Medium articles and getting on with life

 

Life is often easier in theory.

There were grand plans to write regularly in this blog. I was going to muse about life. Insights were going to overflow.

And then life happened. Nothing messy, per se. Just your standard day-in, week-out grind of life.

So things haven't quite gone to plan over the last six months.

But I'm back. At least for now.

One thing I have been doing is developing my writing on Medium. It's not exploding. But it is gradually gaining traction.

So I'll share some of my most recent pieces that can hopefully help you in your life, career and personal finances. 

And stay tuned for the launch of my newsletter. If life doesn't get too in the way...

In the meantime:

Job Hunting? Let ChatGPT and AI Give You a Hand 

Get Real About Your Employer. If You Want Loyalty, Get a Dog

A New Phrase That Showed How Detached I've Become

And an important one in this challenging economic environment:

Why You Must Spend Your Vouchers and Giftcards - Now

Enjoy!

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

Income Report: July

Ok, so it's been a month of reconfiguring things and pushing on. I've given myself a 60-day challenge to try to make $50 from scratch on my revised website. It doesn't sound a lot but it's a lot more than any site I've had.

The blog I had set up on Godaddy wasn't working for me so I've made the jump to WordPress. It's a bit of hassle restarting it but it's a far better platform for me. It's also far better for monetizing.

So now I'm going to build as much momentum as possible on the new blog: Finance Jobs Hunt. I ended up getting a new domain name and changed the hosting platform. We'll see whether this has an impact.

At the end of the day, I need to keep working on different passive income streams to drive my futureproofing strategy.

So, how was the month?

Resume Writing: $229. I did a little bit this month but the next few months will see this go to close to zero. Too many things going on to commit too much time to this. Too much "trading time for money" to commit to at the moment.  

Additional Writing: $0.  Later this year I'll look for a few more gigs here, but it's not something to focus on just now.

Dividends: $83. Still ticking away. As per normal, I've bought some more stocks during the month that should throw off more in the way of dividends over coming years. I recommend The Snowball Effect: Using Dividends; Interest Reinvestment To Help You Retire On Time. It's one of the lower risk ways in which to build passive income.

eBooks: $4.  A quiet month for my books. But it's passive income, so can't complain (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.  

Vouchers: $0.  Didn't go hunting for cash this month

Other: $4. 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: $337. Pretty low by my standards. That's mainly because I'm investing in passive income streams at the expense of active income areas. This is going to be a long, drawn-out turnaround. But I must stay on this passive income, non-work path. Our lives depend on it!

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: February

I just received a bonus. The first from a full-time role in many years.

It was far more than I made in an average month or two or three when I was working for myself. Great, right?

And yet it still left me with some weird mixed feelings.

I am grateful, truly grateful. But it's thrown me a little. I've been dabbling with the world of side hustles and working for myself for while, with the ultimate goal of not wanting to rely on a day job for my freedom.

But having been back in the world of the cubicle for about nine months, I've lost a bit of focus. There's less hunger. Less intensity. I've lost a bit of mojo.

My fundamental philosophy relates to not relying on "the Man", the government, anyone else. That requires being in a position to dictate personal and financial freedom. Working for myself kind of gave me that, limited as the income was.

Getting a regular income is great. I just have to make sure I don't get complacent and forget that I can't rely on a job. Things always change. The world of work will move on with or without me. That's why I know that I need to get back to building my side hustles, particularly as income generation has been pretty average in recent months.

One advance I did have this month was the building of my website (finally). Now I need to build up the blog and monetization strategy. Fundamentally, it's geared around what I've learned through my career coaching / resume writing side hustle, and focused on the finance industry (which is my background). So we'll see how my site Finance Job Hunter gets on. Slowly but surely.

And so to this last month:

Resume Writing: $71. I really didn't make much time for resume writing this month. I couldn't motivate myself, to be honest. The background work, the after-work calls, the re-writes. When I'm ready, I know the work is there. I just need to get psyched up and throw myself back into this.

