(MONEY Magazine) – Toby Cecchini, 40, became a bartender first to pay his college loans and then to support his writing. But what started as simply a way to pay the bills took a surprisingly lucrative turn. First, he invented the Cosmopolitan, that gorgeous red cocktail of the '90s--then he got a six-figure advance to write about it. Cosmopolitan: A Bartender's Life was published last October. Now Cecchini works at the downtown New York City bar of which he is part owner. "I like to talk to people and pour drinks," he says, "and it's much more relaxing now. But it's so ironic. I bartended so I could write, and then I ended up writing about bars." --J.C.