Lazy Man and Money

Reviewing My Monthly Income Challenge (November 2016 Edition)

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About 6 months ago, I challenged readers to Take the Monthly Income Challenge with me. The idea was simple: come up with some way to make more money in a month. It really doesn’t matter how much, the important thing was simply to start it and track it. From there let’s look how to grow it each month.

(Full disclosure: I want to get you hooked on creating alternative streams income. Think of it as getting hooked on eating vegetables or going to the gym.)

The plan is to publish this soon after the month closes. However, in the immortal words of Jayne Cobb, “Well, what you plan and what takes place ain’t ever exactly been similar.”

As Malcolm Reynolds might respond, “So here is us, on the raggedy edge [of the New Year.] Don’t push me, and I won’t push you.”

(It just occurred to me that there’s a chance I could have grown my monthly income a lot more if I didn’t watch Serenity 314 times. #NoRegrets)

Let’s move forward. I’ve been making my income through websites and freelance work for years now. I started added the gig economy (specifically dog sitting) in the last year. Since I have non-traditional income it is a lot easier for me to make extra money on the side doing something else.

Monthly Income Challenge

If you worked a long day as a salaried employee to come home to a family it would be difficult to say, “Oh, just drive an Uber for a few hours.” Maybe being an Uber driver works in your situation. Maybe it doesn’t. The idea is to explore what you can do on the side to earn some money. My wife sells a lot of our discarded stuff on Ebay. That’s a great way to earn a few extra bucks. It is environmentally friendly and declutters our home. I’m ashamed to admit that we have far too much discarded stuff.

True story, when I was 7 or 8, my grandmother taught me how to weave yard on my fingers. I did it for hours, days, weeks, and probably even a few years. I’d like to think that became a blanket that is sitting in my mom’s house. (Mom?) It could have also been complete crap, since I was so young. Honestly, I don’t know. For the sake the story, let’s presume that it was the best blanket ever created and was sold for thousands of dollars. None of that is true, but it’s possible that it could make a few dollars… simply from absent-minded, rote work while watching television. We’re capable of that right?

(All this said, I don’t know if anyone has an easy path to make extra money. I feel like they already would, right? It’s especially difficult to grow this kind of income. While I’m not salaried, I’ve got a 3 and a 4 year old, our real estate “empire”, and frivilous lawsuits to work on… all before I consider working on Lazy Man and Money or dog sitting… my two main sources of income)

Each month, I try to come out with some kind of plan for what I’m going to do to push forward for the next month. However, before we get to that let’s review last month’s results:

Last Month’s Monthly Income Challenge

The Month’s Good

Honestly, almost nothing went well with alternative income in November. Our dog sitting business was the worst in months. However, that was expected. We live in an area that that a very large summer tourist season. In the winter it is a ghost town. James Taylor hides away from the world here in the winter. So any dog sitting business is great dog sitting business. November was above the average for the first 6 months of the year, so I’ll take it.

My blog income was also the worst all year. Cue the crying Native American!

Oops, this section is about focusing on the good. (Stick with me, we’ll get much more positive in a bit.)

The Month’s Bad

That’s better.

In total income was down 20% from last month. The hope is to get this graphed, because the ups and downs from month to month is even difficult for me to follow.

No need to dwell on the bad, let’s get to the excuses explanation.

The Month’s Review

I have a billion of excuses, but most of them revolve around the early Thanksgiving holiday. There’s a cluster of pseudo-consumer holidays like Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday. And all that was followed up by my wife’s birthday and two Christmas parties. The world was spinning out of control for a couple of weeks.

I had to delay a lot of income to December (That’s the benefit of writing this so late.). Of course December has its own challenges.

So one way to look at it is that it was a roller coaster that spanned an arbitrary checkpoint (the end of a month.) I’m used to the roller-coaster.

This Month’s Plan

It’s weird to speculate on something that already occurred, so I’ll just state the obvious. The new website design went live. There’s still a lot to do, but this allows me to move forward with some advertising programs. They need to analyze my traffic and let their computers run algorithms on the data. It’s going to take some time for the changes to get to the bottom line. Plant the seeds now, and reap the harvest in the future.

