Medium: Inspiration is the name of the game

It's been a while since I posted my Medium pieces. So as we end out the year, it's time to revisit some of the writing. And the theme is: Inspiration

Here are three recent ones:

One about trying to inspire my godson.

https://medium.com/illumination/inspirational-words-for-a-struggling-teenager-747fcee39a90

One that talks about the highs and very lows I experienced during the pandemic.

https://medium.com/illumination/i-miss-the-pandemic-c4234229201e

And then there are words of inspiration from the late great Charlie Munger.

https://medium.com/illumination/the-life-times-and-brilliance-of-the-late-charlie-munger-0d903369ec70

Quality Writing on Medium: Devouring the Brilliance of Others

Greetings!

I thought this time around I'd share a few articles from Medium that I found inspirational for different reasons.

One came from a woman that hadn't been on the platform that long but was clearly doing something right:

Celebrating One Year and $16,000 on Medium: How I Did It, What I Learned, and What’s Next

One came from a runner that puts the Boston Marathon into perspective:

I Won the 1968 Boston Marathon. And Ran Many More. After the Bombs, Everything Changed

And one was about life in general:

How to Stop Giving a Fuck

There's a ton of great stuff on Medium, and it's always worth investing time in reading about others' experiences and their insights. 

If you'd like to write on Medium, one of the best ways to build a following is to become a member. This gives you unlimited access to high-quality writers and tips on how to monetize. 

 You can join through this membership link: 

• Medium Membership

The same link also lets you unlock thousands of excellent articles. Click here for more details.

Also, take a look at this Etsy shop for career/ money/personal development inspiration:

https://www.etsy.com/hk-en/shop/Work4Cash

Medium: Making Money, Losing Money, and ChatGPT

So my Medium journey continues. 

This time I'm going to highlight a couple of pieces about money and one about the hot topic of the moment, artificial intelligence:

How I Lost $25,000 Through Two Bad Investments

Fancy Paying $3.2m For a Personalized License Plate?

ChatGPT, ChatGPT, ChatGPT...Boring, Boring, Boring

And a bonus feature from another writer - some really good insights in how to run a side hustle:

How I Made $3,063 on the Internet in 31 Days (Part-Time)

If you'd like to write on Medium, one of the best ways to build a following is to become a member. This gives you unlimited access to high-quality writers and tips on how to monetize. 

You can join through this membership link: 

• Medium Membership

The same link also lets you unlock thousands of excellent articles. Click here for more details.

Medium articles - Recession, Salvation and Gender Inequality

Here's another round of Medium articles to get your teeth into.

Firstly, I'll start with a Scott Galloway piece. If you don't know his stuff, I would heartily recommend digging into it. In this piece, he talks about recession talk and how it can become self-fulfilling:

Bottom's Up

Next, here's a piece on taking responsibility for what's in front of us. Not everyone does. A lot of us are in denial:

Nobody's Coming to Save You

Finally, here's an important piece on the gender imbalance in the workforce - but this time it relates to side hustles and freelancing:

How to Narrow the Gender Pay Gap in Side Hustles and Freelancing

Enjoy!

And if you're new to Medium, you can unlock thousands of excellent stories for only $5/month. 

Click here.

Income Report: April

It's been another crazy month with all things coronavirus. I've been thinking long and hard about what this will all mean in 6, 12, 24, etc months from now. Things will most certainly change. And I know that I still haven't stepped up to the plate to make sure I will adapt to it properly. This isn't just about me, it's about my family.

So I've taken a bit of time to rethink my goals and approach (again). The more I talk about this, the more I know how pressing it is.

I can look back on these income reports and see similar patterns. Similar excuses. By next month's report, I intend to have in place better systems, accountability, defined goals, energy and so on.

I just know that what's gone before won't work in the future. And I'm kind of scared that I'm sleepwalking right into it - only with my eyes open. And that includes stepping up more for my day job, not just my hustles.

I've run out of excuses. Things need to change.

Anyway, this has been my month.

Resume Writing: $0. I actually have a new client here but I'm not going to book it here until I get confirmation on it and get paid. That will come to about $192.

Additional Writing: $230.  I have my regular writing gig which is ticking over well right now.

Stock Dividends: $176. No passive income approach is foolproof. And thanks to the coronavirus and the fact that some companies have been forced to suspend dividend payments, I've taken a bit of a hit with some payments that would have been due to me in April. Still, I will continue to apply this approach for the long term.

Interest: $15. Lower interest rates have hurt anyone relying on leaving money in the bank. I've taken a bit of a hit here but it's not where my focus is going to be. Still, I can't ignore it as an income element.

Ebooks: $2. Quiet. Amazon isn't working much for me. But I know that going into more trying times these books will help people (Beginner's Guide to Online Side Hustles, Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile, and Craft a Winning Resume).

Coaching: $0. No sessions.

Other: $75. I redeemed points from a couple of credit cards this month in the form of cashback and a supermarket voucher. Cash is cash. It all counts.

Total: $498. Not bad. I can certainly push on from here. That's my focus going forward. 

Income Report: June

Well, the slow walk to freedom continues.

Because I'm less keen on trading my time for money I've turned down few writing gigs. I'm not sure whether this is the way to go (maybe I should be keeping my eye in) but it's allowed me to work on my blog.

