I focused some of my time on preparing my taxes since I had to do a lot of stuff to account for freelance income. I did an okay job with staying organized and holding on to receipts for expenses, but I will try to pay quarterly from now on and organize my income and expenses more often so it won’t be a big project around tax time.
Table of Contents
If You are New Here
Last year I started publishing the income I earn outside of my full-time job through online side hustles as a way to motivate myself and others to earn more to meet financial goals and work toward financial freedom. I officially landed my first freelance writing client in March 2015. At first, I attempted to start earning an extra income as a way to help me pay off my debt and got hooked. I paid off more than $11,000 of debt last year and wouldn’t have been able to do so without earning an extra income.
I also publish these income reports to demonstrate a true and transparent way that people can earn an honest income working online. I’m not going rocket science here, and I believe almost anyone can do the same things I’m doing to earn money with the right tools and motivation.
It’s been truly life changing and quite rewarding to do something I’m passionate about and earn an income from it. I can honestly say I never would have starting growing my side hustle income as much if I wouldn’t have started a blog. If you’re interested in starting a blog of your own, you can review what I’ve learned after a few months of blogging and you can check out my tutorial to starting your very own self-hosted blog in just a few minutes.
Another thing I can attribute to my success is taking my mentor and friend Cat Alford’s freelance writing class called Get Paid to Write for Blogs.
Cat is a wonderful coach and inspiration to a lot of people. When I first started working with her, I remember she asked me what my goal was and when I told her I wanted to earn $1,000 per month, I honestly didn’t even believe I could do it. When I surpassed that $1k amount after applying everything I learned from her course and building my network, I was ecstatic.
For anyone who is serious about establishing a solid freelance writing side hustle or career quickly and landing great gigs, I’d highly recommend her course.
Freelancing has opened up a whole new world for me. It’s not all rainbows and unicorns though. If you’re interested in learning more about freelancing, my friends and I brought Cat on the podcast last month to discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to freelancing from our perspectives along with our successes and failures so far. It was a really fun episode to record.
Now let’s talk about the numbers.
In February 2016, I earned $2,711.02
Work shifted around a bit but I earned about the same as last month. This is the income I received in February before fees and taxes; meaning this money actually made it to my checking account. It seems like Paypal fees are eating up a lot of my invoices so I’m considering trying a different invoice system or even some accounting software. Anyone have any recommendations?
As you know, a large majority of what I earn comes from freelance writing and I’m okay with that. Monetizing a blog takes time, especially if you’re trying to respect your readers and choose opportunities selectively.
Here’s How My Income Breaks Down
Freelance Writing: $2,301.02
Virtual Assistant Work: $60
Sponsored Posts: $250
Affiliate Income: $100
Hours Worked in February
Feb 1 – 7: 17.5 hours
Feb 8 – 14: 17.5 hours
Feb 15 – 21: 18.5 hours
Feb 22-29: 23 hours
Total: 76.50 hours
BIG Announcement and Goals for My Blog and Online Income
This time, I wanted to combine my goals with a big announcement I’ve been waiting to shared. I decided to work toward quitting my day job this year!! I’m so excited to finally be able to say that. The idea has crossed my mind quite a few times and people have even asked me before, but I’ve always said no or been undecided.
Some Drawbacks I’ve Had
As my side hustle income has grown, the main thing that was holding me back was that I wanted to purchase a house in the next few years, and I know that’s hard to do when you are self-employed unless you’ve been doing it for a few years.
Then, I thought to myself, will buying a house really make me happier than freelancing full-time?. The answer is simple, nope. While becoming a homeowner one day is one of my goals, I enjoy freelancing so much while my patience and motivation to work my full-time job has died. I don’t think it’s right or fair to work a job when I’m not interested in giving my all anymore and all I can think about is growing my freelance business and how much I enjoy it.
Then there’s my debt. I wanted to have all my student loans paid off before I consider leaving my job. But that would require me to work there another two years at least so I could pay off my loans and save up to quite. I’ve been chipping away at my student loans diligently each month, but once I get married we will have even more debt together.
Why I Plan to Quit Despite This
A big argument I hear is that freelance writing or just freelancing in general can provoke a feast or famine lifestyle that is unstable since the income you earn can vary, and your gigs can dry up at any time.
