Tuesday, January 1, 2019

2019: Happy New Year, December side hustles and year end summary!


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.

Once a month (usually on the 1st), I like to post a short summary of our personal and financial situation for the previous month.  While I don’t often post articles, I am committed to documenting all of my side hustle income.  Here I’ll share some of what’s been going on with our lives and our side hustles.  
Happy New Year! 
Did you have a good December?  It was quite a busy and fun month for us.  Life has definitely become more hectic with 2 kids.  In December, we attended several holiday parties, ate lots of delicious food, and hosted family members for a week during Christmas.
Our daughter turned 1 year old this month! I can’t believe how fast she has been growing and how fast time flies.  She just started talking, eating regular foods, and is close to walking.  To celebrate, we had a small party with close friends and their children at a local children’s gym. 
We gifted my sister in law’s family tickets to Legoland and we all enjoyed a great day at the park.  Since my work offers significant discounts, we decided to purchase annual passes to the park for our family.  We will definitely be back.  Legoland has a new Deep Sea Adventure ride, an interactive submarine ride through an underwater habitat full of sharks, sea creatures and Lego characters.  
Our son loved the ride so much that it was the only attraction we visited.  We probably went on the submarine ride over 20 times!  Thank goodness Legoland wasn’t crowded and we didn’t need to wait long between rides.
Our kids received a lot of Christmas presents from family.  Yet it’s so funny that they like simple household items – they really don’t need fancy gifts at their ages.  Here’s a picture of my son having tons of fun with a paper towel cardboard tube:
We took my sister’s family to the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, one of our son’s favorite places to visit.  He is becoming quite the sea creature expert!
Here’s our monthly summary of side income that we have generated in the previous month of December 2018.
Cash Back
On 12.2, I received $10.23 deposit in my Discover Cashback Checking account.  This is 1% cashback from paying our rental property with my Discover debit card.
On 12.2, my wife received a $5.03 statement credit on her AMEX Gold card.
On 12.3, my wife received a $7.25 statement credit on her AMEX Gold card for 20% statement credit on all dining purchases up to $100 in credits made within the first 3 months.
On 12.3, my wife received a $15 statement credit on her AMEX Gold card from AMEX Offers.  This deal was $15 off $49 at Chewy.com, a website where we purchase our dog food and supplies from.
On 12.9, I received a $1.54 statement credit on my AMEX Blue Cash Everyday card from AMEX Offers. 
On 12.19, my wife received a $32.42 statement credit on her AMEX Gold card for 20% statement credit on all dining purchases up to $100 in credits made within the first 3 months.
On 12.29, I received a $5.23 statement credit on my AMEX Blue Cash Everyday card from AMEX Offers.  This was for 10% cash back on cell phone bill payments.
American Express has been very good to us with all of their cashback offers!

Survey Income
On 12.15, I received a $25 check for doing a medical survey with E-Rewards Medical
On 12.17, I received a $75 Amazon gift card for doing a medical survey with M-Panels.
On 12.20, I received a $20 check for doing a medical survey with E-Rewards Medical.
On 12.22, I received a $20 Amazon gift card for doing a medical survey with My Impact Network.
On 12.29, I received a $30 check for doing a medical survey with M3 Global Research
On 12.29, I received a $7 check for doing a medical survey with M3 Global Research
Doing medical surveys doesn’t take much time and they pay very well.

Rental Income
On 12.5, we received a net profit of $430 from our rental property.  Our rental income has been consistent without any hiccups in 2018.

Miscellaneous Income
On 12.2, we received a $83 account credit to our T-Mobile account.  This was a device trade in credit.
On 12.31, we received a $667 Mastercard debit promotional gift card from T-Mobile for device trade in credit.  Since my work reimburses my cell phone purchase and expenses, this was just free money! 

Monthly Totals:
We earned $76.70 from cash back
I earned $177 from survey income
We earned $430 from rental income
I earned $750 from miscellaneous income

All of this totals $1,433.70 from our side hustles for the month of December!  It was great earning money on side during this busy and expensive month. 

2018 side hustle totals:
We have earned a total of $14,802.47 in 2018!  While this is the lowest amount of side hustle income we have generated, we still feel very accomplished for the year.  We have been trying to balance earning more income with enjoying family time.  We have now been tracking our side hustle income for 5 years! 

In 2018, we earned $14,802.47
In 2017, we earned $15,307.76
In 2016, we earned $24,195.44
In 2015, we earned $19,178.54
In 2014, we earned $28,633.42

I am excited to see what 2019 brings for our family.  I will continue to post updates on our financial situation.  This keeps us accountable and also helps us track our financial progress.  It’s amazing that I have now been blogging for 7 years.  Last year, I focused on eating healthy and keeping our grocery costs down.  Doing all of our grocery shopping at Aldi and buying in bulk at Costco has helped cut our grocery expenses.

For the last 6 months, I have been practicing Intermittent Fasting (IF).  With IF, I have made my life simpler, healthier, more energetic, and I hope to live longer as well.  Fasting also gives me a much better appreciation for food and helps me be more thankful when I get to eat.  You can read a beginner’s guide to intermittent fasting written by James Clear here. 

This New Year I want to focus more on being in the moment and practicing more gratitude as I continue relentlessly improving every aspect of my life.  Our kids are our greatest motivation for working towards financial freedom.  At the same time, we want to appreciate and relish all the moments we can get with our family.
 
Let’s make 2019 another fantastic year together.  Thank you for joining me on this journey.
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