The trouble with my blog is that it's currently on Godaddy and I've decided that I need to transition it to WordPress. Better SEO, themes, plugins and so on.

But at least I got Finance Job Hunter up and running. Even if I have to transfer the hosting, I still have the content and the ideas to work with. I also signed up to Infolinks as a monetizing tool.

All of these ideas are all part of my goal of futureproofing my world, or at the very least being more prepared for what the external world throws at me.

So, how was the month?

Resume Writing: $0. Completely side-stepped my most consistent earner. I'll do one or two this month, and I need to keep the skills fresh for my bigger consulting business goal. But the trading time for money situation isn't ideal at the moment.

Additional Writing: $0.  Nothing here for me.

Dividends: $203. Still a fave approach for me and I continue to buy dividend-yielding exchange-traded funds to grow this passive income stream. If you want to better understand the principles, I recommend The Snowball Effect: Using Dividend & Interest Reinvestment To Help You Retire On Time. It's one of the lower risk ways in which to build passive income.

eBooks: $8.  Things have ticked up slightly, though some marketing would clearly be good for my portfolio (Beginner's Guide to Online Side Hustles, Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume).

Interest: $17. This is consistent, though if I worked my funds a bit better I'm sure I could improve this figure.

Vouchers: $127. This isn't something I've thought about counting in the past. However, I realized that I've effectively been converting credit card points into cash. The points are turned into supermarket vouchers with a cash value. So every time I convert some, I'll record them in this monthly data. It's money after all.

Other: $2. It's hardly going to change the trajectory of my finances, but I've signed up for doing surveys on UserCrowd. The company occasionally sends invites to my email inbox while I'm watching a bit of mindless TV. They only take a minute and are about $0.20 a time (so far), so it's no big deal either way.

Total: $357. We're not talking big numbers here. It's lower than most of my months. But it does make me conscious about the importance of finding ways to generate income and how I can add a few dollars here and there when I try.

Income Report: April

My new obsession is about becoming future proof.

To be fair, a lot of this side hustle thinking has been about that anyway. It's the idea that I can stay on top of my future. That could mean being fully FIRE'd up, where I have enough saved to be able to live the life of sangrias and pink umbrellas on the beach.

It could also mean building enough skills and side hustles to navigate myself through the ever-changing world of work. At the end of the day, it's about me taking charge and not letting external circumstances dictate everything.

A lot of this is about attitude. It's about owning your shit and rolling with it. This isn't an overnight thing but it's something to play with.

The point of mentioning all of this is because my income building enterprise is still taking some time to gain traction. But if it was easy everyone would be doing it. I've also consciously slowed down on trading my time for money. That means some of the services I've been providing have been on pause while I try to build stuff.

Ultimately, though, I realize it needs to have the balance. The service provision side brings in cash flow and I can easily see some traction. Longer term, it's about building online income streams. That's where my site Finance Job Hunter will come in. It's going very slow, I need to do a design revamp and I have to work on the blogging aspect. But directionally it's showing my intent.

I still need to work on myself but I know I'm getting into a better place mentally.

So how was last month?

Resume Writing: $140. I got back to a bit of writing. I feel a bit rusty but I know it's something I can build upon and leverage. Cash is cash is cash.

Additional Writing: $0.  I've had a few offers but I have decided not to proceed. I have revamped my PeoplePerHour and Upwork profiles, raising my minimum fee. So if I do get offered work I may actually now start to take it up.

Stock Dividends: $363.  My goal is to keep building up my dividend income. I've bought a few more dividend stocks of late. While there's no consistent monthly figure, it's a long-term strategy I buy into. I even reinvested the cash back into buying more stock. This is a time-honored investment strategy that works.

Interest: $17. It doesn't look like interest rates will be rising fast anywhere soon so I can't expect this to kick on. But it's there.

Ebooks: $2. Still not kicking in. I've worked on the SEO on a couple of them so we'll see whether that works. I've also listed expanded versions of a couple of them on Fiverr. We'll see what happens. (Beginner's Guide to Online Side Hustles, Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume).

Coaching: $0. No sessions over the month.

Other: $0. Nothing doing here.

Total: $522. It's better than last month. But I can certainly do more. Importantly, passive income made up more than my active income. All I need to do is multiply it all by 10 and I'd be happy...Onwards and upwards.

Income Report: October

It wasn't a great month for me in terms of side income. I was out of town for a whole week for business (i.e. the day job) and wasn't able to push on with all my grand plans.

There is a bit of groundhog day with a lot of this and I know that if I don't get things sorted sooner rather than later the world of business interests might pass me by.

I want it to be a strong end to the year, but I vaguely remember saying that last year. I've reviewed what I do already but I'm really keen to push my passive income world to kick on.

Anyway, how was October?

Resume Writing: $637. I did a bit of work here for my consistent freelance work provider. But I also had a bite from a local customer wanting to know more about my service. If I don't win this job I really need to review my approach and pricing because I'm yet to get any work independently. Maybe it's my pricing, maybe it's fact that I'm looking to provide a streamed down version of my services.

Additional Writing: $0. I've been too distracted to do my usual career writing side gig. I've got a couple of commissions that I intend to do over the coming week, which should give me a bit of money for November.