Additional Writing: $0. I've had a few writing offers in recent months but none of them appealed. Too much time required for the money they were willing to pay. But I still want to have this as an income generator in the future. This isn't going to be about selling my soul to Freelancer or Upwork for less than I'm worth. No, I'm keeping in mind specialist content providers like Copylab that would pay pretty well.

Stock Dividends: $0. Ok, this approach does work. It's just that dividends don't get paid every month. I've bought some more stocks this month and plan to buy more with my bonus. As a result, I'll expect this figure to pick up a fair bit later this year.

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

Ebooks: $0. Not a good month. The first month in a while I haven't sold any. I blame those damn Amazon algorithms. They keep changing.  Anyway, my books have been ticking over for a while now, making me a few dollars in the process, so I can have months like this once in a while. I am looking to add more ebooks to my existing collection (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 again.

Other: $0. Familiar pattern.

Total: $88. Well, that wasn't a great month was it? My lowest month on memory.

But that's fine. I'm all about the "slow and steady" approach. I'm convinced that once I get all my ducks in a row there will be a meaningful shift.

So, hopefully, I can build a bit of momentum with  Finance Job Hunter. I'll keep working on it and keep experimenting with my other income streams.

Income Report: January

The new year has started slowly for me. I think I'm stuck in some form of winter-driven apathy.

My one big success is that I've finally got around to starting a blog. It's still a work-in-progress so I won't push it here right now. But it's part of my strategy for income generation this year. Now I need to work out how to monetize. And if it becomes clear that it isn't going to work then I'll pivot onto the next idea. Ultimately, I'm going to continue to push on.

This month I've also got quite heavily into my word for the year: "investing". There are the obvious connotations, of course. But I'm really talking about it from the angle of investing in myself. Because at the end of the day, the more you invest in yourself, the more recession-proof you can become.

And at the moment, it's not about uplifting my skills (although that's something I want to do). It's been about working on the internal dynamics. I could have all the strategies, tips, tricks and techniques lined up for my side hustles, but if I don't have the right self-worth, the right focus, the right grasp about what makes me tick, then all I'll do is self-sabotage. And I'm good at that. Very good.

So I've been working with a hypnotherapist to work on my deepest darkest limiting beliefs. I also had a session with a trainee coach who needed a guinea pig. It's not going to be an overnight thing. I've been carrying my baggage for a few years now and I can't expect everything to change after a couple of sessions. But I genuinely feel that this is one of the missing parts in my journey. It's about getting to know myself better and to properly understand my "Why".

We often know exactly what we need to do. But we've all got to  ask ourselves what's holding us back from committing and executing.

Resume Writing: $280. I've finally done a bit of the resume writing again. However, I want to diversify my writing income streams. Still, cash is cash is cash.

Additional Writing: $0.  Having a full-time job can be a bit of a drag when it comes to managing my side hustles. I had the chance to earn $520 on a writing gig. Unfortunately, for that I would have to have been available to do a client call during my work day. That simply wasn't an option. Still, it's nice to know there are options still out there.

Stock Dividends: $0.  My goal is to keep building up my dividend income. The one thing I haven't noted down is the dividend payment schedule. In December I got $576 in dividends. Last month, not a penny. Go figure. It's not that hard to get the information. I simply hadn't thought about it. Either way, I haven't got this cash element to add.

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: $5. I made a bit on my collection of books. But I must focus on marketing them in 2019. They aren't going to be found on Amazon by themselves. (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: $165. I re-added some designs on Amazon Merch but no takers just yet. But my main random "money making" angle during the month was to take my box of loose coins that I have been collecting over the last year to a coin bank and convert them into notes. Strictly speaking, I always had the cash. But the fact that I'm using what I already have is exactly the point of being smart and efficient with your money. I'm going to try to apply this same principle in less obvious contexts to see what other cash I can bring in.

