Mike Tyson once said “everyone has a plan till they get punched in the face.” The opposite was true for me.

It took a solid punch to the face for me to wake up and realize that I needed a plan. This is the story of how my 14 months of unemployment led me down a path to financial independence and early retirement.

High School Sweethearts

In November 1998 I married the girl I’d dated throughout high school. Three months before we got married I had enrolled in my Sophomore year of college and was living several hours away from her. But after 3 weeks I couldn’t stand the thought of being away for another day, so I withdrew from school and moved back home to be with her.

A few months later we were married.  I was just a week away from turning 22 and she was 20.

Work or School?

After moving back home the plan was to get married and start creating our new life together. I’d gotten a full time-time job as a car salesmen. I’d work during the day and go to school at night. But being a car salesman provided a few challenges:

• The hours were long
• It was 100% commission-based
• The pay was good … if you could sell

Long hours on the car lot interfered with class and study time. I was making more money by selling cars than I could make anywhere else with just my high school diploma and no work experience. So although the commission-based nature of the job made my paychecks very inconsistent, the money was still decent and quitting for a lower-paying job with better hours didn’t seem like the right move.

I’d picked a job that made it very tough for me to go to school.

Choosing Work over School

So I sold cars full time for just over two years instead of going to college.

Eventually I left the car business and took an office job where I was selling merchant accounts over the phone.  The pay wasn’t as great, but at least I had an hourly rate, which made budgeting easier.  Plus, I could still earn commissions, so the potential for more money was always there.

But I wasn’t a great salesman.  So that larger paycheck never really materialized.

One day while sitting at my desk I vividly remember thinking to myself, four years from now I can still be doing this, or I can be a college graduate with more options.

Choosing School over Work

Four years later I was a college graduate with more options.

Shortly after I’d had that epiphany my wife and I took the steps necessary to get me enrolled in college.  She worked one and two jobs at a time to cover the majority of our bills, and I overloaded my class schedule and enrolled in summer semesters to graduate ASAP.

While going to school full time I took on a few part-time jobs and picked up some side hustles here and there, got student loans, and even received a scholarship to help get by.

During this time we had babies #1 and #2, so we were also both sleep deprived the whole time. Being poor and exhausted sucks in every conceivable way.

It took three just over three years to earn that degree, but we finally got it, and in the end were rewarded with our first “real” job that paid a respectable wage.

My salary was $36,000 per year and it felt like we’d hit the lottery after squeaking by financially for so many years.  This newfound wealth was also our first experience with lifestyle creep.

More money lead to a better apartment & newer car.  No savings though.

Climbing the Corporate Ladder

I consider myself to be a reasonably bright guy and a hard worker.  My boss must have thought so too because over the next 3+ years my starting salary grew from $36,000 in 2005 to just over $60,000 in mid-2008.  We were also further in debt than we’d ever been, and still didn’t have a penny saved.

2008

By this time we were rollin’ in two new cars.  And living in a brand new house (bought at the peak of the housing market).  We also had a few grand in credit card debt.

2009

In late-2008 I took a new job with a new company and got a small raise, and a lot of job stability.  I really liked this company and job. My salary was up to about $75,000 per year, which I liked quite a bit as well.  Baby number three was born in 2009.

2010

In 2010 I was recruited away by another company that was offering a 15% raise. Although I enjoyed my current job and company, greed took over and I accepted this new job, along with their raise and I was now earning $84,700 per year, with a 10% bonus and great benefits.  Baby number 4 joined our family this year as well.

In just a few short years my salary had climbed from a then eye-popping $36,000 per year, with no benefits, all the way up to $85,000 plus bonuses, stock options, a 401k, health, dental and vision benefits.

I was 34 years old.  I’d been married to my high school sweetheart for about 11 years. We had four amazing kids.  Life was good!

But the future wasn’t looking so hot. We had exactly $0.00 saved and a total net worth of negative $305,000.  Change was needed.  Quickly.

Changes

About this time my wife and I came up with our ‘Get Out of Debt Plan.’  I knew something needed to change financially and one day while driving home from work I stumbled across the Dave Ramsey radio show.  I’d never heard of this guy before, and on this particular episode Dave was, rather harshly I think, telling some poor sap to sell their freaking cars and swap them for something they could actually afford.

I was amused at the “tough love” this radio guy was dishing out, but at the same time his advice to the caller resonated with me, and a seed was planted. I’d realized that in one fell swoop I could not only eliminate many tens of thousands of dollars in car debt, but we could also free up money each month that could be used for paying off other debts.

The thought of creating a bit of financial breathing room was exciting!

Destroying Our Debt in Two Weekends

I approached my ever-supportive wife with a plan to eliminate all debt, with the exception of our house, ASAP. She was on board and within about two weeks I’d sold both of our new cars and was left with about $6,000 left over from the transactions.

My wife’s new SUV was replaced with a low’ish mileage, 9 year old minivan.  We paid about $5,000 cash for the van and with the remaining $1,000 I bought a then 20 year old car with unknown miles for $700 (it was a 1989 Dodge Ares K car).

The van, while still a used minivan, at least looked nice.  My K car however was butt ugly! I didn’t care though because both cars were paid for and it felt great!  And just like that we’d eliminated a huge amount of debt and freed up a significant amount of money in our monthly budget.

About a month later I was unexpectedly let go from my job and didn’t find another one for 14 very long months.

I refer this this time as our Dark Year.

The Dark Year: 14 Months of Extended Unemployment

The minuscule amount of money we’d managed to start saving was gone almost instantly.  Unemployment benefits were just enough to keep food on the table and lights on in the house, but not much else.  Had we not sold our cars when we did, they almost certainly would have been repossessed by the banks.

We were in serious danger of losing our home, which we’d bought in late 2008 at the peak of the housing market.  We were so far underwater on the home that we couldn’t sell it unless the bank was willing to agree to a short sale.

After a about 4 months my unemployment benefits ran out. Two more times during our Dark Year I would apply for, and receive, an extension of these benefits. But unemployment benefit extensions don’t, and shouldn’t go on forever. Eventually that well ran dry.

In an attempt to get our hands on whatever cash we could, we sold almost everything we owned that had any value at all. My wife and I took a janitorial job cleaning an office building one night per week.  An old high school friend let me work for his demolition company for a few weeks.  Another friend threw a couple of freelance projects my way.  My parents and in-laws put tires on our car and bought groceries for our family more than once.

Thank God for family and friends!

The Unsuccessful Hunt For Employment

During this fourteen month period it was my full-time job to find a full-time job. As days turned into weeks and then months, the pressure to find employment kept increasing.

That mounting pressure began to negatively impact my ability to interview well.  Knowing how desperately I needed a job, I felt the weight of the world each time I’d interview, and I’d choke.  There were times that I could feel interviews slipping way, and it was beyond frustrating.

I walk away from other interviews thinking that I’d just nailed it!  Then I’d hear nothing from that company, and it was depressing.

Extended unemployment was affecting every aspect of my life.  As a husband and provider this was a soul-crushing, humiliating, confidence-destroying time which mercifully came to an end when I *finally* received a job offer in November 2011.

A Light At The End of the Tunnel

A couple of times during my extended unemployment I’d flown out of state to interview with potential employers. In October 2011 I’d been flown to Seattle for interviews with a well-known company.  It had been a grueling two and a half day interview process, that I didn’t think had gone particularly well.

When it was all over I was at the airport, boarding my return flight home when the job recruiter called me. I’d just left their campus a couple of hours ago. “If they’re calling this soon, it isn’t with good news,” I remember thinking to myself.

I answered un-enthusiastically, anticipating the bad news, “Hello, this is Ty.”

“They LOVED you and want to offer you a position!” the recruiter excitedly responded.  My eyes immediately welled up with tears and the lump in my throat was painful.

I couldn’t believe it! I was sure I’d bombed the interviews. Could this really be happening? I hung up the phone and immediately called my wife to tell her the news. Our Dark Year was coming to an end.