Stock Dividends: $0. I continue to buy stocks that give me a bit of a dividend payout but I didn't receive any dividend payments over the month

Ebooks: $6. I've had my books listed on Amazon for some time now. My three books (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume) are all ticking along. I saw a sale on Kobo and have added Barnes and Noble to the mix. It ticks over. That's all I have to say.

Coaching: $0. No coaching this month. I've got a session next week so that will reinvigorate this space.

Other: $0. Nothing on the Amazon Merch and Amazon Affiliate Income front.  Yes, dull, dull, dull

Total: $643. Better than last month but hardly pulling up trees, as I'd like to say. But as long as I start developing some of my long-term aspirations, I'll be happy.

Income Report: September

Not much to report this month, so I will keep it brief.

It was a period of trying hard to balance out my new job with my attempts to build my side hustle. Not easy at the moment.

I had a few disappointments on my business front. I didn't win the resume writing project with the local university that I mentioned before. Once again, I think I priced myself out of a deal. I was also approached for my pricing on resume writing and coaching but didn't hear back. I know I could / should chase but in reality I don't want to be building too much in the lower end "trading time for money" space.

So I really need to build out my online income. This will take time. In the meantime, I've got to stay focused and work towards the bigger picture.

So, how was September?

Resume Writing: $297. I did a few resumes this month. Cool. I've got some more work lined up next week. Slow and steady.

Additional Writing: $150. A bit more of my regular work here. Sweet.

Stock Dividends: $0. I continue to buy stocks that give me a bit of a dividend payout but I didn't receive any dividend payments over the month

Ebooks: $15. I've had my books listed on Amazon for some time now. My three books (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume) are all ticking along. But what I'd forgotten about was that I also had a couple of these ebooks listed on Kobo as well. This also saw a few sales. Going forward, I think I need to get them onto more platforms.

Coaching: $0. No coaching this month. I haven't been marketing myself so it'll be easy come and go.

Other: $2. Nothing on the Amazon Merch and Amazon Affiliate Income front.  I made a couple of dollars on the UserCrowd testing site. I'll look into building on that in coming months.

Total: $464. Not a great month but that's that. For the next month, I'm going to be investing time in building longer-term income streams. Slowly but surely.

Income Report: August

The search for financial freedom continues...

I've been thinking long and hard about streamlining. Life. Income streams. Focus. I'm very good at getting scattered and distracted. That's why I've started to think about finding myself an operating system for existence - kind of like a template.

Some time ago I read about Brian Tracy's Grand SLAM formula, with 'SLAM' standing for Simplify, Leverage, Accelerate, Multiply. I'm trying to apply this across all areas of my life. I'll report back on what I've learned over coming months.

This was the first month I've been able to start to start back properly with my business interests since I started my new job. So far, so good.

The important thing is that I don't get complacent. Things change very fast in the world of finance, as a friend found out last week. He was called into his boss's office on the Friday and was let go on the Monday. That's what this is all about. Protecting myself as well as growing new opportunities.

I'm a big fan of the Get Rich Slowly website and there was a great article on what the writer calls the "forever fallacy" - the idea that whatever good (or bad) is going on in our lives will last forever. In other words, we should always be prepared for what may or may not be around the corner. That's what I have to keep in mind when I feel too lazy to work on my side business. Work towards "freedom" - monetary and freedom to make mistakes.

I've kept up with my reading (I mentioned Buy Buttons, the FIRE movement and Rich Dad, Poor Dad last time around), but it's really about giving this side hustle approach a go rather than just thinking about it.

So, I've continued to look for new opportunities. For example, I had the opportunity to pitch for another resume writing project with a local university, worth about $5,000. We'll see whether it comes off - I pitched for a similar gig a few months ago but didn't get it (I think I priced myself out). I've worked with them in the past so if it does come through I'm going to be very busy in my spare time during September / October.

So, how was August?

Resume Writing: $245. I'm now back to my consulting work with a resume writing company. I'm not able to do a lot just yet. But the goal is to do a few jobs a month and I'll take it from there.

Additional Writing: $180. My regular blog writing about careers continues. I've done an additional three articles that I haven't yet invoiced and this has been a pretty consistent one for me.

Stock Dividends: $182. I continue to buy stocks that give me a bit of a dividend payout. My strategy isn't the most refined (not very sophisticated screening approach) but I'm all about cash flow opportunities that I can reinvest. I'm a massive fan of dividends - it's about as passive a strategy as I have. If you're not familiar with it, Amazon is stocked up on decent books that can explain it, such as Dividends Still Don't Lie.

Ebooks: $9. I finally got around to getting someone (my sister) to write a review on an ebook. I've always known that social proof is a big reason why people buy goods and services. And it seems to have worked a bit. My three books (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume) are all ticking along. It's something to build on.

Coaching: $127. I managed to do a coaching session this month with an old client of mine. I reckon I probably won't do more than one each month, if that. But it's an income stream that is aligned with the suite of products/services I want to offer.

Other: $0. I've decided to group Amazon Merch, Amazon Affiliate Income and all other bits and bobs under "Other". It's not as if I have a lot going on in this space at the moment.

Total: $743. That's reasonable. I know that I've already got a writing invoice to put in and I could also win the resume writing gig as well. Not bad at the moment. I just need to keep on top of my work now...

Onwards and upwards!

Income Report: June

So, I'm properly back in the groove of the daily grind of the corporate world.

