10 Questions with Flipping a Dollar

Today is the 3rd edition of our new periodic guest post series called 10 Questions. We have a list of 17 NEW questions we pose to fellow financial bloggers, and they are free to pick and choose 10 or answer all of them. Let us know if you would like to be featured in a future edition of 10 Questions. (If you have already answered the first set of 10 questions, please feel free to answer these new ones.)

Hi there, Mrs. 1500 doing the intro today. Flipping a Dollar is my new favorite blog. I love the finding-the-needle-in-a-haystack concept of purchasing items at the thrift store and garage sales and turning around and selling it for big money on eBay.

Dollar Flipper had a great series recently about brand names to look for when thrifting, along with what to look for in each item and what sells best.

So without further ado, here is Dollar Flipper from Flipping a Dollar, to tell you all about himself.

Tell me about your blog and why it’s great.
I blog about re-selling items I find at garage sales, thrift stores, and flea markets on eBay (mostly) and Amazon. My blog is a good place for anyone who’s into re-selling, from the beginner to the expert.

It’s a better option than the thrifting Facebook groups that are out there. These groups will bombard you with information about items that you should be on the lookout for “BOLOs,” but someone who’s still learning won’t understand why the items are selling and can make a lot of mistakes. I give context to each item and point out the pitfalls too. I try to go over the process of selling on eBay instead of just the buying. Buying is all too easy (and fun – search for YouTube “thrift haul ebay” – it’ll get your hopes up plenty), but if you buy a ton but don’t list it, you can easily become a hoarder! I try to reign people back in so they can get a realistic idea of how they can make money re-selling online.

What goals do you have for your blog, short and long term?
I’m tracking my progress towards $10,000 in profits from re-selling online. I’ll include any blog income that gets transferred over to my accounts (very minimal so far). Posting my progress keeps me honest, and lets me course-correct quickly. For the blog itself, I’d like to double my readership. Maybe branch out a bit more into some personal finance or DIY posts. I still have a ton to talk about just re-selling on eBay though, so that would be longer term when I had more free time (hah!).

Do you enjoy writing?
I found that I do! I always thought I was a terrible writer. Turns out that I’m just terrible at analyzing literature. Essays aren’t for me I guess. I have a technical background so I tend to get to the point. The hardest part for me is to try to add in some fluff that isn’t just fluff for fluff’s sake. Motherfluffer.

1500 Days is about early retirement. Do you have early retirement dreams? At what age do you think you will retire?
I would love to retire at 40. I have 11 years till then. We’re currently saving slightly above 50% of our income and piling most of it at our mortgage. I dream of the days when all I have to pay is property tax and our HOA instead of the full blown mortgage.

If blogging isn’t your full time gig, what is?
I have a masters in Chemical Engineering, but I do ITish work in my industry. Since I have experience on the process, the company appreciates how I can put things in perspective. I guess I’m kind of that jack-of-all-trades guy instead of being stuck in a silo. It’s a big improvement over my last job. The hours are much better when you aren’t directly supporting manufacturing!

What is the best money management or investment tool you have come across?
YNAB. I know others preach about it, but I think the most important aspect of it was getting my wife and me on the same page. We knew we were spending less than we earned, but not by much, and it was stressful. We had just gotten married, bought a 2nd car, and were trying to pay down my student loans. We wouldn’t be where we are today without it.

I remember the first time it really hit home how awesome the YNAB system was. We went to a friend’s wedding for a weekend, and at brunch on Sunday, one of our friends said “man, I can’t believe how expensive this weekend was.” My wife and I both looked at each other and I thought “we didn’t even check the budget once!” We had entered in any spending at the time of transaction, but when we were driving home, we finally looked at the damage.  We still had $50 leftover in the wedding category! We had started putting $100 a month for the wedding almost a year in advance, and hadn’t even thought of money once during the whole weekend. Completely stress free. It makes events like this actionable and puts the control on your side. Pro-activity at its best.

Did you grow up with money? How did your money situation growing up influence you?
I grew up with more money than my parents did as a kid. 4 out of my 5 years of college were paid for – it was a planned 5 year BS/MS program with 3 six month long internships. All of the money from my internships went back to my parents.  This definitely gave me a great head start when I started working out of college.

Did your parents teach you about money as a kid? How so?
The stipulation for my parents paying for college was that I couldn’t have a credit card. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t have one. I probably would have built up a balance. I always had a debit card and spent it down to below $1. Pretty impressive. I’m not sure how I would have handled the CC. Now, I have a bunch of them, and we pay them off every month.

We notice a lot of frugal people are into board games – what is your favorite?
Pandemic has got to be the coolest board game I’ve played in a while. It’s a co-operative game where everyone works together to not die. There’s an original and an expansion, and my friends/family still haven’t even won once in the expansion. Yet we still keep coming back! It’s nice to not have to go against everyone else in a board game once in a while.

What do you do for exercise?
Do? Did? Well, I did CrossFit before it got super popular. I guess I’m a bit of a hipster. Man did it get us in shape for our wedding (#435 deadlift right here). Now we just have the family membership at the Y, and I try to still do Olympic lifts once a week. I play volleyball too. Finding the time is the hardest thing when you want to spend as much time as possible with your family. If I wasn’t working 9-5 it would be a lot easier!

Thanks to Dollar Flipper for taking the time to answer our questions. Keep up with him at Flipping a Dollar, over on Twitter and facebook.