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2016 Income Report + How I’m Going to Make More Money In 2017

income report

It’s been a while since I’ve done an income report, and I’m pleased to announce that the 2016 numbers are in!

As I do every year, I’m going to share the numbers with you because that’s how I roll. If you want to make money blogging or in some other way online, you need to know what this actually looks like.

In an age where anybody can say they are making oodles of cash online and how easy it is if you just fork over 18 payments of $97 for them to teach you, I consider it my civic duty to be as transparent as humanly possible.

Additionally, this is a good way for me to review the year’s financials, call myself out for the mishaps (we all have them) and see where I can improve. I started blogging six years ago to call myself out and hold myself accountable for getting my financials in order. Just because I’m now doing much better and run my own business doesn’t mean I’m off the hook.

And so without further ado, the 2016 annual income report! All the graphics are coming directly from my Quickbooks account which is what my accountant and I use to keep track of everything.

$62,916 as of December 29th, 2016!

 

By the time this is published another $500 will hit my bank account for December and another $1100 payment will be made for a total of $64,516!

I get $65k isn’t a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but this is a pretty big fucking deal to me. I’ve dealt with some demons as it pertains to underearning and 60 grand seemed impossible to me a couple of years ago.

Furthermore, this more than $20,000 more than I earned last year. In fact, I’ve noticed I have a pattern of increasing revenue by about $20k each year. I didn’t plan this, it just happens. Maybe I should plan for it this time around haha.

Here’s what my 2015 income report looked like:

And here’s a comparison of 2015 versus 2016 broken down by quarter:

What’s working:

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with where things are going according to this 2016 income report. I still sometimes can’t believe I actually get to do this stuff full-time, and as more time passes the easier this all becomes. I still have demons to deal with (more on that later), but I’m at least more aware of them now.

Here’s what I believe is really working in 2017:

  • Writing. I often times get asked why I’ll never give up freelance writing. This is why. Not only do I get paid to promote myself, there’s also good money in it. Besides, I was born a writer and I’ll die a writer. (P.S. If you’re interested in becoming a freelance writer, I have a course available that teaches you how to do that. Click here to check out Make Money Your Honey With Freelance Writing.)
  • Started focusing more on affiliate sales. This is the highest grossing year I’ve had for affiliate sales. I neglected them for years because I thought I would need an insane amount of traffic to make any money. Good lord was I wrong! Passive income is practically funding my retirement account right now and it’s all thanks to Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing Course. Since taking the course, I’ve gone from earning a few dollars every month to earning a few hundred dollars a month.
  • Coaching. I’ve done zero promotion for coaching this year. None. Zilch. Nada. All that money came to me from people who wanted to learn from me. That’s $12k I earned without even having a sales funnel in place.
  • Pinterest. Pinterest is bae. I’ve gotten more strategic about how to use it for generating traffic and it’s been worth the effort. I use Boardbooster  to make sure I’m pinning to different group board on a consistent basis. My post “40+ Tools to Organize Your Finances, Your Business, and Your Life” has already been shared over 6,000 times on Pinterest! It also happens to be one of my highest grossing posts for affiliate sales.
  • Social media. I started investing money into tools to help me grow my social media presence and they’ve been worth every penny. We’ve grown our community by tens of thousands of people and it will continue to get bigger.
  • The podcast. You guys are loving the podcast! I wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out but it’s actually been great for business and traffic.
  • I’m doing this all while traveling a lot. I went to three different countries (technically four with St. Maarten in the mix) and San Diego this year. I spent 10 days running around the south of Mexico in March and was on the road most of September. The first time I traveled this much in a year was the first year I was self-employed full-time and it was a lot more difficult to pull off than it is now. I’ve already got 4 trips on the books for 2017 with room for more.

Expenses:

I spent about $37,000 on my business this year. Granted, this includes health insurance (I’m opting out of Obamacare in 2017 because it’s way too expensive), my phone, some design upgrades, business trips, and credit card processing fees.

There’s always a delicate balance between earning and spending. The more you make, the more it costs to maintain. I know this eventually sorts itself out, but it is quite an interesting dance I’ve got going on here.

I’m also just now getting around to really using stuff like Infusionsoft. It’s pricey and it took us a while to get to a point where we’re really starting to use it. It’ll be paying for itself by the end of 2017. All of this to say, building business takes time.