Surviving Extended Unemployment

This new job would take us to another state over 1,000 miles away from home, away from our family, friends, and all that was familiar to us. But there was not a chance in hell I was going to turn it down. I’d tried unsuccessfully for a year to find work in our home state, but had no luck.

Righting our ship required us to take some drastic moves, which after being unemployed for so long we were happy to make. But even though we had this job offer in hand, actually moving to a new state and coming up with enough cash to cover first and last months rent (plus a deposit), plus moving expenses wasn’t something I could do on my own.

My final slice of humble pie came when I had to ask my dad and brother for money to help pay for a moving truck and cover our rent.

Those were some extremely tough times.  I’m glad they’re in our rear view mirror.

Present Day

Fast forward just over seven years and I’m still working for that same company.  A few weeks ago I turned 42 years old and a just a few weeks before that I celebrated my 20^th wedding anniversary with my high school sweetheart.

Our four kids now range in age from 18 to 9 (boy, girl, boy, boy).  My wife stays home to take care of our kiddos. I’m the only source of income for our family.  We live in the Seattle area, which is the 8th most expensive city in America to live in, and we’re thriving on a single income.

But it hasn’t always been this way.  Only recently, at the ripe old age of 35, did I finally get serious about finances and retirement, oddly enough because of a link I found while browsing a college football message board. That day two guys were having an online argument about whether or not Costco was worth the cost of a membership (it must have been the off season).

Discovering FIRE

Early in my Dark Year I found this link to a blog post where a guy that called himself Mr. Money Mustache had done a Costco vs. Safeway comparison. I read through the Costco post. Then read another post. Then I stumbled upon an article that literally changed the course of my financial life titled The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement.

Right there before me, laid out in shockingly simple math, was a path to financial independence. For a guy that was pretty much just going along with the ebbs and flows of life, this was like a lighthouse calling me in.  Who knows how or why these things happen, but that blog post resonated with me.

It didn’t matter that I was flat broke, unemployed, had no job prospects and was in danger of losing my house. I couldn’t stop thinking about this concept. I was curious about my own situation and what it would take to retire early, and without even knowing that it had happened, I was officially all-in on the FIRE movement.

Prior to that point in my life I was like a lot of people that know they should be saving, maybe they even do save a little bit, but they don’t know what to do with that savings.  Or how much to save, or what else they could and should be doing.

So we end up just plodding along through life knocking out one day at a time and before you know it you’re approaching retirement age and hope like hell you’ve got enough saved and that Social Security covers the rest.

How Unemployment Led me to Financial Independence

It took a solid punch to the face for me to get serious about money.  It wasn’t until I lost my paycheck that I realized just how dependent upon it I truly was.

During this time I also came to understand that the best thing money can buy is freedom.  And financial freedom really doesn’t cost that much.

When I started my new job I vowed that I’d never put my family in a situation like that ever again. It’s been just over seven years since I accepted that job and now we’re just a few years away from financial independence.

Finishing Strong

Today life not only feels good – it is good!  We’re not there yet, but we’ve got a plan to Get Rich Quick’ish, reach financial independence and retire early.  Rather than buying stuff (i.e. garbage) with our money today, we’re investing it so that we can buy our financial freedom tomorrow.

The plan is to retire early at 49. When all is said and done we’ll have gone from broken and unemployed to financially independent in 13 years.

Chime in!

Thanks for reading. Got something to say?  Say it in the comment section below.

The post How 14 Months of Unemployment Lead to Financial Independence appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

Just a few short years ago I began taking on more responsibility at work, which lead to me bringing home bigger paychecks and enjoying cushy employee perks.  That extra income and those perks got us to a point where we *finally* had a bit of financial breathing room.  We took full advantage and began to get our financial act together.

Life was awesome! But the financial progress we were making came to a grinding halt the day I lost my job.

The Importance of Diversifying Your Income

During my exit interview I was fed the line “you’ll be an asset to any future employer.” But a full year after getting fired I was still unemployed and struggling to pay bills. The pressure was mounting, life was getting harder by the day, and something needed to give.  All because I didn’t have that paycheck coming in.

My only source of income disappeared when I lost my job and I was screwed.

I wondered how different life would be if I’d started the small business I’d always talked about or maybe bought my first rental property before losing my job?  I’d have given anything to have another source of income during these desperate times.

The “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” advice made sense for investing because a diverse portfolio helps smooth out turbulent times in the stock market. But I hadn’t really heard talk about the need to diversify my income.

Having multiple streams of income would definitely have softened the blow of losing my job.

Why Multiple Income Streams Matter

If your full-time job is your only source of income, you’re flirting with financial disaster. If you don’t know someone personally, you’ve probably heard stories of people losing their jobs with no warning at all. Unless you’re out of debt and you’ve stashed a big chunk of money in an emergency fund, having different types of income streams provides not only some cash each month – but it may buy you more time to find a new job.

If you’re still hard at work at your 9-5, diversifying your income means additional money comes in each month because you’re earning money from multiple sources. And the more money you have coming in, the more money you can put to work. The most efficient way to reach financial independence is to have your money making you more money!

Different Types of Income

Before we talk about great ways to put your money to work, let’s review the two main types of income.

Earned Income

Earning an income implies you are actively doing something to receive that income. The most common type of earned income comes from working a full-time or part-time job. Each day you go to work, you’re trading your time and energy for money. And many people have a love-hate relationship with earned income; they hate their job but love payday!

Your full-time job is your biggest and most important source of earned income. As you consider different types of income streams, don’t neglect your full-time job in pursuit of side hustles or passive income opportunities. Remember, your full-time hustle is your most important hustle!

In the pursuit of financial independence, walking past dollars to pick up spare change rarely make sense.

The pros of earned income?

• Even though it takes your time, it’s an easy way to make money. You also don’t need money to generate more earned income, you just need time.

The downsides of earned income?

• The biggest downside is giving up control of your time. And when you stop trading your time, you stop making money.
• Your earned income is also typically taxed at the highest rate possible.

Passive Income

Generating passive income is much more hands-off because it requires little to no effort on your part to keep making more money. And who wouldn’t want that? Having your money making you more money is the holy grail!

Investment income is the most common and easiest type of passive income to generate. Once you buy dividend-paying stocks, high-yield bonds, or deposit money into high-interest savings accounts, your money starts making more money without any more help from you.

The pros of passive income?

• You make money 24/7 – while you’re sleeping, on vacation, or when you’re at your full-time job or side hustle. No matter what you are doing, your money continues to make more money. And the passive income you make is taxed at a lower rate than the money you earn by going to work.

The downsides of passive income?

• It takes money to make money. And if you don’t have a lot of capital to invest, it takes a long time to build a substantial amount of passive income.

There are plenty of click-bait headlines and misleading articles adding to misconceptions about passive income. Remember, to truly be passive it requires little to no effort to maintain the income stream.

Blogging and podcasting are NOT examples of ways to make passive income. Driving for Uber and being an Instacart shopper doesn’t create passive income either. If you are a real estate investor who leaves all the work to a property manager, your profits qualify as passive income. But any landlord will tell you that while there are days where your profits feel passive, dealing with tenant and property problems is definitely work.

Different Types of Passive Income

There are many ways to improve your financial situation and diversify your income streams through passive income. Below are a few different ways to get started.

Interest Income

Interest income is generated when your cash is out there earning you money.  Most people earn a little bit of interest income from their checking and savings accounts.  Here are a few ways I’m earning interest income, and some other options for you as well.

Checking and Savings

• T-Mobile Money’s tagline is “Not Another Bank. A Better One.” Everyone is eligible to sign up for T-Mobile Money regardless of their cell service provider, but T-Mobile customers get a whopping 4% on their first $3,000 and 1% on everything else. Non-T-Mobile customers get a flat 1% interest on deposits.  As a T-Mobile customer myself, I’ve been using this service for a couple of months now and have been pleased with the experience and love the 4% interest I’m earning on my emergency fund stash.

