It’s that time again! My online hustle update is where I divulge the income earned during the last month. All income I report is money that has actually made it to my checking account. I’ll include expenses paid out of these earnings. These reports will not include taxes I owe. I plan to set aside 30 percent to cover taxes owed. If you missed my last two reports, check out October and November here. The income is growing ya’ll! And with that, I’ll get into this month’s update!
If you are looking to start a blog, don’t forget to check out this post on How To Start a Blog. It provides step by step instructions on starting your own blog. Also, check out this income report where I share how I earned my first dollar blogging through affiliate income!
December 2015 Online Income
Income
Etsy: $5.59
User Testing: $10.00
Freelance Writing: $150.00 (Whoot Whoot!)
Pinecone Research: $6.00
Total: $172
Expenses:
Etsy Fees: $0.41
Total Monthly Income After Expenses = $171.59
Rolling profit from October and November: ($-244+$54.77+171.59) = $-17.64
Aye!! I’m a working gal! Y’all just don’t know how excited I am to have landed my first client. They are a dream to work for and I’m learning so much from them! I’m excited about that and the fact that just in two months I’ve almost made back the initial investment I made in starting this blog and educating myself on the stuff I needed to know in order to jumpstart my freelancing career.
I wrote last week about my audacious goals for the first half of 2016 and I’m not setting myself up for disappointment. If those goals aren’t met, I will know that it was because of something I couldn’t control. I’ve consistently been at this laptop networking with some other awesome freelancers, fitting in within the personal finance blogging community, and creating content that I would want to put my name on. I’m very excited with the results of the goals I achieved these last few months.
Let’s do a quick update on those goals shall we…
1. Guest post on 3 other blogs. DONE!
This is done! While hustling on these guest posts, I’ve managed to create a few projects for myself. If you don’t recall, I posted at a Disease Called Debt about 5 Ways To Teach Your Kids About Money and over at Cat’s blog about 5 Amazing Gifts To Give Your Children This Holiday. This recurring theme of talking about kids and money spilled over onto Life and A Budget, when I discussed 6 Things I Want My Kids to Know About Money, Teaching Our Kids to Spend, Save, and Give, and Talking to Kids About Debt.
I began contemplating this desire to talk about kids and money. Besides paying my student loans off, that’s another desire of mine – making sure my kids have a good financial education. Considering the lack of financial education I received growing up, I know if I want to achieve this goal, I’m going to have to teach my kids alongside my learning experiences.
This led to question after question. I started wondering how many other millennials out there like me were facing the same situation. How many others like me who lacked a decent financial education, are drowning in student debt, and want to provide a better future for our children. Obviously, there’s a lot of us and if I’m scouring the internet to find resources and tools to help educate myself on teaching my kids – others are too. So I started keeping track of EVERYTHING I found. Articles, websites, books, apps, games – you name it, I’ve got it. I’ll be sharing that resource with all of you parents next year.
In addition to this, I also recognized another need that has yet to be filled. I won’t spill the beans now, but I promise, it will be worth the wait!
2. Hustle and land a freelancing gig. DONE!
I’ve already shared my excitement about this opportunity so I’ll skip ahead with a few details. I was simply minding my own bizness on Twitter. Tweeting away useful resources about kids and money, as I’d been doing all month after my little realizations I mentioned above. I just so happened to tweet some work from someone I’ve admired a long time that needed a freelance writer to help work on some content. She DM’d me on Twitter and the rest is history.
Was I scared? You bet I was, but once I realized that my first opportunity to earn some income writing had come my way – I got over my fear and got to work. I did tons of research on rates, contracts, and all the other little details I didn’t know about and sealed the deal. So far, I’m happy with the progress and I’m looking forward to working with this individual and other clients in the future.
If you are anyone you know are looking for a freelance writer or blogger, this girl here is ready to work! You can find more info on my hire me page.
Related Reading: How to Land Freelance Writing Clients
3. Create a 6-month plan for the first half of 2016. DONE!
Yeah, this is done. Shared my 6-month plan with you all last week in case you missed it!
4. Read one financial book per month. DONE!
This goal was too easy considering I’m an avid reader. Give me a book and you’ll find me in my own little world, content as heck. I love reading so you should expect to hear my ramblings about some finance book once a month or so. So far, I’ve read Raising Financial Confident Kids by Mary Hunt and The Wealth Cure by Hill Harper. I have a review scheduled next week for Hunt’s book and next month you’ll hear all about my wealth factors and how handsome and intelligent I think Harper is. Stay tuned.
5. Introduce one new money concept to my daughter. DONE!
So far we’ve gotten coin identification down. We’ve discussed spending, saving, and giving as well. My husband and I are currently doing a savings challenge with her that you can read more about in Teaching Kids to Spend, Save, and Give. Last, she received Monopoly Jr for Christmas and we had a blast playing with her.
6. Find a mentor. Sort of…
I know exactly who I want my mentor to be in terms of blogging, personal finance, and overall hustle mentality. I mean girl is doing the thang and I’m impressed. I’m informally naming her my mentor because I’m learning from her in many ways. I don’t want to be her, don’t want to copy what she is doing – none of that. Too old for that…but, I do want to learn from her experiences and gain knowledge about her journey. She’s inspiring.
For freelancing, I’ve decided to focus on just one site to gain all of my freelancing wisdom from, and that’s Careful Cents. I followed Carrie before I even knew I wanted to freelance long-term. Girl knows her stuff and I’ve learned a ton from her site already. I’ve joined the group on Facebook and I’ve managed to meet a few great people. I plan on making a monetary commitment by joining The Vault once it launches next week and applying for Client Connection. I’m serious about making this money and I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is…
7. Pay off the reaming balance owed on an interest bearing credit card. DONE!
All I have to say on this one is, woot-woot!
So there you have it. I achieved everything I set to do when I created my goals for the remainder of 2015 and I managed to make a little money too. Bring it on 2016, I’m ready!
Are you happy with your 2015 progress? What is your number one goal for 2016?
*Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on brokeGIRLrich and, A Disease Called Debt and *