Taxes:

I’m forking over 20% of my net income every quarter. Ouch. Such is the life of the self-employed. It evens out come tax time thanks to deductions so I try not to complain too much. My accountant, however, will beg to differ with you about my complaining. He’ll be on the podcast soon to walk you all through tax season.

What’s not working:

  • I’m sometimes impulsive with business expenses. I’m not as bad as I used to be, but it’s still something to keep an eye on.
  • I’m not outsourcing enough. Yes, I know this sounds crazy considering I just said I sometimes spend too much, but money spent on getting stuff off my plate so I can focus on earning more is money well spent.
  • Not as scalable as I’d like to be. As much as I love writing and coaching, it’s not scalable. I started to improve on this in 2016 by becoming more strategic about affiliate sales, but I have some ways to go.
  • I still have money demons. We all have them. In my case, I suffered from Imposter Syndrome most of the year which I know affected my ability to earn. I’m also starting to suffer from perfectionism. For example, I could have opened the Make Money Your Honey Academy months ago and made more money, but I didn’t because I didn’t think it was good enough. I didn’t think I was good enough.

How I’m Going to Make More Money in 2017:

There’s always room for improvement, right? Here’s how I plan on earning more money in 2017.

  • Focusing on scalability. I have the tools to make my business more scalable, and this is the year we’re actually going to start focusing on using them. This is mostly going to look like affiliate sales via autoresponders and focusing on memberships for the Make Money Your Honey Academy. It’s currently closed to new students, but you can sign up for the waiting list here.
  • Automation. It’s time to make some sales funnels for classes. I’ll actually be attending a retreat in Puerto Rico by my fabulous friend LaTisha Styles where she’s going to help me put this together.
  • Going local. Because I do everything backward (Story of my life. Seriously.), I avoided my local area for years because I assumed no one cared about finance. As much as I love Miami, this isn’t a hub for my line of work like New York or San Francisco are. That being said, I have been getting more involved locally and it’s led to a few speaking gigs already.
  • Keep writing. This train isn’t stopping anytime soon and I plan on riding it until the wheels fall off. I may finally venture into magazine work. I’ve been subscribed to Writer’s Market for the past two years and I just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve also been sitting on a couple of leads for months so I’ll have to execute on that.
  • Give myself some fucking credit. Like most Type-A personalities, I’m extremely hard on myself. I’m always pushing to the next level. I have influence that I’ve worked hard to create, and it’s about damn time I start owning it.

Free Blogging Tutorial

There’s a lot of money to be made in the world of blogging and content marketing and it’s waiting for people who are willing to go get it. If you’d like to start your own blog, check out my free tutorial on how to start a blog for $4.

 

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How to Go on a Date With Your Budget

 

HOW TO GO ON A DATE

 

As individuals and as a society we have a pretty big mental shit-storm when it comes to the topic of money. It’s not totally our faults. We definitely picked up some lack mentality from our parents and constant news of impending economic doom certainly doesn’t help.

This often times stops us from creating the life we want for ourselves.

We think we can’t possibly start a business during an economic downturn.

We believe we can’t invest in ourselves, our well-being and our evolution.

We think we can’t ask for a raise or get a new job because it’s not available to us.

We feel constrained, constricted, anxious and extremely fearful when it comes to the topic of money.

Yet even in the worst of circumstances there are people who are thriving financially. There are people starting successful businesses, making more money, working cool jobs and living the lives they actually want.

Truth be told, it was my willingness to say “There’s gotta be a better way” back when I couldn’t find a job in 2010 which led me to freelance writing and now running my own business full-time.

In a weird way, it was the ability to believe in possibility even when I didn’t totally see it which led me to getting my finances in order, starting a business and making more money.

Some people have this as a part of their nature. Those are the ones you see killing it no matter what is going on economically.

What’s up with that?

Simply put they changed their perception of making and managing money.

This is something I’ve certainly had to get used to and it’s something I help coaching clients deal with all the time. To be honest it’s a daily practice to move into a more abundant mentality when it comes to money – but it is possible and it works!

One of my favorite exercises and a favorite of most of clients is to GO ON A DATE WITH YOUR BUDGET!

Check out the video below for exactly what I mean.

