Lazy Man and Money

Could You Save ~$100,000 by Age 18? She did!

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I often read a lot of financial articles and think, “I should write about this.” About 10% of the time, I actually do. The rest of the time… well that’s how I earn my nickname.

One of those stories that I always meant to write about was the story of this 18-year old young woman who had saved $85,000.

It’s the perfect personal finance headline and story. Everyone wants an easy recipe to wealth and it’s tempting to think, “I’ll have what she’s having. I’ll do what she’s doing. If she can save so much by age 18 with a full school schedule and part-time jobs, maybe I can do it too.”

I don’t know what is possible for you or not. I can only walk in my own shoes… others’ don’t fit me well.

As I went through the story, I realized that (reading between the lines) her financial life got complex quickly. I think it would make for a better case study in a book rather than a one-page web story with a few quotes. I’m sure I won’t be able to do it justice here, especially because I have to make some, possibly erroneous, assumptions.

Before I get started, I want to stress that the drive that she has and personal responsibility* are unmatched. If I get a little critical, it’s because personal finance has entered a time where we must to point out privilege – especially in any kind of success story.

What we know is that she grew up in Marin County, CA. You may not know Marin very well, but having lived in NorCal for 6 years, Marin County is a very wealthy area. It’s possibly one of the most wealthy areas in the country.

Why does that matter? This young woman started as a dog and cat sitter, moved to baby sitting, and finally as a waitress. As a dog sitter, I can tell you that areas that have higher costs of living pay more. Rich people love their pets. The same translates to babies. I’d imagine that tips are better in wealthy places too.

Here’s another thing about dog sitting, you need to have a house. Many apartments don’t take animals, and most of those that do probably require the pet to live there full-time. Because we have a home with a nice fence and I work from home, my kids can get started on a Roth IRA at an absurdly young age. That’s going to part of their privilege story. However, they’ll have to do the work too.

Kids Roth IRA

There are a couple confusing parts about the original SF Gate article.

It mentions that, at 18, she lives with a friend and independent pays for food, phone, car, clothing. Presumably this is a new arrangement for an 18 year old, so it probably isn’t too significant… and thus not worth the mention in the article.

Next, the article says that the parents made a number of money mistakes which the young woman learned from. Yet, she claims to have gotten “really intrigued by money” when the parents bought a new house, the year she started her pet-sitting gig. We don’t get details on what mistakes the parents made, but it seems obvious to see that the house made the income opportunity a possibility.

The obvious elephants in the room is that many kids in Marin County-type areas don’t have expenses. They aren’t expected to help with family bills. Thus almost every dollar earned is a dollar that can be invested. While on the topic of investing, the market had been up the previous 8 years (as of publication in 2017), so it’s possible she was able to double her earnings in the market. It was mentioned that she has multiple investing accounts and had bought Apple stock. Kudos to her!

Another important thing to consider is that she only sleeps 5 to 6 hours a night. She’s obviously very successful with that amount of sleep. That’s obviously a rare trait to have. The importance of getting more sleep is one of the few things that nearly all health experts can agree on. Getting by on less sleep could be great for your financial bottom line, but it might not lead to a high quality of life.

Final Thoughts

This is essentially the blue print that I would want for my own kids. I just hope that in the rush to make money she hasn’t missed out on being a kid. That’s my concern for my own kids as I fight my natural instinct to push them to do more and more.

Focusing on the privilege aspects in this article has been difficult for me. I’d much rather say, “Let’s celebrate this awesomeness!” And it is nothing less than awesome.

You may have noticed that I didn’t use the young woman’s name. I was curious to see if there was a follow-up to the articles that came out a couple of years ago. I found that her social media accounts were private. This is my way of granting some of that privacy, while still talking about her financial accomplishments.

* Personal responsibility seems to be a big political buzzword nowadays. I don’t mean it in a political sense. I simply mean that she seems responsible, which, of course comes with the dog sitting and baby sitting gigs.

Rover Review: Make Money Dog Sitting

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I’ve made over $50,000 sitting dogs. If that sounds interesting read on.

