In short
The episode has the Money Guy hosts (Brian and Beau) reacting to “unethical ways to make money” clips, plus a few “money hacks,” and pushing back with financial-advisor perspective. Guests/people referenced: a “12-year-old day trader” claiming eight-figure profits via options/stock trades; a man who made about $5 collecting dropped pro-cycling water bottles using a cardboard “bottles” sign; a “Money Guy Marathon”/clothes-optional joke about reselling outfits on Depop; an “infinite banking”/whole-life-insurance pitch (borrow tax-free from cash value); a storage-unit flipper who bought a unit for ~$900 plus ~$100 U-Haul and found items worth ~$1,800 (including a new 50-inch TV). Key claims challenged: “beat the market” vs index funds; insurance borrowing isn’t free and requires staying in-force; credit-limit “0% for 15 months” arbitrage isn’t wealth; bottle/side-hustle ideas may be small or not scalable; storage-unit profits aren’t guaranteed.
Notable examples
AMD/NEO options losses (~$11k day), bottle collection at a cycling track, “Mr. Beast” grocery-dollar scam idea, and combining Chase travel cards into a 0% Freedom card.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOExploring Wild Money-Making Schemes
1:27 to 2:44
Discussion on bizarre and unconventional money-making strategies.
“Feeling a little tired today, so I just did a light jog, and then we're headed straight to the gym.”
Case Study: Water Bottle Collector
2:44 to 4:02
A look at a unique money-making strategy involving collecting water bottles.
“cardboard sign near a cycling track that just said bottles.”
Using Insurance as a Wealth Tool
4:02 to 5:51
Discussion on how the wealthy utilize insurance for financial leverage.
“Most people look at insurance as death benefits.”
Building Businesses with Unique Ideas
7:10 to 8:56
Exploration of creative business ideas using above-ground pools.
“It understands you, your team, and your work, so you can ask it for help with anything.”
The Comedy of Money-Making Gimmicks
8:56 to 10:18
Discussion on ludicrous money-making ideas like the Mr. Beast scheme.
“I don't see grandma getting in that pool.”
Credit Card Strategies and Risks
10:18 to 11:50
Overview of using credit card limits for potential financial gain.
“So there's a credit card hack where you go to Chase.com, you request travel cards.”
Lessons from Flipping Storage Units
11:50 to 14:00
Insights and challenges of flipping storage units for profit.
“Two, do it in half the time, make it twice as easy, or remove all the risk.”
Wealth Building Myths and Realities
14:00 to 15:02
Learn about the misconceptions of easy wealth schemes and the importance of genuine strategies.
“But I don't know this is the way that you're going to necessarily make a lot.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Brian Preston:K-pop Demon Hunters, Saja Boys Breakfast Meal and Huntrix Meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Rumi? It's not a battle. So glad the Saja Boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day. It is an honor to share. No, it's our honor. It is our larger honor. No, really. Stop. You can really feel the respect in this battle. Pick a meal to pick a side. And participate in McDonald's while supplies last. Last night, you spent two hours deciding what to wear to the party. This morning, it'll take you two minutes to list it on Depop and make your money back.
0:38Brian Preston:Just grab your phone, snap a few photos, and we'll take care of the rest. The sheer dress and platform heels you'll never wear again? There's a birthday girl searching for them right now. Your one-and-done look is about to pay for your next night out. Or at least the ride home. Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Depop. Where taste recognizes taste. We all like making money. Unethical ways to make money, part 12. So why not react to the wildest money-making schemes? This guy found a genius way to make money. Brent, I am so excited about this because when I hear scheme, I know that the internet is about to deliver.
1:17That's where the good stuff is, schemes.
1:19Brian Preston:Welcome to my realistic day in the life as an eight-figure, 12-year-old day trader. Every day I usually wake up around 2 a.m. Today I decided to sleep in a little. First thing I do after waking up is make some coffee and go for a run. Feeling a little tired today, so I just did a light jog, and then we're headed straight to the gym. Gary V, motivational speech on, quick back workout, some deadlifts, hoop sesh, shower, and we're headed to the office. At this point, it's 6 a.m. Pacific time. The market opens in 30 minutes, so I begin by checking up on my clan and collecting some gold and elixir.