Why You Want to Go On a Date With Your Budget

Unless we actually know what’s going on with our finances, we won’t be able to fix them. You need to know where you stand in order for you to take steps toward where you want to go.

The problem is most people are afraid of actually looking at the numbers. Budgeting sounds like a drag or perhaps we don’t want to face reality if we’ve gotten ourselves into a bad situation.

Furthermore, because we live in a society that also puts a high value on careers, money and owning stuff money is also very closely tied with our own feelings of self-worth. So one may be tempted to (falsely) think that if we can’t get it together financially than we ourselves are not worthy. This may cause individuals to avoid their finances because they don’t want to deal with uncomfortable feelings.

Of course, we can’t go through life avoiding our money. We have to eventually face it once and for all. Not only that, but you must cultivate a relationship with your finances for the rest of your life. Your financial problems don’t magically disappear if you win the lottery because you would still have to manage money properly.

Getting clear on the numbers also helps us figure out what steps are necessary in order for us to reach our next goals. For example, if you want to quit your job to run your own business you’ll need to know exactly how much money your business needs to make in order to make that happen.

In fact, it wasn’t until I got clear about my financial situation and my financial goals that I was able to start making any sort of progress in running a business or meeting some financial milestones.

  • I was able to save $5,000 in an emergency fund in less than a year because I got clear on what I wanted and how to make it happen.
  • I was able to double my business revenue because I got clear on the kind of money I wanted to make and how to get it.
  • I was able to start saving for my own place because I got clear on how much money I needed to move.
  • I was able to visit Mexico, The Bahamas, St. Thomas, St. Maarten and San Diego in 2016 because I knew how much I needed to earn and save to travel.

When you have this kind of clarity, you can more easily take the necessary actions to improve your financial life and meet your goals.

But you can’t get there without first taking inventory of where you currently are in your life. That’s why it’s so important to go on a date with your budget.

How to Go On a Date With Your Budget

Step 1: Set Aside a Specific Time

Because the topic of money can be very uncomfortable for people, I often times suggest that they set aside a specific time slot to dedicate to this exercise. Tell whoever you live with that you are to be undisturbed during this time and put it on your Google Calendar.

Step 2: Set Up the Room

The next step to going on a date with your budget is to set up the room. You’ll want to create a relaxing atmosphere to help you move through any uncomfortable feelings you may have while looking at your finances. Hang up a “Do Not Disturb Sign”, light some candles, play some music, grab some chocolate and pour yourself some wine – just like you would if you were spending some quality alone time with your honey.

Step 3: Dive In

This is the part where you fire up Mint.com, bust out your credit card bills and open up the bank accounts to do your budgeting. Everyone has a different way of budgeting so this is entirely dependent on what works for you. If you need some guidance, check out this blog post called The 5 Step Guide to Decluttering Your Finances For Good.

Final Thoughts

This is just one of the many ways to begin associating money with good feelings so that we can begin to cultivate a better relationship with our finances. For more on this topic feel free to check out my Amazon best-selling book, Make Money Your Honey.

 

 

 

 

 

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Why Millennials Need to Get Over Their Fear of Credit Cards

healthy credit score

 

The New York Times recently reported on a study from the Federal Reserve which found that the percentage of Americans under the age of 35 who are carrying credit card debt is the lowest it’s been since 1989.

This is fantastic news!

Except, there’s just one problem.

The NYT also noted how many millennials are avoiding credit cards altogether. This could seriously damage us if we’re not careful.

How This Can Hurt Us

It’s no secret that I’m team credit card.

I know how to use them responsibly and I’ve gotten many free flights and perks. Most recently I was able to book a roundtrip ticket to Puerto Rico for $79 and I had my fee for my Global Entry application completely covered thanks to a credit card.

They also help me consolidate my bills for easy money management. Additionally, credit cards have certain protections that debit cards don’t. When my wallet was stolen a few years ago, it took months to resolve the issue with my checking account whereas my credit cards accounts were changed and re-issued in two days.

But most of all, using credit cards responsibly is what has allowed me to build excellent credit. This is why I qualify for rewards programs like the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This is why my interest rates are so low. This is why I can call up my credit card company and have them double my credit limit with no issue to improve my credit score. Finally, when the time comes for a big purchase where I have to borrow money (like a mortgage), my credit score is what will help me get lower interest rates as well as a higher chance of approval.