• Marcus (by Goldman Sachs) offers an online savings account currently paying 2.25% Annual Percentage Yield.

• Beam is an online bank account that pays 2% interest but allows you to earn up to 4% through gamification.  You can read my in-depth review of Beam right here.

• CapitalONE 360 offers a savings account paying 1% with no games or balance limitations.  This is where my family has done our primary banking for years.  We’ve been very pleased and I can recommend CapitalONE without hesitation.  Use this link to create your account and get up to $100 in bonus incentives.

• Depending on the amount of money you have to invest and your timeline to keep it invested, Certificates of Deposit (CD’s) are becoming popular again. Ally currently offers 2.75% interest for a CD with a 1-year term and no minimum investment.

• Stashing some funds in a money market account is another way to earn interest. Money markets are interest-bearing accounts usually paying more than traditional savings accounts. For a $100 minimum deposit, you can open a money market account at CIT bank and earn 1.85% APY. Higher opening deposits can earn you a higher rate at other online banks such as Capital One or Ally.

Lending

• If you have a paid for property you plan to sell, you might hold the mortgage and act as the bank for a new buyer. You’ll typically get paid a down payment and then principal and interest payments for a period of time before a large “balloon payment” is made to pay off the property. I’ve not done this myself, but it’s a good option for some if you’re looking to generate some passive interest income.

• Peer-to-peer lending may come with higher risk but you’ll be rewarded with higher interest rates too. An initial deposit of $1,000 sets you up to invest on LendingClub’s platform. Depending on the loan grade, interest rates on loans varies from almost 6.5% to just over 27%.  Tempting, but a bit too much risk for me personally.

Dividend Stocks

When you own dividend stocks, you get paid a portion of the company’s earnings for each share you own. You can earn dividends when you purchase individual stocks paying dividends or through a dividend mutual fund.

Want an even simpler option? Buy index funds!

Real Estate

Rentals are one of the most popular and stable ways out there to earn income, but remember it might not be a passive income stream! Renting out a room or your whole house on Airbnb falls into that same category. It’s not really passive income if you are spending time booking guests, meeting with them, and cleaning up after they leave. If you hire the work out, it becomes a much more passive form of income.

You might consider investing in real estate investment trusts (REIT’s) too. They give you many of the benefits of investing in real estate without the hassle of owning physical property.

Capital Gains

If you sell an appreciating asset like your home or stocks that are worth more than when you bought them, you might consider your profit to be passive income. Just keep in mind the IRS has its own definition of passive activity when it comes to paying taxes.

Profit From Product Creation

Writing blog posts or a book, recording a song, developing an app, taking photos, or creating an e-commerce store are all active ventures. But after you put in the initial work, when people pay for the use of your property or buy your product – it becomes a form of mostly passive income.

Adding display advertising, getting paid per download, or using affiliate marketing probably take more work than buying a CD or dividend stock – but they’re meeting your goal of different types of income streams too.

Camp FIRE Finance has started to dabble in this by selling some FIRE merchandise on Amazon.

Bank Bonus Hacking

Sticking to one bank is a thing of the past! Opening bank accounts for the bonuses they pay out is another passive income opportunity. While many require a direct deposit, a minimum balance, and leaving the money in the account for a certain time period – you and your money may be able to make hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars each year from opening new bank accounts.

Credit Card Hacking

We’re not talking about hacks that lead to fraud – but those putting money in your pocket for little to no work! There are plenty of ways to “hack” credit cards and earn passive income through sign-up bonuses, cash back, and other rewards.

Some cards offer bonuses of up to $500 cash back after meeting a minimum spending requirement. Others offer 6% cash back on grocery purchases or 5% on rotating categories throughout the year. You have to pay off your monthly balance each month or credit card hacking can cost you money, rather than making it!

In the past year alone I’ve used credit card travel hacking to take my family of six to Hawaii for a week, and my wife and I spent two weeks in the Mediterranean, visiting places like Athens, Santorini, and Rome.

For the European trip, we used rewards from our American Express Hilton Honors (150,000 bonus points) and Delta SkyMiles (40,000 bonus miles + statement credit) cards to cover airfare and hotels.

Putting Passive Income To Work For You

You probably see the importance of diversifying your income streams now, in addition to your investment portfolio. Don’t neglect your full-time job because it is such an important income source, but embrace the saying “expect the unexpected” too.

Adding different types of passive income is incredibly important in your goal of reaching financial independence.

The post Diversify Your Income with These 7 Types of Passive Income appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

A short and sweet post today about something that I’ve been thinking about recently. Is your side hustle holding you back financially?

I had visions of grandeur when I started my first blog in late 2015. At the time I’d been bitten hard by the early retirement bug and I wanted a way to share what I’d discovered. But these days I’m wondering if I’m not biting the hand that feeds me?  I can’t help but wonder whether or not I’d be better off financially had I not stared this blog in the first place.

Is Your Side Hustle Holding You Back?

I spend around 20 hours per week on this site, give or take a few hours.  That includes time spent writing new posts, editing old ones, reading and choosing blog posts to feature, responding to email, looking for images, improving SEO, testing new layouts, engaging on Twitter, and about about a dozen other tasks.  Rather than sitting down and working on this site for a dedicated amount of time each day, I pop in and out all day, every day, as time permits.

Sometimes I work early in the morning, sometimes late at night.  I’ve been known to work while I’m riding the bus to work. I wrote this sentence that your reading right now during my lunch break on a Friday afternoon.

I do what I can, when I can and I’m not complaining – I don’t like rigid schedules so the fluidity that blogging as a side hustle offers suits me just fine.

In It For The Money

Making a bit of money was one of my reasons for blogging for starting my very first blog.  Camp FIRE Finance made a few hundred buck for me during its first year, but I sunk five times that amount into the blog.

In the long run I’m certain that I can make my money back, but in the back of my mind I’ve got this nagging thought that I can’t seem to get rid of, and that’s this:

how much better off would I be (financially speaking) if I’d spent my extra time focused on my full time job instead of my “side hustle?“

Biting The Hand That Feeds You?

If I were spending an extra 20 hours per week at my full time job, and if I’d been spending that amount of time on my job over these past few years, I can almost guarantee you that I’d have received a promotion at work along with a nice bump in salary that would make the money I’m making from this blog look like a rounding error.

• Was it a mistake to start this blog?
• Do I quit while I’m ahead (i.e. still employed) and rededicate myself to my full time job?
• Should I keep on grinding away on this site knowing that slow and steady progress is happening?
• Do I double down and spend even more time on this site to accelerate this progress I’m seeing?

I have no good reason to dislike my job, but sometimes I despise it.  It stems from my ‘don’t tell me what to do‘ attitude, but I resent that I’m still so dependent upon that paycheck and that my time isn’t my own.

That feeling of resentment towards my full time job is one reason that keeps me grinding away as I navigate the layers of financial independence.  Also, the feeling I get when someone comments on one of my posts, or shares my site on Facebook or Twitter is something that I just don’t get from my 9 to 5.

The monthly affiliate check I get from blogging is ~1% of what I make at work.

But it’s 100 times more satisfying.

— Ty Roberts (@TyRoberts) June 9, 2018

Why I’m Sticking With It

It’s kind of ridiculous I know, but the sincere interaction I get makes me feel really good.  It’s addicting.  I crave it and that’s another thing that keeps me going, even though I’m pretty sure that I could reach financial freedom much sooner if I just focused on my full time job instead.

Another reason that I’m not ready to throw in the towel is that I really (really) want to turn this site into something that is useful for you (the reader) and also generates a few bucks for me.   It’s not a greed factor (it kind of is a greed factor) it’s a safety net factor.   I’m trying to generate multiple income streams and I know that this blog has potential to become just that.

Landing on hard times hurts like hell if you don’t have a safety net.  – me

Spending more time on my full time job will eventually lead to a significant pay raise. A pay raise would lead to me reaching financial freedom sooner, but would also put all my eggs in one basket. Should I ever lose my job, I’d have nothing else.  Maybe having a big, fat emergency fund would ease my pain? But emergency money disappears very quickly when you’re not replacing what you spend.

