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It seems like this answer is being asked a LOT on Quora these days!I’ve answered this question several times over the past few weeks, so I’ve copied and pasted my answer below.Hope this helps…Although there are plenty of gurus out there who try to make financial freedom sound so complicated that it would require an advanced degree in differential calculus just to get started, it’s actually quite simple.In fact, there are only three ways that you can achieve financial freedom:Increase IncomeDecrease ExpensesLeverage High Return Opportunities by Creating a “War Chest”That’s it.Let’s dive in.(Note: This content originally appeared on my blog Knowledge for Men. If you’re interested in reading the article in its entirety just click here)Simple Strategies for Increasing Your IncomeBefore we can dive into the different strategies for increasing your income, let’s go ahead and get one thing straight…You cannot save your way to wealth.Sure, you can cut back on your expenses and invest the difference into a mutual fund or something similar.But at the current rate of inflation, it’s unlikely that you will be able to save enough to retire on, let alone to live your dream life.Unfortunately, this is how most people go about their financial journey.They trip over dollars to save pennies when they could just ignore the pennies and pick up the dollars.Just think about it…Even if you lived the most barebones quality of life (which for the record is not good for your health, longevity, or future earning potential) and you were able to cut your expenses back to only $1,500 a month on a $3,000 a month salary, you’re still sacrificing 80% of your quality of life for a fractional financial gain.If you spent the same amount of energy on doubling your income that you currently spend on scrounging for deals and clipping coupons, you would be able to enjoy a quality of life that is more than twice as high and still invest an additional $2,000 a month into your Roth or 401K (which I don’t recommend, but we will get to that).Do you get the point?Living below your means is necessary for financial freedom.But unless it is combined with a steady increase in your income, it will never be enough to break free from the system and live the life that you truly desire.With that out of the way, here are a few of my favorite ways to increase your income.1. Start a Freelancing/Service Based Side HustleThe fastest and easiest way to make up some extra cash is to use your existing skill set to find new clients that will pay you on a per-project basis.This could be anything from writing sales copy, designing marketing campaigns, remodeling homes, working as a personal trainer, or editing videos.It really matters what you do.If someone will pay you for it and you are able to charge a reasonable rate, you can turn just about any interest, skill, or hobby into a healthy side income.To get started, I recommend that you check out Chris Guillebeau’s Side Hustle School and start jumping into as many online communities and social media masterminds as you can.There’s money to be made with just about any skill set as long as you know the right place to look.2. Start a BusinessFor those of you with the patience to make it to profitability, starting a business is an excellent way to boost your income that will allow you to create automated systems to generate money without your direct input.Even though it took almost five years to work out the biggest kinks (and I can promise you that it is an ongoing process), I’ve built Knowledge for Men to the point where I could generate 6-figures+ per year while working fewer than 15 hours a week… If I wanted to.If you have the time, patience, and capital to dive into the world of part-time (or full time) entrepreneurship, these are a few of my favorite interviews to help you get started. (note: head over to my website to view these interviews, I’m not including the links due to Quora’s crackdown on external linking within answers)Pejman Ghadimi – Millionaire by 25 and the Founder of The Secret EntourageMJ Demarco – Author of The Millionaire FastlaneCameron Herold – Author of Double DoubleSean Ogle – Founder of Location RebelAlex Charfen – 7-Figure EntrepreuerJay Samit – World Renowned Consultant and author of Disrupt YouThese interviews will provide you with more than enough juice to get started down your journey to entrepreneurial freedom and if you take action on this content in conjunction with a few of the top business books, I promise you that you can achieve your entrepreneurial dreams faster than you ever thought possible.3. Negotiate a RaiseThe final way to increase your income is simply to negotiate a raise at your current position.Depending on your field, this could be as easy as talking with your boss for 15 minutes this Friday or it could require 3-6 months of working overtime and proving your worth.I don’t know your specific field and I have no idea what your manager’s temperaments are like, so instead of trying to give you a blow by blow checklist for negotiating a raise, I’ll provide you with a few tried and true principles that can help you increase your annual income by 10-40%.-Timing is Everything:If you ask for a raise during the wrong season or after an expensive reorganization then you will be shot down every single time. Try broaching the topic of a raise during your company’s highest grossing months or after some sort of positive event like a successful product launch.-Request a Raise on Merit, not Tenure or Market ConditionsYou can’t expect to receive a raise if your performance at work hasn’t earned it. When you go into negotiations, be sure to focus on the quality of work that you’ve been providing not the length of time you’ve been with a company or the salaries that the competition is paying.