Total: $467. The only way is up! This was my lowest income level for a very long time. But that's fine. I'm investing in myself for the longer term at the moment and I can expect bigger and better numbers as my world evolves

Income Report: November

I think a lot of people think that the push for financial freedom, "FIRE", or any version of the story, is something that can be achieved overnight. Clearly, that's not the case. It's a tough old grind, where you start in one direction before being shoved in another.

I might not have been focused all the time but I have tried to move in a positive direction. And I'm still a long way from where I want to be. Now that I have a full-time job, I don't have to chase short-term income to help pay the bills. I can build stuff. And that's really my focus now. This includes a new website and a new ebook. It's about playing the long game.

So while it wasn't a great month income-wise, I'm moving in a direction.

So how was November?

Resume Writing: $60. This is the lowest month I've had in a long time. Essentially, I wasn't able to make time for more work, even though there was plenty there. I did one LinkedIn gig and that was about it. I don't

Additional Writing: $116. I did a few of my consistent gig and that's great. I've also woken up to the fact that there's a hell of a lot of work out there that pays pretty well if I go out and look for it. It's not something I'm planning to do now but it's good to know.

Stock Dividends: $1297. This was my biggest earner this month. The long-term strategy remains in place - keep buying dividend yielding stocks and reinvest the dividends when I can. The payouts aren't going to be like this every month but it's nice when it does happen.

Interest: $20. I hadn't thought about adding this into the mix in a low-interest rate world. But now that rates are rising I'm making a few dollars on my cash holdings.

Ebooks: $2. I'm not sure what's happening with the algorithms on Amazon but my books haven't been seeing the traffic this month at all. In fact, had I not sold a book on the last day of the month it would have been my first month without a sale in over a year. My three books (Cryptocurrency Job Hunting for Non-Techies, The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume) are there and I'll be spending a bit of money in marketing them in the new year. In the meantime, I aim to finish writing another ebook before the end of year.

Coaching: $128. I did one session this week and so it's good to have that ticking over.

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

Total: $1623. A very good month, ultimately because of the dividend income. Without it, I would have made $326, which is a lot less than my normal underlying income. But money is money and it all counts.

December's going to be a low month and I'll be prepping for 2019. I need to think and act bigger.

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: 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: March

One of the positives of working for yourself is that you don't have someone standing over you hurrying you along.

But one of the negatives of working for yourself is that you don't have someone standing over you hurrying you along...

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day. I realized he didn't actually appreciate the ins and outs of my portfolio career approach to life, aside from the observation, "you must have a lot of time on your hands". The fact that I work every day in one shape or form is almost irrelevant. My world isn't as easily translatable to his corporate world.

That said, he did say something that really struck me. "If you had done ABC (fill in with whatever action) during all that time you've been away from your corporate role, you could have been XYZ (fill in with whatever blue sky result)."

Obviously, the world doesn't operate in such linear terms and 20/20 hindsight is beautiful. But I must admit he did have a point. Because I was operating in my easy-going, "let's see what happens world", I haven't actually pushed on where obstacles and pain were there in front of me. It's very easy to hide when you're working for yourself. In other words, the lack of accountability has hurt.

My goal for this next quarter is to really smack a few things into place. I'm a massive fan of the Side Hustle Nation podcast hosted by Nick Loper and I bought his recent book Buy Buttons. It was a revelation! I've been dipping my toe into side hustles and the gig economy for some time but I honestly had no clue about how many ways you could make money. It's inspired me to have a look at what else I can build. I'd recommend having a read of his book if you're looking at developing side income streams.

One thing that most definitely will define my world in the near term is the possibility of a corporate role. Just because I have this portfolio career approach, it doesn't mean I won't dip in and out of the corporate world. If I get the role, things will have to change. If I don't get the role, I'll push on with several initiatives I've been holding back on and things will have to change...

Resume Writing: $1,318. Steady as she goes. But my goal is to become far less reliant on contracting via one firm so I'm not too disappointed as this figure starts to dip.

