What’s Your Investment Plan?
October 27th, 2007 by 
Amit
A lot of people ask me : “Amit, now that you have all this money, what’s your investment plan? Have you thought about saving for retirement? Kids college education?”
“You should put your money in IRAs, 401(k)s, CD, bonds, stocks…blah,blah,blah.”
Now if you plan to be a worker bee for the rest of your life, then these are very valid and important questions.
Put for a ppc super affiliate these questions are done right idiotic!?!
Yeah, I’m going to tie my money up in stocks, IRAs, or CDs so I can get a 5%, 10%, EVEN 20% return on my money in a good year!
Right!
Do you want to know what return a REALLY good investment plan will give on your money??
INFINITE!
That’s the return I get when I invest my money into my business, into ppc affiliate marketing.
Now you might ask : “Amit, how do you get infinite investment for ppc affiliate marketing, you said yourself the average ppc affiliate has an ROI of 50% on their campaigns??”
Simple.
All my ppc expenses go on my amex black card to the tune of $100,000/month and growing: 
I don’t pay off my black card until AFTER I get my affiliate commissions. So I’ve actually borrowed money via American Express and made a hefty return in the process.
In other words I didn’t actually tie up a SINGLE CENT of my money, and yet generated a massive cashflow. That’s what I mean by infinite return.
The time many of you actually take to learning how to setup a retirement plan, invest in stocks, etc, etc, you could be using that time to learn how to setup a profitable affiliate offer.
Think about it, if you just have ONE affiliate offer that consistently produces $100/day profit, that’s a $36,500/year of cashflow.
Now tell me WHAT investment will give you that type of return. More importantly how much money would you have to tied up to get such a return?
If you’re getting a 10% return from your stock portfolio, you have to have $365,000 of your OWN MONEY tied up to get $36,500 a year.
If you’re getting a 5% return from CDs, you have to have $730,000 of your OWN MONEY tied up to get $36,500 a year cashflow.
I had a 401(k) and an IRA, I pulled ALL my money out.
Even if your goal is not to get rich or quit your job through ppc affilaite marketing, PLEASE take the time to learn how to make $100/day profit from affiliate marketing. You can do this with one campaign, and no it’s not hard.
Once you get to the point that you’re making $100/day profit, the sky is the limit after that! 
So stop wasting your time trying to figure out what stocks and IRAs you’re going to ‘invest in’. If you really care about your financial future, you’ll do everything in your power to learn how to generate an infinite return on your money with ppc affiliate marketing.
Not only will you not have to worry about your retirement or funding your children’s college education, you NEVER have to worry about money PERIOD.
You’ll have the freedom to go to Nordstrom’s and drop $800 on clothing, like my wife and I did AGAIN yesterday. In fact my wife and I had a little competition: who would spend the most money!
You’ll be able to give away MORE money than you used to make in your job.
So what’s your investment plan?
affiliate marketing roi cashflow investment plan investment strategy ppc affiliate marketing
Posted in Super Affiliate Mindset, lifestyle | 
Amit,
What do you think is the easiest way for someone to get started in affiliate marketing?
Regards,
Fred
Hi Amit, totally agree with you! I will only invest part of the money on stock or bonds if am retire! But the question is will I ever retire if I enjoy the life style you have and the fun of affiliate marketing?
BTW, I get to this blog through PPC Classroom..and since then I won’t miss any of your post! Just want to thank you for sharing all the great mindset! I really learn a lot from this blog and you of course..thank you!
Well I think the point in investing is not to make more money than with affiliate marketing. The point is to secure some money and not put all your eggs in the same basket.
I mean there are probably many affiliate marketers working alone. Now let’s say that something really bad happens to you like a cerebral vascular accident or a stroke, now it wouldn’t be the time to look for good investments.
I may be wrong that’s just my 2 cents
Stephane, you’re right. Any successful person should have an investment portfolio to diversify. Who knows when affiliate marketing will not be able to generate the margins some super affiliates are seeing.
Get 5 million. Buy your house and cars cash.
Put 3 million into 30 yr treasury notes at 5% and have a guaranteed $150k/year for the next 30 years after which the government gives you back your $3m.
Another comment:
There’s some decent info on this blog but man, enough with the bragging already. No one cares about your spending sprees or black cards.
Post in detail (very. specific. detail) how you find, research and branch out into new niches. Tell us how you track at the campaign, adgroup, keyword level on a daily weekly and monthly basis.
We all want to be rich like you. Please get down to where the rubber hits the road and give some specific, that’s specific, underlined, techniques approaches, management outlines.
