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August 2017
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Money
Spending was about $1,000 for August.
I spent like $450 on coffee-making equipment. That was starting with nothing and should be about all the equipment I need.
With my spending relatively low, my net worth in years is going up. It will go up more in the next couple months, even with this big tattoo I’m getting.
I split up my net worth chart into more categories - to show my account types separately. This will help visualize the effect of an IRA ladder over the coming years. If the stock market stays steady, here’s what should happen: the Traditional IRA value will stay about the same. The Roth should double over the next 5 years. After 5 years, the Roth will stay about constant, and my post-tax accounts will start to grow.
New Income Sources
At this moment, my current hobby income streams are:
— Shirt design sales: ~$45/mont
— Patreon: $12/month
— Instagram - paid advertisements: ~$100/month**
— Instagram - free stuff and discounts on purchases: ~$250/month
** I’ve only done this once, so I’m not sure about the frequency of these
If I continue Instagram paid ads at that rate, that’s $160 per month, or about 15% of my spending. I don’t expect to get Instagram ad jobs each month.. but, the number and compensation I get will grow over time.
I’m wishing I would put in about 3-4 days of making new shirts each month, as that would reliably increase the shirt income. It might require following pop-culture more closely, and I don’t really care to. But if I just recognize an idea when I come upon one, I can make them here and there, and I have made a few last month and this month.
Instagram income details
(First off, as a potential income source, I don’t recommend this. It’s only useful if you are already good at photography, already doing/shooting some type of niche that will do well, and would have fun posting on Instagram. It takes a lot of work and time. )
I’ve started reaping some benefit from all the pictures I’ve been dumping
on Instagram. It comes in a few different forms:
Companies send me products for free, in exchange for them ending up in my pictures, and at time me writing about them. So far I’ve gotten $371 worth of products from this, starting in July. (A nice wool blanket, a survival water filter, some camp plates, a packable blanket, towels that pack small) These are all things that I already wanted but hadn’t gotten around to or wouldn’t have actually bought. I’m only willing to take things that I actually want, and so far I’ve had good luck. Sometimes the company just has one thing, like the wool blanket, and sometimes they’ll reach out and ask which of their products I’d like. Most of these deals have initiated from them contacting me, but I’m starting to pitch brands. The limiting factor is that I just don’t want much stuff, and the kind of things I’d really love to get free (camera and bike gear), I can’t get unless I have way more followers. A related opportunity for these kinds of posts is that some companies offer to make a coupon code that I can share, and in some cases they’ll pay me a set commission for all sales where someone uses the coupon code. (of course I’d be relying on them to actually do so… I’ve started considering whether I share that coupon code in various other places on the web.. it’s a bit of a moral grey area)
Companies sell me stuff at their own cost. I pitched to a company that makes a manual espresso maker. I wasn’t convincing enough for them to send me a unit, but they sold me one at about 40% of the normal price. (a ~’savings’ of $104
Companies pay me to show their product. Basically to make an ad. So far I’ve
done this once, for a whiskey. I’ll get paid $104 plus a really nice bottle of whiskey.
I have 15k followers, which is basically when you start being able to do this kind of stuff. Compensation amounts increase ~linearly with more followers. The effective hourly wage for doing these, even if I only count the time for those specific posts, is not good. But I’m having fun with it. It’s a kind of validation for my photography that I haven’t gotten so far.
I believe there is potential to parlay this kind of work into more traditional commercial photography, and I may pursue that in the future. Initially I’ll offer large picture files for free to the companies that I do these Instagram collaborations with. If they use them in their advertisements/newsletters/websites, I’ll have experience and credentials for trying to get other paid commercial photography work. The advantage I have vs. more normal photographers is that I’m already going to cool outdoor places.
One side of all this that is sort of time consuming and can feel a little annoying is the pitching. So far, most of my collaborations have came from companies contacting me, so there’s little to do. But if I continue doing product features, I need to focus specifically on getting things that I actually want. I need to spend time learning how to pitch to companies, which is not something I’ve ever done before. It takes some time and learning. It’s halfway fun to learn, and it’s a skill that could be useful at various other times in my life. I’m, in effect, learning the marketing/advertising side of business.
Patreon Details
Sometimes my mom (and stepdad) give me advice or urge me to do certain things. Sometimes when I do them and they work out well, I think “shit, mom’s been telling me to do that for a year. I should’ve done it right away”.
When I was visiting them in July, we were talking about hobby income and entrepreneurial stuff. They’ve been particularly interested in these things lately. They urged me to set up a Patreon account as one way to make financial use of my Instagram engagement, and they helped me brainstorm potential patron rewards. They pointed out to me that considering all the varied and stupid ways people spend money, among a crowd of 15,0000 people who like looking at my pictures/writing, there will definitely be some that would want to send me money.
For those not familiar with Patreon, the most common way it’s used is for the consumers of creative output to support its creators directly. It’s becoming the primary way that podcasters, some youtube creators, and other similar folks get paid. Also, many creators who set up Patreon accounts also share extra material with the patrons as a thank you and a way to encourage people to pledge.
As an example, there’s this guy,
Chris Ryan who makes a
podcast. He doesn’t put ads on his podcast. He has
this Patreon account set up. Some people who really like his podcast pledge through Patreon, and they pay him a certain amount per month or per podcast episode. He gets paid at least $634 per month this way.
So anyways,
I created a Patreon account . The rewards I give supporters are a map showing all the places I’ve camped, and also what are essentially very thorough how-to blog posts on the subject of living and traveling in a vehicle (I’ll be making one per month). So far I have a few patrons at $12/month total. These came from two Instagram posts mentioning it, so if I continue talking about it, there’s potential for it to grow.
Updated Personal Goals
Ok, I had these as my goals for the year:
I’m capable of accomplishing all that in one year, but it’s too many different goals to properly keep track of. With my current amount of free time, I think I’m better off focusing on goals with a 1-3 month time period - where I can make significant progress in a few different areas.
Also, for some things that I’m already definitely going to do, like controlling my spending, and general fitness, I don’t think I need to include in these goals. I will have goals for these, but they are a bit more secondary and go somewhere else.
These main Goals are for changes and for starting new things - where I want to make step changes in my skills and habits. Here’s my first draft for current goals:
INCOME STREAMS
— Execute current Instagram feature
— Get more Instagram product features - start with coffee-making
— Make some more shirt designs
— Make some more investing changes before going to Mexic
— Try out options trading (for some stocks I own and am considering selling)
PREP FOR MEXICO
— Start learning Spanish (on 9/1)
— Get to very basic communication in Spanish (by 11/1)
— Learn about laws, camping rules, and safety
— Research logistics (WIFI, cel service, mail, water, money, laundry)
— Start deciding where to go
Toronto Trip
I’ll be in Toronto, basically downtown, September 17-21
Anybody else wanna meet up? I’ll be getting a tattoo all day on the 19th.
The travel costs for this will be low, as I’m using airline points for a flight, and crashing on the couch of an ERE forum member
. The tattoo will pricey, probably close to $1,000.
….. boy, this was a lengthy one… not sure if it’s useful to write out so much, but sometimes it does help me hash things out in my head.