On the flip side, working my day job is unstable as well. Yes, I receive a paycheck every 15 days and have a good idea of how much I will earn. But my boss could walk into the office one day and tell everyone that he’s decided to shut down the business to travel with his family or pursue some other passion. People get laid off all the time, so any job you have can send you packing really.
In a nutshell, I’m choosing to freelance for two main reasons:
1. The ability to earn more in less time
In my particular industry, graduates are lucky if they land a job at a local or city newspaper that pays them $13 per hour starting out. Even if you get into marketing or PR, you will still earn an entry level salary and have to work your way to the top. The jobs are VERY competitive, and sometimes it exhausting to interview over and over again and try to convince people to hire you.
I know that with freelance pitching, it can seem like the same thing, but it’s less effort for me. There’s no silly personality test, no resume or cover letter for the most part, and no begging an employer to realize that I am best fit for the job.
Instead of having to wait years and years to work my way up the ladder and convince employers to pay me more, I can increase my income with freelancing easily by scaling up.
I also don’t know any part-time jobs that pays $35 per hour before taxes, so I know that if I double my time spent freelancing, I can earn much more than I ever would at my day job.
2. I Love it
It’s pretty simple. Even if there are bad days, I genuinely love blogging and freelance and I have fun with the work. That’s what life is about anyway. If you’re going to spend dozens of hours working each month, you might as well do something you truly enjoy.
There are other reasons as well like being able to work location independently, be my own boss and choose my clients, and being around more to spend time with my son and participate in activities at his school.
Goals to Get There
I hope to be able to feel ready enough to put in my notice at my full-time job this fall, but I won’t set a strict deadline because my goals constantly change. There are a few things I need to do first.
Save:
I need to beef up my emergency fund quite a bit so I feel comfortable enough to walk away from my job. Ideally, I would like to have at least 3-6 months of expenses saved up along with a checking account buffer in case I receive late payments from clients, and a separate savings account for car repairs and medical expenses. That way, I shouldn’t have to touch my EF unless I really need to. Anything else would be an added benefit.
Increase My Income:
This is an ongoing goal. Each month I try to scale up and establish new opportunities. Since my expenses are so low, I would like to earn way more than I need so I can account for taxes and live on less than I bring in after that.
Right now, I’m focusing on increasing my freelance income even though one of my long-term goals is to build my blog income up. Blog income can take forever to get paid out, and I don’t want to depend on it much at first since freelance income is more immediate and that’s what I need. I will still dedicate about 1-2 hours per week to build up my blog income but the majority of my time will go toward freelancing.
Pay off As Much Debt As I Can:
I don’t know what debt repayment will look like when I leave my job, but I’m hoping it will be around the same. In the meantime, I want to put as much toward my student loans as I can. When my fiancé and I get married, we plan to live off one of our incomes and use the other income to save and pay off debt until I put in my notice at my job.
As you can see, I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but I’m pretty excited.
Did you earn any extra income last month? Any big announcements? Do you know what I can do to minimize PayPal fees?
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Lindsay @ the Notorious D.E.B.T. says
Wow, that is fantastic, I wish I was earning that much each month from side hustles! I’m writing for one of the same sites as you, and I just started doing the whole freelance writing thing a few months ago myself.
Right now, I’m earning ~ $750/month, but I want to bring it up a lot higher, to around how much you’re making.
Also, I just started using Freshbooks. It costs $, but they allow you to send out invoices and they only charge something like 50 cents/invoice no matter how large it is, so that’s one way I’m getting around Paypal fees!
Choncé says
Sounds like you’re off to a great start after only doing this for a few months, I’m very sure you’ll get there 🙂 I think I’m going to start using Freshbooks. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it, and if all the fees I’m paying Paypal add up to more than the monthly subscription price, I might as well give it a try.
Aliyyah @RichAndHappyBlog says
This is excellent. I am so happy for you! I would like to work for myself some day too.
May I ask how long into blogging it took you to get freelance writing clients? I started my blog only a week ago, but want to get into freelance writing as soon as possible. I’m hoping my blog will serve as my portfolio.
Choncé says
Thanks Aliyyah! I started blogging in Dec. 2014 and got my first client in March of last year so just a few months after I guess. Your blog will definitely serve as your portfolio to help you land writing jobs.
alexandra @ my urban family says
Yay, best of luck!! I’m about to go through the mortgage process with freelance income – I’d be happy to let you know how it goes after. 🙂
Choncé says
Thanks Alexandra! Yes, please let me know how that goes. Best of luck to you!
