The Hits: Silly ideas can make you millions

The Hits DJ Adam Green.

In a recent survey of parents with adult children, more than a million NZ grown-ups with grown-ups were contributing financially to their big kids' households.

It may be something small, like paying for a piano lesson, to something big like a leg up with a house deposit or, heaven forbid, gifting the ever-more-impossible to get the holy grail of grown-ups, a whole house. But there are a LOT of grown-up children that need a helping hand.

On the other hand, it takes only one dumb idea to take off to make you rich, so with that, I give you "A list of dumb ideas your children could have come up with to take the financial burden of a family off of you."

Back in 1994, a man named Chris made a clever purchase. The pizza.com domain name was up for grabs on the recently growing internet, and for $20 he could grab it and he did.

Holding on to it for 14 years without actually selling a single pizza, the final auction saw him rake in a cool $2.6 million for his efforts. To be honest it's a rather underwhelming website to look at now, no word on whether the purchasers cashed in on their investment.

Roni Di Lullo didn't let the fact that dogs look kind of dumb in sunglasses stop her, she pressed on with the making of "Doggles" for motorbiking, boat riding, action doggies, then even made prescription lenses. Her company is worth $3 million.

Scott Stillinger's kids helped him invent something to guide him to riches. They were terrible at catching, so to make it easier he tied some rubber bands around a solid core, cut them up a bit, and the Koosh ball was born. It's not known how much he got for the company, but it sold a few years later for seven hundred million dollars so he's probably doing okay.

Scott Boilen woke up one day and said "What if you could wear a blanket" and now millions of people do. He made the snuggie, and with it a few hundred million dollars to help him buy his own groceries, and probably flip the script and flick a few family members a house deposit himself.

So you see, with just one silly idea, your kids could go from broke to bank - now who wants to buy some cat pants?