Hi <<First Name>>! I'm leaving for our 10th wedding anniversary cruise tomorrow!!! You can read all about how I'm feeling on my
blog post today...apparently weepy happy, LOL. I'm 10 years older, my back may hurt, but I'm still feeling like a lucky lady! It's good to try to ignore the crap and appreciate what you have...
Win the Monthly Prize!
Just to say thanks for being part of the BFS community, each month we give away a $25 Amazon gift card or Paypal cash AND a free copy of BOTH of my eBooks to one lucky BFS newsletter subscriber! Congrats to April's winner! To enter this month's, please
jump over to this post and leave a comment - only one comment per person please! A winner will be chosen and notified at the beginning of next month.
Crystal Shards
It is the beginning of yet another new month. So as you may know, here is my complete online income and expense breakdown from the last one:
April 2015 Online Income and Expenses
- BFS - $1600
- My Other Blogs - $125
- Affiliate Ads - $0
- eBook - $80
- Crystal for Hire (Freelancing like Writing and Blog Advertising Management) - $2200
- Minus Expenses (Paypal, Writers for Co-Owned Sites, Domain Renewals, Etc.) - $395
- TOTAL - $3610
I want that number at $6000+ every month, but realistically, I'd be really happy at $5000 now. Luckily, we diversify though. :-D
April 2015 Other Income
Overall, we brought in about $8340
To put things into perspective, we need about $6250 a month just to hit our main budget categories, which covers our monthly bills like the remaining mortgage ($1000), my new car payment ($275), a new-to-us car fund ($225), property taxes and insurance on both homes ($1250 a month), and income taxes ($1500 a month). We live on the other $2000 a month. If there is anything leftover after that $6250 is taken care of, it is divided between savings, investments, and fun. It helps make up for not-so-good months that pop up. You can check out our
our budget anytime.
Our main financial goal is to continue making enough overall to work from home as long as possible since we both prefer self-employment over "normal" day jobs. Our secondary goal is to use the majority of any extra money that we ever have to reach financial independence as soon as possible (we are aiming for age 50 or before). We may still choose to work even if we ever have enough saved not to, but we would like to make that choice ourselves.
DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that this income comes from 35+ hour work weeks online generally divided between me and Mr. BFS. We put in another 30-40 hours a week into pet sitting. When it's a sports season, Mr. BFS puts in about 20-30 hours a week into reffing. My minimum work week has become 50-60 hours.
We also end up paying about 25% in income taxes since we do have to cover the employer's part as well. I was working 100+ hours a week personally for over a year before I was able to leave my old day job. I just want to be clear that this isn't easy money in any respect. I want to inspire everyone to accomplish their dreams, no matter what it takes. I am not saying it will be simple or fast. It just can be done.
Thanks for being the best readers ever!
Crystal and the BFS team
newsletter@budgetinginthefunstuff.com
P.S. If you have any questions at any time, please contact me! Just hit Reply!