1:47Brian Preston:At 6.30 a.m., I see a big dipper formation on the AMD stock, so I go in with some options. While I wait for that position to hit my take profit, I go ahead and cook up some breakfast in the kitchen. kitchen come back to a$4 ,000 loss on that AMV position. I then quickly go into a few more trades here to make all that money back. But we hit another$7 ,000 loss on Neostock. So that's a loss of about$11 ,000 for the day. I'd say that's a little better than usual for me. There's so much pressure, especially for young people, that there is a one only right way to be productive and efficient and effective.
2:20Brian Preston:And I just don't think that that's true. That's not been my experience. Let me go ahead and cut through all the noise and give you the investing cheat code. That's right. Here it is. Lean in. Come on in. Instead of trying to beat the market, be the market. Buy those index funds. There you go. I just summarized it, made it easy. That's the scheme that's going to work. This guy found a genius way to make money. He set up a cardboard sign near a cycling track that just said bottles. Pro cyclists often drop their water bottles during races to save weight and go faster. And sure enough, some riders started tossing their bottles right where his sign was.
2:56Brian Preston:In the end, he collected a bunch of bottles, made about$5 and helped keep the road cleaner at the same time. Here's the thing. This was good for everybody. It cut down on litter. It was a way for the cyclist to improve their ride. And he made a little bit of money on it. Look, there wasn't a huge impact to this. I don't say this is a scheme. I think this works. I think this is okay. So look, I'm out of the game on this stuff, but there was a season where my wife was running these half marathons. And I did find it amazing that a lot of people just disrobe while they're in the middle of running or cycling or whatever.
3:30I have not been to those races. And then they get hot and then they're ticked off that they've only run three miles when they've got 10 more to go. So I think there's probably a whole business out there where people pick up Lululemon or all the other fancy clothes that are just distributed on half marathons or marathon runs.
3:47Brian Preston:So you saw this clip, and you're like, you know what? He had bottled. No, I'm trying to help him. I'm trying to help him cut the corner. I'm going to set up my box, and it's going to say clothes on it. This is not the way you make the money. I'm telling you there's a better way to do money. Come run the Money Guy Marathon. Clothes optional. Right? That's what I'm hearing. That's what I'm hearing you say. They don't get naked. They get hot. Most people look at insurance as death benefits. And they get money I got to be able to pass away. The wealthy look at insurance policies as something that grows in assets.
4:22Brian Preston:Oh, he's talking about. They don't use the bank. They become their own bank. By getting a certain insurance policy on their self, which grows in interest that they can borrow from. If I have$500 inside of the insurance policy, I can borrow from me tax-free. So whatever I spend, it's completely tax-free. You can live off$5 million inside of insurance policy. Step one, get$5 million. Six to 10 % interest because it spits out every single year. This person is going out and giving their money to the dealership, paying them off every single one and going to pay their, giving their money to the banks by paying their mortgage.
5:07Brian Preston:The wealthy borrow that money from their insurance policy and purchase the house. And they paid their self back off with it. They go to the dealership. They purchase a car in full with the insurance policy, tax free. You know, it's not cost free, expensive whole life insurance. That's right. That's exactly it. There are glimmers of truth in what he was saying. There are, you know, you can build up cash value inside a life insurance policy. so you can borrow against that cash value. It's a tax-free event so long as the policy does not go into laps. The problem is if you want to spend money, you want to use your resources, why on earth should you have to borrow it from yourself?
5:45Brian Preston:Because now you're playing this game to where you've got to make sure the policy stays in force and one of two things happens. Either you have to pay back that money at some point or it becomes this giant taxable event or you've got to die. You know, this infinite banking thing that you see, the reason you see so much coverage on is because selling life insurance is extremely profitable. Yes, it's true that the uber wealthy do use life insurance for some arbitrage opportunities that they, but that's the wealthy. They also fly in private jets. I don't see you trading in your Southwest tickets to go buy an airplane.
6:20First step, step one, go buy a jet. But, you know, that's essentially what these guys do when they say, hey, all you have to do is build up$5 million. Nobody's giving you the$5 million. You still have to fund these things. You still have to pay all the cost of insurance. There's a better way, and this is not. That's why it's fitting quite nicely into our scheme.
6:41Brian Preston:This episode is brought to you by Indeed. Stop waiting around for the perfect candidate. Instead, use Indeed-sponsored jobs to find the right people with the right skills fast. It's a simple way to make sure your listing is the first candidate C. According to Indeed data, sponsored jobs have four times more applicants than non-sponsored jobs. So go build your dream team today with Indeed. Get a$75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Unlike other AI, Slackbot lives in Slack. It understands you, your team, and your work, so you can ask it for help with anything.