Re-establishing a form of daily discipline that's relevant to this world has been tough. I've been so used to working when I want, waking when I want. So going back into a full-time role has reflected trade-offs we all make in life.

My work plus commute hours are reasonably long (well, a lot longer than when I was working for myself...). There's also less flexibility for me to do my own stuff while at work.

But it's all about the bigger picture. I can't be distracted from my long-term goal: financial freedom based on multiple streams of income.

Because of my new-found distractions, I've got to be sensible with how I  manage my side hustles. I've had to get approval from the compliance department in my company in order to continue with them so I have to make sure I don't raise any red flags.

The truth is, the hoops I've had to jump through and the layers of bureaucracy I've cut through has taught me a lot. Simply put, it has shown me that the corporate world isn't for me long term anymore and that I really have to work harder on my online efforts!

It's not about earning money, per se. It's about building a business with structures and processes that allow me to step away from the daily grind. It's about building a lifestyle for myself and my family that allows us to live a life that gives us options. Because that's all this is about. Options

It's a dream. It may not happen in the manner I intend. It's something to shoot for.

In terms of June's income:

Resume Writing: $139. This was a big income element for me. But for now at least it's going to have to slip into the background. My world has changed and I can't commit as much time. I have told the company that I did a lot of work for that I would still do the occasional bit of work but at the moment I'm not quite ready for it.

Article Writing: $42. I only wrote one article during the month. Admittedly, this was a very short piece so it was never going to be paying very well. But there's more to come on this front...

Dividend: $170. It's going to be tough to build my dividend income at the moment because I'm limited by what I can buy in terms of shares. Working for a bank can be awkward like that. Regulations and all that. Still, dividend income remains a key part of my strategy so I'm still going to pursue this route.

Coaching: $0. This is the new addition to my monthly breakdowns. I never used to record them here. But given as this now counts as one of my many side hustles, it's time to start monitoring and measuring. That said, I didn't actually do any coaching over the month. I have one long-term client that still wants to meet and one guy that has gone quiet. That's the crux of my coaching practice at the moment and I'm not planning on expanding much beyond three or four clients at any one time.

eBooks: $2. Another quiet month. I keep saying that I'll do some marketing. When I have time, I'll be pushing harder with my three books (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies) to add to (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume).

Amazon Merch: $0. The dream of being able to retire on passive income from selling t-shirts hasn't quite happened as yet...I haven't invested that much time in it all to be fair. But I know if I do commit to the venture, there's money to be made. It's about making the time.

Total: $353

All in all, it wasn't so bad all things considered. This is me starting from scratch again so it could take time. But if I can make over $500/month consistently by early next year (or even closer to $1,000 if it's possible) I know I'll be on a good path.  There are a few decent income opportunities for me in coming weeks:

• Resume writing project for a university. I did work for a local university about a year ago, writing resume profiles for MBA students. They asked me to put in a proposal for this year's cohort. In hindsight, I think I might have priced myself out. That's ok if that is the case. Last time it took many more hours than I thought it would and my time is more precious now than it was a year ago. 
• Career site writing. I've been asked whether I can up my writing quota from the occasional one or two a month to two or three a week for the next fortnight. It's pretty easy writing this stuff so I'm taking on the task.
• Coaching client. I met a prospect a couple of days ago. I sent him a proposal and I'll just have to see whether he wants to follow through. 
• Websites. It's way too early to say this is a decent income opportunity but I'm finally going to try to monetize a couple of domain names that I bought a while back. This will be a slow burner but it's all part of the process.

I have no idea how this journey is going to play out. I may love work so much that I simply decide to give up on all these hustles...Nah, that's never going to happen. One read of Nick Loper's Buy Buttons book has shown me that. 

It may not be as spectacular a journey as some blogs you find online, with spectacular numbers and fantastic opportunities in surrounding passive income and financial independence. No, mine's different. 

It's sometimes slow. It's sometimes boring. It's sometimes unfocused. That's fine. Most importantly, it's real. Watch this space.

Income Report: May

This is the last month for this income report in its current format. The reason? I've got myself a job. Back to the grindstone and all that.

But it's not the end of my money making ideals. Now my goal is to work towards replacing my full-time income. Or at least create income streams that allow me to have a sustainable portfolio career that gives me choices. Because that's what my version of financial freedom is about. Choices.

So there will be some changes to how my income streams look. Some elements may fall by the wayside to some extent, including my resume writing. Others, such as my coaching work, will from next month get added. I had originally framed this income report exercise as being about online income, which is why the coaching wasn't really mentioned. But now it's really about me growing my portfolio of hustles in general.

I still see plenty of value in this exercise - possibly even more than before. It's all about being able to make money without having to rely on a boss, company, government, etc. So if I ever get the "Thank you for all your efforts, but..." conversation, I'll be suitably in control of my future.

And that's the irony of getting back onto the hamster wheel of work. I'm more focused on using my free time wisely and know it's time to revisit the ton of income-generating resources I have collected.

As I've mentioned before I'm a massive fan of the Side Hustle Nation podcast hosted by Nick Loper and found great value in his recent book Buy Buttons. Definitely, worth checking out if you're new to this game - or even if you're not new but have got a little stale (like me). Going forward, I'm certainly going to be anchoring some of my approach to ideas from here.

Anyway, how have things stacked up?