Generality from successful affiliates needs to be stomped out. If you’re new, it will cost you money.
No, I think Amit made his point really well. His main objective was to give you a clear picture of what financial freedom you can enjoy in this business. For those of us who are 9 to 5 worker bees, we have to worry and figure out about putting our little money into mutual funds, RRSPs, bonds, stocks, etc.
I work 9 to 5 and I have little over 20k saved up form last 3 years i worked. Its pathetic when compared to how much time Amit spends working and how much he saves (infinite).
Now i save a few hundred less a month and spend the rest on ppc. But its a good investment, even thou im at loss right now. But it will come around, it has to.
Amit, I love your way of thinking, especially the part about learning to make $100/day and the sky is the limit, but Stephane does make a valad point. I’m sure a lot of your income is now on auto-piolt, but just in case, does your wife know how to do affiliate marketing?
Now if I can just get to that $100/day. I need to read more of your blog, Right Now!
Hi All,
First of all, a lot of you are missing the points, in terms of the amount of time, effort, and investment NOTHING will give you a better return then building a residual (well at least partially residual) cashflow with a business such as affiliate marketing.
If I showed you how much $ I had in my bank account you would stop thinking in terms of “nest eggs”!?!
Liston, if something happens to me I have life insurance and disability insurance so my family will be fine. Plus my wife will get all the assests, which is enough to live on for a long time.
If affiliate marketing were to fizzle out, I will have jumped to another business model long before that happened. Worst case scenario I can take the money I’ve made and put it into an annuity and make enough cashflow to live on for the rest of my life.
Hey Amit - I’m not sure I completely agree with you on this issue.
You say that you don’t want to tie your money up in investments, but then you say that you don’t use your money for your business, you use money from AMEX (I do the same :-)). Also, what happens when you have more cash than your monthly advertising capacity? If your bank account is $1.5M, you’re not going to need all that money to be liquid for your business, especially if you credit card has no limit.
So then my question to you is, what is your money actually doing? Is it in a checking/savings account earning a 0-1% return. This seems like a waste to me because it’s just sitting there collecting dust (and losing value to inflation) when it could be making more money for you.
I’m not saying that you have to become a full time stock trader, or a weekend real estate investor. You could pursue many low-involvement investments (such as the CD’s you mentioned) and get a guaranteed 5-6% return, or you could hire someone to manage your assets and investments for you.
In my opinion, not investing excess capital is leaving millions of dollars in compound interest on the table. This point is only amplified when you’re talking about the kind of money that is made by super affiliates. If a wage earner can build a sizable net worth with small weekly deposits, just think of the fortune a super affiliate could amass with $5000 weekly deposits over 10-30 years. (30 years of this -$7.8M deposited- at 6% would result in $20M and at 10% would result in $45M)
Very true. However, tax planning is a very important part of the process as well. As you move into the highest tax bracket, you need to be smart about stashing your income in certain retirement vehicles as well as managing your deductions very well or else you are forking over a huge amount of cash to the tax man. Amit, you probably still are anyway but I guess that’s a nice problem to have!
Debating over how to handle money, is like a debate over religion,…it’s pointless cause not everyone is going to follow the same path or agree on the same thing.
There are many paths to financial freedom and this is how Amit chooses to handle his cash.
I would think a blog post would not be enough to go into all the ways a person deals with their money. The tax man really isn’t that nice.
I think Derek is making a point here: When you have excess money than your need to run your business, putting the money on the stock or bond is better than sitting in the bank.
If I have that kind of money, I will start recruiting the best people and buying companies.. and left my backup cash in bank. I don’t think using the reserve cash is a good idea and if I use all the money in my business, I earn more.
So if I am serious about my business, I won’t let my cash sit in the stock / bond, (I will not risk my reserve cash, better sit in bank).
Amit,
I wish I could talk to you, and some day I will.
To see the passion I Have for the affiliate business,
I don’t think you are boasting at all, the 9-5 er’s go
nowhere in this life, but we must work. So little time in this life, I have to follow my dreams, do or die!! Where will I be in 2-3 years if I don’t continue with this biz.
waiting for my ss check to come in the mail, right, I don’t think so. keep up the good work!!
Cheers,
Jim Novak
I’m going to have to agree with Derek on this one. Except I would look at high yield money market accounts instead of cd’s. The main reason being that you can get at your money whenever you need to and it isn’t locked up for a set period of time like a cd is.
I have an ING Direct money market account that pays close to 5% interest, and I can withdraw the money whenever I want. They even have a Mastercard Debit card option now.