Additional Writing: $468: Not bad. I managed to do follow-up work for two recent gigs, plus I've also done some resume work separate to the contracted work I do. The reason I group it here is because it's from a separate source and the overall goal is to diversify my sources of income.

Amazon Merch: $0.09. Yes, I'm off the mark! Ok, I only sold one but it's a start. I've got some pretty cool, professionally designed T-shirts ready for purchase (Dog T-Shirt; Cool Dog; Pitbull). Time to push on more.

eBook: $6.50. This is still ticking over and I made a similar amount to last month, split between a sale on Kobo and the rest on Amazon. I don't really do any marketing but it's good that it's still working (The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume). I've also now signed up to E-Junkie as well. My next book will launch in April (I had hoped for March but life happened and that has changed) and I have high hopes that it is a topical angle on the job-hunting space.

Total: $1,792.59

This is ok, and it's not my only income stream thankfully, but it's a bit below what I now want to be the minimum here ($1,800 - $2,000) and below three of the last four months.

Looking ahead

The corporate job dynamic has been hanging around for a long time and it should be resolved within weeks. That will shape my next moves.

In the meantime, I've got to get my book out, start writing my course and see what I can get out of Buy Buttons. There are so many ways to make money out there.

Income Report: February

Progress is gradual but noticeable.

The last few months have got me thinking hard about what the heck I'm doing, so I've certainly been more intentional in a few areas.

The coaching business I have, which I don't include here, is picking up. I have a very nice short-term consulting gig lined up, and I may even have a chance to be a part-time tutor on coaching as well, which is nice.

Separately, I've also reconnected with my wish to blog. This is in no small part down to the writer Seth Godin, who basically suggests that you should just get on with it and forget about SEO, perfection, selling a product and so on. So that will be my platform for future product and service sales.

In the meantime, let's look at the income streams and what's going on there:

Resume Writing: $1,950. A decent month for me, particularly as I've cut back on the amount I want to do. Some of the figure may reflect resumes written in January but this remains the pillar for much of my online-related income.

Writing: $270. It was never going to be as much as the January figure ($1400 or so) but it's certainly picked up when consider that I probably didn't make $200 over most of 2017 in this category. I'm in two minds as to how to push forward here. From a return on investment / energy perspective I can't always justify such writing gigs, particularly if there are plenty of revisions to be made to the work done. But it's a healthy place to start, both writing gigs have more work (if I want) and it is the diversification of income I always speak about.

Amazon Merch: $0. This is a space I haven't yet mastered. I've got some pretty cool, professionally designed T-shirts ready for purchase (Dog T-Shirt; Cool Dog; Pitbull) - I just need to be better at marketing them.

eBook: $6.50. I tried a free ebook promotion for a few days and, to be honest, I'm not actually sure whether it had an impact. Still, I'm all about experimenting and I'm glad that sales are still quietly ticking over.(The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume). If everything goes to plan I will launch another book in March.

Dividends: $0. None of my stocks paid a dividend during the month. But once again I've added to my high dividend yielding portfolio, which now has an overall yield of 3% (this was the first month I've actually calculated the return in this manner), which should give me a few thousand dollars over the year.

Total: $2,226.50 (better than January's so onwards and upwards)

Looking ahead:

The goal is to still shift out of the low-value income streams into higher value. Once I've got my next book out it's time to push on with the online courses. That's where I see my value being created.

I've also not been able to make any affiliate income so far. My underutilized sites need to get to work.

There's still plenty to do but I can honestly say that I can see progress. 

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: October

You can only fool yourself so much.

Over the last month or so I've been detoxing. It's an exercise I started about 10 years ago - twice a year, three to four weeks at a time. Initially, it was all about the food, the drink, the cigarettes, the really not very lifestyle I was living. It was about cutting out dairy, meat, alcohol, certain sugars and so on. It was about getting in tune with fruit and veg. Every time I've done it, my body has felt better for it.