Resume Writing: $2,346. This has been my best month income-wise for resume writing, which is ironic given that I'm going to have to drop a lot of it. This has been a major income provider for me in recent years, both in terms of directly consulting for one specific firm but also the spin-off work that I've benefited from (see below). It has served me well and I'm keen to keep this as part of my income arsenal.

Conference Project: $3,500. I mentioned before that one-off projects count if they are related to my online businesses. Well, this one related to my resume writing again. It involved working for three-and-a-half days at a finance industry conference and paid pretty well. Actually, very well as far as I'm concerned. Unless it takes place on a weekend, this type of gig will disappear now that I'm going full time. But at least I know my capabilities and can use it in the future.

Additional Writing: $130. My regular blog writing about careers continues. It doesn't especially pay that well ($0.07/word - and I miscalculated on my invoice so undercharged) but it's great branding for me and my career-related services.

Stock Dividends: $108. One strategy I will continue to build upon is my dividend yield strategy. This is about buying high dividend yield stocks to benefit from the cash flow. I'm not being as diligent as I should be. That is, I could be screening the stocks far better than I am. But so far it's worked out fine and I keep reinvesting the cash so as to buy more stocks.

Ebooks: $6. I started the month pretty strongly in that I sold three books in the first week ("pretty strongly" in my world anyway...). It was only the first proper month of my third book (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies) to add to (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume). I know that I need to market them but I simply haven't made the time. My hope is that seasonally the summer months are a good time for job hunting books, with all those graduates looking for roles all at the same time.

Amazon Merch: $0. It's not really happening at the moment. I'll still keep plugging away.

Amazon Affiliate Income: $0.04. I've finally made some affiliate income! I know this is an area I must build upon. This is the classic passive income stream. It's not really anything to write home about but I've brought some pennies in. If I can do that then I'm pretty sure I can do a lot more.

Total: $6,090. (my best month and well ahead of my $2,000 monthly target. Even if I stripped out my one-off gig, it still came to $2,590 so I'm happy).

Looking ahead

Before I look ahead, I think I should at least celebrate how far I've come to achieve my best income month. A lot of my efforts came out of necessity as I tried to find my footing "between jobs". But I've always put it in the bigger picture context of financial freedom.

My very first income report was for May 2016. So I've had two years to look at my progress.

I achieved the princely sum of $974.50 that month, of which $800 was resume-related. In May 2017, I made $1,489, with $1,353 from resumes. Yet my resume income alone for May 2018 almost matched my entire income for May 2016 and May 2017 combined.

The bottom line is, I've tried to consistently work towards building income streams. It hasn't been easy or straightforward. But I've seen some progress. And if I can do it, anyway can do it.

And so to now. It may take a week a two to sort out the new rhythm of work, but I'm going to push ahead with my portfolio career efforts.

One of my first tasks is to do a proper inventory of all my hustle interests to see whether they are worth the effort. I need to look at my ROE (return on energy, in this case) and make some hard choices. It also means putting in more efficient processes.

The goal is to still build passive income streams. They tend to require more effort and/or money upfront than the traditional "selling your time for money" approach, with the expectation that they'll pay in the long run and you'll be sipping pina coladas on a beach before you know it...The good thing about having the job in the background is that it gives me the money buffer to help with this, even if it takes away the time.

So I think I'll take a piecemeal approach this month and target a couple of websites I own to see whether I can properly monetize through Google Adsense.  That will probably require some blogging and such. I may also market the ebooks - but I've got to work out whether the effort is worth the return.

Regardless, I'm certainly going to see what I can get out of Buy Buttons - so much to learn from this book.

It's all change but fundamentally it will all stay the same...a portfolio career.

Income Report: April

I was hoping to report that I had got myself a new job. Well, not quite. Yet. I have loosely been offered in verbal form but I'm not going to get too excited until I've signed something on the dotted line.

The problem has been that I've been holding back on marketing certain coaching and consulting services locally to make sure I don't disappoint clients somewhere along the line. I've also not pushed on with creating products as well.

In reality, I should be focusing more on the products side, as the goal would be to sell my expertise online while doing my day job. Time to act more strategically.

I'm pretty sure I'll hear something this month on the job front, but until then I'm going to keep playing with my ventures.

So let's look at the income front:

Resume writing: $1,837. This will be the first victim of a new job. I won't give it up entirely, as I still believe that we all have to have multiple streams of income in this new world. But I won't have the time to invest in writing on a regular basis.

Writing: $130. I've got a regular writing gig related to career guidance. I haven't yet billed for the work, as I haven't actually written the two pieces yet. But my estimate should be about right.

Dividends: $760. This is something I'm increasingly keen to build out, as it's a passive income stream that I like. It's not without risk as I need to develop a screening process to select the right stocks. But it's part of my long-term focus. I managed to buy a few more stocks with a good dividend during the month and I was very happy to benefit from a few dividends and special dividend payments.

eBooks: $2. I managed to launch my third book (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies) to add to (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume). I always sell at least one or two a month. It's not a lot but it is passive. I know that I haven't marketed them at all so it's no surprise that I haven't been pulling in big numbers. Going into the summer months I'll certainly be pushing the books to a graduate audience. Last summer was certainly me most profitable period for my books so will hope to build on that.

Amazon Merch: $0.09. Well, it is passive income...But it's not one that is kicking into high gear just yet. That's partly down to me. I've been focusing my energies on what I see as areas that will give me a better return on my time and money. I'll try to put a few hours aside to develop some new designs and see where this thing takes me. Importantly, it fits into my passive income mindset.

