Income Reports: November

It hasn't been a great month for generally building new business, as I've been caught up with focusing on the family a bit more.

Thankfully I had already scheduled a few posts to be posted to my newish blog. But I need to restock in coming weeks.

The one strategy that has paid off is my dividend approach. That worked out well. The rest needs to be properly rethought and restructured for 2020.

Anyway, this has been my month.

Resume Writing: $0. I turned down work on this front. Maybe I'll have to revisit this more in 2020. The passive income streams are taking time so it might make sense to reinvigorate the more active income opportunities.

Additional Writing: $0.  Nope. Same as above.

Stock Dividends: $4,140.  A fairly spectacular month for me on the dividend front. This continues to tick along. It's an investment strategy that works. It does require putting money to work in the stock market and targeting stocks that pay dividends. You've also got to be comfortable with having your capital tied up for a while, in addition to the fact that not every month will see a dividend. But, for me, it works.

Interest: $22. It ticks along but is never going to move the dial.

Ebooks: $2. Still quiet at the moment. Amazon isn't working right now, though sold one on Kobo. I might need to market a bit harder (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: $0. Nothing to add here.

Total: $4,164. Well, that's spectacularly distorted by my dividends. A great strategy that works. I'm not likely to make much in December so I'm already thinking forward to 2020. Time to find more balance.

Income Report: October

Most of my focus has been to work on my new site (financejobshunt.com). It's still early days but I like the way it's starting to shape up. I just need to get focused on SEO as traffic is currently minimal. But I've signed up for a course on Udemy and that should raise the bar on all things backlinks and the like).

Beyond that, I've focused a lot on my investment portfolio and how I can better build passive income streams. Dividends are the obvious one but I've also looking to be more efficient with my money management - i.e. stop leaking money and start putting more savings into higher interest-bearing accounts.

It was an expensive month overall but I still feel on top of my progress, slow as it tends to be.

In the meantime, this has been my month.

Resume Writing: $134. I rationed myself to a bit of work. If I'm able to make more time for myself, I may start to do a bit more. It's important to keep my hand in

Additional Writing: $0.  Nope. This has completely dried up. It's fine for now.

Stock Dividends: $520.  This was a decent month for me. As previously mentioned, this is a time-honored investment strategy that works. Dividends aren't paid out every month but it's nice when they are. I then reinvest.

Interest: $30. It ticks along but is never going to move the dial.

Ebooks: $3. Still quiet. But still a 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).

Coaching: $0. No sessions.

Other: $0. Nothing

Total: $689. Ths dividends made the month. I haven't yet kicked on, as this is pretty much a normal month for extra pocket money. But I'm fully aware that this is a slow and steady game.

Income Report: September

This hasn't been a great month for developing my income streams. I haven't majorly developed them. It's been more of a family month. That's fine. This is all about balance. It's not about just chasing the money.

I undertook a 60-day challenge, aimed at building my website and developing income streams. I'm yet to kick on with monetizing it but I'm pretty happy with my steady progress in building Finance Jobs Hunt. The goal is to use this as the platform for building my online business, while using the same underlying information for an offline business.

That's to come. I'm trying not to get waylaid by shiny object syndrome - loads of ideas that will distract me. At the same time, I realize I can certainly be monetizing my assets (skills, physical assets, network) far better than I am doing now. I'm going to work more on that during my upcoming break from my day job.

In the meantime, this has been my month.

Resume Writing: $105. I did a bit of work there - one private client and one freelancing for the company I've worked for a while. I still don't intend to build a whole lot here, but I have to keep my hand in.

Additional Writing: $0.  Nope. This has fallen down my list of things to work on right now.

Stock Dividends: $0.  This is a time-honored investment strategy that works. This nonth wasn't one in which dividends were paid out, but rest assured coming months will be pretty good.

Interest: $17. It ticks along but is never going to move the dial.

Ebooks: $0. Quiet at the moment. Amazon isn't working right now so time to try some other platforms 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).

Coaching: $0. No sessions.

Other: $510. Ok, this is all about one-offs, In this case, it was a tax-related payment I "earned". But something I intend to hustle for is different ways in which to support cash generation. So I plan to record details on this as well. This will be a mix of money makers and worthwhile cost saving angles. At the end of the day, it't not so much the money you make, it's the money you keep.

Total: $632. Not a great month and very much distorted by my handout. But I certainly earned more than just simply my salary. So onwards and upwards.

