Income Report June + July 2016

Hey Everyone! I decided to share a double income report this time since I didn’t share one for June. I’ve still been tracking my income, but I’ve gotten a little side tracked this summer and didn’t make time to organize everything and produce a thoughtful and helpful post about my freelancing progress.

If You Are New Here

Last year I started publishing the income I earn outside of my full-time job through online side hustles as a way to motivate myself and others to earn more to meet financial goals and work toward financial freedom.

I officially landed my first freelance writing client in March 2015. At first, I attempted to start earning an extra income as a way to help me pay off my debt and got hooked. I paid off more than $11,000 of debt last year and wouldn’t have been able to do so without earning an extra income.

I also publish these income reports to demonstrate a true and transparent way that people can earn an honest income working online. I probably never would have gotten to this point and made so much progress with paying off my debt if I hadn’t started a blog.

If you’d like to start a blog as well to help you earn extra income on the side, there’s never been a better time to do it. Check out my tutorial guide to starting a professional self-hosted blog with Bluehost in just minutes. My hosting company has a great sale going on today only!

Some Updates

In terms of debt, my husband and I have paid off $4,100 in debt since May. His credit card debt is gone and we are chipping away at our other accounts. You can check out our progress here. For now, we’re focused on getting rid of his car loan and then our student loans. We will save the balance for our bed for last since it won’t be collecting any interest for another 3 years.

A lot has been going on lately so you might have noticed I’ve been posting less around here. That’s because I’m trying to focus on quality and not quantity. I’m also working on a huge re-brand and redesign of my site so things should be looking very different around here these next few months.

Aside from that, I’ve just been trying to enjoy the summer with my family and friends and keep my head afloat with freelancing, work, and blogging. Most importantly, I shared a big announcement on Facebook last week…..

I’m Finally Leaving My Job!! 🙂

I’ve talked about wanting to freelance full time for a while now and I know last month I was on the fence between just making the leap and waiting it out a little while. I knew I wanted to quit before winter, but I’m a huge worrier and I love to be over prepared. There’s nothing wrong with that, but sometimes I feel like my own insecurities act as my worst enemy and hold me back.

I’ve never made a big life decision I wasn’t proud of and with work starting to pick up at my full-time job over the next few months, I know I would have less and less time to dedicate to freelancing if I stick around.

The last week of July was so busy at work, I barely had any time to freelance and I’m happy (lucky) most of my work was already completed for the month. Yet and still, since I’m trying to grow my online income, I knew I needed more time and energy to dedicate to freelancing and growing my blog.

As a result, I decided to take a gamble and leave my job at the end of August. September 1 will be my first official day of self-employment. Whoohoo!

I’m a little nervous but mostly excited. I haven’t reached my income goal of $5,000 per month yet, but it doesn’t really matter because I can live off what I’m earning from freelancing right now and I already reached my savings goal for the year.

Plus, like I said before, I’m excited to see what I can do with 40 hours per week since I’ve only been freelancing for 15-20 hours per week. I still need to invest some more time into my online business before I can focus on cutting back hours so I’m hoping I’ll be able to boost my income by giving my blog some much needed TLC.

Anywho, In June and July, I Earned $6091.17

Here’s how that Income breaks down:

June Income – $2,658

Freelancing: $2018
Virtual Assistant: $410
Blog Income (ads, sponsored posts, affiliate income, podcasting) $230

July Income – $3,433.17

Freelancing: $2808
Virtual Assistant: $410
Blog Income (ads, sponsored posts, affiliate income, podcasting) $215.17

As you can see, my income has fluctuated quite a bit this summer. The summer is usually pretty slow and this is just another example of how unpredictable freelance income can be. It’s super important to have a sustainable emergency fund and/or a buffer in your checking account and I plan on having both.

Expenses (for Both Months)

I try to keep my expenses low for the most part since I’d like to pay off as much debt as I can with my extra income. Hosting and domain fees for my site are not included in my monthly expenses because they’re been paid for through 2018 already.

Blog Help and VA: $342

Education and Training: $147

Total: $518.98

Goals for My Blog and Income:

Get My New Site Up: I still have to do a few more things, but I’m planning on putting my new site up before the end of the month.

Continue to Work on Social Media Presence: Progress for this goal is going well but I am pretty much just growing my followers organically. I’m focusing heavily on Facebook and Instagram right now.

Maintain, Grow, Rinse, and Repeat: Wish I could be more specific! I see a lot of things I want to keep doing, and I always have a massive to-do list of projects, ideas and strategies I’d like to implement so I’ll be getting more organized during my first month of self-employment and trying to work out a system that’s best for me that I can repeat.

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