A few days ago, I got an email from a “Community Marketing Manager” with Rover.com. It was a generic pitch that I’m sure a number of personal finance bloggers got.

This picture is a reminder that dogs do NOT like to be hugged. (They feel trapped.)

I got a chuckle when I read, “Did you know that being a dog sitter or dog walker on Rover.com is a great way to make extra income?” I have been writing about my dog sitting gig for awhile now. I include it in all my monthly reports. It’s a little like asking LeBron James if he knew about this basketball sport. Okay, that’s an over-exaggeration. I don’t expect marketing people to read through dozens of articles on hundreds of blogs.

So we talked and she asked if I’d be willing to write about my experience with Rover. It seemed to me that this was clearly a sponsored post situation, because I’d be doing the marketing for them. However, because I love the dog sitting business, I asked for a tiny fraction of what I’d normally charge. So yes, this is a sponsored post, but these are my own thoughts after 2 years of experience.

What is Rover?

I describe Rover as AirBnB for dogs. For many years, when families went on vacation they brought their dog to a kennel. A kennel might have a just a small space for him/her. There are also pet hotels that offer a better experience, but the price for them can go way up. A few years back, DogVacay.com and Rover brought an alternative… people offering their own homes through an online marketplace.

When we moved from San Francisco to Boston and Rhode Island, we found that there were no reasonable pet hotels. I think the place in San Francisco charged around $40/night. In the Boston area it was $80/night because it priced per dog pound. (It was a real “meat market.”) After a little research we found DogVacay, where the prices where around $35/night. We read all the outstanding reviews and decided to give it a shot.

We barely got back in the car before we were being sent pictures. It was much better than our experience with the dog hotels.

And that was the end of my DogVacay story for a long time.

Changing From Sittee to Sitter

While planning one of our vacations, my opinion changed. The military family who had taken my dog in the past got transferred to San Diego. We had a mishap with the next closest person. Finally there was great sitter 45 minutes away. The only problem was the location. If we were going in another direction, it was a lot to go 1.5 hours out of your way.

I thought, “Why weren’t there any dog sitters near me!” The answer hit me in the face, “Because I’m not a dog sitter myself.” I am an ideal sitter. As I wrote in my About page, I am known as the local dog whisper at the local dog parks. However, we also have a sizable fenced-in yard that is a rare commodity. For some reason people tend to use electric fences in my area.

Lastly, I work from home. So 90% of the time people know there will be someone with their dog. That sounds basic, but there are a number of sitters who aren’t there during the day. It may work for some dogs (including mine), but surely someone who is around more is more desirable.

I created profiles on both DogVacay and Rover and people started to contact me. It trickled in at first in 2015, but as I got more reviews, my location, and offering stood out from the pack. In 2016, we had 566 “dog days”, which is about 1.5 dogs per day. So far in 2017, we have 236 “dog days.” It’s a bit of a drop-off. I think some of that may be due to DogVacay and Rover merging to become just Rover. Instead of being in two marketplaces, I’m now in one. Sure some of the DogVacay clients moved over, but maybe not all. And now I’m competing in one pool where I don’t stand out as much. Rover consistently puts people with 5 reviews ahead of me with my 100 reviews even though that person lives farther away or has lower reviews.

Pros and Cons of Being a Rover Dog Sitter

I didn’t intend for the introduction to go so long, but finally we get the point I wanted to cover in the article. Many people are wondering if dog sitting is right for them. Perhaps they’ve had the thought about Uber or AirBnb. I’m going to presume that if you are asking this question, you are comfortable with dogs. No one says, “I think I should be an Uber driver, but first, I need to get a car and learn how to drive. Plus I am afraid of cars.”

The easy answer is whether you should be a dog sitter is: NO!!! I don’t need any more competition! (I hope everyone sees that as the joke it was meant to be).

The reason answer is a lot more nuanced.