Since I’ll be following this up with a December update in a little more than a week, we’ll focus on January’s plan then.

What’s Working for You?

Let me know in the comments. I’m particularly interested in people who have some kind of side gig such as a blog, Fiverr, Uber, or anything like that to grow their income.

Reviewing My Monthly Income Challenge (October 2016 Edition)

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Several months ago, I challenged you to Take the Monthly Income Challenge with me. The idea was simple: come up with some way to make more money in a month. It really doesn’t matter how much, the important thing was to start it and track it. From there you can look how to grow it each month.

We’re now 4 or 5 months in and few took to the challenge. I feel that it is 100% my fault. I need to get my new website design with fewer ads up and I need to jump into a time machine and do it a couple of years ago. I’ve dropped the ball as non-Lazy Man and Money “stuff” takes up 80% of my waking hours.

I did enjoy the story of a reader who commented about how he makes money with Magic, The Gathering on the side. It’s certainly not typical.

Let’s battle through this and move forward. I’ve been making income through websites, freelance work, and gig economy stuff (dog sitting mostly) for years now, so it is a little easier for me to make extra money on the side. If you worked a long day as a salaried employee to come home to a family it would be difficult to say, “Oh, just drive an Uber for a few hours.” Maybe being an Uber driver works in your situation. Maybe it doesn’t. The idea is to explore what you can do on the side to earn some money. My wife sells a lot of our discarded stuff on Ebay. That’s a great way to earn a few extra bucks… and it is environmentally friendly.

(All this said, I don’t know if anyone has an easy path to make extra money. I feel like they already would, right? It’s especially difficult to grow this kind of income. While I’m not salaried, I’ve got a 2 and a 4 year old, our real estate “empire”, and frivilous lawsuits to work on… all before I consider working on Lazy Man and Money or dog sitting… my two main sources of income)

Each month, I try to come out with some kind of plan for what I’m going to do to push forward for the next month. However, before we get to that let’s review last month’s results:

Last Month’s Monthly Income Challenge

The Month’s Good

September was one of my biggest month’s with dog sitting. It was second to July. I attribute it to the holidays: Labor Day and the Fourth of July. However, October topped them all… significantly. I’m going to call it the “Red/Bear” effect. A family who rescues racing greyhounds went on vacation and trusted our family with their care.

It was eye-opening to see Red, who is around 7 years old, hobble like he’s 15. He had flashes of play where he could hold his own with the younger dogs. It’s one thing to read about racing greyhounds, but another to experience it.

Sorry for the downer, but let me make up to you with the “Bear” story. One morning I woke up to this email at 8:30AM (I’ve edited it some to protect the dog owner’s privacy):

Hi. My name is [redacted] I am a Naval Officer at [redacted] and our dog sitter bailed on us at last minute. We are leaving for Germany at 1030 and have two dachshund/chihuahua mix dogs. They are pee pad trained but will go out side and use the bathroom if taken. I can provide the pee pads and the dog food that we have at the house. Trying to see if you could help us out. I will be back from Germany on the 31st in the evening.

We’ve never accepted dogs this small. Our fence has spaces in it and we like to give the bigger dogs freedom to roam in the yard.

I showed my wife the request and she nodded saying only, “Take them. We’ll figure it out.” I’ve always had the River Tam view when it comes to the military, “You’ve always taken care of me. My turn.”

With the clock ticking to their flight I called the owner and said we’d be happy to help in any way we can. He brought the two dogs by and went on his flight. We’ve had 80+ different dogs at our house and I’ve never seen two dogs more afraid. I don’t think they left their crate for the first 8 hours. In the next 8 hours, they ventured out to hide under a table. After the first day, they were burrowing under my blanket to sit in my lap or sleep with me at night. It was a complete 180. A month later my 4 year old still asks if “the peanuts” are coming back. My affectionate name for them stuck.

