offer some business $1 million worth of value. Or 1 million consumers $1 of value. The way this is usually done is exploiting inefficiencies in the market/arbitrage.

lionhearted
> The best way to make 1 million bucks is to offer some business $1 million worth of value. Or 1 million consumers $1 of value. The way this is usually done is exploiting inefficiencies in the market/arbitrage.

Gotta factor opportunity costs - offering something that people value at $1 for $1 isn't a great deal and you won't get so many buyers. Start looking to provide a lot more than you get in return and it'll be much easier to sell.

Edit: Downvotes? Seriously? Offering to sell something a person values at $1 for $1 to them is a lot harder than selling them something they value at $1 for 10 cents.

equark
If you are talented, study finance intensely at a top school for a few years, join a large Wall Street firm, and aggressively seek advancement. This is the lowest risk strategy. It's not instant, but it's almost a guaranteed way for a smart person to make a few million within 5 - 10 years.
pierre_M
Why, that's easy.

1. Get a job that pays $50,000 a year.

2. Live off the first $20,000 a year.

3. Put the remaining $30,000 a year into the highest-yielding savings account you can find.

4. After about thirty years, you will have a million dollars. Enjoy it!

That is the easiest, damn-near-risk-free, way to make a million dollars. If you can get a job that pays more than fifty grand, you can save more money each year and get there even faster.

But I really hope you're not expecting some kind of get-rich-quick scheme here.

sabj
Because you did not specify "fastest," the easiest way is to work hard, save a lot, and invest early. In a few decades you will be a millionaire without any problems.
duck
By not asking questions like this.