Pros of being a Rover dog sitter

There’s the obvious money aspect. I’m not going to go into my specific numbers, but from what I’ve written you can come up with a ballpark figure. I’m more high-volume than most dog sitters. (I write that having had only one dog for one day so far this week.) It would be hard to make career money out of it, but I always say it beats the heck out of selling MLM crap like DoTerra, Beachbody Shakeology, and Le-Vel Thrive. With MLM, more than 99% of people lose money. With Rover I was more profitable on the first day than they’ll ever be.

There’s the obvious dog aspect. If you love dogs, it is sweet to get paid to be around them. Some people get paid millions to play a game of baseball. I get paid much, much, much to play with dogs. Much less. But playing with dogs.

Lastly, I can combine it with my other work from home. Most of the time dogs need fairly little maintenance. It allows me to earn two, albeit small, incomes at the same time.

Those are three very big pros.

However, it’s not all puppies and rainbows (or rainbows at all).

Cons of being a Rover dog sitter

There are times where being a dog sitter is hectic. If you have a few dogs, feeding them can take some time. You have to keep them all separate and only eating their own food. Dogs are most likely to fight over food. Also this is around the time where I’m trying to feed our 3 and 4 year old. Their kid table is the perfect height for a dog to eat off of. So I manage a couple of different rooms. If I have spare time, I prepare my wife and myself dinner as well. (We eat different things than the kids, because our food isn’t “kid-friendly.”) This isn’t solely a dog sitting problem, but it is another level complexity.

We found out early on that when one dog pees on a rug, another dog will as well. It’s very difficult to clean the rug to the point where another dog won’t pick up the scent and start the cycle all over. Poop isn’t as bad as it usually sits on top and can be picked up. We ended up tearing up our carpet downstairs and putting some waterproof vinyl composite flooring from Home Depot. We got a a new leather couch that was easier to clean from muddy paws.

We have all sorts of minor damage to the house. There was the dog that scraped at our cabinets. There was the dog that scraped at the door. Our lawn isn’t in the best shape due to all the poop, pee, and occasional digging. At any given time, I could construct four Great Danes out of the spare hair on our floors.

So just like an Uber driver might consider the wear and tear on his/her car, you might consider the wear and tear on your home.

The next con would be your time. Dog sitting is in demand during the summer, on the weekends, and during holidays. Do you like to do things with your family during those times? Or do you want to be available as a dog sitter? It may sound easy to say, “Oh I’ll take family every time.” I’ve found that being available for major holidays could be worth up to $1000. It’s not just that one day, but people go away for a whole week and holiday rates apply. It’s easy for me to have 5 or more dogs during those busy times.

Giving up a weekend to go visit family could mean the loss of a couple hundred dollars in bookings as well. The last couple of months, I wrote in my income report that we’ve taken a couple of vacations. That’s a big reason why we’ve had fewer dogs this year.

One more con is dealing with the dog owners. A vast majority of them are great. However, just like anywhere else in life, there are always a few who are a little off. I think most animal trainers will tell you that the real trick is training the owners. Again, this is a very small percentage. To be fair, I’ve met some interesting dog owners including a handbag CEO, a New England Patriot, and a house flipper.

The last con is the “false hustle” trap. Someone initiates a booking with you. You explain why the dog will be a good fit and accept the dog. Then they say, “Oh, I booked with someone else.” This happens a lot with Rover because they immediately show competing dog sitters after someone creates a request. In an extreme case like this past Saturday, I had it happen to me 3 times in a span of 30 minutes. One of them even thanked me for my quick response… while they went with another sitter. That’s a lot of productivity for zero money.

It can be worse with Meet and Greets. These are when dog owners schedule a visit to see the place before booking. Being a blogger, I’m not very big on scheduling things. However, I understand the need and do the same for my own dog. It doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes I’ll spend 30 minutes with a Meet and Greet and the person won’t book. Usually because it’s their plans changed (or at least that’s what they tell me to be nice).

Sometimes I do freelance writing and I know a lot of other bloggers who do as well. They bake into their price things like invoicing, buying their own health care, and things of that nature. When dog sitting rates are around $40/day (in my area), it’s easy to see how losing an hour to “false hustle” trap can be a problem.

On the other hand, you never know if the next request is going to be a regular client. Regular clients are tremendous because you know their dogs extremely well and you know the owners well. I can accept booking in less than 15 seconds with a one-liner of “Happy to have Fluffy back again!”