Income Report: August

My 60-day challenge has really been focusing my mind, at least in terms of my website.

Maybe I'll prove myself wrong again but I think I've got a decent focus on where I want the new blog, Finance Jobs Hunt, to go. I've still got a few weeks left of the challenge but the incremental approach to working on it is showing some promise.

I was probably a bit overly ambitious on the $50 target but the groundwork is being put in place. I continue to be convinced that we need to have side hustles in an ever-changing job market.

I'd rather not trade time for money at the moment (I don't really need to do that as I've got an income coming in). But the dream is to keep moving forward. So I signed up for an Udemy course on blogging. Well, that has kickstarted the momentum. In hindsight, I should have signed up for courses months ago. I guess I just didn't want to get ripped off.

Going forward, I'm going to avoid trying to do everything myself.

So, how was the month?

Resume Writing: $0. I turned down some resume writing work in order to focus on writing blogs to put onto my website. 

Additional Writing: $0.  Not something I'm considering at the moment.

Dividends: $278. It continues to makes sense for me. 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.  It's passive income. That's all I've got to say about the portfolio, useful as it is (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: $42.  Went hunting and claimed some more cash.

Other: $1. Surveys on UserCrowd are still there in the background.

Total: $342. I know next month will be more, as I've got a few income streams coming in. But I've definitely hit a slump in my income-generating activities, as I invest in passive income streams. It's going to take time but I must stay on this passive income path.

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: May

The long walk to FIRE continues...

Actually, I was into the idea of multiple streams of income a long time before FIRE became a more mainstream concept.

And as my blog comments have indicated over the last few years, it's a slow and steady process. That's code for: "it's tough".

Tough to execute, tough to stay motivated when you're in a full-time job that easily pays the bill. But I'm convinced that I need to remain on this course. We have no control over the bigger picture world of trade wars, recessions, The Man and job cuts. That's why I need to keep pushing. Control the controllable.

But I won't deny it's tough. When you see these guys online sipping pina coladas and hanging out on private yachts, ignore them. There's so much nonsense online. Liars, jokers and scam artists. And the select few that are making it big but distorting it for the rest of us.

Still, it's worth the effort. We should all be working towards some version of the above. That's my view.

I'm encouraged by the fact my site Finance Job Hunter is getting traction. It needs a bit of a tweak on design. I also need to get into the rhythm of writing blog posts. But I see loads of potential out there.

I'm continuing to work on myself and I know I'm getting into a better place mentally.

So how was last month?

Resume Writing: $145. I did a bit of work there. I don't want to be trading too much time for money here but it's good to have the cash.

Additional Writing: $0.  Nah, I haven't looked into anything here. If I do end up writing, it's got to be financially worth it.

Stock Dividends: $1,000.  This is a strategy that continues to work. With the cash from work and from my side hustles, I've continued to buy dividend stocks. There's never a consistent monthly figure. And I'm probably not doing it as effectively as possible. But this is a long-term approach that I like. This is a time-honored investment strategy that works.

Interest: $17. It ticks along but is never going to move the dial.

Ebooks: $2. Quite quiet at the moment, though I did make a sale on Kobo. Amazon isn't working right now so time to try some other platforms 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).

Coaching: $0. No sessions over the month. However, two people reached out to me on the coaching platform Noomii to find out about my services. I have a profile there but in order for me to connect with potential clients, it'll cost me $397. I'm not sure whether I can justify it just yet, given that I'm not in a position to work on too many clients. I'll have to have a think about how I want to take this forward.

Other: $0. Nothing doing here.

Total: $1164. It was all about the dividends really. It won't be like that every month but it's great to know that passive income is the main driver. Now time to take everything to the next level... 

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: March

Ok, it wasn't a great month. In fact, it was as bad as I've had in terms of income streams.

In a nutshell:

Resume writing: Zero

Other writing: Zero

Coaching: Zero

Dividends: Zero

Other income: Zero

A bit of a pattern, right? I had opportunities. I turned down a bit of resume writing. I also had writing offers through PeoplePerHour. I just wasn't in the mood over the month to trade time for money. The goal is to build up passive income streams, not to be beholden to another kind of employer.

The one thing I did manage to do is get my website up and running. I'm looking forward to taking the long road to monetizing Finance Job Hunter. It builds upon my side hustle experience and my career area.

Exciting times ahead.

But for now, I'm just going to write off March as a month of rest and reset. But I must get back to business in April.

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