Where have the dumbest/laziest people made the most money?

[Cevian]

"Independent" Directors sitting on various boards

[Broeb22]

This is funny because this is essentially the question 3G asked themselves as they considered industries to enter. They settled on brewers because everywhere they looked in every country the leading brewers were among the wealthiest families/people.

[mrholty]

I really shouldn't add to this thread, especially because its all over the board.  Dumbest/Laziest are vastly different things and what we are measuring (HNW or $/hour are very different).  I have a PT business that I make $300/hour from.  The problem is that I cannot grow it to more than it is due to its niche so it will never become my sole source of income.  It will continue to be a good side hustle that I enjoy and the money I make are decent deposits to my kids college/whatever fund.

 

I laugh at the guy who complained about the quality of the Exterminator/House Cleaner/Pressure Washer.  Those are all businesses with generally low barriers to entry and low startup costs.  People can make good incomes from these jobs but they are hard to create generational wealth from as the differentiating factor is marketing. 

 

The same with the story on General Contractors (or any building trades).  When times are good people can make good money, the guys who last long term are the good ones and those are the guys who add value.  Right now they and the trades are doing great as we've convinced the last 2 decades of kids that they need to go to college and rack up debt for jobs that don't need it.

 

The comments about teachers and firefighters/police are interesting as the salaries + benefits differ greatly state by state.  The coastal areas have pay + benefits packages for the public servants that are unsustainable imho.  I now live in WI and the pay is fine.  In the south (Texas and Oklahoma) the pay is a disaster.  These are also not going to make you uber wealthy. 

 

The 3G comment about Breweries is one of those things that used to work but fundamentally has shifted in many countries.  Those were great businesses as they owned distribution.  In the US the explosion of breweries has pushed it to the other way and I expect that there will be a lot of breweries contracting in the next 5-10 years.

 

When I think of easy jobs I think of jobs where the person is a gatekeeper to something and thus can extract a toll for doing little.  Historically I'd put bankers and much of Wall Street on it.  While its changing the salaries generally seem high vs output/value earned.  The other thing for most is that it has to have leverage in there to really grow as your earning years are limited so you need leverage.  The baby boomers are rich because they bought housing in the late 70s with house prices at 2x annual household income and are selling at 5 annual househould income plus you get the levarage of your investment at 4-5x as you put 10-20% down. 

 

I used to think an internet marketing was the key but I've been selling on Amazon for 2+ years and have a small online business.  My savings in real estate has been arbed away by high Customer Acquisition costs.  My ACOS on Amazon is 18-20%.  I'm riding the Amazon and Internet wave and growing but my margins are shrinking due to increased Amz fees, advertising, etc.

 

Therefore I've gone back to start looking at real estate.  Most deals that I see are based on assumptions that housing values will increase by 5%/year or that rents can increase by that much but I'm currently doing due dillegence on a lead that looks bad upfront but it should cashflow from day 1 and will have good cash on cash returns.  That said its not easy.