Chime In!

Do you think your side hustle is hurting your full time job?  Would you be better off financially if you spent more time on your full time job?

The post Is Your Side Hustle Holding You Back Financially? appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

Penny wise and pound foolish examples are everywhere.  The term comes from an old English proverb that is sometimes used in the United States & Canada as well.   Penny and pound refer to English money.  If you’re penny wise and pound foolish then you make decisions that appear to be financially beneficial, but actually cost you more money in the long run. 

If they pay a penie or two pence more for the reddinesse of them .. let them looke to that, a foole and his money is soone parted. – ye olde English proverb

If you’re on a personal finance journey right now then you most likely know all about the ‘big stuff’ – spending less than you earn, investing, avoiding debt, not paying for coffee at Starbucks. 🙂

But after you’ve picked all the “low hanging fruit” from your budget then your next steps are to look for other ways to be efficient in your life.  This is where penny wise & pound foolish can come into play, because you might actually think you’re making the right move, when in fact you’re putting roadblocks on your own path.  That’s no good.

Penny Wise and Pound Foolish Examples

Here are a few examples of being penny wise and pound foolish from the major areas in our budgets.  Take a look and let me know what you think, and if you’ve got any examples of your own then please do leave them in the comments.

HOME

• You don’t have renters insurance because you’re being frugal, but your place gets flooded and your furniture, clothing, electronics, etc. are all ruined.  Spend the $10-$15 per month on insurance now and save yourself thousands and thousands of dollars later.
• You go with the cheapest contractor you can find to replace the roof on your house and save a few bucks up front, only to find out later that you get what you pay for.  Your shingles were installed incorrectly, you’ve got a leak in your roof which is going to cost you far more money than you “saved” up front.

• You’re sick, but avoid going to see your doctor because you don’t want to make that co-payment.  Besides, you’ll be fine, right?  36 hours later you’re in the (very expensive) ER after your appendix burst.

• You eat inexpensive, fast food because you think it’s cheaper and more efficient than buying and preparing fresh meals at home.  After a while your heath suffers and you end up paying for doctor visits, expensive prescriptions, etc.
• You eat for $5.00 per day by dumpster diving, but end up paying far more in medical bills due to whatever virus you’ve caught by eating out of a dumpster.

When frugality goes too far https://t.co/mTdVP588af

— Ty Roberts (@GetRichQuickish) January 17, 2018

• You skip oil changes and regular maintenance on your car to save a few bucks, but end up paying for costly repairs down the road.
• Driving miles out of your way and waiting in line of idling cars at your local Costco to save $0.10 per gallon on gasoline.  The amount you save isn’t worth the time, effort, and wear & tear on your vehicle.
• You’re driving through Ireland with a buddy when suddenly the spare tire you are driving on blows out …. check out the rest of this story in this awesome example from Retire Before Dad

• You don’t save for retirement today because you can’t afford to.  But you’re not getting any younger and are unprepared when retirement age rolls finally around, so you have to continue trading your precious time in exchange for a meaningless paycheck.
• Doing your own taxes rather than paying for a professional.  You might save a couple hundred bucks up front, but cost yourself thousands down the road in penalties or unclaimed tax benefits.

WORK

• You’re dependent upon a paycheck, but don’t give your all at work. Why? Because you’ve become distracted with your ‘side hustle,’ which isn’t earning your much money yet.  As a result of your lack of focus you fail to get a promotion, or you get a smaller bonus, or worse – you lose your job.
• You take advantage of your employer (take home office supplies, are too liberal with discounts) and end up getting fired.  Nice work saving a few bucks – it just cost you a fortune in lost income.

• You’ve been married for nearly 20 years and fail to continue dating your wife on a regular basis. Why? Because dinner and a movie and a babysitter for 4 kids is bloody expensive? A babysitter isn’t nearly as expensive as a divorce! Yikes. Nothing is more important that your relationships – don’t skimp in this area!*

* While some of you that know me might think I’m describing my own situation here, that’s not the case.  My wife and I go on a date every Friday or Saturday.  Best money I spend all week, without a doubt!

Chime In

So that’s what I’ve got off the off the top of my head.  Any of these ring true?  Have you ever done anything to save (or make) money which ended up costing you more in the long run? Leave a comment below.

The post Are You Penny Wise and Pound Foolish? appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

Just two short years ago I was spinning my tires as a mediocre automobile salesperson near my hometown in Canada. I was days away from putting an offer in on some real estate that was sure to make me house poor. Life was steady, puttering away at a normal pace of retiring in my golden years.

Then the perfect storm occurred to shake my life up in a way I would have never imagined.

A Twist of Fate

First, while slacking off at my desk in the new car showroom I came across a blog that literally rocked my world. Garth Turners’ GreaterFool.ca.  Real estate isn’t always the golden ticket to freedom and wealth?  Something called an ETF can put you miles ahead of heavily billed mutual funds?

I was hooked. I read articles dating years back (and Garth posts every day!). From there I found the blog of a young couple he had been advising who retired in their 30’s to travel the world living off their investment accounts – you may know them as Millennial Revolution.

Within a few days I had called my real estate agent and an adviser who was helping me at the time to cancel the plan for the house bid. I withdrew all the money that I had been investing over the past few years from a mutual fund and opened an account with an online brokerage. I bought way to many ETFs, and got taken for trade fees, but I was on the right track. Right?

While this was happening, things began taking a turn for worse at my dealership. There was new management in place that I didn’t vibe with. My motivation had died out and a breakup was on the horizon.

Let’s take a moment to quickly review the scenario:

• I’ve abandoned real estate for the time being
• Become obsessed with growing an investment account
• Discovered Financial Independence & Early Retirement
• Am about to go through a job change

The straw that broke the camel’s back

Around this same time I had been contacted by a friend from university whom I also worked with together at our first big kid job selling commercial printers. He was in South Korea teaching English. Now teaching English is something I briefly looked at years ago in Thailand, but I completely wrote it off after finding out they paid about $1,000 CAD per month. Sure Thailand is cheap, but that is pennies. No thanks.

Well it turns out in South Korea they pay quite a bit more and the cost of living isn’t too much higher than Thailand. In Korea everything is paid for; flights, accommodations, pension plans and bonuses. I started running some numbers and calculated that I could probably save $20,000 over the year if I lived like a monk.

I’ve always wanted to travel the world, but never had the right opportunity to pull the trigger it seemed. Or I always came up with excuses to hold me back. Well at this point, I had literally nothing holding me back.

I was about to be jobless, I was looking for a house because I had to leave my previously living situation because my friend was getting serious with his girlfriend.

I was about to be an unemployed 25 year old living at home with my parents.

Teaching English in Asia

Two months later I was on a plane across the world to Asia.

I spent a year in South Korea. It was amazing. Not only was I now was I putting away more money than I ever had before, I was living abroad. The growth and life experience that comes along with that is worth more than any monetary investment.

Over the months I found lifestyle inflation creeping up on me. I booked a few trips and also had some unexpected surprises that affected my savings; breaking my ankle and needing surgery. I actually had to pay for surgery. As a Canadian, that was appalling. That statement probably appalls my American counterparts.

While I was sitting in my apartment broken and immobilized. I came across teaching English online. I was now able to supercharge my savings and live even better. I started working part time online teaching English in the evenings and weekends for the second part of my year in Korea.

How much money can you save teaching in South Korea?

In the end, I finished the year saving a little more than the planned $20,000. I felt on top of the world at the end of my term in Korea. Early retirement and financial freedom was looking like real option now!

Teaching in South Korea was more work and a little less exciting than I imagined, and I planned to never teach again after that year.

Well, the year was late 2017 and I was now an unemployed 26 year old about to be living in my parents basement again. The instant money making potential and travel bug was nipping at my ankles again. I started looking into teaching in China.