I realize that this may seem exploitative. I was at the local animal hospital recently and talked with a technician who was curious about my dog sitting. She asked my rates and said, “My rate is nearly twice yours. Maybe you make it up volume?” I flashed to one of my favorite movies, “Say Anything” and Jim Courts line, “Taking care of people isn’t a growth enterprise, Mr Sims. I hope you write that down in your report, I’d like your bosses to read it.” (Unfortunately, Jim wasn’t on the level, but I am.)

I think I do make it up in “volume”… but dogs are not “volume.” They are on the mental level of a 2 year old child (at least) and I believe they should be treated the same way.

Sorry, that got a WAY off-track from a typical income challenge report. To get us back on track, these events and others added up to a record-breaking dog sitting month.

Turning the attention to blog income, it got a strong rebound. I can’t say that I did much to earn it… I just do my best to write the best content I can. I have a bit of a Superman complex about it. If you like what I write, the best way to tell you do is to leave a comment.

My focus is on writing things you want to read (and comment on) and getting the new design live.

The Month’s Bad

Things went so well in October, I’ll fabricate something bad. Blog income wasn’t as high as I’d like it to be or as high as it was earlier this year. It’s a work in progress, but as I mentioned in the last report, “When you lose 70% of your time, it’s normal to have an adjustment period, right?”

The Month’s Results

Last month, I wrote, “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the ‘bad’ was much, much longer than the ‘good.’

This month the opposite is true. The Ying has Yanged.

In monetary terms that translated to a gain of a shade more than 10% for the month. Those gains are after a big loss though, so it perspective/relativity is important to factor in.

I need to put this into a graph. I’ll push that until next month, because otherwise, I’ll never get this published. November is almost over and I’m scrambling to catch up on October. That should speak volumes.

This Month’s Monthly Income Challenge Plan

I wave the white flag. I have a bunch of plans, but I never know what world event is going to deep-six them… #Honesty. November is waning and it doesn’t have too many non-holiday days in it.

I’ll focus on getting the new design live. It will likely spill into December. We’ll tackle it then.

What’s Working for You?

Let me know in the comments. I’m particularly interested in people who have some kind of side gig such as Fiverr, Uber, or anything like that to grow their income.

Reviewing My Monthly Income Challenge (September 2016 Edition)

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Several months ago, I challenged you to Take the Monthly Income Challenge with me. The idea was simple: come up with some way to make more money in a month. It really doesn’t matter how much, the important thing was to start it and track it. From there you can look how to grow it each month.

No one took the challenge. At least a few said it was an interesting idea. I’ll focus on that silver-lining.

I’ve been making income through websites, freelance work, and gig economy stuff (dog sitting mostly) for years now, so it is a little easier for me to make extra money on the side. If you were working a long day as a salaried employee to come home to a family it would be difficult to say, “Oh just drive an Uber for a few hours.” Nonetheless, maybe that person can focus their hobbies or interests into things that make a few dollars here and there.

(Honestly, I don’t know if anyone has it that easy. While I’m not salaried, I’ve got a 2 and a 4 year old, our real estate “empire”, and frivilous lawsuits to work on… all before I consider working on Lazy Man and Money or dog sitting.

Each month, I try to come out with some kind of plan for what I’m going to do to push forward for the next month. However, before we get that let’s review last month’s results:

Last Month’s Monthly Income Challenge

The Month’s Good

September was a busy month for dog sitting due to one thing: Labor Day.

(Usually this section is much bigger as there are more good things.)

The Month’s Bad

Good months of dog sitting often seem to lead to poor months of income at Lazy Man and Money. I spend more of my time with the dogs (awesome!), but less of my time writing (boo!) and moving forward on business development deals (meh). The blog income took a big hit, but it wasn’t just due to dog. The annual personal finance convention, FinCon, was at the end of the month. It stretched to 5 days long with 3000 miles of travel and time zones each way. There were a few days before that to get ready and a few days afterward to debrief and get back into the swing of things.