-Manage Your State During NegotiationsOne of the worst things you can do is to show up to your salary negotiations with weak and defeated body language. I know that these meetings can be tense and awkward, but maintaining an upbeat and positive attitude will make a “Yes” much more likely.-Figure Out the Number BeforehandIf you go into salary negotiations without a clear understanding of exactly how much of a salary increase you want and why you deserve it, you’re going to fail. If you bid too high, you’ll offend your employer and seem like a bit of a narcissist. If you go too low, the increase won’t be substantial enough to matter to you or your employer.-Handle Rejection GracefullyIf your manager or employer says “No” the first time around (and this is very likely), don’t get discouraged. Simply thank them for their time and ask them “What specific outcomes would be required for me to receive this raise within the next 3-6 months?” If they can’t answer this question, you should probably find another employer.How to Reduce Your Expenses without Sacrificing Your Quality of Life“Spend extravagantly on the things that you love and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t.” ~Ramit SethiAlthough increasing your income is the best way to move closer to financial freedom, in and of itself, it is rarely sufficient.Most people tend to spend whatever they earn and, without the proper systems in place, increasing your income will result in less financial freedom and more payments on pointless crap that you don’t need.Embracing Minimalism and an Experience-Driven LifeThe first and most important step that you can take to reduce your expenses without sacrificing your quality of life is to commit to the minimalist lifestyle.Ever since the 1950’s and the inception of the “American Dream”, our society has become hell-bent on owning and accumulating lots of “Stuff”.We spend $5,000 on our couch, $2,000 on a new TV, and $400 for a freaking nightstand.But when you stop and think about it, is this really the best way to spend your money and achieve happiness?I’m not saying that you shouldn’t want or buy nice things. But there comes a point where materialism can detract from the experience of living life.When you are mired in credit card debt and have more than $1,000/month in payments for things that you’ve financed, it makes it difficult to spend time and money on the things that really matter in life.So I want to encourage you to become a minimalist.Spend your money on things that will really matter in the long run.Would you rather have:A couch from restoration hardwareA brand new LexusA new wardrobe from GucciOr…A four-week backpacking trip across New ZealandA year abroad in Europe with your girlfriendA one-week seminar learning how to become your best selfSome of you may truly prefer things to experiences, but according to the research, people derive the greatest amount of happiness by spending their money on experiences and relationships, not things.I won’t tell you how to live your life or how to spend your money.That’s up to you and the next section will help you create a plan for your finances that is tailored to your personality and values.But I will tell you that becoming a minimalist was one of the greatest decisions that I ever made and I’d encourage you to give it a go for yourself.The Conscious Spending PlanMost people despise the idea of a budget because the method they’ve learned feels restrictive. In reality, however, a budget is simply a plan for spending your money.Since “Budget” has become a four-letter word to many people, I prefer using the term “Conscious Spending Plan” (coined by Ramit Sethi).Instead of having a specific destination for every single dollar you earn, you should have a written system that determines what portions of your income will be spent on what expenses and luxuries.But before you can do this, you need to know where you want to spend your money in the first place.How do you do this? By following your values.There’s an old saying that, “If you show me a man’s calendar you can show me his priorities.” I believe that this is true, but I believe that it’s even truer that “If you show me a man’s spending you can show me what he values”.Your conscious spending plan should reflect your internal values and goals, not meet some arbitrary standard set by society.If you are a single guy who doesn’t spend a lot of time at home, then why in the world should you spend 30% of your income on an expensive apartment?Conversely, if you are a married man with two children, it doesn’t make much sense to spend 10% of your income on car payments if you could simply buy a used car in cash and roll the 10% into a bigger and more comfortable home for you and your family.The only non-negotiable item in your conscious spending plan is your personal growth and development.If you aren’t setting aside at least 10% of your income to invest in coaching, masterminds, courses, books, and seminars, then you are doing it wrong.I’ve spent tens of thousands (maybe even more than 6-figures) on my personal growth and ever single investment I made paid back dividends.So right now, before you go any further in this article, I want you to take a minute and write down the answer to a few questions.What would I do if money was no objectIf I was given a blank check that could solve one problem in my life, what would that problem be?If I was given $10,000 and was forced to spend it on FUN how would I spend it?What is the one thing I would change about my current living situation (housing, cars, clothes, etc.)