In more recent years, I've expanded my interpretation of detox to include cutting back on Facebook, doing more meditation and focusing on my mental/emotional/spiritual health. It's never meant to be perfect or about living a life as a monk. I probably could have done a bit more exercise this time as well. But one thing's certain, it sure as hell gave me a bit more clarity this time around.

You see, I'm very good at "playing" at stuff. It's all about tinkering at the edges rather than getting stuck in. The trouble with that is, I've kind of been fooling myself. I haven't pushed on with much of what I've talked about in previous blog posts and have kept on spinning the plates, hoping that some great masterplan would fall into place.

Well, this month has given me more headspace to observe what I've been doing. And some of it needs to change - and some of it has already started to change.

Firstly, I've been talking about finishing an ebook since August. Well, not only did I finish it, I got it edited, formatted and got myself a brand spanking cover (check out my ebook on how to write a LinkedIn profile). I realised that I've talked about passive income for a long time and yet I haven't committed time to building the assets. My goal is to make sure that changes. 

For one thing, I am now juggling the creation of two more ebooks, one of which I want to convert into an Udemy course by the beginning of next year.  I also noticed that my Zazzle account hasn't brought me any joy but I'm going to promote my wares in the run up to Christmas, simply using designs that I didn't market last year. 

I also thought it was time to have a look at my Google Adsense account. I've got a few websites but I never found the time or energy to see whether I could make any money out of them. I finally sorted out linking an account this week and earned a grand total of about $0.15 in a week. That may not sound like much but given that the account had been close to dormant for a couple of years, that's progress!

And I've also pitched for two writing gigs - one would be great for branding, the other pretty good on the cash flow front. We'll see what happens but it's time to focus (again) on diversifying my writing income.

On a separate tact, I also accepted an offer for at least one speaking engagement, maybe two. It's unpaid but it will get me great exposure. I keep telling myself how much I hate public speaking (though probably don't) but it's exactly the thing I need to do to get me out of my inertia and stupor.

Completely detached from this, but still in the passive income space, is something that has been lingering for a while - "scrip dividends". These are essentially where you reinvest the proceeds of a dividend back into the stock that you are holding. The rationale behind this is that research has shown that your returns based on dividends being reinvested tend to far outstrip the returns you make when you take the dividend in cash. Even though I've known this principle for years, it was always "too much hassle" or "I don't know where to go to find out" type of thinking by me. But with the clarity that a financial freedom goal should inspire, I got it sorted. 

Will this momentum last? Probably not. But a ball in motion stays in motion. So my hope is that I keep genuinely and honestly chipping away in a way that I can actually see tangible advancement when I  look back in six months time.

Resume Writing: $2,080. Not a bad month in terms of the numbers. I also switched from PayPal to request getting paid into my international bank account. I had thought that my original approach made sense, but having done the sums I noticed that PayPal really does take a fair bite out of my income. That and the currency conversion. The new approach will hopefully save me a little bit here and there.

eBooks: $4. A fairly quiet month and probably reflective of the fact that I haven't marketed my earlier book on resume writing or my new book on LinkedIn profiles. I want to put the marketing on autopilot, but for now the books are out there and time to write some more.

Dividends: $103. Even though I've signed up for the dividend reinvestment process for one stock, a couple of dividends slipped through the net and went straight into my account. That's fine by me, and a sure sign that my passive income strategy actually exists.

Google Adsense: $0.15. Yes, it's as good as nothing but it's the first money I've earned this way so I'm going to shout it from the rooftop!

Prolific Academic: $0. I haven't touched it for a while but no doubt there are still a few dollars here or there to take advantage of.

Total: $2,187.15

Not bad. One of my best months for these hustles I think. December is definitely going to suck so I better get my head down and make November look good!

Income Report: September

September didn't quite go as planned. But working for yourself doesn't really do linear performance.

The one thing I'm most disappointed with is the fact I haven't completed my second eBook. It's not as if I actually have much to write. It's simply that I haven't closed out my own proofing process, prior to sending it onto a professional to do a better job on it.