Pretty much as soon as I arrived in Korea, I began reading accounts of teaching in China being miles better than South Korea. Short hours, better pay, longer vacations and much more side work opportunity to teach private lessons.

I figured I would give it a shot. Hey, I’ve never been to China.

Asia my old friend, hello again

A few months later I was on another plane back over to Asia. I made a quick 6 week stop in South East Asia along the way this time. Sidenote; teaching in Vietnam looks incredibly lucrative as well.

I will admit, my plan was only to stay half my contracted term and dip back to Canada to go back to school for finance or accounting. Today I am just a few months in to my China adventure and my mind has completely changed.

First, I actually enjoy teaching here. I am at a public school, the kids and my colleagues are amazing. It is much more relaxed than in Korea. I have 2 months of semi-paid vacation, a free 18th floor apartment with a gigantic balcony and am making the same amount of money a month as in Korea but working literally half the amount.

I teach for 12 hours a week. I’m at the school 8:00am-5:30pm though. But I work on my blog and do other side projects while I’m not teaching. Or take advantage of the school gym and keep on top of my fitness.

That’s great, but what really has me sold here, is the earning potential through extra side work. Korea was strict about foreign teachers not doing side private classes. If your neighbors had a kid and they had you teach the child a few times a week you could be deported.

In China they welcome it. So teachers are constantly blasted with opportunities of making $30-60 dollars per hour teaching side classes. I’ve taught a few lessons where I was paid nearly $200 dollars for 1.5 hours to a group of students. It’s insane. And then there is the online teaching, from the comfort of your own home.

How much money can you make teaching English in China?

They say you should make hay while the sun shines. So I’m breaking my back getting after it. Currently I work 8:00am-5:30pm Monday through Friday. In the evenings I teach online or privately from 7:00pm-10:00pm all five week days. On weekends I am teaching online or privately 5-8 hours a day. There seems to be one 3 day national holiday each month, so I don’t work those days.

Many teachers here don’t do nearly the amount of work that I am doing, and they think I’m crazy for it. But by the numbers I’ve ran, I will be able to SAVE between $40,000 to $50,000 per year doing this. This is after all expenses such as food, small travel, occasional entertainment and going out. This is also budgeted to be made over 10-11 months.

If you’ll remember, I have nearly 2 months of semi-paid vacation which I WILL be using to travel.  Even if I end up working a little online or privately while traveling I still get the best of both worlds: money and travel.

I am on track to reach the 7 figure club within 10-12 years if I keep this pace up. Which allows me to retire years before my 40th birthday.

Looking into the future.

Whether I will keep this pace, or even stay in this industry and position remains to be seen. Working 12 hours a day/7 days a week may not be sustainable for 10-12 years. But that doesn’t take into account raises and additional streams of income.

I never imagined I would be teaching English in Asia, even less did I think I might be able to retire early and become financially free while traveling the world. The days are long and children who speak a different language than you are straining on good days. But the thoughts of doubling my net worth this year, the flights I currently have booked to Canada, the Philippines and various places around China, make it all worth it.

If you’re interested in learning more about teaching abroad or online contact Charles and he’d be happy to help you get started.

The post Teaching English in Asia to Reach Financial Independence appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

So you’re thinking that you’d like to give blogging a shot.  Good for you!  Blogging as a side hustle can be a great way to make some extra cash, but you should know that most bloggers don’t make a significant amount of money from their site.  In fact, if you’re not careful, your blog could end up costing you money.

It is 100% possible to make money (good money) from a blog, but before I tell you how I make money blogging as a side hustle, I’m going to try and talk you out of starting a blog in the first place (assuming your goal is to make money).

BLOGGING AS A SIDE HUSTLE IS HARD WORK

You’re here because you’re interested in blogging as a side hustle.  I’ll tell you how I make money blogging, but before I do I’m going to be brutally honest with you: blogging as a side hustle is hard work.

I won’t beleaguer this point, but before you get started you should know that:

• Writing a blog post isn’t the end of your work – that’s when the work really begins
• The behind the scenes running of blog is challenging, time consuming, and un-glamorous
• Getting readers takes time; be prepared to write for weeks (or months) before anyone shows up
• When readers do show up in numbers, prepare to be criticized (I don’t care what anyone says, getting criticized hurts so you’ll need to get some thick skin)
• If you’re in it to make money, it will take months (probably years) before you make a significant amount of cash
• A blog is like a baby – it needs constant attention to grow.  Neglect it and all of your hard work goes down the drain

Most importantly, if you’re in this to make money, you need to know that it takes time before the money starts to trickle in.  And even longer before it flows in.  But most likely, the money will never come in at all.

The key to earning money from a blog is getting a large readership.  Most bloggers get frustrated with the slow progress and give up before that ever happens.

SUCCESS CAN TAKE YEARS

Most bloggers that make HUGE money from their sites are NOT blogging as a side hustle.

Blogging has become their full-time job. It can be an amazing full-time job with fantastic perks but make no mistake about it, these are full-time bloggers.  It’s important for you to keep this in mind as you decide if blogging as a side hustle is right for you.

If you’re looking for a quick way to make some extra money, blogging is NOT the answer.  A part-time job will be far more lucrative for you. But if you’re interested in building something that can benefit you down the road, then maybe blogging as a side hustle is exactly what you’re looking for.  Maybe you’ve got what it takes to build something great!

SETTING UP A BLOG IS EASY

Blogging is hard.  Hopefully I’ve made that clear.  If, after reading this far, you’re still interested in giving blogging a try, let me give you a bit of good news: setting up a blog is easy.

I’ve outlined the steps below, but if you know what you’re doing, you could have a blog up and running in less than 10 minutes.

RUNNING A BLOG IS HARD

Don’t confuse “creating a blog” with “running a blog.” These two are very different things.

Creating a blog is a one-time event that takes a few minutes to a few hours, whereas running a blog is a daily chore.  Some (not even close to all) of the work that goes into running a blog includes:

• Writing new content
• Formatting and editing your content
• Finding images that work for your article
• Optimizing your post for search engine optimization
• Sharing your post on social media
• Responding to comments on your post
• Engaging with readers on social media
• Addressing site errors
• Updating WordPress plugins and themes
• Refreshing your site when it gets old and needs and update

Still Want To Try Blogging As A Side Hustle?

Good news.  If you’re still interested in building your own blog, the the first step is neither complicated or time consuming.  In fact, if you follow these five steps you can create a WordPress blog in less than an hour.  Here’s how you do it:

HOW TO CREATE A WORD PRESS BLOG IN 5 STEPS

1. Pick a host & register an account with them (10-20 minutes)
2. Choose and purchase a domain name (10-20 minutes)
3. Install WordPress through your host (10-20 minutes)
4. Start blogging
5. Give it time

Follow these five steps and you’ll have your blog up and running in 30 to 60 minutes.  Here’s a bit more information on each step in the process.

1. WHAT IS A HOST?

In order for your blog to be live and accessible by others on the Internet, it needs to be ‘hosted.’ The good news is that hosting isn’t expensive and there is no shortage of hosting providers available to you, but there is a shortage of good ones.

Picking a host is your very first baby step into the world of blogging, and you don’t want to get off on the wrong foot by picking a bad host to partner with, so be careful.

I use SiteGround to host both of my websites because they load my fast, they protect my sites from cyber attacks, and on the rare occasions when I need customer support, they never fail to exceed my expectations (ever!).

I recommend SiteGround without hesitation for you as well.  Specifically, I recommend you select SiteGround’s StartUp hosting package for $3.95 per month.  This is the perfect plan for someone that is just launching a blog.

$3.95 is a promotion price with a HUGE 60% discount, so I also recommend that you prepay for three years up front (that’s the longest time period that you can buy in advance).  Prepaying will lock in the promo price and 60% discount for the maximum amount of time.

2. WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME?

A domain name is what you type into your browser in order to reach a website, e.g. www.campfirefinance.com.  One of the benefits of getting your hosting from SiteGround is that you’ll be able to register a domain name at no additional cost.  Normally domain names are about $15 per year if you buy it from a company like GoDaddy.

Pointing your domain name servers at your blog host is a required step that takes some technical configuration, but (thankfully) when when you register your domain name directly through the SiteGround, the technical steps are taken care of of you.  This means that your blog is displayed whenever anyone types your domain name into a browser.  Here’s how to do this through SiteGround:

Picking a Domain Name

When choosing your domain name, keep a few things in mind:

• Keep it short and memorable (nobody wants to type out a loooong URL)
• It should be easy to spell (have you ever visited chrysanthemum.com?  Didn’t think so)
• It should be related to the topic that you’re blogging about

3. HOW TO INSTALL WORD PRESS

After you’ve signed up with SiteGround (or another host) and secured your domain name, it’s now time to install WordPress to your site – and it’s free!

WordPress is the tool you’ll use to create blog posts, add images to your website, etc.  Without a tool like WordPress, you’d need to write all of your own code by hand.  Uhhh, no thanks.

Installation is quick and easy.

SiteGround offers a ‘one click installation’ process. Here’s how it looks:

1. Login to your SiteGround account
2. Click on the ‘My Accounts’ tab
3. Click on ‘Go to cPanel’ button under the My Accounts tab
4. Click on the WordPress icon under the ‘AutoInstallers’ section
5. Click ‘Install’
6. Follow the installation process (this is where you’ll create a username and password for WordPress.  If you registered your domain name through SiteGround, all of the technical configuration will be taken care of automatically)

4. HOW TO START BLOGGING

Once you’ve got your host, registered a domain name, and installed WordPress to your site, all that’s left to do is start blogging!  There’s no magic formula for creating a successful blog, but allow me to offer up some advice:

• Make sure that you like to write.  Blogging = writing.  If you don’t like to write, you won’t like to blog.
• If you’re not a good writer, don’t worry about it.  Like any skill, you’ll get better with with practice.
• Pick a topic that you’re passionate about and write about that.  If you HATE personal finance and budgets, then don’t write about personal finance and budgets!
• Write consistently. Pick a schedule, and post something new on those days.  For example, many personal finance bloggers post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• Give it time!  It’s going to take a bit of time to build up your audience – don’t quit before you’ve given your blog a good chance to build some momentum.
• Pace yourself.  So many new bloggers hit the ground sprinting, then burn out a few months later.  Don’t do that!  It takes to time get into your groove, to build your audience.  This is a marathon, not a sprint.

5. GIVE YOUR BLOG TIME

Eventually your blog could become a money making machine, but only if you’re willing to take the time to start one today.

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

Blogging is fun. It’s frustrating, time consuming, gratifying, it’s a great experience!

Set a goal to start a blog today.  Visit SiteGround and create an account, choose a domain name, install WordPress, then start blogging!

How To Make Money Blogging As A Side Hustle

If your goal is to earn money from your blog then you’ll first need to generate traffic to your website.  Traffic generation is where many bloggers get frustrated and throw in the towel.  It’s not uncommon for bloggers to write for MONTHS before they’ll get that first blog comment.

That can be disheartening, but don’t give up! If you write consistently eventually new readers will show up.  And when the traffic finally does show up, you’ll be able to monetize it.  But before we get too far ahead of ourselves here, let’s focus on growing your readership.

How To Get Blog Traffic

There are only so many ways to get readers to find your blog:

1. You can pay for it
2. You can earn it
3. It can find you

Paying For Blog Traffic

Paying for traffic is exactly what it sounds like. It’s advertising. If you’re serious about building your blog into a revenue generating website, then advertising is something that you’ll want to consider.

Some things you can do to advertise your blog and buy traffic (by the way, I’ve done every single one of these things to advertise Camp FIRE Finance):

• Promote a Tweet on Twitter
• Boost a post on Facebook or run a Facebook ad
• Bid for key words in Google so that your site shows up in someone’s search
• Pay for advertising space on other blogs
• Run a giveaway

Advertising doesn’t need to be expensive.  You can run a Facebook ad for just a few dollars. Same with promoting a Tweet.  The cost of bidding on key words depends on the popularity of the words, and the cost of buying advertising space on other websites depends on how much traffic that website gets.  I gave away $200 worth of cyrptocurrency during the first week of this site’s existence.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what works for you.

Earning Blog Traffic

Earning blog traffic can take a long time before you start to see results, but it won’t cost you a cent.  The way you “earn” traffic is by engaging.

• Leave thoughtful comments on other blogs
• Create a Twitter account and engage in conversations
• Join Facebook groups and be an active member
• Guest post on blogs that are bigger than yours

Being an engaged member of the community you’re trying to blog in will go a long to not only helping new people discover your blog, but it’s also a great way to network and make new friends (if your goal is to become a personal finance blogger you’ll be amazed at how welcoming the community is of new members).

One other tip: many bloggers are anonymous, but using your real name opens up new opportunities.  Telling your family, friends and co-workers about your site is a great way to get early readers.  And those that know you best will become some of your most active supporters and will eagerly share your content on their social media channels.

Organic Blog Traffic

The last way to get traffic is organically.  When someone types a search into Google and your site shows up, that’s organic traffic. This is done through search engine optimization, or SEO.

SEO is a complex subject that changes regularly, but it’s also the holy grail of internet traffic because a good ranking for popular keywords has the potential to drive MASSIVE amounts of readers your way.

When you set your blog up with WordPress, one thing you’ll discover are Plugins.  Think of a plugin as an accessory to your website.  One plugin that you’ll want to install is called Yoast; this will help you create SEO optimized blog posts and pages.

Connect With Your Readers

However people find your blog, make sure you’re giving them multiple ways to stay connected with you.  Make it easy for your readers to like your social media pages and to join your email list.

Think of your blog as the center of a wagon wheel.  All of your marketing and advertising should lead people back to your blog.  When you’ve connected with your readers in channels other than your site, you’ll have a way to letting them know whenever you’ve published new content, have launched a new product, or are running your next giveaway.

Taking time to build and cultivate these channels will make it easier for your readers to learn about new content whenever you hit publish.

Content is King

Of course none of this matters one bit if your content isn’t very good.  Take time to make sure your writing provides value to someone.  It doesn’t need to be written perfectly. Readers will overlook less than perfect writing if what they’re reading makes sense and provides value.

Your writing skills will improve with each post that you publish, but make sure that your message is clear.  If it is, people will share you blog, they’ll come back for more, and after a while, you’ll start to make money.

How to Make Money From Your Blog

Speaking of which … finally – it’s time to talk money!  There are multiple ways for you to make money from your website.  I’ll briefly explain the top five ways, from easiest to most difficult.

1. Advertisements
2. Sponshorships
3. Affiliates
4. Selling your services
5. Selling your product

Running Blog Ads

Running ads is the easiest way to make money on your blog, but it also pays the least.  This is done by creating a Google AdWords account so that Google can display ads throughout your blog.  If and when a reader clicks on an ad you will make anywhere from a few pennies for a few dollars.

• I run ads on Camp FIRE Finance.

Sponsorships

Sometimes a company will pay you to write an article about them or their product.  For example, a company that’s launching a new budget app for your smartphone might reach out to me and ask if they can do a “sponsored post.”  If I accept, the company will pay me to write the post.  The amount you’ll earn depends on how big your readership is.

• In three years of blogging I’ve never accepted a sponsored post (nothing against them, I just don’t go down this path).

Affiliates

Affiliate programs pay you a commission whenever one of your readers buys a product or service that’s linked on your site. For example, this link from SiteGround (my hosting company) is an affiliate link.  SiteGround will pay me $50 if you click on that link and sign up to use their services.  I love affiliate programs becuase I can get paid to reommend products that I use and find value in.