Amit I see the point that you are making that people that haven’t made it to the point you are at should invest in their own business before someone else’s, but like Derek said you aren’t even using your own money so I would hope the money you have is at least earning you a little interest. Afterall 5% is better than 0% especially when you are talking about the amount of money you are talking about.
I’m afraid this post just doesn’t make sense.
If you’re a super affiliate (which btw I don’t doubt you are) you have accumulated more than $100,000, yet you’re only spending 100k a month, you need to earn a return on the money you already have, surely you’re not leaving it sitting around until you can think of the next ppc campaign to apply it to. (I’m assuming here you’re not just living month to month, although I suppose I could be wrong).
I think what Amit is getting at is that the money he has to invest would be best put to use in PPC campaigns. So now he’s using Amex’s money but if he found more profitable campaigns he could use his own money rather than put his money in other investment engines.
Amit, I agree with what you’re saying 1000%
Stop boasting all the time. There is more ways to skin a cat than just affiliate marketing. You are onto one thing and you believe its the only way to make money. Get some perspective and stop being such a tunnel case.
I would like to add my 2 cents here, what about the worst scenario that you bank closed because they are bankrupty? You will be lost right? I agree with stephane which said: dont put all your eggs in one basket. Also agree with DerekBeau if your money is staying on your bank account doing nothing why not investing part of it (small part) on other things. There are other ways to invest your money (not stocks) but forex. You can hire one of the best forex managers and make a lot from it, or create your “Internet empire” with other projects as well.
Amit, I agree with Derek, even though the 5% per year from bond, CD or whatever is nothing to you, but if the money is sitting there doing nothing, why not just earn the extra 5%
Guys, I don’t really think he’s saying you shouldn’t invest your money… I mean any knows getting 5% instead of 0% is better… He’s simply saying people in his statue doesn’t have to worry about these types of questions and things. And instead of you worrying about it as much, simply build up your business. I’m sure Amit has a tax guy and I’m sure that guy works at getting him to have to pay as little taxes as possible, which means probably investing in certain things. Now I have no idea if he does actually invest any of his money or not outside of affiliate marketing, but the point he’s making is he doesn’t have to worry about it. Whether Affiliate Marketing dies or not, there will always be the next big thing and if you have the money when that happens you will have no problem making the transition.
For those looking for step-by-steps, check out the title of this blog. Perhaps Amit is working on the paradigm shifts required to be successful in affiliate marketing. It’s not called “learn ppc and affiliate marketing”. The mental blocks expressed by some of those commenting here are the reason they’re not successful, not because they don’t know how to select a niche.
If you want to learn how to do keyword research or research niches, there are a bajillion (often free) resources out there on the web. There are a variety of strategies one could use. There is no formula since there are almost infinite variations on those strategies that are dependent on situations.
Getting back on topic…
Not sure the credit card approach is wise advise to follow for most new marketers - great for Amit down to moderately-successful marketers, but probably too risky for new to somewhat-successful affilates.
Some merchants will hose you on payments. Not often, but it happens. They may decline a bunch of leads, or even go under financially. An affiliate may do something that violates the terms and forfeit commissions. What if you forget something in your financial calculations (like taxes at the end of the year
) There are a variety of things that could happen.
I remember how hard it was for my wife and I to get out of debt from stupid decisions in our early 20s, and I wouldn’t put myself in a situation to be a “slave” of the financial machine for anything. The logic in Amit’s post is dead on 100%. Use someone else’s money if you can - it’s like having financial backers. But… if you are personally liable for those debts, then you should always be able to cover your debt unless you’re willing to take considerable risk. In some cases of incorporation, you can limit your liability for debts, but credit cards are going to come after you personally.
You’ll have to risk much to gain much, but I wanted to present the other side of the coin that applies to probably most of the audience reading this blog. Before listening too hard to what I said, also take into account I don’t promote credit cards, payday loans, or other types of financial devices that encourage debt so maybe I’m a little far the other way.
Yes, the ROI for Internet Marketing is way too much compare to any other investment vehicles. But the problem is scalebility, the max one would be able to deploy in internet marketing is 1 million a month, so what would you do with the excess capital?… personally i am a sceptic and has everything (more than $10 million) stashed in safe investments (treasury,money market funds etc).
Hi All,
Great and thoughtful comments!
Few points:
1) YES, I do plan to invest the money in my bank account into tax free closed end funds and some into real estate. However, this is peanuts compared to what I make with affiliate marketing, and future plans to invest my money into other business.