Total: $2,729 (better than my $1,800-$2,000 minimum target)

Looking ahead
It's really dependent on my work situation essentially. I need to keep working on the online course I've started on. Hopefully, I can get that out before the end of the summer.

I also have to see what I can get out of Buy Buttons. So much potential there.

Income Report: November

It's as if the scales have fallen from my eyes. Well, at least a bit anyway.

For months I've been playing at my income generation world. There's nothing wrong with taking a step backwards to go one to two steps forward. The trouble is I seem to have been going one step back, then one forward, then one back...Looking back at old blog posts this all became clear.

But I've noticed in the last few months that I've started to wake up. Baby steps, perhaps. But woken up nonetheless.

I had an interesting chat with a guy a few weeks back, who initially was a potential client but actually turned out to be simply a font of knowledge. One concept he talked about was the idea of what he called the "Strategy-Tactical-Execution" pyramid. At the very top is Strategy. This is our big long-term goal, whether that's for a career, for building a business or creating a life. The Tactical stage below that is all about doing things that support your Strategy. For example, taking a new qualification or building new business relationships are ways in which you can better position yourself for being a success at the Strategy stage.

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The trouble is a lot of us tend to get caught up in the same old, same old because it serves a purpose (e.g. gives us cash) but doesn't actually move us forward towards a greater goal. That is the Execution stage. That is the level that isn't necessarily taking us forward, beyond giving us cash, something to do, putting food on the table and so on. It's obviously a necessary step, and sometimes it feels quite substantial. But in order to get ahead, we simply have to learn how to move up the pyramid.

And that's what I'm focusing on more. The Execution level is something I've been stuck in for too long. Low level, easy cash but a "no progress" level of existence. This month, however, I've (hopefully) started to think differently. I'm back on the mindset of building stuff.

I had a windfall of a gig that I hadn't been expecting. It was similar to the consulting role I had in the summer helping out a university with resumes for its MBA program. (Not "online" in any way shape or form but I still want to highlight it because it came out of online roots). The added dynamic to it is I had to do a mini-workshop/talk.

Now, I have never seen myself as a public speaker but in the space of one month, I have done two talks - one for a university, one for a women's forum.  Both tested me and both opened my eyes up to possibilities. I also managed to get a new coaching client as a result of the forum talk as well. I've been resisting a lot over the past year and I realized it was time I woke up to this fact and took a stand.

Time to stop playing at being an entrepreneur or self-employed or freelance or whatever moniker comes to mind. Time to see how far it can take me. Things will be very slow. No doubt. But it's time to stop the excuses and get on with it!

So, how was this month?

Resume Writing: $1460. This is always an interesting one. It's a staple that has been very consistent over the last year. But in many ways it's got "Execution" tendencies. I'm trading time for money, it's got little in the way of "Tactical" qualities (beyond giving me the skills to write my ebooks and giving me deeper insight into the banking industry), and it's certainly not something I plan on doing forever. I'm not going to get rid of it just yet but I would be disappointed if I read this in a year's time and it's still making up such a large percentage of my "hustle" income.

Project: $3840. I know, I know, this is a one-off. But it's the second one-off of its ilk and was, in fact, a direct result of working with someone at the previous university. These nice bonus payments won't be a monthly occurrence, but if I play my cards right I could find myself with a few more of these with other institutions in 2018.

eBooks: $2. I've got two books out there (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume) but I haven't consciously marketed them in recent months so traction has been limited. The algorithm that had worked quite well for me months ago isn't playing ball any longer. But because I've got these two products primed, I need to move beyond Amazon and think about also marketing them elsewhere. That's my target in January.

Writing: $120. I haven't actually collected the money yet, and I'm still waiting for the pieces to be accepted, but I'm pretty sure my two blog posts to be used on a careers site should be fine. This was another opportunity I saw available, having looked around my local Facebook forums and followed it through. I think there's scope for more there as well. And it's a great way for me to also promote my services as well.

Dividend: $70 (can't exactly remember but it was something like that). I haven't spent enough time looking at my investments and I do plan to start trading more actively as an additional hustle (my background is in investments, though I am pretty rusty). Still, my dividend approach is still something that appeals, and with each dividend I receive, I simply reinvest it in the same stock.

Total: $5492. Thanks to the project, this was one of my best months this year. I'm not going to pretend that this will be the norm, unless I consistently get awarded bonus projects. But it's certainly a pointer in the right direction.

Other projects I've looked at have included:

Zazzle: This is the second year running I'm going to try to take advantage of the Christmas season and sell some products. Last year I achieved zilch. This year, zero. But at least I'm giving it a go.

Domains: I bought some domains a couple of years ago and haven't used them at all. I don't want to flip them, as I do see some value in their names. I reached out to another Facebook forum for ideas and someone suggested using them for affiliate marketing. To do that I would need to build some websites, or pay someone to do it for me.

And then I have a eureka moment. I already have a website sitting there, doing very little, with a few half-hearted blog posts. Why don't I turn that into an affiliate site in the meantime? Far less time, money and effort required than the other sites and it's an asset that's being wasted doing nothing. I only came up with this idea today so it's still fresh. But my goal is to gradually optimize it over the next month just in time for those "get a new job" new year resolutions (it's a resume writing site).