?Got it?Good. These questions will help you figure out your values and how you should allocate your money.By having a clearly defined set of values, you can decide exactly where you want to spend your money.For example, if you don’t spend a lot of time at home, you can spend less money on your apartment while spending more on dining out and partying with friends.If you are someone who doesn’t enjoy nightlife and prefers to be outdoors, you can create a conscious spending plan that allows you to spend $15,000 a year on adventure vacations and epic trips.Or maybe you are someone with a wide array of interests and you just want to have $500 a month to spend on whatever catches your fancy at the time.A conscious spending plan allows you to do just that!When you cut back on the things you don’t love, you will naturally have more money for the things that you do.Negotiating Lower Payments on Your Biggest ExpensesAlthough I’m not a fan of penny-pinching or scrounging for deals, there are a few key expenses where you can save yourself $1,000/year+ with just a few phone calls.Specifically:RentCar InsurancePhone BillLoans (Credit cards, student loans, etc.)Most people overpay for services and are completely oblivious to the massive number of discounts and specials that are offered by banks, insurance companies, and apartment complexes.For example, if you’ve been insured for more than a year and your premium hasn’t dropped, you should be able to get your insurance lowered with only one phone call.In twelve months, your car has lost a significant amount of value and this depreciation will only be reflected in your insurance premium if you are willing to call and request a rate change.The specific scripts and tactics that you should use to get a lower rate are beyond the scope of this guide, but Ramit Sethi has an excellent article on finding hidden income that will teach you the word by word responses you should use to lower your biggest expenses.The Ultimate Financial Hack: Becoming a Digital NomadFor those of you with a location independent income source, or the ability to find/create one in the next 12 months, becoming a digital nomad is the ultimate financial hack.Although more and more people are leaving the country in favor of cheaper locales, it amazes me how few people truly understand the power of geoarbitrage.In the United States, you can expect to spend:$1,000+/month for a single bedroom apartment$500+/month for groceries$200+/month for utilities$400+/month for transportation (Insurance, car payment, gas, Uber, etc.)Oh and 20%+ of your income in taxesIf you were willing to relocate to a developing country like Colombia, Thailand, Vietnam, Nicaragua, or Budapest you could simultaneously spend less money for a greater quality of life.Although prices vary, based on conversations with my digital nomad friends you should expect to spend:$750/month for a luxurious single bedroom apartment in the city center$200/month for groceries$100/month for utilities$200/month for transportation (or less)This is just a rough estimate and I’ve even known guys who have lived on less than $1,500 a month abroad.In and of itself, it’s pretty amazing that you can enjoy a higher quality of life, travel the world, and save money, but the real financial incentive comes from the tax advantages of living abroad.For individuals who spend 11 months or 330 days outside of the united states in a given calendar year, the first $102,000 that you earn are income tax exempt.Depending on the state that you live in, this could be a total savings of more than $25,000/year JUST for living outside of the country!Talk about a life hack.If you can adapt to life on the road, becoming a digital nomad is one of the best financial decisions that you can ever make.And you’ll have a helluva time while you’re saving money.Building Your War Chest: The Keys to the Financial KingdomI’m not a CPA.I don’t have special knowledge about different investing strategies and I couldn’t help you pick out the best index fund for your savings if I tried.However, over the past 10 years, I’ve consistently applied a single tactic that has allowed me to invest in opportunities that 2X, 5X, or even 10X’d my investment.I call this tactic the war chest.Better than a 401K: Why You Should Focus on Your War Chest and Not Your Retirement FundI know that plenty of gurus still preach the importance of investing in low-risk medium yield mutual funds and index funds.But I respectfully disagree.You’re never going to enter into the upper echelons of wealth by earning a 7%/year return on a few thousand dollars.You’re going to do it by amassing massive sums of money and then investing that money into highly profitable opportunities and endeavors.I realized early on that I would never be able to consistently save money if I was putting my hard earned cash into a boring fund or a 1% interest savings account for a “Rainy Day”.So I decided to make savings a game, to make it exciting!So, ever since I graduated college, I’ve been consistently socking away part of my income every single month into my “War Chest”, a savings account that I use exclusively for high yield investments.This war chest allowed me to:Quit my job and build Knowledge for Men for an entire year without needing to make a profitEarn $15,000+ in 14 days during the Crypto-Craze back in November 2017Generate more than $300k in revenue by spending $6,000 on a high-level sales coachInvest in high growth companies like Shopify, Salesforce, Facebook and Netflix before they peaked.Almost invested into a new vegan fast food concept thats got a line out the door everyday (I’m in California).And