Originally Posted by will76

If you (or anyone else reading that may fall into the same trap) can learn anything from this, it is....

don't spend money as fast as you can make it. It is everyone's natural tendency to spend more as they make more. It is very damaging for several reasons.

1. Most people that start making "mad money" all of a sudden, it rarely lasts long. Easy come, easy go.. while maybe not the best expression because you were working hard, it does play out pretty much that way.

2. When people start making more money they dig themselves into a hole. They go buy that nice car but instead of paying cash for it, they put a little money down and finance the rest. SO what it has a $750 a month note, hell they making that now in 1 day. Then when the money runs dry they can't afford $750 a month so they lose the car, lose the little money they put into it, and destroy their credit and now have no vehicle ( <- worse then they started). You can substitute house for car in the same scenario. People also run up lots of credit card debt as they make more money because they think " I will pay it off next month" etc... Which never happens and then when the monthly payments get high right about the same time their income tanks.

3. People neglect their business and spend the money on bullshit. Like in your case you put no money aside for your future business expenses. You should have built up a reserve of at least 12 months for hosting, etc... to cover your business expenses before you started blowing money on buying expensive christmas presents. You need to have money for bad stretches to get you through them to the next good run. When you blow all of your money on bullshit and then you hit a bad stretch you wind up not being able to pay for hosting and you got out of business.

4. People make bad investments when money is flowing in. (this one I have been victim of). When you making 30K a week you get a lot more risky with your money, so what if I blow 30K on a new project, that is just one weeks check. Make stupid mistakes and lose money left and right on bad projects, when you start making a lot less you will have wished you were more safe with your business decisions. It is good to diversify and reinvest into your business, but people get so risky and carefree they almost always blow it. You need to make decisions like that is the last bit of money you have to your name, not that it was just 1 week's check if it doesn't work oh well I will make more.


if nothing else learn from your mistakes.