That said, I was inspired to start writing my third eBook (yep, I do have a habit of jumping from one shiny object to the next). So I'm about a quarter of my way through book #3. I' m still keep to build momentum in this area, though sales in September were pretty poor again. Time to find more ways to do free marketing.

My standard resume writing gig kicked back in and was probably back to average levels, after last month's lull. But I'm also looking to build opportunities with organisations rather than individual resume writing opportunities. I realised this when a private client and myself decided to part ways - he wanted a lot of changes to the work I had done, and I couldn't see the economic rationale for spending all this time on one individual. I learned that the decent sized one-off contract from during the summer was exactly what I should be seeking more of.

I'm now in my "detox" period. What started out as a nutritional overhaul twice a year, has now turned into a more holistic purge across my life. That includes a massive re-evaluation of my online/offline income streams - what I'm working on, what my ROI looks like for everything I'm doing, how to squeeze more time and money out of my current situation. As I've suggested before, I need to tighten up my measuring capabilities. I would like to think that when I do this review next month I would have at least moved the needle a little bit. But I seem to say that most months....

In the meantime, I need to work on Christmas income opportunities online (I think I may struggle to get much done from a Halloween perspective), and simply keep refining my business model and number of viable income streams.

A snapshot for the month:

Resume Writing: $1,360
Dividends: $0
eBook sales: $4 - Well, it's still selling (Craft a Winning Resume ) but now is time to really step up, look at online courses and all other kinds of opportunities.

Prolific Academic: $0

Total: $1,364 - Nothing major to write home about, but it's still ticking along. 

Income Report: August

So August was a bit of an odd one. I've been busy. Too busy with non-work related stuff. And quite frankly it was summer so I didn't expect much

I guess the main thing to come out of it all was the completion (well, almost) of one-off sizable contract. I wouldn't say that it was overtly exciting or something I aspire to do a lot of. But as writing gigs go it was pretty damn fine!

My standard resume writing gig has very much been on the back burner and I would guess that I probably only made about half of the previous month's return. But the important thing is that I'm finding new ways to diversify my income. And it's a hybrid online / offline approach. I'm finding new ways in which to take this whole thing seriously.

I still must, must, must get my second eBook out. I really have no excuse now. But I'm reasonably happy with the momentum I've seen in my first. I've sold some and in fact more than the previous month, so I must be doing something right.

I've already started thinking about Christmas and how I should be looking to monetize online. I remember saying the exact same thing a year ago, but now I have a far better sense of what I can work on. Watch this space.

So I still need to keep testing what works and measure the effectiveness. But my next focus is to get my next eBook out in September but it's all looking very encouraging ahead of my next book launch, which is planned for August. And then there's my finance jobs site.

A snapshot for the month:

Resume Writing: $500 (early guesstimate). Probably something like that. Don't really know.
"One-off gig": $5,200. Yep, a bit of a windfall gig working with a university. If I can work out ways to extend my relationship with them then who knows what's possible.
Dividends: $0
eBook sales: $6 - Disappointing that I didn't beat my previous month's figure, but at least it's still selling and there are plenty of spin off ideas to consider for the book (Craft a Winning Resume ).

Prolific Academic: $7

Total: $5,713 - Yep, it's incredibly distorted by the gig I did for the university (and nothing like any of my previous months), but now I know I can get that kind of project, why shouldn't I look for more? 

Income Report: June

I almost find myself dreading my monthly check-in here. Over the months and years I read a ton of income reports that are all singing, all dancing, espousing "financial freedom" and a laptop lifestyle. They make it seem so easy. Their efforts so linear in success. Well, it's safe to say I haven't seen that version of the story as yet.

But the important thing is for every one step back I'm seeing one-and-a-half steps forward. It's not the narrative that the online entrepreneurial masters would like to sell, but it's the real world. There's always a need to be intentional.

It's a tough slog. Tough in terms of focus, tough in terms of execution, and of course tough in terms of getting results.