• I make 90% of my blog revenue from affiliate programs
• NOTE: I don’t use affiliate links for products and services that I don’t use or don’t believe in

Selling Your Services

This is where the money can start to get very good for bloggers.  Many bloggers will use their site as a résumé of sorts to attract freelance writing gigs. If you’re a freelance writer (or designer, developer, artist, or something else) then you should consider creating a “hire me” or “work with me” page for your site.  Not only can you make good money this way, but it can also be regular income that you’ll be able to count on.

• I don’t freelance and haven’t made money this way

Selling Your Products

If selling your services is where the money gets good for bloggers, then selling your own product is where you can take your income to the next level.  Most of the bloggers that blog full time are also selling a product of some sort.  Most end up selling books they’ve written or courses they’ve developed.  If you’ve got a product to sell, then your blog can be a launching pad to the type of money that’s life changing (there are bloggers making several hundred thousands of dollars, even over a million) per year.

• I do not currently sell any products or services, but do have some in the works

Summary

Phew!  This turned into mega page.  If you made it all the way through my warning about starting a blog, how to start a blog, how to get traffic to your blog, and finally how to make money blogging then I’m deeply honored!  Thank you for your time. I hope I’ve given you some information that you find useful.  If you still have questions, let me know in the comment section below.

Thank you for reading and happy blogging!

The post BLOGGING AS A SIDE HUSTLE appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

Living on minimum wage. It’s something many have had to do, especially when we were younger. Maybe you had a minimum wage job when you were living at home with your parents or as you were working through school.  Or maybe you are living on minimum wage right now.  Depending on where you’re at in your life, minimum wage can be a right of passage or a serious threat to your financial health.

How to Live on Minimum Wage

Working for minimum wage isn’t anybody’s dream career. But here in the waking world, it’s a reality — especially when you’re young and fresh out of college.

Even if you’ve already got several years of work under your belt, you might find yourself in a minimum wage position; food service and retail jobs are a common fallback when you’re shifting gears or heading toward something new.

Although there’s some nationwide conversation about increasing the minimum wage to slightly more livable figures, most of us out there in the single-digit-dollars-per-hour trenches can’t hold our breath waiting for that to happen. Besides, by the time those changes actually take place, inflation may mean the paycheck is, in effect, almost exactly as meager.

But even in states like Kentucky and Pennsylvania, where minimum wage earners are still looking at a paltry $7.25 per hour, living on minimum wage is possible… even if it’s not ideal.

Here’s our best advice for making that minimum-wage paycheck cover your not-so-minimal expenses.

It’s All About the Budget

When your paycheck doesn’t leave much wiggle room, every cent counts. That’s why you absolutely need a budget if you’re a minimum wage earner.

If you don’t know where your cash is going, you’re helpless to put it to better use, and you can quickly find yourself in a debt spiral — and trust me, that is not where you want to be. Besides, budgeting is a smart financial habit that’ll still be worthwhile once those paychecks start increasing.

If the idea of sitting down with a pencil and paper makes your eyes glaze over, there’s good news: You can let the magic of the digital age do most of the footwork for you. Apps like Mint and Personal Capital allow you to connect all your various financial accounts and credit cards, so you’ll automatically be able to see exactly where your money is going.

From there, you can look for expenses to cut — which, when you’re on a minimum wage allowance, may be pretty ruthless. Do you really need your Netflix account? How about that daily coffee? Cutting alcohol could save you dozens of dollars a week… and leave you feeling a whole lot better.

Once you see which categories are wicking away your hard-earned dollars, you can set custom budgets for each. Start with your basic, non-negotiable expenses: rent, groceries, a generous estimate for utilities, transportation expenses, cell phone, savings. Only then should you add in the extras.

By the way, yes, it is possible to save up a stash of cash even when you’re not making much of it — and it’s super important to do so. Here’s a guide to starting a small nest egg when you’re living paycheck to paycheck.

Personal Capital is a free tool that connects to your bank and helps you track your expenses. I use it daily to manage my finances.

Find Other Revenue Streams

Here’s the thing: Living on minimum wage is possible… but it’s definitely not cozy. Especially if you’ve got a family to feed.

Finding extra sources of revenue is a great way to ease the financial tension.

You may think you don’t have any time for a side-gig. After all, minimum wage jobs are not exactly known for their breezy, steady schedules.

But even if your weekly calendar always looks hectic, there are tons of totally doable ways to make money fast.

Of course, none of them are going to make you an overnight millionaire… but every cent counts when you’re trying to pay those bills!

Don’t Let Debt Weigh You Down

When you don’t have much cash money to your name, it’s tempting to start putting things on credit.

But of all the different kinds of debt out there, revolving credit card debt may just be the worst. Compound interest charged at high annual rates means you could end up paying almost double each dollar you spend on your card in the long run.

That’s why it’s important to strategize your debt repayment process and pay off that credit card debt fast. Then you can focus on whittling away others, like your mortgage and student loans.

Living on Minimum Wage: A Temporary Stop on Your Financial Journey

The best thing about minimum wage is that you’re probably not going to be making it forever.

Although scoring a new job is never easy, if you work hard and stay persistent, you can find opportunities that offer better compensation… and require less time folding shirts or dunking fries into hot oil.

And once you do, your time living on a shoestring salary will have made you a super-savvy saver, ready to conquer your financial goals and put those nice, fat paychecks to good use.

Who knew minimum wage jobs came with such great returns?

Chime in!

Have you ever had to live on minimum wage? Are you doing so right now? What tips or tricks have you got for anyone that’s living on minimum wage?

The post Living on Minimum Wage appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

Getting your personal finances in order isn’t complicated.  That’s not to say it’s easy, but for most people it’s not hard.*

• Spend less money than you make
• Invest that difference
• Eliminate/avoid debt

Make a habit of these things and your finances will be on autopilot.  Run on autopilot long enough and you’ll cruise through the six layers of FIRE. It just takes a bit of time, and this is where it gets hard.  For me the most difficult part of personal finances is the waiting game.

Hurry Up And Wait

Depending on where you’re at in your financial journey, waiting can take YEARS!  And that can be excruciating.

Once your personal finances are on autopilot financial freedom becomes a waiting game & I don’t have time for that.
Need to boost my income

— Ty Roberts (@GetRichQuickish) November 12, 2017

There are really only two things you can do to shorten the waiting game:

1. Cut back on your expenses
2. Earn more money

Cut Expenses

Cutting expenses is great example of the personal finance multiplier effect in action because it means you need to save LESS money to reach your long term goals while simultaneously allowing you to save MORE money each month so that you can reach those goals faster.

• Here are some creative things I’ve done to save money.

Earn More Money

Reducing your expenses makes an immediate impact on your finances, but there’s only so much you can cut from your budget.  On the other hand, earning more money takes time but there’s no limit to how much you can make.

Of course earning more money doesn’t help you reach financial independence unless you use it to pay off debt or put it to work by investing it, letting it grow, and shaving YEARS off of your working career.

• Here are some side hustles I’ve done to make more money.

Autopilot

Once your finances are on auto pilot, all that’s left to do is hurry up and wait.  For me this stage is both hard, and great.  Hard because I’m impatient and want to Get Rich Quick’ish.  Great because being on autopilot frees up time for you improve your situation, work on your passions, and plan a better future.

Chime in!

Is it hard for you to hurry up and wait?  Are your finances on auto pilot?  Have I overlooked something that could be done to shorten the waiting game?

* I get it – there are times and scenarios when finances are complicated and significantly more difficult (you’re unemployed, going through a divorce, have a failing business, etc.).  If you’re in one of these situations then I truly feel bad.  I’ve been there and can empathize. Hang in there!

The post Hurry Up and Wait appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you’ve said “I’d to ANYTHING to have that!“?

I have too, but unfortunately that statement rarely comes with any real teeth.  Mostly the wish rings hollow.  Once we find out what it really takes to get whatever it is we’re wishing for, we’re unwilling to put in the effort or make the sacrifice.