The reality is, when used responsibly, credit cards are pretty awesome. The problem often times is that people are afraid they won’t use them responsibly.

Let’s also be fair, some people really can’t handle having a credit card. If that’s the case, then please stay away. But if you’re a pretty responsible person you should be fine. It’s just a matter of understanding how this all works.

The Basic Premise

So here it is laid out all nice simple for you – you’ve borrowed money that needs to be paid back. The longer you take to pay it back the more the interest will accumulate and the more will end up coming out of your pocket. This affects your credit score which then pretty much affects everything else in your financial life.

Got it? Okay.

So how do you maintain a healthy credit score? Or, better put, how do you not get into trouble? Read on, friends.

Understand what makes up your credit score.

Your credit score is made up of a few different components. According to FICO, the breakdown goes something like this:

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Amounts Owed – How much money you owe versus how much available credit you have.

Payment History – How well you’ve used credit in the past. For example, have you paid all your bills in full?

Length of Credit History – Pretty self-explanatory.

Credit Mix – The kinds of available credit you have.

New Credit – How many new accounts you’ve opened.

As you can see, the amount of money you owe and your payment history have the biggest weight on your overall score. This means you should focus on keeping your debt to credit ratio low (common wisdom says don’t use more than 30% of available credit but I’d say keep it to 20%) and pay your bills on time and in full.

Pay on time and in full each and every month.

This is what I do because I was taught to be anal about my credit. I pay my balance in full each and every month. How do I know I’ll be able to pay it off? Because I know exactly what’s going on my cards.

I’m able to know this by finding strategies to manage my freelance income and using free tools like Personal Capital or Mint to keep track of my spending and create bill reminders.

Don’t spend money before you have it.

Credit cards are not free money. Quite the opposite, they’re actually expensive ass loans. That being said, if you want to maintain a healthy credit score it would not be very wise to spend unnecessary money before you have it. Simply put, crap happens.

Maybe your client won’t send a check in time. Maybe a deal fell through so you won’t be getting that commission bonus you were banking on.

Or…

Other unexpected expenses come up. Maybe your car breaks down. Maybe you have to go to the doctor. Maybe those damn traffic cameras caught you doing something stupid and now you have to pay a ticket. All of these cases can cost a pretty penny and take money away from paying your debt.

In all cases of the above cases, it would suck if you racked up your credit because you thought you had money coming in or you didn’t expect to have so much money going out.

What if you already have shaky credit?

“But Amanda,” you say, “I already racked up my credit. What do I do then?”

I’m glad you asked. Here a few ways you can start paying down that debt:

Stop putting stuff on credit 

You clearly already have an issue so let’s not exacerbate it.

Find ways to make extra money

Side hustling will allow you to put more money toward paying down your debt. Whether you find a part time job, take on freelancing or decide to babysit, try to find ways to make extra money.

Pay more than the minimum balance

You’ll never get anywhere by only paying the minimum. Try doubling it. Better yet, make it triple.

Make the necessary sacrifices

Take a look at your expenses and see what you can cut. A little bit here and there can go a long way. Start brown bagging your lunch, give up cable TV and cut down on the Starbucks.

You can also negotiate down your bills with a service like Billcutterz.  This alone can save you hundreds of dollars you can then put towards paying down your debts.

Make Bi-Weekly Payments

This is a great tip from Carrie over at Careful Cents. In fact, her explanation is so good I’ll just let her take it away:

“Submit half the payments to your lender every two weeks instead of the regular monthly payment. This will accomplish three things

1. Less interest will accumulate, because your payments will be applied more often.

2. You will pay an extra payment, because there are 52 weeks in a year, which equals 26 yearly payments (or one extra).

3. Doing this for the duration of the loan could shave off several months.

Make sure to discuss this with your lender before making bi-weekly payments, because you might be penalized for any extra payments or paying off the loan balance early.”

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5 Foolproof Money Saving Tips for The End of The Year

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We’re already in October. Can you believe it?

Even though we don’t get a real Fall in Florida, this is still my favorite time of the year. Pumpkin spice lattes, fall colors, and believe it or not, plenty of ways to save money.

