Sunday, January 1, 2017

2017: Happy New Year, December side hustles and year end summary


Happy New Year!  Did you all have a fun and safe time ringing in the New Year?  After our son joined our family in 2015, our new years celebrations toned down considerably.  Our friend hosted a very nice dinner at his house.  By 8:45pm, we left for home to put our little one to bed.  By 10:30pm, we were fast asleep in our bed – and this is staying up late for us!  Can you believe that 2016 is already over?  Whether it was a good or bad year for you, it’s over. 

Looking back at 2016
Writing posts for this blog helps us categorize our financial achievements and setbacks.  It’s nice to look back and reflect on 2016.  It was another good year for credit card points and rewards.  We are getting our son accustomed to airports and airplanes.  He continues to grow so fast and learn his way in the world around him.  He's starting to express himself more with his voice and body.  He's slowly learning to play nicely with other kids.  We continue to work as hard as we can to provide for him.  We hit a financial milestone of over 250K invested.  Unfortunately, it was also a very expensive year for us.  Thankfully, our side hustle income helped to offset a lot of our expenses
The addition of my Sapphire Reserve completes my Chase Ultimate Rewards collection!
Trips booked with points
We are very thankful for all the points we earned and money we saved on travel in 2016.  Here’s a list of travel that we booked with points this last year.
- One overnight stay at the Westin San Diego with 10,000 Starpoints
- 2 round trip flights to San Jose, CA with 21,270 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points and $139.78 from free Southwest gift card credit
- 2 one-way business class tickets from Virginia to Los Angeles on United Airlines (50,000 miles) for sister in law and niece to visit us
- 2 round trip business class tickets to Tokyo from Los Angeles with 327,250 Singapore Airlines Krisflyer miles
- A one-way ticket for my father to fly from Taipei to Tokyo with 15,000 United miles to join us on our Asia trip
- 3 one-way tickets for my family to fly from Osaka to Taipei on Cathay Pacific booked with 23,250 British Airways Avios
- 2 one-way flights from Taipei to Tokyo on Cathay Pacific booked with 21,000 British Airways Avios
- A round trip flight to San Francisco with 9,093 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points
- 2 free round trip flights to Portland with 36,268 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points
Paying for flights and hotel stay with points helps save us a considerable amount of money.
We spent a lot of money in 2016
While we saved and invested a significant portion of our income, we also spent a lot of money in 2016. 
We love our home and intend to stay here for a long time.
Here is a list of home improvements and upgrades we made:
- Dual pane energy efficient windows: $6,960
- Water heater: $593.20 plus $200 installation fee
- Paint and stucco on our home exterior: $8425
- LED lighting throughout the house: $563.72
- Couch: $900
- Fencing on the side and rear of our home: $2,707.50
- Nest smart thermostat: $175.15
- Arlo Pro wireless security cameras (4 pack): $620.99

Total home improvement expenses: $21,145.56.  Ouch.  Our home is now 36 years old and very little improvements have been done over the lifetime of the home.  If we were renting, we could have saved this much money.  Thankfully most of these upgrades will last many years.
Pet sitting fees really add up.  If you love animals, consider this side hustle.
Here is a list of unexpected expenses:
- Main water leak piping replacement: $1,179.88
- Electrician fees for our rental property: $150
- Dog sitting fees: $715.  When we leave on trips, we hire someone to come and dog sit for Abby, and also watch the house in our absence. 
Total unexpected expenses: $2,044.88