Tonya@Budget and the Beach says
Congratulations on taking the leap! I use freshbooks for invoicing but I know sometimes I did have to use paypal.
Choncé says
Thanks Tanya! I like how Freshbooks has a free trial. I think I will start with that this month.
creativebugger1 says
Wow great job! I was starting to wonder if you were going to quit your day job. 🙂 Honestly, if you’re making that much money working 80 hrs a month, you could totally rock it if you were freelancing full time. What you brought home freelancing in February was more than what I was bringing home (even accounting for healthcare, taxes, and retirement) than I what bring home as a teacher. Good luck! I can’t wait to see what comes next for you.
Choncé says
Thanks for the kind words. My freelance income is steadily creeping up on what I earn at my FT job. However, the taxes I have to pay on the income sometimes greatly reduces the amount of money I actually get to spend. I have to set aside 25%-30% aside each month for taxes. I’m doing my first round of freelance taxes this month so hopefully, I’ll get a better feel for how much I need to set aside each month. I also have a few fees required to help keep my hustle going. I pay for help with images for Pinterest and I am also going to start paying someone to help me out on social media to free up more of my time.
lovetteorleavette says
Whoop, Whoop! Way to go Chonce! Ironically, I just wrote a post on the complete opposite and despite my personal reasons, I do get inspired by those who are following their dreams!
Choncé says
Thanks Shirria! It’s all about finding what works best for you.
Latoya says
Hey Chonce,
Congrats on your awesome side income! I currently use paypal, but I invoice through Zoho. I choose the business option and I only pay a flat 50 cent rate for each invoice. Is yours set up the same way?
Choncé says
Thanks Latoya! I’ll have to check that out.
Jason @ TheButlerJournal.com says
Congrats on another great month. I made the same amount that I did last month. I know March will be much better.
Choncé says
Good luck in March! Let me know if you need anything 🙂
Kristin says
Great job! You will do great once you leave youe job! I planned my getaway for several months with saving, etc. and it has worked out. You are gonna crush it once you freelance full time!
Choncé says
Thanks girl!
Choncé says
Thanks for stopping by and all the kind words Valerie! I’m also writing at http://www.EverythingFinanceBlog.com and http://www.Centsai.com
Christie says
How do you account for PayPal fees with taxes ? Do you use the dollar amount you invoice or what you receive minus fees ?
How many articles or posts are you writing a week ?
~ C
Choncé says
Hey Christie,
To stay organized each month, I only count the income I received for the month so pending invoices and work that is not paid out yet doesn’t count. So for all the invoices that were sent out and paid that month, I take a percentage of the total invoice amount and set that aside for taxes before deducting the amount Paypal fees.
How many articles I write per week varies and just depends on my availability to get them done and their due dates. I’m actually trying to get ahead so I’m writing more and usually write more at the beginning of the month and less toward the end of the month. For this week, I’m writing about 8 posts for other people and last week I did 7, so it’s usually somewhere around there.
colinashby says
Wow! This is so awesome to hear. Seeing these income reports, I was wondering if you were going to take the leap into self-employment. I’m trying to get more into freelance writing myself. I’ve taken 30 Days or Less to Freelance Writing Success e-course and have landed a few gigs in the past.
Definitely not near your income level though! It’s my goal to take the leap within the next 6-12 months.
DC @ Young Adult Money says
Congratulations on deciding to work towards quitting your job! I’m impressed by your freelance writing income last month. Clearly you are on the path towards making this a full-time income and I can’t wait to see where this takes you. Congrats again!
Choncé says
Thanks DC! I know I’ll feel much better is if quit my job knowing that I have lots of freelance income to rely on because blog income can be so inconsistent.
hollyatclubthrifty says
It sounds like you are quitting your job for the same reason I did many years ago – you’re making plenty of $ freelancing and don’t want to endure a regular 9-5 job anymore! I hope you enjoy freelancing as much as I do!
Choncé says
Yes, exactly! No other job allows me to take up at 5am and be super pumped to work other than freelancing, haha.
Catherine Alford says
Congrats girl! I can’t wait for you to go full-time with your business. You definitely need to get Freshbooks for your accounting system. It’s awesome and it’ll save you a ton in PayPal fees.
Choncé says
Thanks Cat! I just signed up for their free trial and send my first invoice out 🙂