so much more.But you aren’t going to use your war chest for any investments like these… Not yet at least.For now, you are going to invest the funds from your war chest into one thing and one thing only.Yourself. Invest in books, coaching, seminars, and training programs that will help you improve your skills and become more valuable to the marketplace.From there, you will be able to dramatically increase your income and then intelligently invest your war chest funds into unique opportunities that arise.When you have developed a skillset that can earn you good sums of cash then you can continue to build your war chest.Your war chest is something you build for the rest of your life. Once you make an investment then you rebuild your war chest quickly from your cash flow from your job or business for another investment.This is how rich people get rich they buy assets they understand that either pay them healthy cash flows or yield a very high return.Without a war chest you would not have the opportunity to take advantage of opportunity when it arises.ConclusionThat’s it! I know this was a long response but I hope that it helped you get started on your journey to financial freedom.Let me know if you have any questions about the content or would like to know more in the comments :)Stay Grounded,AndrewLearn more about my work and mission by visiting my Quora profile here

When looking at ways to increase income, you can consider many general paths. These might include:passive activitiespart time/side “gigs”working for yourself after hours in the same field as your day jobadding income opportunities in work that’s similar but not exactly the same as your current roleIn my case, I’m doing #4 but lets look at all of these.Passive ActivitiesThe obvious answer here is real estate which it seems everyone is doing. And because of that, the bar is much higher now than it was 20 years ago. Especially in hot regions like mine (Boston).If you want to be a real estate investor, just know that depending on the targeted property, there are 3–5 investor/contractors who can buy your property cash, have access to 1–2M in cash and a line of credit from their bank for another 1–2M (that doesn’t include the Chinese buyers).If you can’t compete with that, then either try some “guerilla” form of real estate investing or skip it altogether.Another option- you can accumulate dividend stocks, real estate trust shares or other passive investments too. The problem I have with this is that the world is moving much faster now. My grandfather could buy and accumulate Exxon stock from 1950 to 2000 and feel comfortable they’d always be around and be growing. I don’t have confidence in too many companies that I’d feel you could buy and accumulate their stock for 30–50 years.And it takes a LONG time for the average person to accumulate enough of a stock investment to make the income stream impactful. And that’s probably not what you’re asking. if you’re trying to make more, you may not have a large sum of money to invest now. And if you buy a stock paying a 2% dividend, you’d need $100,000 of it to give you $2,000 a year. Whereas you might be able to make 2k in a 2 week consulting gig on the side!Part time side gigsI differentiate between #2 and #4 in that #2 would be work unrelated to your “day” job. When I was in school, I taught tennis to kids. and I continued that for a year or two after graduating. I was not a full time tennis pro:) but teaching tennis in the right place under the right set up can pay $25–40/hour.Other examples might be landscaping or even HVAC. The guy coming tomorrow to check my central AC does HVAC work as a side specialty (he was a general electrician for many years). He’s charing me $135 to come check on my HVAC for an hour and half. Not bad for your late 50s or early 60 somethings looking for quality PT spending cash.Working for yourself in the same field as your day jobA good example of this is my friend Endre who is a massage therapist at a sports medicine clinic during the day. And 2 days per week he takes clients personally in his own office.he may get paid more and have more flexibility with his own practice. he also has some ‘downside” protection in case life changes. he has a growing clientele.Adding correlated income opportunitiesSometimes you can unlock income streams in the same general line of your current work which wouldn’t take much of a skill pivot.For example, in my field of personal financial planning, one could be a planner and earn hourly fees and retainer fees. And then also start an insurance agency for purely insurance work. Or do financial blogging. If I did this, I’d be using the same knowledge and skills but using them in a different way. And in a different channel.Teaching is a job that can go both ways - an experienced financial professional can teach on the side, or an experienced economics professor could start a consulting business (Ian Bremmer, Lawrence Kotlikoff etc).This is what I am working on actually - having both an insurance agency separate from my planning and developing an online client channel. the key is developing protocols and streamlined operations/checklists so that other ventures do not intrude on my peace of mind!What’s nice about the online channel is that much of that process is automated and I only need to be active when it comes time for me either have a direct conversation with someone or I need to do analysis for a client.Gaining client interest, explaining what we do, scheduling meetings and providing follow up information can all be automated. the 21st century isn’t so bad!if you have any further information I can provide let me know:Contact Chris Grande - Chris Grande

