January is over. We are now that much closer to spring. Woohoo.
After everyone’s awesome suggestions (thank you!) on what to do for fun during the winter, I made some progress.
Over the weekend I cleaned out my refrigerator, prepped food for the week (I’m doing a ten day energy challenge I’ll tell you about it after it’s over,) cleaned up and organized my office space, found an awesome book for free on Kindle, and did a lot of dancing with the girls. We also colored like a gazillion pages.
January Work From Home Income
January’s income was lower than last month and definitely not at the $60k/year range. But that’s okay!
I am still waiting on some payments from December and since I get paid for work from the previous month it’s looking like February is going to be pretty. darn. good. I expect to crack the $4k mark and hopefully just continue to go up from there!
January’s income came to $3,437.67 (As a reminder these are payments that I actually received.)
It broke down like this:
- Freelance Work (Blog Management, VA work, and Freelance Writing) $2,262
- Blogging $1,175.67
To break it down a little further the blogging income came from…..
- Google Adsense $601.69
- Media.net $311.11
- Affiliate Sales – $82.27
- Sponsors – $180
Business expenses for the month of January came in at $70.93 (These were Long Tail Pro, Hootsuite, Aweber, Askimet and Viral Woot.)
Net income(well, before taxes) for January was $3,366.69.
P.S. If you’re interested in starting a blog too, check out How to Start a Blog for Only $12 per Year. This post walks you through setting up your own WordPress blog through GoDaddy, my favorite hosting company.
Saving, Spending, and Taxes
I want to start getting a little more detailed with my saving and spending so that I can look back throughout the year and be able to easily see where all of my money went.
First of all, I’m still waiting on all of my tax documents but I can tell you right now that I’m going to owe. (Tax documents, you’re more than welcome to take your time getting to me!)
I put $900 back for SE taxes for January. **Sheds tears** Oh boy it really sucks to have to hold such a big portion of your income back. On the other hand it still beats the heck out of working for $11.50/hour. I need to just suck it up and get over it.
Okay so let’s break this spending and saving down:
Net Income $3,366.69
- Saved for Taxes – $900
- Straight to Down Payment Savings – $912.80
- IRA Contributions – $250 ($100 by me $150 by a client. Isn’t it awesome to have a freelance client who contributes to retirement? Pretty darn great!)
- Money Spent in January $1,303.89
About These Numbers
Gotta pay taxes. It sucks but hey, what can you do?
My Google Adsense and Media.net income has went to savings for a while now. (There were a few months last year where I needed the money and spent it instead.) Since this income has been growing over the past few months it’s been easy to just ignore it and let it flow into savings.
Speaking of savings, if you remember I started saving for an investment property last year which I changed to a down payment for a house of my own. All of that money will go to down payment money. *However* I’m going to owe taxes.
I don’t want to touch my emergency fund so whatever I owe will be taken out of the initial investment property savings account. Whatever is left over, if any, will be merged with the down payment amount.
On the spending side, things were fine there. I don’t feel great or horrible about it. No big expenses came up so it was a pretty normal month. Keep in mind that I have $0 debt and no rent or mortgage payment either. That makes spending a low amount pretty easy.
Staying Goal Focused
I am feeling really good about the goals I set for the year. Last year I went way overboard and set too many goals that didn’t mean a thing to me. This year I WILL earn $60k and save $20k. I might have to play catch up a little later in the year but I’m going to do it. I know I can, so I’m not letting myself make excuses!
Every time I feel myself slacking off I just look at local real estate listings and immediately feel my motivation coming back!
Right now this is the house keeping me motivated. (Even though it’s out of my price range.) I’d love to find something on such great property with a smaller house! This house is on 24 acres of woods and I love the setting!
Every time I don’t feel like working I look at this house, think about how great it would be to raise girls my there, and voila, I feel like working again!
Are you still focused on the goals you set for the year?
