Tuesday, March 1, 2016

February side hustles 2016


The great thing about doing side hustles to generate extra income is that you can hustle on your own terms.  The more hard work, time, and creative effort you put in, the more extra money you can make.  You can hustle as little or as much as you want, whenever you want.  It’s your extra money, and you can choose how you want to spend it.  Instead of focusing on what ideas don’t apply to you, try focusing on different side hustle ideas that you can implement to work for your situation.

It was a busy February and seems like the time just flew by.  Work has been really busy.  I’m thankful that we both enjoy the work that we do, and that our commutes are short.  

Our little guy is almost 9 months old now – it’s amazing to see how fast he’s growing.  We took him to the Long Beach Aquarium a few weeks ago and he really enjoyed it.  


In disappointing news, the first tenants in our rental property decided to terminate their lease 2 months early.  They gave me their very late notice on Sunday, February 21.  Up until this point, they have been ideal tenants, paying for their rent on the first of every month, with a direct deposit into my bank account.  When investing in real estate properties, vacancies can be a real problem.  

If you have enough consecutive months without a tenant paying rent, you can lose out on a lot of your rental income profits.  My real estate investor friends tell me that they experience early rent termination regularly, once as short as after 3 months.  Small time passive real estate investors can’t get a write off or tax deduction for lost rental earnings.   

I re-listed our property for rent the same night that I received notice from our tenants and immediately started to get emails and phone calls from interested parties.  I’ve already done a few showings of the property and have a good feeling about getting new tenants to fill the vacancy soon already filled the vacancy with new tenants!

Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of February.

Award Travel
On 2.19, I redeemed Southwest Rapid Rewards points and Southwest gift cards towards two free round trip flights to San Jose, CA to attend a wedding.  We saved $491.92 on airplane tickets.

Cash back
On 2.1, I received a PayPal deposit of $57.42 from Mr. Rebates shopping portal
On 2.18, I received $25 cash back statement deposit on my old Lexus Visa Pursuits credit card.

Search and Win
On 2.12, I received a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks (500 points = $5 Amazon gift card)  

Paid surveys
On 2.19, I received $5 Amazon gift card from Pinecone Research. 

Side Job
On 2.8, I received a check for $137.50 from the local university where I teach part time.  I still really enjoy teaching and continue to do a few hours every now and then.

Rental Income
On 2.1, we received a net profit of $430 from our rental property.  Unexpectedly, they recently told us that they are going to terminate their contract early by 2 months.  I have already put up advertisements and am currently screening for new tenants  Update: we filled our vacancy on the first of the month!

On 2.1, I received a check for $600 from our temporary new housemate.  This was her last month with us and we probably won’t be taking any new housemates for a while now.  It will be nice to enjoy our home with just the three of us.   

Miscellaneous Income
On 2.16, I received a $25 Visa gift card from KIA for a test drive
eBay sales

On 2.21, I received a net profit of $461.91 from selling two old items on eBay.  This net profit is after eBay fees, PayPal fees, and shipping fees.  It’s exciting to login to your eBay account to find that you’ve sold $515.01 worth of items!  Then you look closely to see that tons of fees really take a bite out of your profits.  That being said, it is still better to be up $461.91 than have some old items sitting around the house collecting dust.

Monthly Totals:
Our side hustles increased slightly in February.
We saved $491.92 on airline tickets
We received $82.42 worth of cash back
We earned a $5 Amazon gift card from Swagbucks
I earned a $5 Amazon gift card from Pinecone Research
I earned $137.50 from my side job teaching at the local university
We earned $1,030 from rental income
I earned $25 from miscellaneous income
I earned $461.91 (after fees) from selling old items on eBay.

All of this totals $2,283.75 from our side hustles for the month of February.   How did your side hustles go this past month?

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