Andy,

>Sounds too easy if you put it that way. I guess you're pretty close. :) Let me see... 1+1=$2, 2+2=$4, 4+4=$8, 8+8=$16, 16+16=$32...

Yep -- 10 times gets you to $1024, then the real fun begins. Doubles #17 - 20 result in $128K, $256K, $512K and $1024K, (with K = 1024). You can start out by buying a 1-dollar bargain at a yard sale, and selling the item at your own yard sale for $2. Of course, as the numbers get bigger it's increasingly more difficult to find ways to safely double your investment, so you'll want to diversify and not put all the eggs into one basket. That being said, it is incredibly simple (at least on paper) :-)

As a lesson in money management, on July 1 I gave each of my 3 children (and also my wife and myself) 10 shiny new Sacagawea dollar coins with the instructions to save 1 dollar permanently, give away 1 dollar, and put the other 8 to use to multiply them. When an investment or project brings in a profit, they are to permanently save 10% of the profit, give away 10%, and put the rest back into their investment pool. They cannot use or borrow the money for any other purpose. Each use of those dollars for investment or project is to be logged on accounting forms that I provided.

We will meet on July 1, 2001 to see what each person was able to accomplish with the original $10.

My first "project" was an old, tarnished sterling-silver serving tray that I bought for $2 at a yard sale. I polished it and will sell it for at least $4 (maybe more) at a yard sale our neighbor is having in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I'm still looking for something to do with my last $6 in the pool.