Add it all up, and it’s 10 days of non-income producing “work.” It’s definitely worth it and I learned dozens of things that will pay off in the long run. It’s a matter of implementing them and waiting for it all to work. I wrote a little more about this before: The Future of Lazy Man and Money.

Additionally, September saw the start of pre-school for my oldest. I lose about 2.5 hours of productivity because school ends much earlier than day care. I could pay more to extend the school day, but I’m not sure if that’s a financial win. More importantly, it is a spending-time-with-my-son loss.

When you lose 70% of your time, it’s normal to have an adjustment period, right?

The Month’s Results

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the “bad” was much, much longer than the “good.” In monetary terms that translated to a loss of just about exactly 10% for the month. That means I gave up all the gains I had in the last few months which is certainly a downer. (I didn’t give up that money, I just didn’t build on it.)

I need to put this into a graph. I’ll push that until next month, because otherwise, I’ll never get this published.

This Month’s Monthly Income Challenge Plan

I came back from FinCon with a to-do list a mile long. If I can get the new design and new advertisers on board, I’ll have a good foundation to move forward. I am going to be focused on putting my efforts there while keeping the plates spinning.

In the months after that I’ll look to finally work on that short book. I’d like to do some consulting on blogging and money coaching, but I’m not sure where I will find those hours right now.

What’s Working for You?

Let me know in the comments. I’m particularly interested in people who have some kind of side gig such as Fiverr, Uber, or anything like that to grow their income.

Reviewing My Monthly Income Challenge (August 2016 Edition)

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A couple of months ago, I challenged you to Take the Monthly Income Challenge with me. The idea was simple: come up with some way to make more money in a month. It really doesn’t matter how much, the important thing was to start it and track it. From there you can look how to grow it each month.

I’ve been making income through websites, freelance work, and gig economy stuff (dog sitting mostly) for years now, so it is a little easier for me. I need to focus on growth. That’s quite a challenge with a 2 and a 3 year old, our real estate “empire”, and frivilous lawsuits.

Each month, I come out with some kind of plan for what I’m going to do to push forward for the next month. However, before we get that let’s review last month’s results:

Last Month’s Monthly Income Challenge

The Month’s Good

July’s dog sitting was off-the-charts successful with people paying holiday rates for their July 4th vacation. There was a drop-off in August, which was expected as the summer starts to taper off. While July had a big drop-off in blog income, August picked up a little bit. The “ying” of dog sitting and the “yang” of the blog ended up almost a complete wash… almost. Let’s let the suspense build for another couple of paragraphs…

The Month’s Bad

There wasn’t anything particularly bad this month. The drop-off in dog sitting was expected as it is a cyclical business. The worst thing is that I didn’t have the catch-up on any of the business opportunities that I received. That seems to be the story every month, but given the volume of requests I get, I should be used to it by now.

Additionally, we were trying to squeeze every last bit out of summer that we could. Before we blink, I’ll be spending my day shoveling a ton of snow (perhaps literally).

The Month’s Results

Okay, that’s enough suspense. I was able to eke out a 1% gain in income. That’s not every exciting, but 1% a month compounding is a huge for a whole year (around 12.5%). I know a lot of people who would love a 12.5% raise this year. The lesson isn’t a new one: small wins can snowball into big things.

This Month’s Monthly Income Challenge Plan

In the first couple of months of this challenge, I didn’t have much a plan to grow income. If I can carve out the time to explore all the business opportunities in my email inbox, I should be able to grow income. Unfortunately, a vast majority of those business opportunities are dead-ends. It feels like there might be enough to make 10% growth. As you can tell, I’m a little frustrated about not being able to capitalize on it.

It’s already September 19th, the curse benefit of being late to post this is that I have a unique view into how this month is going to go… no DeLorean necessary.

Labor Day brought a lot of dog sitting business. I almost matched August’s month total in the first 10 days. Unfortunately, from there it’s started to fall off.