Overall
So that's it for now. December will be quiet as I'm essentially switching off mid-month and taking a three-week break. I may do another entry towards year end with a forward-looking bias.

Either way, November was good and certainly on the right path. It wasn't just transactional execution. There were signs of some potential long term.

Income Report: February

So my quest for financial freedom continues....

We're only into the second month of the year and I'm starting to see signs of progress.

The money is most definitely not flowing and yet, and there's still too much of a default back to my tried and trusted income streams. But I have put down the seeds for future income. This is slow and steady and hopefully I'll see the first elements of income in March.

I've been reviewing some of my previous areas of interest - Zazzle and Fiverr - and I'm going to reinvigorate them over the next month.

It's not worth beating myself up. Slow and steady, and I'll have these blog entries to continue to show how I've progressed (or not).

As for February, it was a relatively straightforward month for income - up on December and January's figures but effectively down to one income stream.

Monthly income:-

Resume Writing: $1,525 (vs. $1,094 the previous month)
Other: $0

Total: $ 1,525

Slow and steady...

March will certainly have a different story to tell!

Income Report: December

Ok, it's time to get real.

Or at the very least it's time to stop pretending.

One of the reasons why I started blogging about income was in order to make myself more accountable. And that's great. Pretty much month on month I've increased my income based on the parameters that I have in place.

But the problem is that the parameters just aren't aligned with my bigger story. I keep telling myself that I want a decent passive income stream but month to month it's simply not showing up. It's not to say that the active income that I have been earning is wrong. Quite the opposite.

It too is part of the bigger story. But I keep telling myself that 50% of my income is going to be passive. That's my big dirty goal. I'm removing rental income from the equation for the moment but if I truly, really want financial freedom then I need to really get going on the world of passive income.

So this time next year when I read through my report on income I'm going to be very disappointed if I'm not able to have a made a real passive income impact here.

As for December, I didn't do a whole heap of new stuff. It was a shortened month and I didn't add any additional income streams. So I'll keep it simple:

Monthly income:-

Resume Writing: $1,269
Prolific Academic: $6.50

Total: $ 1,275.50

Not spectacular but workable. What I really intend on building upon is more income streams. Lots of income streams. Maybe five. Maybe ten. But not two. Not three.

I also don't want to grade myself at the moment. I'm simply spinning the same wheels just now. Once I create something bigger than my consistent income stream I'll really be able to push on.

2016 was the starting point. And I'm grateful that I made inroads over the year that I never would have expected. But 2017 is going to see my online business really gather pace. It has to.

So, to a successful experiment so far and so to the next stage where I will seriously move onto the next level. It's none of the big time promises that a lot of other bloggers indicate. It's the real thing.

Time to own my shit.

Merry Christmas.

Income Report: August

Well, it's all very piecemeal at the moment. I've talked in the past about passive income streams and they haven't quite gathered pace.

I've talked about diversification and I'm yet to get the balance here. But this was never going to be an overnight story and by writing it down (hopefully) I'll be able to look back in a year's time and laugh at how far I've progressed. That's the goal anyway.

So let's get this party started:

Writing
Resume Writing: So having wrote this article a few days ago, I've had to re-write much of it after properly calculating my resume writing income.

My original estimate was $1,050. The figure actually came to $1,815... Clearly mathematics isn't my strong point and the early part of the month was more active than I had remembered.

It's still my income anchor, though I'm very aware that I need to build out other areas to this level.

The local resume business hasn't gained traction, though that's more down to my low level marketing. I tried to sign up some students to earn commission as introducers, but they all seem to be too busy chasing down Pokemons

Article Writing: $50. I didn't write at all for my regular gig but I've another regular one starting now. I think September could be a good earnings figure for article writing. Famous last words.

Surveys
Prolific Academic: $1. Yeah, this one's not doing a lot to build out the retirement fund. To be fair, I haven't really thought much about it lately but it is easy money.

Other
Postloop: $5. It's still a comfort blanket of a site for me. You while away a bit of time on, connect with a few people on it, earn a few dollars on it and move on. I don't default onto the site as much as I used to and it's not going to make me a king's ransom.But it's always there in the background if I need it.

So there you go it: $1,871 compared with $1,587. That's about 17% up on the previous month so I do know I'm moving in the right direction.

I'll give myself a score of B+. The $1,000 is my very least level these day for a 'pass' and I'm easily beating that at the moment. But I do need a lot more diversification and a lot of work on the passive income world.

I know that I've got a few writing gigs already sorted out for September, have already beaten the combined Prolific Academic / Postloop return in one survey this month (though that was never going to be hard) and I've signed up for an online writing course as well. All pointing in the right direction.

September will be awesome.  

Income Report: July

So the quest to develop more stable earnings streams continues. One of the big issues (still) for me is that I haven't yet shifted to the passive income approach that I've been gunning for long term. It's still not balanced and as a result it's aways active income - i.e. I need to be trading time for money. The long-term goal is to shift away from this. But for now it's all about stabilizing the income.

So for now, let's see how this month went.

Writing
Resume Writing: $1,450. This was a pretty busy month for me and about +90% higher than May. Despite people heading to the beaches for the summer, there's always someone job hunting and in need of a resume.

The fact that I haven't gone away this summer means that I've been overloaded a bit because others have gone away.

