Habit forming

I can not seem to stop making more gold.

Though less time invested at it is less overall growth but, I have the habits that just won't go away...

Really this is only IMO a one time thing you have to do.  Do it once and do it right and you will unless you have crazy spending habits, never have to really do it again.

However, this does not happen over night, nor in a week or even a month...  for me, though many will skip steps and do more in a lot less time, these are never the less the step and evolving process that got me to the point I am at now..

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Summary... The habits I have formed that continue to make me gold...
at bottom if you are short on time... READ THE PARTS IN CAPS...

In the beginning I was a beginner and knew nothing, but imagined many great things... I would be unto myself an empire of crafting toons all my own and be able to make myself any and all gear I wanted and needed...

Then reality slowly creeped in... The time to level all those crafters.. O.o  and all the good gear did not come from crafting anyway... And all my friends were focusing on one toon at a time and higher level than me... the whole one man empire was failing as I regularly got help in my own empire...

Stage 2... I was new to the MMO world, had only played console games in the past... And I began at the pressure of my friends to imagine myself and pursue one toon and raiding... I was evolved, from a beginner to a NOOB...   I was the hunter in Kara that did not understand macros, did not know about shot clipping, and managed about 400 dps when 7-1000 was the norm, w/ my gear level... I could not chain trap, did not know what it was, and had some very gracious people point me in the right direction and with in a couple weeks, I more than doubled my dps, and could effectively CC my target chain trapping a mob durring a boss fight 6 times over durring the same fight.. Back when that was hard, and required planning since your CD was 30 seconds and your trap was 20 in BM spec... preloading traps, and conc shots and set bonuses...

Anyway, now I was firmly in the world of needing to enhance my gear and found myself always working to that and not to the "Nether Drakes" I wanted... and always broke...

It continued this way, and I found to raid, a hunter was a bad choice there were a lot of them, not much has really changed, but a tank became the focus.. and so I was a Pally tank... FOR THE LIGHT... yeah, w/e it was still the same old game..  

Step 3: Wrath hit and I was on the train when she left the station w/out an epic flight mount.  still had my trusty moped... I learned the value of an expac release and the value of farming for seed money... Eternal fire... The pally was a Blacksmith/Engineer and the only thing I found that would make me money was my trusty Zapthrottle Mote Extractor...  I could make about 1,000 - 1,500 an hour zapping clouds for crystalized and ultimately eternal fire, w/ some low value water thrown in for a bit more.... EPIC FLIGHT... The next step was getting more toons as I reverted to the original plans of an army of alts...  to craft and save my way to riches... I had more gold than most I knew.. and was happy with that... I managed every crafting profession except tailoring, and every gathering profession, 6 level 80s... and 30K...   I was on a roll...  still wanted more than the ~90 mounts and pets I had on one toon... but I was still always farming for more stuff... it was just part of my game at the time...

Step 4: The final change and push... I left everything but my knowledge behind... I started a new server a new toon and new faction, and made focused and planned steps to get to the current place, most of that is in the last couple months blogs... in short, I rode the DMC trinket train while the getting was really really good in early cata... I jumped off and got on the revolving train, that only slows down sometimes, but always picks up speed again.. the Enchanting train and rode it to the one million...

Summary... The habits I have formed that continue to make me gold...
The orriginal plan of an army of alts was the right one, but how I planned to get there was wrong... focused effort towards fewer goals at one time, or:

FEW SHORT TERM GOALS TO FOCUS ON

planning and thought out vision for the short term goals, both gold making and game playing.. you have to balance them IMO... and you probably want to do both if you are reading this...
For me this was raiding and gold making...

HAVE A PLAN, IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN, YOU REALLY ARE PLANNING TO FAIL

BALANCE YOUR MONOTONOUS ACTIVITY WITH YOUR FUN ACTIVITIES IN YOUR SHORT TERM GOALS

Data analysis and data gathering was huge... it allowed me to sometimes see very scary number like my estimated worth drop from 450K to about 100K... as inventory devaluated... but I also had a lot more info pertinent to the cost of mats the purchase history of mats and the over bottom line I wanted to sell at to make a profit...  This was key to making gold and not losing.

EFFECTIVE DATA GATHERING AND ANALYSIS

Patience and persistence, when the data tells you that its not profitable... you can join the masses in an exodus, or you may be able to wait out a wave and still make a profit... Wait has always been my policy...
I failed every time I really tried for quick flip gains... so I quit trying... I just kept doing what worked and at the time, that was selling gear UGs in the form of leg armors and enchants... (a little bit of JC for fun, and later I added belt buckles and BS/LW PVP armor, but that was really late in the game)

PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE... WHEN COMBINED W/ DATA ANALYSIS, IT PAYS TO WAIT MORE OFTEN THAN NOT IMO

With the army of alts, and a lost interest in the big money sinks of mounts and pets in the game, I found saving money was a helpful component to hitting the 1million cap, but it is not the holy grail.. its just not possible to save your way to riches.. You have to generate wealth... to to a sale at any store w/ your visa card, and read your reciept when your done.. usually it says "Savings: $XX.xx"  then check your Savings account.. and see how much you really saved... you did not you really spent money...

SAVING, OR LIMITING SPENDING ARE KEY COMPONENTS TO MAINTAINING WEALTH, BUT THEY ARE NOT THE COMPONENTS OF GENERATING WEALTH...

THESE ARE SOME OF THE OVER ARCHING HABITS I DEVELOPED THAT HAVE PLACED ME IN A POSITION IN A GAME OF GREAT DIGITAL WEALTH, AND TOO MANY HOURS SPENT IN ALMOST POINTLESS AMUSEMENT, EXCEPT THE POINT THAT IT AMUSED ME.  MANY HOLD TRUE IRL..

wish you the best of luck in your continuing endeavors and again Happy new year all