Housekeeping

Whenever someone approaches me and asks me for WoW financial advice, I always instruct them to perform three tasks and relate to me the outcomes. These are: Sell everything in your bank you do not use daily, write down your expenses at the end of your play sessions, drop any trade profession you have but do not use, for one that can be profitable.

Generally, applicants don't get back to me after I ask them such hard and impossible tasks. Since they refuse to do the most basic parts of thinking profitably, I will not teach them. It would be like teaching a turtle how to balance his checkbook or the value of a Roth IRA. They have to have the self-motivation and desire to learn these things as steps in order to get to where I am.

So what is so terribly hard with my three requests?

Get rid of the junk you have in your bank! It can be sold for income, yet it is not making you any in your bank! You are asking for financial advice, so you are not financially wealthy yet. That means you are not making money with your bank, yet it is a tool to make money! Use it! Being a pack-rat will not make you money, it promotes stupid decisions based on fear of being poor. Liquidate all of your 'rainy day' crap and Eternals and herbs and ores and junk, turn it into money. Saving these items actually ends up costing you Gold. The truth in WoW is: Anything today is cheaper tomorrow.

Writing down your expenses at the end of your play session is hard for people, that don't like pencils or paper. If you are allergic to math then perhaps this is not the right prospect for you? Keeping an audit of your costs against your gains will allow you to see where all of your mystery losses are coming from, and improve on your costs next week. Minimizing your overhead is key to seeing profit. Try this example:

"Lets see, I spent 500 Gold on raid last week because I didn't plan ahead and had to buy flasks on tuesday raid time (which is when they are the most expensive). Next week, I'll purchase the materials cheaper during the weekend when all of the weekend warriors farm and dump supply on the AH, then have someone craft for me the items I need, saving hundreds of Gold."

As for trade professions: They are for trade, not for toys. Engineering has almost no income possible and is not a trade for making profit. If you want a trade that gives you 'raid utility' or maximizes your 'dps' then you aren't thinking profitably and this blog is not for you. There is no compromise or two ways about this. If you pick a trade to make your meters have big numbers, stop reading this as your incentives are backwards for making Gold. Sure, anyone can make a few incomes from any trade, but that's not how you become rich. I noticed I gain a bonus to my 'dps' by being scribe with some shoulder enchant, but you had better be joking if you believe this is why I am scribe.

This all relates to how you think about your actions, and what makes you choose your decisions. If you are goal-oriented for 'dps meters' then your choices will always reflect that, and there is little a Goblin such as myself could teach you. If you are willing to say 'I want to earnestly learn to make lots of gold' then you are available mentally to make new choices and learn strategy and economics and become a Goblin.

This is perhaps the hardest part of teaching, knowing there are some you cannot teach regardless of how much effort you want to spend. They have to choose to be taught, or stick to their old m&s ways.