August 2016 Online Income Report

I’m back with another income report! I hope you all had a fabulous August and Labor Day as we all deal with transitioning from summer mode to fall.

As most of you probably know, I started freelancing full time September 1st and I’m loving it so far! Things are not as busy as they were before since I am focusing in on less tasks now, but I’ll still probably work almost every day this month until I establish my work flow and that’s okay because at least now I am doing work I truly enjoy.

If You Are New Here

Last year I started publishing insights on 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 I’m on track to pay off way more this year. That wouldn’t have been possible without earning an extra income.

Now I’m self employed (yay) and these income reports have really motivated me to keep working toward my financial goals and I hope they show readers how possible it is to create an income by doing something you love from the comfort of your own home.

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. As a heads up, Bluehost is having a flash sale later this week where their hosting prices will be dirt cheap so be on the lookout for that. When was the last time you invested in yourself?

Some Updates

First off, I just wanted to provide an update on our current debt situation. I do a pretty good job or sticking to keeping my debt updates page current and I’m pleased to share that now my husband and I are down to just $33,927.26 when I believe we we started at around $40k when we got married back in May.

I’m continuing to throw tons of money at my student loans so I can hopefully get them down to $10k by the end of this year and pay them off in full by the end of next year. The interest rate on our debt is pretty low since we got rid of the credit card debt. I believe my husband’s car loan interest rate is lower than both our student loans, but we’d still like to knock it out since we’re so close with that one.

Second, I was excited to see that I became a finalist for the Plutus Awards ‘Best Freelancer/Contributor’ category last week among four other awesome personal finance icons that I really look up to. I just wanted to give a BIG thanks to everyone who voted and nominated me, because it’s so humbling and truly an honor!

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Plutus Awards, they’re like the VMAs of the personal finance world (just kidding!) It’s basically an award ceremony that take places at FinCon, the financial bloggers conference, each year to recognize top blogs and individuals in the industry who have made a lasting impact of some kind through their work. You can view the entire list of finalists for all the categories here.

Overall, I’m excited to attend FinCon this year especially since I’ve never been to California so if any of you are going make sure you reach out so we can connect!

In other news, I’m launching my first product very soon and I’m excited to share more about it. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a digital guide for brides-to-be who want to save big in terms of planning a traditional wedding without sacrificing the aspects of their big day that they value. This is a big reason why I’ve been posting less on the blog but I hope to pick back up to my normal schedule once I complete the finishing touches.

Wedding are super expensive and since my wedding series posts did so well on the blog and I had so much more to say, I decided to write a whole guide up for future brides who want to stick to a budget or can’t afford a wedding planner.

I know that the target audience for this is super specific and I didn’t want to keep sharing wedding stuff on the blog knowing that a lot of my readers probably aren’t in the process of getting married. I included lots of specific strategies and insight to help streamline the process of planning an affordable dream wedding. Check it out if you’re interested or know someone who could benefit from reading it!

Now that that’s all said and done…

In August, I Earned $2,910.55

This is income I actually received during the month of August and before I deducted for taxes. I usually set aside anywhere from 25%-30% of my earnings for taxes. This is my last time reporting my income as a side hustle and I can’t believe this is my 12th income report so I’ve been sharing the real numbers for a whole year now! You can check out my first income report here if you’d like to reminisce with me.

How That Income Breaks Down

Freelance Writing: $2,159

Virtual Assistant: $460 (Check out how to start earning extra income as a virtual assistant by reading this post)

Blog Income (ads, sponsored posts, affiliate income, podcasting): $291.55

August was a long month and I’m thankful for that because I had some extra days to finish some work up even though some of my payments were delayed. My life was a big circus literally between wrapping up things with my job and trying to keep up with client work. I ran some projections for September though and I was pleased to see that this month, I’ll finally break into the $4k monthly income range so I’m excited about that because it seems like I’ve been straddling the $2k-$3k range for a while now.

Expenses:

Blog Help and VA: $120

Tailwind: $14.99

Podcast Hosting: $60 (It was my turn to pay for our podcast hosting services with Libsyn)

Total: $194.99

How did your month go? Are you so ready for fall and will you be at FinCon?