In this blog post, I’m going to be laying out 5 money saving tips you can use as we round out the last few months of 2016. I’m going to be using many of the tips myself and one of them may actually surprise you because you possibly didn’t even know it was an option (I certainly didn’t.)

Look into more affordable healthcare options.

It’s almost every American’s favorite time of year after tax season – open enrollment! (Yes, that was definitely meant to be sarcastic).

Out of all the ways to save money at the end of the year, finding more affordable health care options is at the top of my list.

As a self-employed individual, healthcare costs are on me. The bad news is healthcare can be expensive when you’re shopping for your own insurance. The good news is you have more options to save money than you possibly think you do.

I was already planning on dropping my current Silver level health insurance plan I got through the ACA exchange because I thought it was too expensive and I hated my doctor options. My deductible literally doubled from one year to the next and I was paying $247 for shit service.

Fortunately, my health insurance company made my job easy because I just received a letter that they would be discontinuing my plan in 2017.  This is the second time this happens to me in the three years that I’ve been purchasing insurance from the health care exchange. At this point, all I can do is laugh.

I started digging around for more affordable healthcare options a few months ago in preparation for this time and realized that many of my money savvy friends were part of health-sharing ministries like Liberty HealthShare.

The concept is simple:

Every member of the HealthSharing ministry gives into the pot. When one of the members has medical expenses, the organization pays for it from the pot. All you have to do is show your membership card to the doctor, get your bill and send it to your health sharing group.

I have many friends from college who’ve used this method of health care with great success. Many of my colleagues have also opted for this over ACA health insurance plans. It counts as insurance under ACA so you aren’t penalized and it saves you a ton of money.

I started researching Liberty HealthShare for myself as a way to save money and here’s what I found:

I can get 100% expenses paid up to $1,000,000 and go to any doctor I want for $50 to $100 less each month than what I’m currently paying for my craptastic health insurance that limits my healthcare choices.

Of course, this isn’t without it’s downsides and there are plenty of other options out there. I’ll do a more in-depth post about it once I have more information and have chosen one for myself.

Tax Planning

Another one of the ways to save money at the end of the year is to do a little tax planning. I asked my accountant, Eric Nisall of Accountlancer for some tips for your all and here’s what he said:

1. Round up last year’s return to get an idea of what documents to expect in the coming months.
2.Make an appointment with your accountant and do a year-end review so they can make estimates and help you avoid penalties.

3.Ask your accountant if there are any moves you can make before the end of the year to lower your tax bill.

Review your budget for the year.

While you should be reviewing your budget far more often than once a year, the end of the year is a good time to look at it to see if there are anyway ways to save money that you aren’t taking advantage of.

Maybe you realize you’re paying too much for certain good or services and decide to find ways to shop around for new providers. Maybe you realize you have items in your budget that no longer make sense for you.

For example, I’m forgoing my membership to my local health center because I realized I wasn’t really using it. This will now save me $89 that I can automatically transfer into savings each month. I also fond ways to save money on groceries.

When reviewing your budget for the year, it’s helpful to have some sort of software that gives you a good snapshot of your financial picture. I’ve been using Personal Capital for the last few months and I’m really digging it. It’s totally free and very easy to use.

 

Sock away money into your retirement account.

If you’re still regularly employed (I know I still have a few readers that are), now is a good time to sock as much money into your 401(k) account as you can. Your contributions to your 401(k) account can lower your tax bill because the contributions reduce your taxable income.

If you’re working with a Roth IRA like I am, you won’t get a tax benefit now but you can at least do your best to meet the maximum $5500 annual contribution limit. I’ve personally vowed that anything I make in passive income from my blog (affiliate sales, book sales, ad revenue, etc.) is going into my Betterment account.

(P.S. If you’re a blogger and you’d like a good resource on how to make affiliate sales with your blog, I highly recommend checking out Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing by Michelle Schroeder-Gardner. I went from making a few dollars a month to now making hundreds of dollars each month from affiliate sales. My retirement account is very pleased. You can click here to learn more about the course.)

Save the surplus.

The end of the year is a good time for some surplus cash. Here are some of the ways to save money when you have a surplus:

1. See which contracts (like gym memberships) are up for cancellation. If you don’t use it, cancel and transfer the surplus into savings.
2. Put a bonus from your job directly into savings.

3. Put any cash gifts directly into savings.

 

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