I still haven't sorted out a resume business locally, which would allow me to charge more for the same service. But I've been too busy...And I don't want to be purely a full-time resume writer for someone else.

Article Writing: $130. I had one of my usual articles to write and also managed to get a new contract elsewhere, which should be a consistent gig as well.

Surveys
Prolific Academic: $7. Not a big month at all for me here. Not many surveys, simply because I've been too busy elsewhere.

Other
Zero - not great for me and my goals to improve the mix of income...

So that's it: $1,587 compared with $873 the previous month and $1,127.50 for May. So it's heading in the right direction! It just needs to be more balanced in terms of trading time for money.

I'll give myself a score of B-. It's good in terms of an improvement on the last two months but I still need a lot more diversification and a lot more impact in ths passive income world. My goal is to to make time to diverfy more.

The journey continues. 

Income Report: June

Ok, so this is my second report and it certainly threw up a few elements I hadn't considered before. It's early days with all of this but I've certainly learned a bit about consistency (or lack thereof), assumptions and random trends (in this case "Brexit").

So it's time to have another look.

Writing
Resume writing: $726. So for May I estimated that I made about $800 in resume writing. It actually turned out at a more healthy $953. But at the same time it should have been more...

Why should it have been more? Poor organization by me and Brexit. I'm British so kept a keen eye on events in the run up to the referendum that decided on whether the UK was going to leave the European Union. What I hadn't factored in was the fact that UK voters would actually vote to leave!

How does this relate to my earnings? Well, my resume work is with a UK-based company and they pay in pound sterling. I get paid directly to my PayPal account, denominated in US dollars. The day before the vote you could get US$1.43 or so for every one pound. The shock of the departure from the European Union saw the UK currency collapse and resulted in a US$1.33 conversion rate.

That wouldn't have mattered so much if I had invoiced the UK company at the correct time for payment for May - i.e. before the referendum. But I didn't. As a result, I probably lost about $60 as a result of the pound collapsing.

So the message is to stay organized.

As for June, volume slowed because of the summer so I received less work than before and can expect fewer resumes at the moment. As a result, there's even more reason to build out my own resume writing brand locally.

Article writing: $120. I haven't done much in the way of writing but I did manage to get paid $120 for a single article. That's because the last piece I wrote up required a lot more work to get it into shape.

That's the big problem with this consistent gig. It takes a long time to get the written piece to the right standard. For example, I've been working on a piece over the last three weeks or so and still haven't finished it.

Surveys
Prolific Academic: $27. As mentioned previously, this is the only survey I bother with.

And this was a pretty good month for it as well. One reason for that: Brexit. Because I'm British there were a number of surveys posted to see how people would vote in the referendum. This was great for me.

The currency element sucks again, though. as the surveys are denominated in pound sterling. But all in all a decent month for that.

Other
Fiverr: $0. Zero sales this month.

Postloop: $0. Not the best result here either. I've done a bit of forum writing but only worth pennies, So I'll skip that.

So that's it: $873 compared with a revised figure for May of $1,127.50

Down on the previous month by over $250. For now, I'll give myself a score of C--. No passive income, less diversification and a lower return than last month. At the same time, I'll raise last month's to C+ after getting more income in resume writing than I expected.

It's not the best, but the marathon continues. And the passive income story is to come.

Getting Focused on Income Initiatives

The trouble with the Christmas period is that it's so easy to get derailed from all the grandest of intentions. One minute you're thinking about slowing down in the run up to the main days in question, the next minute it's the first week of January. And you've been extremely unproductive for a solid three weeks.

So that's where I am now, trying to get a bit of momentum, focus and grit into my money earning approach. What the downtime did, though, allow me to do was to do a bit more reading and research about the whole active-passive income world, and how I might be a bit more strategic in my approach.

This was the backdrop to me falling upon Side Hustle Nation, which I guess is like a movement promoting your sideline enterprises which, if you so choose, can come to replace your 9 to 5 job existence.

So far I've only managed to listen to one of the podcasts on there but it was incredibly inspiring. Essentially, there are plenty of us out there trying our hand at creating a bigger and better earnings world than we are currently experiencing. And it's sites like this that can only be good for keeping us connected to like-minded people (it sounds like I'm evangelizing like a paid spokesman, but I'm certainly not associated with the site - I just like the principle).

I also signed myself up for the regular email updates, again viewing it as a way to stay connected with the type of conversations I need to hear. Pretty useful stuff. One that stuck out was an interesting insight from a recent email that talked about getting the balance between time spent on your active and passive income streams.

I'm currently still in the building phase of my coaching and freelance writing space, both of which can be viewed as active income areas - areas which need to monetize sooner rather than later if only to help cover the bills.

Then there's the passive income space - the information product and eBook ideas. These require upfront investment without any promise of a return. If I build it people still may not come, but I need to build because that's part of my long-term income strategy. So how should I split my time? Well, I've decided that currently it should be a 75:25 split, where 75% of my time I'm working on the active income areas and passive income makes up the rest.

Importantly, though, it's the very fact that I've added time allocation to both spaces that's significant. I hadn't until this point been focused enough to think in these terms. The ratio itself may well change very quickly once I get a better sense of the amount of time I should be spending on both. But at least I'm finally having the conversation in the first place.

It's a great way to get more focused for 2016.