Biggest purchases of 2016:
- New Toyota 4Runner: $36,313.64.  We bought it for the extra room and the fact that it seats 7, a nice feature we’ve used whenever seeing family.  Yes, this was a huge purchase for us.  It’s also not very fuel efficient (17mpg city and 22 mpg highway).  Mr. Money Mustache would probably punch me in the face if he found out about our SUV purchase.  That being said, we will keep this vehicle for a very long time.  Buying new and paying it all in cash was important to us, and having no monthly car payments is great!  We don't expect to make any car payments for a very long time.
- Car seats: $184.44 and $222.31
- Stroller: $221.02
- Umbrella stroller: $82.06
Total large expenses: $37,023.47
Yikes.  Looking at how much money we spent in 2016 makes me cringe.  There are all sorts of other things we spent small amounts of money on in 2016, but I’ve only listed the big items. We both have been getting steady promotions and raises and it seems like our lifestyle has crept up quite a bit.  Tracking all of our expenses helps us look back and see where our money went.  If you never track your expenses, you’ll have no idea where your money is ending up. 
There’s that old saying: “work hard, play hard” which many people say to justify spending more when you are earning more.  I don’t want us to fall into the situation where the more money we make and spend, the further from financial freedom we become.  The White Coat Investor has a great write up about moving away from financial independence. I want to make our motto for 2017: “work hard, invest hard.”  With this new year, it’s another chance for us to continue to be relentless in our pursuits of financial freedom.
December side hustles 2016
Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of December.

Cash back
On 12.1, I received a PayPal deposit of $21.81 from Mr. Rebates, my favorite cash back site.
On 12.12, I received a $20 statement credit on my American Express Premier Rewards Gold card from AMEX Offers (spend $50 at godaddy.com and get $20 credit).  This was perfect timing since I needed to renew my domain for this site for the next 2 years.
On 12.16, I received an $8 statement credit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card due to the Chase Travel credit (for 2017)
On 12.20, I received a $4.64 statement credit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card from the Chase Travel credit
On 12.22, I received a $5.66 statement credit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card from the Chase Travel credit
On 12.26, I received a $5 statement credit on my AMEX Gold card from AMEX Offers (spend $5 at iTunes and get $5 back)
On 12.27, I received a $7.40 statement credit on my Chase Sapphire Reserve card from the Chase Travel credit

Paid surveys
On 12.5, I received a $45 direct deposit in my checking account from GLG medical surveys.
On 12.9, I received $5 PayPal deposit from Pinecone Research
On 12.13, I received $8 PayPal deposit from Pinecone Research
On 12.13, I received a $75 check from E-Rewards Medical
On 12.16, I received a $15 Visa Debit card from m-Panels research
On 12.21, I received $9 PayPal deposit from Pinecone Research
On 12.26, I received a $20 check from E-Rewards Medical
On 12.30, I received $3 PayPal deposit from Pinecone Research

Side Job
On 12.15, I received a check for $275 for teaching at the local university
On 12.19, I received a check for $137.50 for teaching at the local university. 

Rental Income
On 12.1, I received a check for $700 from our temporary housemate
On 12.5, we received a net profit of $430 from our rental property.

Website Income
On 12.29, I received a $10.21 deposit in my checking account from Amazon Associates. 

Miscellaneous Income
On 12.17, I received $20 ($10 x 2) worth of Amazon.com gift cards from MyPoints.  MyPoints gives you points for clicking on advertisements sent to your spam email account.
On 12.29, I received a $50 MasterCard Debit card for a Ford Test drive offer
On 12.22, I received a $125 statement credit on our electric bill for purchasing a smart thermometer (Nest)

Monthly Totals:
We earned $72.51 cash back
I earned $180 from paid surveys
I earned $412.50 for teaching at the local university
We earned $1,130 from rental income
I earned $10.21 from website income
We earned $195 miscellaneous income

All of this totals $2,000.22 from our side hustles for the month of December.  Earning a few bucks here and there from teaching, consulting, selling on eBay, and even survey taking really adds up when you combine the side hustles together.

2016 Side Hustle Totals
This is the third year I’ve been documenting our side hustle income.  For 2016, we brought in a total of $24,195.44 on the side!  For 2015, we earned a total of $19,178.54.  And for 2014, we earned a total of $28.633.42. 3 years of side hustle income comes out to be $72,007.40, not too shabby!  All this extra side hustle income stacks on top of our regular income.  Side hustle income continues to help us live a rich life. 

It seems like 2016 just flew by. Was it prosperous for you?  I hope you don’t allow 2017 to fly by without finding success in your pursuits of wealth, happiness, and health.  Let’s make 2017 a great year. 
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