Your Turn

Do you think dog sitting could be right for you? If so, head on over to Rover and sign up.

Maybe it isn’t a good fit for your particular life circumstances now, but what if you were able to do some work from home, freelance, or do it as a second act in “retirement”? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Past, Present, and Future

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I’ve never liked click-bait titles. You know, those kind of titles that end with, “… and you won’t believe what happened!” I am almost always disappointed because the “unbelievable thing”, wasn’t so unbelievable.

So today, I’m going to do the opposite and start with the most boring title I can think of. By setting the expectation low, I can’t help but surpass it, right?

We’ll start with:

The Past

It’s Memorial Day in the United States. For many it is a time to reflect on the people who gave their lives for our country. For some it is an excuse to drink beer and eat burgers. If you are in the later group, I hope you spend some time reflecting on why we have the holiday. Having an appreciation might make your beer and burger taste a little better.

It’s tempting to write a whole blog post about Memorial Day, but this site is about personal finance. There are some great military blogs and news sites that will do a far better job than I will

The Present

Long weekends are great for my dog sitting business. It was looking bleak for most of the month, but in the last week, we booked up completely. I even had to turn away a couple of dogs. (That’s always a heart-breaker.)

We’ve had a lot of rain this weekend, so I haven’t gotten out much. I’m a long ways away from The Shining territory, but I am starting to feel a little trapped. My 4-year old suggested that we play memory for Memorial Day. I liked his logic. The four of us played and my wife cheated by using her photographic memory. She got twice the matches I did. I got twice the matches my 4-year old did. And the 4-year old got twice the matches my 3-year old did. Sounds like an SAT problem.

The rainy Memorial Day weekend is significant for our local economy. We get a ton of tourism and Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer. (Shop owners can in some ways say, “Happy Memorial Day!” and not have it sound weird. This is when they make most of their money.) With the rain, people didn’t come and didn’t spend money. I’ve seen restaurants gut their staff after such a hit.

The Future

Today is also 5/29. For personal finance blogs like this one, it is a significant date. It’s an annual reminder to those of us who have kids that we might want to contribute to their 529 Plan.

If you are new to 529 Plans they are tax-advantaged way to save for college. They almost work like Roth IRAs where the money grows and comes out tax-free. That’s a decent tax perk. In my state, Rhode Island, we can also deduct up to $1000 from our taxes per year. Since we are saving for our kids college anyway, it makes sense to do it this way.

It seems that Rhode Island has another tax perk that could prove very interesting. It seems that a couple is allowed unlimited carry over of this deduction. I understand this to mean that if we put in $40,000 today we could deduct $1000 off our taxes for the next 40 years. I need to consult my tax advisor on this to make sure I understand it correctly.

If that’s true, it is not too shabby to have that tax deduction hanging around. Of course, who knows if we’ll live in Rhode Island or be alive in 40 years. The only downside is that a $1000 state tax deduction may only amount to a $40-60 savings each year at Rhode Island’s correct tax rates. Hmmm, that’s not too exciting after all.

It is a little dated now, but 10 years ago, I wrote a brief guide to choosing a 529 plan. The main ideas are still helpful, but the specific numbers for the states probably have changed.

I found that if your state offers one with some tax deduction (like Rhode Island), usually that’s the way to go. If your state doesn’t (California didn’t when I lived there), it may be best to explore another state’s plan. Back in 2007, I decided that Ohio’s was the best fit for us. I still have a couple of accounts with them today.

However, you choose to spend today, I hope it is meaningful to you.

Dependent Care: 20 Children or a Dog?

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I usually try to write to a more national audience, but today a local news story caught my eye: “Substitute Shortage Leaves Six Classes Uncovered.”

The story explains that there was a flu outbreak and 8-9 substitute teachers were covering classes (aside from the 6 uncovered classes). While that sounds like a one-time thing, finding substitute teachers seems to be a continuing problem according to the town officials.

What really caught my attention is that substitute teachers are paid $70 a day. A quick search tells me that the school day goes from 7:30AM to 2:30PM.

