Bit of a strange but funny one here based on MMM's teaching of wastefulness reduction.
I love barista style coffee and I love eating my lunch out, but deserve a Major Facepunch for doing so. It's not mustachian and not frugal. So last january when two business associates approached me to open a BBQ restaurant, I jumped at it, as I have previous experience in marketing them (and investment £££).
My investment for 51% (I'm still amazed I negotiated that) ownership was £20,000 which wouldn't have been the end of the world if the business fails. But still large enough a sum, that the guys couldn't raise themselves.
Last month I received my list of purchases for the year totalling just over £2,400. As I don't pay to eat in my own stores, this has given me a 12% return on my silent investment. None to shabby. We also haven't taken any drawings from our profits as we are now in the midst of opening our 3rd venture.
My daily involvement includes writing something witty for our Facebook page/twitter and we have a weekly accounts meeting. Realistically my return will be somewhere in the 110%-150% of my initial investment per annum come the end of this year.
The moral of this is diversification of investments reap many other rewards when you look outside the traditional pensions and tax shelters.