Hi everyone, it’s mid-August so it seemed like a great time to post a monthly update for July. Here’s the latest on life update:
Business Moving and Shaking:
One of my goals for this year was to grow my business income. It was one of those “to do” list deals that sat on a shelf in my mind but never seemed to move past the idle thought stage. There was always something more important to focus on.
But that had to change after our financial situation became more precarious back in March. Since that happened, I’ve been out there finding new and creative ways to maximize money in and minimize money out. I’ve been a lot more successful with the first – a little less with the last.
- Here’s the skinny on my phat wallet (God, I’m way too white for that phrase):I’ve more than doubled what I bring in through freelance writing since March
- I’ve created my own tutoring business and more than doubled what I made with the tutoring agency
- I’ve started the process of getting Cents, Sense & Sensibility (CSS) up and running. I’ve finally figured out why an editorial calendar is so useful and I’m in the process of getting in some help to run things. This is still net zero though.
Mad Stacks of Cash:
- Here are my side business earnings for July:
- Tutoring: $800
- Freelance Writing: $770
- Blog Earnings: Nada, nil, zilch (this will come though)
Big Debt Pay-Off:
So this is kind of a big deal. My husband and I have been talking about how much our debt was costing us. We weighed the pros and cons of maintaining our investments versus keeping around the debt. As it turns out, the debt cost us more than our investments were making us so we made a decision.
We took out $22,000 from investments and settled out my balance to student loans. We paid out my student loans! I now a big fat zero to everyone!
This will save us over $600 a month in payments and free up money to go elsewhere. We still have other debt that we have to deal with but getting rid of this has been freeing for me. It seems like there are possibilities everywhere – all I have to do is reach out and grab them.
To Do List for August:
- I’m going to continue looking for more freelance work so I can bolster my numbers. I’m not really sure how to do this but I’ll keep applying for staff writer positions as they come up.
- I’ll also work on figuring out how to keep the blog up and running with regular posts, newsletter mail-outs, and being more active on social media.
That’s it for now, friends. Until next time!
Photo Credit: Free Images/Robert Aichinger