2) YES, I do have some fairly sophisticated tax strategies. This is important when you hit the higher tax brackets.
Build a business with strong profits and cashflow FIRST, and then invest your excess cashflow.
Hi Matt,
You got it! The idea is to build a business that generates cashflow FIRST.
Also,I’m not getting paid through my credit card, I just use it to pay my pay per click expenses and other business expenses.
My affilaite commissions are wired or direct deposited into my bank account.
“In my opinion, not investing excess capital is leaving millions of dollars in compound interest on the table.”
DerekBeau nailed it right there. Successful business have strategies to invest a percentage of profit in other companies. Microsoft just invested in Facebook. They’re looking for a financial ROI and to block out Google.
I’ve noticed that business think equity and first time entrepreneurs think cash flow. Always invest. If your money isn’t working for you then you are working for your money.
FYI as Matt Larson has pointed out the title of this blog is “Super Affiliate MINDSET” and is about the insights and thoughts from a world class internet marketer.
Regarding the repeated calls for Amit to post his niches, keywords, exact strategies and bidding strategies on this blog…. go get a reality check…
If you’re banking $1m+ a year from your affiliate efforts, are you going to post EVERYTHING you’re doing? Seriously, go get your head checked…. and if I’ve learned anything from Amit, it’s that he’s a savvy business person. So I doubt any amount of heckling or bellyaching is going to change the situation….
—
The takeaway I got from this post is that you need to maximize the return from your capital.
I’ve bought, owned and lost money from various financial instruments like bonds, mutual funds, hedge funds, equities, insurance, complex financial products, etc.
He’s not saying NOT to do anything else other than PPC affiliate marketing, but you need to learn how PPC marketing can give you significant leverage in making your money work for you.
He’s already mentioned that he’s spending $100k per month on PPC, and that’s getting at least 50% to 100%+ ROI.
You would still need something to do with the rest of your funds, just don’t go locking it up for 3-5 years in some mutual fund, because you’d probably need it to grow your business at some point.
-
Regarding providing for yourself in case you can’t work, if you’ve built up your capital, your private banker would naturally suggest “key man insurance” for a relatively low premium that will pay $5,000 to $10,000 per day that you can’t work.
Obviously, all that’s moot if you don’t have much critical mass to work with in your income generation efforts…
Mate, I think you’ve misunderstood everyone’s question.
“Amit, now that you have all this money, what’s your investment plan?”
This question means what are you doing with your excess money?
Your answer of “Put for a ppc super affiliate these questions are done right idiotic!?!” is an insult to your readers and shows a complete lack of financial nous.
Your answer in the comment of this post, I think, is what readers are wanting to hear. ie, you don’t just leave it under the pillow or some 1% savings account. You invest it in funds and real estate.
The take-away from this post for me is
1. yes you’re a super affiliate making bucket loads
2. no you’re not a good financial manager
3. you have so much money you couldn’t care less how much interest amex charges you. You could pay it off with your disposable income but you rather wait for the campaigns to pay you first.
4. with so much money wastage, I’d wonder if you’ve given any of this back to the community.
some of this may be a bit harsh and may of come about because sometimes posts are put together in haste but hope it gets you thinking about
1. respecting your earnings
2. better managing your financial affairs
3. charity
Agreeing with Derek, it’s wasted money if you don’t invest the money that normally would only laying un-used in your bankaccount… You simply can’t put a 100% of your PPC money back into the biz once you hit certain levels. Diversifying is the key and telling people to not invest and put all their money back into ppc is misleading and you should think twice what you post here, a lot of people take your word for granted, and with popularity comes responsibility for those listening to your words…
You give a lot good tips, but some of your posts leave me astounded =)
Oh and sry for double post… To the people arguing here why Amit doesn’t post exactly what he’s doing: HAHAHAHAHA! What’s wrong with you guys?
[...] one takeaway from my buddy, Amit Mehta’s post “What’s Your Investment Plan?“, you need to figure out what your expect return or result is from any investment you [...]
Inspiring, again
Will think all over again and again…but now I have to go back to affiliate marketing to earn more before coming here to comment…
Wealthy life to everyone! cheers.
Amit,
Well done, sir! But at the same time I completely DISAGREE with you, as well.
I am a stock option specialist, and I would almost say the same thing about how options are the best way to go. I can borrow money against margin, and right interest off as a business expense (thanks goodness for tax lawyers!)
At the same time, I’ve probably lost about $10k just goofing around with Affiliate marketing, just because one month I thought I’d give it “a go”. ROI on affiliate marketing = 0%
Return on stock options in the same month as I was losing money in affilate marketing, roughly 1,000%.