I’d do ANYTHING

Would you do anything to …

• Get Rich Quick’ish!
• Retire early!
• Reach financial independence!
• Never have to work again!
• Have six pack abs!
• Buy that house!
• Play in the NBA!
• Own that car!
• Take my family on that amazing vacation!
• Quit my job and become a full-time blogger!
• (insert your own fantasy here)

We’ve all heard people make the “I’d do anything” claim before.  Hell, we’ve probably all uttered the words ourselves at different times and for different reasons.

Talk Is Cheap

So why is it that our wishes usually go unfilled?  Is it just human nature?  Laziness?  Bad luck?

I have no idea.  And sometimes there really isn’t anything we can do about making our dream a reality; we’re knowingly wishing upon a star.  Take for example my dream of playing in the NBA despite the lack of everything required to play in the NBA.  Those types of things are fantasies, and they’re okay.

But for those ‘wishes’ that are feasible – there’s one personal quality or trait that we need to develop in order to make your dream a reality: tenacity.

Be Tenacious!

I define tenacity like this:

The ability to keep a resolution long after the mood in which you made it in has passed.

It’s easy to walk out of a motivational seminar and resolve to become a better person, fully believing that you’re about to turn over a new leaf.  It’s easy to read a blog post, get inspired and think ‘hell yeah! I’m going to save 50% of my income and retire early too!”

But life has a way of wearing down your resolve.  Before long (often a in a shockingly short amount of time) your resolve is gone, along with your motivation, and you’re back in the same old rut.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

You’re reading this blog so I assume you want to Get Rich Quick’ish, reach financial independence and retire early.  Are you willing to do anything to make that happen?

I *think* I’m willing to do what it takes.  Here are some bigger things I’ve done in order to Get Rich Quick’ish:

• Eliminated our second car about 18 months ago.
• I take the bus to work rain or shine (or rain. #Seattle) and walk two miles per day to/from the bus stop.
• We moved out of the million-dollar home we were renting and into a much less expensive home.
• We’ve saved money so that we can max out our ‘free money’ opportunities at work.
• We take day trips and staycations rather than taking amazing Pinterest-perfect family vacations.
• Instead of spending money on garbage, we significantly increased our savings rate.

The real question is, do I have the tenacity to keep grinding long enough to make my goal a reality?  I sure hope so.  So far, so good.  Ever since starting this journey about a two years ago I’ve wanted an early retirement far more than I’ve wanted any of those things.

In addition to ‘giving up’ the things listed above (which are all focused on saving money),  I’m also trying to turn this blog into a significant source of revenue.  If I’m honest, what I’d really like is for this site to make enough money to replace my current full-time income, which by the way is enough of an income to allow my family of six to thrive financially.

Getting this blog to make that kind of dough is no small task.  But it’s not an NBA-type of fantasy either.  This is a completely feasible goal.

“I’d do anything for my blog to generate that kind of dough!” – Ty, daily since January 2016.

Reality Bites

I say and think (often) that I’d do anything for this blog to make money – but would I really?  My actions paint a different picture:

• I don’t post frequently enough to generate a steady stream of readers.
• I’m not aggressively trying to build an email list so that I can reach out to my readers and invite them back to the blog (no pop-ups here – you’re welcome).
• I don’t spend time optimizing my SEO so that I can rank better when someone searches for a topic that I’ve written about.
• I never guest posted on another blog in an attempt to expose myself to new readers.
• I’ve never had a single guest post on my own blog, a great way to expand the message I’m preaching (anybody want to guest post?).
• I’ve not put in any time to try and figure out how to use Facebook.
• Pinterest is supposed to be an amazing way to generate new readers, but it’s a tough nut to crack. I’ve asked my wife to help me out, but I’ve been unwilling to spend time learning more about the site for myself.

Those 7 bullet points are what I could think of in about 30 seconds, I’m sure I could come up with about two dozen more if I spent a bit more time thinking about it.

• I don’t spend enough time thinking deeply about my posts before publishing them.

Obviously I’m NOT willing to “do anything” to have the type of blog that can generate enough revenue to replace my current income.  So guess what – this blog doesn’t generate much income at all, certainly not enough to replace my current income … Yet.

Keep Grinding

I’m not willing to throw in the towel quite so easily.  I might not have this site where I want it to be right now, but thankfully I’m not dependent upon this as a source of income, which allows me to approach this blog as a marathon rather than a sprint.

As long as I’m willing to identify obstacles that are currently preventing me from taking this blog to the next level, and then find solutions to overcome them, then I’m confident that I’ll get there in a quick’ish amount of time.

So, I’ve made the resolution: turn this blog into a money maker!  Now, do I have the tenacity to stick to it?  Or will I choose to go to bed early one night instead of working on my SEO?  Will I skip writing a new post because I just don’t feel like it right now?  Will I continue to keep this blog to myself, or will I begin reaching out to others that might want to guest post?

We shall see.

Chime In!

Do you have the ability to keep a resolution long after the mood in which it was made has passed?  Would you do anything to achieve your goals?  How far have you gone to make your dreams come true?

The post Be Tenacious With Your Financial Goals appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.

The biggest struggle in my journey to financial independence hasn’t been finding ways to improve my budget, reduce my expenses, or even increase my income.  The hardest part has been trying to find the patience to wait for success to show up.  But success is like a blister – it shows up once the hard work is done.

Work Hard

I grew up in a blue collar home where hard work was both expected and required.  My hands, while not as rough as they once were, are still calloused to this day from the manual labor I did growing up.  Working hard is in my blood and I have the genealogy to prove it.*

I’m the son of a drywaller, who was the son of a steel mill worker, who was the son of a farmer who was the son of an immigrant that traveled to the United States in the 1840’s .

Just like me, each of these men worked hard to provide for their families and success probably looked very different for each man.

My father was a successful small business owner that taught me to not only work hard, but to get paid well for that hard work.  Dad is retiring on May 1st of this year at the age of 69.  I’ll be traveling back home this month for his surprise retirement party.

His father, my grandfather, worked in a steel mill.  Grandpa also wrote for his local newspaper and sold cars (like I did!).  Talk about a hustler.

Unfortunately, I don’t know much about my lineage once I hit my Great Grandfather, but I do know that he was a farmer and I know that farming is a whole lot like hard work (especially in the pre-tractor days!).

My Great Great Grandfather was an immigrant, and starting life over in a new country can’t be easy.

Going back multiple generations the men in my family had no choice but to work hard to provide for their families.  While I work hard today, I’m not going to pretend I know what they went through.  But I do know I’m in the position I’m in today because of them.  In a literal sense I’m the product of their efforts, and I couldn’t be more proud.

Success is like a blister

The sacrifices these men, and their families, made landed me in a position where I was able to to graduate from college (the first in this particular line to do so, but not the first in my family).  That education has enabled me to follow a career path which allows me to pursue an early retirement.

I doubt the term “early retirement” ever went through the minds of these men.  Thankfully the world I live in makes this dream a realistic possibility.   It’s not only possible to Get Rich Quick’ish, but the formula to do so is surprisingly simple:

1. Spend less money than you make
2. Invest the difference
3. Eliminate, then avoid debt

Okay – I’ve done that.  So … am I rich yet?

Don’t I wish!  Maybe there should be a fourth variable added to that equation:

4. Hurry up and wait.

Doin’ time

It can be frustrating when you first start tackling your finances.  You’re doing everything right.  You track every penny you spend, create a budget, develop a debt elimination strategy, save, and invest money.

But success doesn’t show up that easily.

It’s kind of like trying to lose weight.  You start by eating right.  Eliminating fast foods.  You exercise.  You sleep better.  Then you hop on the scales after a week and are frustrated with the results.

Finances are the exact same.  You gotta have patience because success is like a blister – it usually shows up once the hard work is done (#rimshot).

Just keep doing the right things, build momentum and give it time (and try not to get frustrated and quit when progress isn’t happening as fast as you hoped it would).

Chime In!

Patience has never been a strong suite of mine.  What is your biggest struggle and how do you deal with it?

The post Success is Like a Blister appeared first on Camp FIRE Finance.