At 7 hours that works out to be $10/hour. The minimum wage in my state (Rhode Island): $9.60/hr.

Let that sink in…

Let’s Look at Dog Sitting

I’ve been writing about my dog sitting gig for a couple of years now. I love dogs to the extent that I believe they are better than people. That’s a topic for another day.

I have to make that clear because I don’t want to diminish the value of dog care.

Some of the competing dog sitters in my area charge $55 a day. That’s for an overnight stay. It’s not worth doing an hourly rate, because dogs don’t need hourly care.

Would you rather have a dog (playing with your dog) in your home for 7 days or spend 5 days teaching 20 children? If money is a motivator, you’ll make more sitting the dog.

Dog sitting isn’t for everyone, but neither is being a substitute teacher. In order to be a substitute teacher it seems you need a Bachelor’s degree and certification (according to the article). Dog sitting doesn’t require either.

As a result of this incident (6 classes going uncovered), the town officials voted to raise the rate for substitutes to $90/day. That seems to be competitive with other surrounding towns. It still doesn’t seem enough, does it?

Five Reasons Side Gigs Aren’t Just for Freelancers

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According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, in recent years, 20 percent of full-time workers have picked up a second job. Since the economic crisis in 2008, more and more people are seeking side income to avoid falling at the mercy of corporate layoffs. Today, diversifying your income is a good idea even if you do have a full time salary that covers your needs. From greater financial security to a more rounded resume, here are five ways locking down an extra source of cash can go a long way.

1. You’ll build greater financial security

A second study by CareerBuilder.com found that 42 percent of full-time workers usually or always live paycheck to paycheck just to make ends meet, making it difficult to save for the future let alone enjoy the present. Whether you turn your spare room into a B&B or you start a dog sitting business on weekends, earning extra cash off of assets you already have will lift the weight of worrying about every dollar spent and help you save responsibly for your future.

[Editor’s Note: I can give you a ton of information on dog sitting having hosted nearly 150 “dog days” (number of dogs times the number of days.]

2. You’ll be more marketable

Building a career is, in essence, incumbent upon the ability to hone a skill that makes you valuable and hopefully indispensable to an employer. Therefore, the more new skills you acquire, the more opportunities you have to be indispensable. And the easiest and most economical way to acquire a new skill is to learn it on the job.

By diving deeper into skills you already have — like learning to use new data analytics software — for a side job, you will be better apt to get a new job (if you are looking) or to bring more to the table at your primary job, which could earn you a promotion. Plus, the balancing act that comes with working multiple gigs will help you prioritize and manage your time better.

3. You’ll save more

People are more likely to save a tax refund than they are to save that same amount of money when they’ve earned it in smaller increments throughout the year’s worth of paychecks. Similarly, money from a side gig — because it’s separate from your standard paycheck — has a better chance at finding its way into retirement savings or other investments. You might find that having a steady stream of income separate from your paycheck helps you to better compartmentalize and commit to your saving strategy or debt pay off.

4. You’ll build a better professional network

Getting a freelance writing gig in addition to my full time job ultimately primed me for more writing opportunities, which enabled me to form a full-time freelance career. By maintaining several side jobs at once, I was able to multiply the number of good professional references and contacts in a shorter period of time. Furthermore, many companies like to test out employees on a part-time or freelance basis to make sure they are a good fit before offering them a full-time job. Getting a side job with a company or organization you like or aspire to work at can be a good way to get a job there in the future.

5. You’ll make friends and get free perks

A friend of mine wanted to get her yoga teacher training certification. Instead of shelling out $2,000 on a training program, she offered to work the front desk at the studio near her apartment, where she took classes several times a week, in exchange for the certification. I’ve known people who have gotten similar perks from working at running and surf shops as well. Working at a place where people share similar interests can also open you up to a broader network of people who share your interests — a great option if you move to a new city and are looking to make friends.

Overall, having a side gig puts you in better control over your finances. Whether you are saving up for retirement or for a big vacation, the odds are always more in your favor if you have several ways of getting there.