I guess it all depends on how good you are at what you do.
I am still very interested in learning how to do affiliate marketing (the right way).
I believe I have already posted a message here already, but can you please direct me to a practical guide (one that goes through the whole building process of the launch), on how to do AM the right way? I was basically throwing money at something which I thought … woudl work. But .. um… didn’t.
Thanks!
Excellent work, by the way. love your insight.
Why doesn’t anyone ask this many questions when the post is about PPC. I include myself in that comment. Amit, I think I’ll re-read your past posts. I just know there are some good questions that could use asking. Your money is between you, your family and your accountant-but sometimes not in that order-ha:).
One question I see a lot on other sites in regards to investment is Advertising. People want to know how much they should spent. Perhaps they are want that magic investment plan for their business, if there is one. Maybe PPC is not how much you spent but how you spent.
Stockshaker,
I believe Amit said in an interview that the first book he read on AM was GoogleCash by Chris Carpenter. I have just finished reading it and it does take you step-by-step through the process. There are many other ebooks on the subject for beginners (like me).
Thanks Adnan!
For some reason I have this need to figure out how to reinvent the wheel. Meaning, I believe that there is no concrete way to become successful at AM, otherwise everyone would be doing the same thing.
I just want to learn how to research the best keywords, and how to set up the most efficient keyword campaigns (focusing on researching the keywords, and setting up the ad compaigns properly to reflect specific groups - and consequently setting up the ad to reflect this target group)
At this point, I don’t know if I care (or should I be caring) to how to specifically make a landing page. Since I think that is something that is done by trial and error, and zoned thru proper testing.
But keywords, I believe, is something that would be very helpful to learn from someone with experience.
I burnt through at least 10k just goofing around with keywords only to find that they were unspecific, and attracting the more casual/non buyer crowd.
No regrets though, I would do the same thing again tomorrow (but with a bit more experience)!
Amit, your comments would be apprecaited - when you take a break from maxing out your Amex! lol
Stockshaker
Damn Amit! You’re getting a lot of traction and link bait out of this post. Ah well, you know what they say about opinions right? Yes, your money and lifestyle posts certainly get people going like no others.
Stockshaker, you are way wrong about options. Options are no way to get rich. In fact, 90% of them expire as losses. Now, writing them on your own equities is another story. I know this because I used to one of the largest investment banks in the US and we had a big options desk that used to crank out high-level math problems like you’ve never even seen. With all of their top-tier MBA and PhD math skills, they still lost money most of the time. I also worked for one of the top three mutual fund companies in the world as a research analyst and I know that good stock picking can make you a lot of money if you’re patient and willing to put the work in. Kind of like PPC. Warren Buffett isn’t the second richest man in the world for nothing.
We Finance Loans, AMEX doesn’t charge interest on the money they lend you (for their green, gold, platinum, and black cards) as long as you pay off your balance every month. You can opt to pay off some of the charges over time if you enter a special program. AMEX is a charge card, not a credit card.
Your prime business will most likely always be your main source of income. But anyone can do well in equities if they bring enough of themselves to it. And it’s the best way to beat inflation over long period of time. As more and more countries compete for a smaller share of total global economic output, prices for every commodity as far out as you can see them are only going one way–up!
Tim,
Thats unfortunate about your stock option history.
I’ve been trading profitably for over five years.
No advanced number crunching … just long term strategy, using good companies.
And yes, you are right, I do write them against my long term positions, thats how I generate a very healthy monthly income.
But the 1,000% percent I quoted earlier were for some short term trades. A little “gravy on the side”
But I definately agree with Amit that success of that type of level only comes after years of hard work.
There are multiple ways to make a lot of money, but time will determine who takes the pot, and who passes it on to the next guy.
Well then if you’re so great at writing options why are you interested in PPC? Options are much easier and you can use a lot of leverage. Yes, you can make a lot of money WRITING options against long positions. I have a friend who makes a lot of money doing just as you do. He also has to watch the market all the time which severely cuts into his personal life. But buying options is a fast way to the poorhouse. It’s a fact that 90% of options expire as losses. I’ve made over 1000% on several long positions myself. Just long term strategy, using good companies.
Tim:
I know what you are saying. I respect it. And I am quite aware of the risks. I’ve been through hell before.
PPC: I want a new challenge. Web design was my first love, I gave it up for many years to learn how to trade, and now that I have my investments on auto-pilot, I have some free time to pick up the hobby which I always wanted to get into.