7:17Brian Preston:Can I ask it to summarize client feedback? Yes. Can I ask it to find time for a meeting? Absolutely. Can I ask it to turn our meeting notes into a launch plan? Sure. Can I ask it to call me Da Boss? Actually, you can. Da Boss. See how Slackbot can turn you into Da Boss at slack.com slash meet Slackbot. Okay, this is genius. And behind every genius product idea is a genius business idea. Here's how I would use this above ground pool to make a million dollar business and how you can do it too. I would go to Tractor Supply and buy a$400 stock tank like this one. Then I would go to Amazon and buy a$200 above ground pool jet and nozzle kit.
7:57Brian Preston:I would get them to my house. I would build this using YouTube and ChatGPT. I would take professional pictures of it and post pictures and videos of it in all of the mom Facebook groups and on Facebook Marketplace. I guarantee you, you can build these for under four hours and$1 ,000 in materials and sell them for$5 ,000. So it's hot tubs. He's building hot tubs. Was it a pool or was it a hot tub? I don't think there's a heating element. There's only a filter element. So it was just a miniature above-ground pool, basically. This is going to have a designated market, by the way. I don't see it. Maybe here in Nashville it would do well, but I just don't see this.
8:32I don't see you going to Manhattan and going to the tractor supply store and setting up this scheme. You're going to end up spending$8 ,000. No, mark that. $12 ,000 worth of supplies. so you might sell two and one of them's going to be your mama or your grandma buying your above ground thousand dollar nobody wanted swimming pool.
8:56Brian Preston:I don't see grandma getting in that pool. I don't think that's a grandma safe pool. Here's the business. You sell it to them for a thousand and then you say, hey, in four months when this thing's a cesspool and covered up with all kind of grime and dirt and everything else, I'll haul it away for$400. Look at that. Get it on both ends. Get them both ways. Unethical ways to make money, part 12. You're going to go to Walmart and you're going to have your friend follow you recording on his iPhone. Then you're going to go up to strangers. You're going to say, do you know who Mr. Beast is? Then you're going to ask for$1 to cover some of your groceries.
9:31Brian Preston:They're going to think they're in a Mr. Beast TikTok video. They're going to give you$1 and expect for you to give them$10 ,000 in return. But you're going to take that dollar and you're going to walk out of the store. Repeat that 20 times at the Walmart and that's 20 bucks an hour. Work smarter, not harder. Yeah. and then you get beat down in the parking lot.
9:51I'll flame this out. By the way, you have to have this guy's hair and you have to make sure you show up with this tank top. The tank top. People, truthfully, might be thinking that if they don't give you the dollar, they would get beat down.
10:06Brian Preston:What about the people where it's like, do you know Mr. Beast? Yes, I do. Can I have a dollar for groceries? No, you can't. I don't think I would just randomly hand somebody a dollar. I don't think this would work. I really thought through it. I don't think this would work. So there's a credit card hack where you go to Chase.com, you request travel cards. So you get the Marriott, the Ritz-Carlton card from Chase, and then you get the United card. They're all Chase cards, and those give you a high limit. So they'll give you like 20, 25K limit because they're traveling cards and they expect you to spend a lot of money.
10:35Brian Preston:So you'll get like 80K, 90K. And then what you do is you call Chase and you tell him, hey, I want to combine these cards into one. I want to transfer the credit limits into one card. but you apply for a Chase Freedom card. That's 0 % interest for 15 months. A lot of work here. And then you move all your credit limits from the travel cards to your Chase Freedom card. Now you have an$80 ,000,$90 ,000 credit card. Add 0%. 0 % for 15 months. So I did that for me. I did that for my wife, Sil, and I did that for my dad. And I created like$300 ,000 of credit limits, 0%.
11:08Brian Preston:So, but then what? Right, but okay. It's not free money. I mean, I guess they think 0%. But what do you do? You rack up this$300 ,000 of debt. You got to pay it back. I guess maybe he's thinking there's some sort of arbitrage. This is not the way you make money. Go get out there and get as much credit limit with the banks. Yeah, they'll give it to you. You can go get money from the mob, too. They'll give it to you. And then at some point, you got to pay the money back. Bo, how many clients of our firm have come to us? We work with millionaires all across the country. 49 states. I don't think any of them have come from playing this 0 % interest rate scheme.