We're in the midst of the quieter July months and I should be taking this time to re-evaluate what I'm currently doing and how I can be more effective, more impactful in coming months. The trouble is the TV and the fridge are such attractive distractions when you working from home...

So, how did my month look?

Although this report is meant to be all about online related income, I did have a big win offline that will keep me busy in August. It's resume writing for students at a local university. It's a decent sized contract as well. So there's been some progress on my consulting side.

But back to my online element. On top of my normal online resume writing, I've sold a few more ebooks, which is great - it's all about momentum. It's not going to help me retire any time soon. Still, I've started on the follow up and I'm hoping to sort out 10+ ebooks over time.

Elsewhere, I've also had another dividend payment from my investments. I keep forgetting this element of passive income, and it's something I'm going to build upon as I invest a bit more in dividend-yielding stocks.

Resume Writing: $1,730 -Better than a lot of months and it's helped me get the university gig, so I'm still happy
Dividends: $40
eBook sales: $6 - Get Craft a Winning Resume to improve your job hunting opportunities.

Prolific Academic: $7

Total: $1,783

Income Report: May

It's been a pretty busy month for me. I seem to have fallen upon a few offline gigs that I never would have  fathomed a month ago. Freelance resume writing (on my writing terms), for example.

The eBook revolution hasn't quite happened but the goal is still to write them. I've sold some of my resume writing book so long may that continue.

In fact my goal is to overwhelm my niche of resume writing with 10 in total. Ok, "overwhelm" is a bit of a stretch but the idea is to have different books providing different angles and different cross selling opportunities for me in the same space. It will take a while because fundamentally it would mean writing 100,000 - 150,0000 words in total, but it's the direction I want and need to go for. If I can finish the year with two more, I think that should be my minimum hope.

In the meantime, my broad resume writing has continued on apace and remains a cornerstone of my online-related income. In fact, I should really simply call it 'freelance' rather than 'online' because that's what it ultimately is. But my goal is to do a lot more online. That's the focus.

I had a bit of a problem with a PayPal payment - I couldn't access some money so I phoned the help desk. Who knew that they give you money for the inconvenience? They added $30 without me even asking! It won't be a regular payment, and probably won't happen again, but I'm going to record it here as a reminder that if there are any customer services issues that deserve compensation there's no harm in asking...

Also, I noticed that I had received a dividend payment for some investments I have. $100 I hadn't realised I had coming. It's a reminder that I need to get to grips with knowing what and where all my random assets are. And given that this is the passive world that I am looking for, long may it continue.

Anyway, for May:

Resume Writing: $1,353 - Not as good as I thought it would be. I think I'm being "busy" and not "effective". So I need to reappraise (again) how much time I take on getting the resumes done.
Dividends: $100
PayPal: $30

eBook sales: $4 - Get Craft a Winning Resume to improve your job hunting opportunities.
Prolific Academic: $2

Total: $1,489

Not as good as recent months but in an odd way encouraging in its own way. It's the most diverse my income streams have been...

Income Report: April

"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

I love the saying but it's also very pertinent to this whole Income Report process. Every time I get to the time of the month to write a new one, I realise that I'm broadly writing the same old, same old. 

There may well be progress but it's slow. And there's often a fair bit of familiarity about it all. And for many months it really was pretty much the same. 

Thankfully, I've finally got my first ebook up and running. It's not pulling up trees at the moment but at least I've started.

I need to be patient and not get sucked into assuming that all those others making big bucks online (or at least so they tell us) have taken a long while to do so.

I've given myself a target. I've got a 90-day challenge going on, where my goal is to have tangible online and offline income streams properly set up. I don't expect to be kicking back with a pina colada and getting ready to retire, but I hope to be able to show to myself that I'm genuinely on the right path.

So my goal is to have something worthwhile to write when I get to August. I'm working on a couple of eBooks, looking at how to monetize through a few websites and want to expand a few different areas.

In the meantime for April:

Resume Writing: $1,760

eBook sales: $4

Prolific Academic: $6

Total: $1,770