Hi Alexa, just wanted to drop a quick message to say that I love your blog, and I think you’re inspirational!
Every time I read what you’ve been doing, it amazes me that you manage it with kids, and that your business is growing so well.
Anyway, best of luck getting the house- that place looks amazing.
Reece
Thanks Reece that really means a lot to me! And for the record I do take my kids to a babysitter (when the weather allows) so I do have kid free time to work.
Great month Alexa! $3K is no small accomplishment and you should be very proud to have made all this on your own. That’s absolutely incredible that you found a client who contributes to your IRA. How in the world did you ever score that streak of luck?
Thank you! You know when I went down to just my two best clients all kinds of opportunities started presenting themselves! I used to go for quantity of clients now I go for quality!
The IRA contributions are $100/month. Payable every six months. This started in the middle of November so was prorated for Nov and December. Definitely an unexpected but super nice perk!
It seems like you are off to a great start this month, congrats! I really like your inspiration photo. I have an inspiration photo I keep on my laptop’s screen to remind me of what I want (which is moving back across the country to be closer to my family). I am still sticking to my goals too and am staying really focused!
Yeah the inspiration photos really work don’t they? If I start looking at houses I always feel like working again. It works wonders!
Awesome job! You’re killing it, especially with your blog income. It’s such a good idea to have a visual goal. I’d love to own a home one day too!
Great month, Alexa! I’m sure things will pick up and you’ll hit 60K this year! 🙂
Alexa – Great Job! I have no doubt that you will reach your goals! I love that house, the setting seems so serene! Best of luck to you!
That house is beautiful!!
That’s a really nice house, I can see why you’re motivated!
Congrats on the income. Love to see it. 🙂
Congratulations! What a feat, and I love hearing your journey to financial freedom.
That’s a beautiful home by the way too. 🙂
Great job! And that house is lovely 🙂
Alexa, this is awesome news!! Congrats on your big month – seriously, you’ll be on your way to a $60k salary and new place in no time 🙂
Question: Do you like working with Media.net? They’ve approached me about working together, but I’m always leery of working with people who approach me (I don’t think I’m a big enough blogger to be approached by people yet!)
AWESOME Alexa!! I love to see that things are coming together. I have no doubt that you will rock your income goal for 2015.
I will be featuring a link to your monthly income report on http://incomeprof.com to motivate the younger ones. More grease to your elbow
I love how you’ve expanded on what you share here. I’d love to see what your budget looks like. How do you not pay rent or mortgage?
When I got divorced in 2012 in I took out a $10k loan and put a trailer on an extra lot my Dad had. The payment was $226 a month but then last year my Dad gave me $6k as a part of an inheritance and I used that money to pay the trailer off. So now I have no debt at all and therefore no trailer payment 🙂
I have a budget on here somewhere but it was when my oldest still went to the babysitter and I still had the trailer payment. I need to do an update. My expenses have went down in some areas and up in others.
Hi Alexa, I just stumbled upon your blog after seeing your post about saving money for your kids on Pinterest. I’m really loving your site and have added you to my Feedly. I can’t wait to read more, you are an inspiration and I love your determination!
How do you find sponsors?
Most of them reach out to me. I also have a good blog friend who has been doing a lot of blogger campaigns for big companies and he includes me when it makes sense to. Sometimes I reach out to companies myself. For instance I got a free cell phone plus three months of free service for reaching out to one company and I got another company to sponsor a $500 giveaway by reaching out to them and then including some of my friends in the giveaway 🙂
Don’t be afraid to reach out to companies you feel like would be a good fit to your blog. And don’t be afraid to jump on the phone with them 🙂 I’ve pitched ideas and then had to have convo’s with the company’s rep explaining my ideas. It’s worth it if it’s a company you want to work with.
Back when I was unhappy at my day job, I pretty much made sure to wake up early every single work day. While I was tired, I knew that waking up early allowed me to have just a little bit more time so that I could work on reaching my goals.