11:45Brian Preston:Zero of our clients have 0 % interested their way to wealth. The simplest path to making money. One, find a service people already buy. Two, do it in half the time, make it twice as easy, or remove all the risk. Three, ask everyone you know if they know anybody who wants it. Four, charge more than everyone else. And then five, don't stop when you get bored. Two and four where I have the issues, right? So I'll need to do it in half as much time or remove all the risk. I'm assuming that inside of this thing, no one else has figured out how to do it as efficiently as possible or to remove all the risk.
12:13Brian Preston:I have some sort of insight that no one else has had that no one else has figured out. That's a really, really difficult thing to do. It sounds great on paper, but in practice, that might be hard. And then once you do it, then you're going to come in and price above everyone else. Well, now I've got to be really, really good at sales because I can go buy this thing for$10 and I'm selling my thing for$20. Can this work? Absolutely. Is it as easy as just a little five-step process? If it was that easy, everybody would do it. I'm finally doing the side hustle that you guys keep asking me to try, flipping a storage unit.
12:43Brian Preston:I paid about$900 for this unit and another$100 to rent a U-Haul. Let's see if we made any money. At first, I really wasn't finding much besides like household items. Then I came across this locked metal box, which I brought home. More on that in a bit. There was an old raggedy and all, a bunch of DVDs, a carpet steam cleaner. This silver tray was really heavy. These can be worth decent money. This old elephant phone was cool. Similar ones are selling for around 100 bucks on eBay. Just bought a bunch of work. receiver. Anyways, had to get this furniture out quick because I only had the U-Haul for one day.
13:09Brian Preston:But behind this dresser, I found out a little locked case. And inside the dresser drawers were a lot of broken electronics and some brown sugar. One of the big reasons I bid on this unit was because there was a safe in the pictures. So I grabbed that. I actually found another one too. There were some pretty nice tools in here. And then I scored a Nintendo DS Lite with a bunch of games. There was a car stereo, an RC car frame, and then way in the back was a brand new unopened 50 inch TV. This was everything I decided to keep and sell. One of the locked cases just had paperwork in it. Another was a poker chip set.
13:34Brian Preston:Total value is around 1800 bucks. How much time did it take? He said it was a day, but I bet this was like a full day, right? So I'm thinking this like an eight, 10 hour day to go through this. If you're going to make this like replicable, you got to do it over and over and over again. Well, sometimes you might have a storage unit that's going to profit for it. What about the ones where it doesn't have that stuff? What about the ones where you actually take a loss or just break even? If this is something you're passionate about and you just have like a skillset for it, great, do it. But I don't know this is the way that you're going to necessarily make a lot.
14:03Well, you know, this really did create some like work anxiety. Because look, I have this work already at my house. I can go clean out my garage. I can go clean out my upstairs attic. You don't have to go buy somebody else's junk. Sell your junk. There's the scheme that's actually going to make you some money.
14:18Brian Preston:Sell your own junk. Building wealth is not necessarily easy. And a lot of these schemes want to make it seem like it's a super easy thing. It's not easy. It's a slow process, but it is simple. You don't have to outsmart it. You don't have to come up with something new. There are tried and true strategies that you can employ that can really help you build wealth, not the things that we saw in these videos. Look, if you're brand new to our stuff and you want to know how you really can build wealth, do this. Go to moneyguy.com slash resources. We literally give it away. We tell you what you need to be doing.
14:51We talk about wealth multipliers. We show you the financial order of operations. There is a better way to do money. Don't cut the corner off and squander your most valuable resource. That's your time. I'm Brian. This is Beau. Money Guy team. Out.
15:12Brian Preston:Success isn't just about what you achieve. It's about how you achieve it. In the Notre Dame MBA program, you'll learn to look beyond quarterly results and build organizations that grow the good in the world through disciplined leadership, strong judgment, and a community that expects more from business. That's how Notre Dame graduates launch impactful careers at top companies across industries. Lead with purpose. Lead with a Notre Dame MBA. Tap now to learn more. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.
15:50Brian Preston:It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at MintMobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three-month plan, equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Default terms at MintMobile.com.
From the publisher
We all like making money. So, why not react to the wildest money-making schemes? Brian Preston (CFP®, CPA) and Bo Hanson (CFA®, CFP®) are back reacting to the internet's wildest money-making schemes (from an "8-figure 12-year-old day trader" losing $11,000 before breakfast to Mr. Beast grocery scams).
Building wealth isn't about outsmarting the system with a clever scheme, and we’re here to share why following tried and true strategies can help you build wealth that lasts.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