At the same time, my oldest son had his first day of school ever. (Parenting tip: School and daycare are very different.) We had to learn a whole new routine and I had to coordinate driving two kids to two places in the morning and in the afternoon. It’s a win to adjust to the new routine.

Lastly, I’m heading to the annual personal finance conference, FinCon, in San Diego this week. Since I’m in Rhode Island, the travel is significant. The conference is 4 days long, but with time zones/jet lag, I anticipate it will be a week of sacrificing immediate income. I’ve had to shut down the dog-sitting business for a week while I’m gone. The long-term relationships that I build at the conference help fuel the success of this blog, so I’ll gladly sacrifice short-term income.

My wife is currently on a similar trip, so we’re both single parents for a little bit of this month. Like any family, there’s a lot of “life stuff” that gets put aside (laundry comes to mind) during these times. We’ll sort through all this like everyone does, but it isn’t insignificant.

I am looking forward to the month where I can put together significant progress on the self-published book I’ve always wanted to write. It’s looking like that might be more of a October project.

What’s Working for You?

Let me know in the comments. I’m particularly interested in people who have some kind of side gig such as Fiverr, Uber, or anything like that to grow their income.

Reviewing My Monthly Income Challenge (July 2016 Edition)

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Last month, I challenged you to Take the Monthly Income Challenge with me. The idea was pretty simple, come up with some way to make more money in a month. It really doesn’t matter how much, the important thing was just to start and track it.

Because I’ve been making unusual income through websites, freelance work, and gig economy stuff (dog sitting mostly), it is a little easier for me. It’s a matter of just trying to get more work done.

Each month, I come out with some kind of plan for what I’m going to do to push forward for the next month. Last month wasn’t much of a plan, because the previous month of June was pretty slow with a lot of family stuff. I essentially went with “no plan” to add anything new and instead went with doing the work that I already had on my plate.

It turned out to be a good plan, but not for the reason I expected.

Last Month’s Monthly Income Challenge

I’m not sure how to report July’s earnings, but I’ll go with this format for now.

The Month’s Good

Dog sitting was off-the-charts successful. The July 4th holiday brought a lot of travel and a lot of dogs paying holiday rates. I actually made more from dog sitting than I did from my blog… which is hard for me to imagine.

The Month’s Bad

The blog income went down. This happens every year with he summer slowdown in Internet traffic as everyone takes vacations. Worse, we took a week vacation for a road-trip ourselves. This puts me in the position of trying to make a month’s income on 24 days. We got back to a big rush of dog sitting requests, so the blog took a back seat.

As you may be able to tell, I’m still trying to catch up as I’m writing this article on Friday afternoon… just in time for everyone to leave for the weekend to avoid reading it.

The Month’s Results

Let’s hear it for the dogs! The month’s income was up almost 10% from the previous month. It is still down from earlier in the year, but diversifying with dog sitting is really starting to pay off.

This Month’s Monthly Income Challenge Plan

I can feel myself already lining up the excuses.

It’s the fifth day of the month and I’m struggling to get a second article written this week for lack of time. The world seems out to get me. Today it was Cox’ cable outage. Yesterday it was spending hours on customer support chasing down a banking error. Earlier in the week, my wife was out of town for work and I was a single dad. Next week, I lose daycare for the Victory Day holiday that is probably noted by a few hundred thousand people in the United States. Oh and my wife is traveling again for work.

As a friend likes to say, “No one cares about your excuses!” He’s right, but there’s a Four Burners Theory at work as well. That says you have to divide your time up among family, friends, health, and work. Family seems to require a bulk of my gas. The gas I have left for work is limited, and it is divided across several different types of work whether it blog or dog sitting.

For this month, I’m going to stick with the same boring plan as last month. If looks like there’s enough work out there for me to grow my income again, I just need to get the time to put it all together.

I had hoped that this month would be the month would be where I could put together significant progress on the book I’ve always wanted to write. It’s looking like that might be more of a September project.

Your Turn

Let me know what’s working for you in the comments. I’m particularly interested in people who have some kind of side gig such as Fiverr, Uber, or anything like that to grow their income.