A month ago I set out 3 financial goals, with the aim of doing monthly updates here to keep myself accountable. Here are the results from my first month:
1.) Generate $2,000 per month in profit online
I am genuinely shocked, I succeeded with this in my first month. The income was from freelance writing and doing social media management. I have one continuous contract which is worth $2,300 per month from now on. I earned a little under that this month, but I’m happy with this as a start.
Income: $2,029
Expenses: Blog hosting $13.95 (I need to switch hosts, I forgot to this month.)
Profit: $2015.05
I have made no income from this site as yet, and while I am happy I secured some freelance work, I am aware there is a limit as to how much of that sort of work I can do. I plan to diversify my income and generate some passive income from sources such as affiliate sales, sponsored posts and perhaps my own products eventually.
In my original goal post I said “$2,000 is my starter goal. Once I achieve it, I will be aiming for $5,000.” Guess that means my new goal is $5k!
How did I make over $2,000 profit?
1.) Learn before you launch
I studied, did courses and learned as much as I could before I decided to embark on working from home. One course was 30 days or less to freelance writing success. It’s the same course, the previous owner of this site did (you can read how she made her first $500 here).
2.) Scoured the net for opportunities
I responded to callouts in Facebook groups, searched for paid freelance writing opportunities in forums, on job boards and pitched a few articles to magazines I knew would pay. My greatest success actually came from Facebook groups.
3.) Set clear work boundaries
Working from home with kids it can be difficult getting organised. I had to set myself some rules including what my work hours were, outline my routine each day, wrote down the three most important tasks each day (and tackled them first), be accepting and adaptable. Juggling being a mom and working from home means that sometimes my kids get sick or accidents happen and I have to change my schedule. Having a set schedule helped me get more work done when I had the time too and it meant on the rare occasion I could not work, I was not as stressed.
4.) Decide what you want to do to make money
I have a stack of ways I want to make money from home such as selling on eBay or Etsy, freelance writing, this blog, online surveys etc. I decided to focus on one thing at a time. This past month I wanted to establish freelance writing and get a regular client base. I have one regular client which incorporates social media and freelance writing. Ideally, I’d like to have 3 to 5 regular clients.
I’ll share a post soon with ways for moms to work from home.
2.) Clear $20,059.38 in debt
I had two debts when I started this goal”
Debt 1 is $4,235.25 with 0% interest for 12 months (now 11 months)
Debt 2 is $15,824.13 with 16.4% interest for 3 years and 8 months (now 3 years and 7 months).
Debt 1 is now $3,580.95
Debt 2 is now $15,532.96
Paid off this month: $945.47
Total debt now: $19,113.91
Originally, more was supposed to be paid off the debt with interest and less on the interest-free debt. However, the worker lodging the paperwork mixed it up and despite my best efforts, it is not going to be changed. This means my smaller debt will be cleared quicker if I only pay the minimum on my debts. Obviously, my plan is to pay more.
What kills me here is the interest paid and the monthly account fee. I hate seeing those two expenses every month. They are great motivation to clear it faster though!
I am yet to list things to sell such as clothes, books and some jewelry, I will this coming month.
3.) Save $10,000 by 12/31/17
I haven’t started this one. I will be building a mini savings fund of $1,000 first, then focus solely on paying off my debt.
Networth
This wasn’t included in my original post, but I discussed the importance of knowing your net worth here, so I’ll include my updates each month with my income updates.
Net worth in this post was minus $1,476.56 if I don’t include money owed to me (which I didn’t!)
Assets
Savings: $1.20
Retirement funds: $9,304.37
Collection: $8,249
Car: $2,000
Total: $19,554.57
Debt/liabilities
Personal loan 1: $15,532.96
Personal loan 2: $3,580.95
Total: $19,113.91
Assets ($19,554.57) – Liabilities ($19,583.56) = -$28.99
Current net worth: minus $28.99
So, still in the negatives, huge improvement, though. Part of this was an old employer had to pay into my retirement fund when they did their tax. A collection of things I own went up a little in value, I checked as a couple of items I think I will sell soon. My savings went (not good) and now I’ll be rebuilding them.
I am still owed $4,370 and do not expect to see that money any time soon, I know I will eventually get it though.
So that’s where I am at after tracking all this for one month!
Profit: $2015.05
Expenses: $13.95
Debt: $19,113.91
Net worth: -$28.99
What are you doing to make money from home? Have you done any courses you’d recommend?