Counting money in a money-warehouse.I am a believer in temp agencies, because they make it much easier to move to a new city just because you want to give it a try, without having a job lined-up in advance, and quickly get some income while you look for permanent work.In fall 1977, after I had graduated from MIT in architecture, there was a recession on, building construction was down, I wasn’t too good at applying for jobs, in short I didn’t have an entry-level architecture job, even though I had an undergrad average of A. My plan had been to spend a year in practice before going back to the MIT master of architecture program, into which I had already been accepted - silly me, I didn’t realize that this meant to employers that as soon as I was about to get valuable to them (after a year’s experience) I would be leaving- so why should any of them take me on?Ignorant of this basic problem with my plan, I figured, Los Angeles has good weather year-round, maybe the construction industry is doing better there - and thus the architecture profession maybe needed more entry-level architects. So I flew from Washington D.C. to LA with nothing but the names of a few architecture firms to visit (without having called ahead to any of them) to look for work.I quickly found a tiny apartment with a bed that pulled down from the wall, dropped off a resume at the American Institute of Architects, and then thought that since I needed income right away, to sign-up with a few temp agencies.Oh, by the way, I didn’t have a car, and the apartment was in the first block from the ocean at Venice Beach.One of the temp jobs I got required taking a Santa Monica bus before sunrise from Venice into downtown LA, then transferring to an LA bus to East Los Angeles - a district of nothing but big blank warehouses.The place I was supposed to go to was a blank-sided windowless warehouse filling an entire block. The only visible object on it was a projecting booth on the second floor, over the doorway. There was no logo of any company, nothing at all to indicate what this building was or who owned it or operated within it.As I walked along the warehouse to the doorway, I saw that within this glass-walled booth was a rifle-armed uniformed guard, watching me, who was the only visible human anywhere on that street.I buzzed the intercom, identified myself, and a buzz unlocked the street door.I found myself in a long straight narrow hall, windowless on both sides, ending in a windowed door. Through that window I could see that this door led into a small entry chamber, with windows on all sides, and beyond the other side window was a uniformed guard sitting at a control desk. I reached that door, and another buzz indicated it was now unlocked, so in I went. To my left was the only other door, also containing a window into a larger room.Once that door closed behind me and locked, the guard buzzed the next door, and in I went - to the money-counting room.The orientation person, smiling, met me, and explained what happened here. Banks from all over, especially Latin America, sent worn-out U.S. bills here, to be exchanged for new fresh bills. The cash we collected would then be destroyed. It was all a part of a standard part of the banking business and the money supply, to deal with the fact that paper money wears out, but the holder of a worn-out bill can’t be treated like “sorry, you lose, you got stuck with the bill when it was too worn out to keep using.”The room was simplicity itself, just an open-plan office, each desk having low walls about head-height, painted in pastels. There were maybe ten money-counting stations. Music played over the sound-system, but I noticed every so often that it had stopped some time earlier; then I would notice, hey, the music was playing again.I had taken psychology courses when I was at Pomona College (before transferring to study architecture at MIT) and I recognized that this room used all the principles I had studied about industrial interior design, including the use of music - and as the week progressed, I realized that those principles actually worked to keep a repetitive job from becoming intolerably boring and tedious. I filed this away in mind as something I could use in architecture, if I ever got a job as an architect.A temp learns quickly not to start conversations, and nobody started conversations with me, and the desks were far enough apart that it would not be convenient to chat across desks anyway. I took my assigned seat; at the desk was an automatic bill-counting machine to be used for ones and fives, some printed forms for us to enter information, and a nondescript pen.I took my seat and the process began. Someone entered pushing a four-wheeled platform hand truck, piled with burlap bags. He gave me one of the bags and continued.Each bag had a wire wrapped around the top end to keep it closed, and on the wire was a tag, with a number hand-written on it in pen. This was the amount of money the bag was supposed to contain. We wrote that down on our sheet. We emptied out the bag of money on the desk, machine-counted the ones and fives, and hand counted all the rest. Then we wrote down the number - mine always checked, so I don’t recall what we were supposed to do if the number didn’t check. I also don’t remember whether we were supposed to put the money back into the same bag, or to put it somewhere else. Probably back into the same bag. Once counted, somebody took the money and the bag away, and I got another.Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars passed through my hands each day, perhaps a million dollars a day. Just like people say, this can pretty tedious to do for 8 hours a day, day after day. It’s not like you are counting your own money, after all.Every so often I noticed someone going by with a two-wheel hand truck, bearing a big block of brand-new bills, shrink-wrapped. If you watch a video of how the Treasury prints and packages new money, you will know what these look like. It was actually more impressive to see someone wheeling a huge package of brand-new 20’s along, than it was to face another huge pile of old bills on your desk to count.We didn’t go out for lunch, instead we brought our own, and ate inside.Me being in LA, after about three days of this I began to wonder, whether I could write a screen-play of a bank heist from the money-warehouse. How would a person like me, just a temp walking in, figure out how to slip out some of the money, and get away with it?One of the things I had noticed was that they appeared to have no system for recording which person counted a particular bag. I was not assigned any number for them use for tracking purposes, and my desk had no number. Thus, if a bag came up short, they couldn’t tell which counter had counted it. Later on, however, I thought: maybe each counter has a somewhat different ink-pen, and they can tell who counted the bag by the ink on the recording sheet.Another weakness in their system occurred to me, which was: they used handwritten numbers on the incoming tags on the bags. The numbers weren’t machine-printed. And the handwriting was pretty sloppy.What if, I thought, a bag came in, and the ink used to write the number on the tag was the same as the ink in my pen?What if, in addition, the sloppy way the number was written meant that a deft stroke of my pen could change the number?And what if, in addition, the sloppy way the number was written meant that I could doctor the number down?In such a situation, it would be possible to low-count the bag, without there being any difference between the newly-lower number on the tag, and the number I recorded on my sheet.My budding screenwriter brain started to whirr. If this happened, how could I get the amount of cash I had “freed up” by making the number change, out of this guarded triple-door locked room?Ah, I thought: take advantage of an aspect of male clothing: the pants zipper. Go to the men’s room, “forget” to zip my fly, go back to the desk, and quickly slip just the right amount of cash off the desk and into my pants.Video cameras? There might be some - I never spotted any, and 1977 technology of video surveillance was a lot more primitive that today - but both doctoring the tag, and slipping-in the cash, could be done close to the edge of the desk, with my body hunching over to block the view.Needless to say, these imaginings, and my thoughts of writing a quick-buck caper screenplay started making this money-counting job a lot more interesting.Now: presuming our young man had gotten all this far, and was out of the building with the cash in his pants, how to quickly “launder” the cash, so as not to be caught with it in his possession?Answer: Las Vegas, of course. Quickly catch a bus to Las Vegas, use all the money to buy chips, do a little gambling, then cash-in all the chips. Presto, new cash for old.I had all this figured out when, on Friday, to my amazement, a bag plopped down onto my desk where I actually could try to do this.The number on the tag was $170,000. But the “7” was so sloppily written, that one quick upstroke on the left end of the horizontal would make it read $140,000.And the ink used to write number happened to be exactly the same as my nondescript pen.My screenplay was coming true!But then came the thought: would I dare to actually try this? To steal $30,000 from the money-counting warehouse on a Friday, catch a bus to Las Vegas, and do the chip-swapping ruse to launder the money?Because it looked like it would work.I learned something about myself that day - because although I actually thought about this for about a minute, I decided, no: no way.I left the tag-number at $170,000, counted-out $170,000, and sent that money on its way.Bye-bye, $30,000. Sad to see you go.And then I learned what a disaster it would have been, had I tried this: because for the first time in five days, a guy came around with a checklist, on which were written the money-numbers on each tag on the incoming bags. He matched the incoming and outgoing numbers on my record sheet with the incoming numbers on the bags that he had on his list.If I had tried my scam, I would have been instantly caught, because his list of incoming bags would have $170,000, and my list of incoming bags would have $140,000 - a mis-match. Instead of a promising young A-average MIT architecture graduate, I would have been a convicted felon, caught with $30,000 cash in my pants. My whole life would have been totally ruined.I was almost trembling with relief that I had not tried to execute my screenplay caper in my real life.But I also have to admit: I was looking forward to coming back next week to continue the money-counting job - which had been scheduled for two or three weeks - to see if I could work-out the defects in my sneaky plan.But: at the end of that Friday, the boss came up to me and said, “We are really happy with your work. But we heard from our insurance company that since you are not bonded, we cannot have you back. We’ll give you an excellent recommendation to the temp agency, but this has been your last day here.”Out I went from the money-counting warehouse, never to return. But it had been a very important experience for me: never, never, give in to the temptation to commit any crimes.Who would have thought that this would be a lesson learned from taking temp jobs?