Welcome to the 2020 November Side Income Report.
Let’s start this post with the obligatory caveat:
FLA’s side hustle income reports are not for the purpose of bragging. This side income amount of money is by no means impressive. The sole purpose of this series is to inspire you to create diversified income streams in order to help you achieve your financial goals faster.
I began this tumultuous F.I.R.E. (Financial Independence – Retire Early) journey almost immediately after graduating from college and shortly realizing it is never ideal to work for someone other than yourself.
After withdrawing from the corporate world, I plan to fully indulge in my mission of helping 10 million people with their own path to financial freedom. I’ve discovered a wonderful community of people with shared mindsets. So I’m currently on a journey to see if we can turn FLA into a little business that supports the mission.
The reason I’ve decided to publish these income reports is because I want you to be a part of the journey.
After aggressively saving 70%+ of my annual income year after year, I’m approximately 25% of the way to retirement with 10 years to go. I’m aware that side hustles may never fully support one’s expenses, but I’m willing to try.
At the very minimum of making $1/month (what one may consider failure), I am ecstatic as I realize this can be considered supplemental income that will be able to be reinvested into this blog to enhance your reading experience on FLA.
Through my arduous journey, I’ve learned to focus on the future value of money. One dollar to you may look like a standard George Washington-faced bill, but to me, I see its potential. Accounting for 3% inflation, investing that dollar could return 5 times its original value in 25 years. Yes, that’s like putting $1 into an ATM and having it return a $5 bill back to you. How amazing is compound interest?! Hypothetically, you can increase that principal amount, and you’ve got yourself some unbelievable returns.
My hope with these income reports is ultimately to present some transparency for you. By showing it doesn’t take much effort to earn and save, I may motivate you to chase one of your biggest dreams. Dreams may originally sound outlandish, but they all need to start somewhere, right? Without further ado, here is FLA’s November 2020 Side Income Report.
NOVEMBER SIDE INCOME REPORT
The best way to make money is to have various streams of revenue. The best way to protect yourself in the course of ill-fated events stripping you of some of your main sources of income is to diversify.
We have all heard the pragmatic advice of “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” Well, put this theory into practice. The following is my best attempt to develop additional sources of income. Below are the six ways I attempted to make money from my side hustles in the month of November.
Stocks are my absolute favorite money making assets. Your money can make money for you with the click of a ‘buy’ button! Sure, there are ups and downs in the stock market, but if you look historically at the S&P 500 Index or the Dow Jones Industrial Average, your investment generally grows over the long term. Remember, investing and gambling are not the same thing.
“If you aren’t willing to own a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.”
-Warren Buffett, American Investor/Business Tycoon/Philanthropist/Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
Investors and analysts may contend that conducting research on which stock to buy may be active work, but it is a generally held credence that dividends are passive income.
What are dividends?
Simply, they are distribution of some of a company’s earnings to a class of its shareholders. In this case, you are the shareholder. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but the company you invest in will reward you with bonus money!
Let’s take a look at the aftermath of the stocks that paid out dividends this month:
Which stocks have I invested in? I have a few individual stock picks, but the finance community knows this is often a loser’s game. I mainly hold VTI, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund, which allows you to be diversified and capture 3,525 different stocks with a minimal expense ratio, or annual fee, of 0.03%. Index funds will often take you to the promised land in the long run.
Typically, you have 2 choices with dividends. You can either accept the dividend as cold hard cash or you can choose to reinvest the money back into the same stock automatically. It’s as simple as clicking the ‘yes’ button when prompted with the question on whether or not to re-invest dividends.
I strongly recommend you to reinvest your dividends and capital gains. Why? Well, look at this way: you didn’t have the earned dividend money to begin with. Do you really need it at this moment? Why not let your additional money grow even more? Open up an investment account and enjoy the magic of compounding interest by increasing your principal investment.
November Side Income – Stock Dividends / Interest Total: $79.24
In my free time, I participate in paid surveys. It’s one of my other sources of income. The surveys are mindless and allow you to temporarily escape from life’s struggles and reality. Oftentimes, you have a chance to play your part in society and provide meaningful feedback on hot topics that may be decided by top companies and government officials.
The 3 survey programs I use daily are:
I strongly recommend any of these three survey websites because of the higher payouts. Our time on this planet is valuable. Always consider how much time you are trading for money.
Prolific
Prolific seems to have the highest quantity of surveys available. Each survey also previews an hourly rate to the user. This significantly helps in determining if the survey is worth your time. I’ve seen them range from $3/hour all the way up to $30/hour, but on average are $8/hour.
Pinecone Research
Pinecone Research surveys always rewards you with $3 for every survey. Since each survey is typically around 10 minutes long, the site has a pretty standard hourly rate of $12/hour. However, the frequency of surveys is much less than Prolific.
Finally, YouGov’s typical survey lasts for 10 minutes and will pay out $1.50, translating to an hourly rate of $6/hr. Even though it is the lowest payout, it still helps to have supplemental income. Again, always consider the balance between time and money.
YouGov is an eclectic group of the media, non-profits and companies that congregate to find out what the world thinks. YouGov happens to be one of the most-quoted data sources in the US and across the world.
Prolific, Pinecone Research, and YouGov offer all kinds of rewards, but I normally recommend cash payout via PayPal. The transfer is usually instantaneous. Prolific does pay out in GBP, but the money is translated to USD when conducting a bank transfer in PayPal.
In fact, Prolific does not have a minimum payout, Pinecone’s minimum payout is $5, and YouGov’s minimum cash payout is $50, albeit YouGov offers the option of a $15 Amazon gift card.
November Side Income – Surveys Total: $209.48
An additional passive income stream is selling your old goods or unused consumer products. Simply list your items with competitive pricing on Amazon and/or eBay, sit back, and let the buyers make you offers.
I often notice friends, family, and even co-workers constantly looking to throw out items that are still in perfectly good condition; it drives me nuts! Why not let someone bid on the product? Worst case will be that it doesn’t sell, and then you can throw out the item. No harm, no foul.
At the very least, donate your stuff. I typically enjoy donating old apparel to the Salvation Army and other charities. It always feels good to know your treasured clothing is not going to waste.
This month, I was fortunate enough for a stranger to bite on 1 item of my personal inventory I was looking to discard. After fees and small shipping costs, I still walk away with a hefty profit:
November Side Income – Selling Total: $33.28
As a blogger, I would like to keep the user experience as clean as possible. Therefore, I have chosen to keep all Google AdSense ads from my website. I am an avid reader of many other blogs, and I can truthfully admit it retracts from the reading experience. I am very proud of this decision and will continue with this route.
November Side Income – Google AdSense Revenue: $0
I published my first eBook titled “How I Launched, Marketed, and Promoted a High-Traffic Blog in Under 15 Days” at the beginning of November. I only promoted the book as part of the launch, but several people found their way to the sales page. Again, this is a learning process to convert the views into actual sales. As Robert Kiyosaki alludes to in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, it’s all about being a best-selling author, not a best-writing author. There is a subtle yet significant difference.
November Side Income – eBook Blog Startup Manual Sales: $0
Who would’ve ever thought that spending money would actually earn you money? Well, with cash-back credit cards, now it’s certainly possible. With my Capital One Venture Card, I can now make this dream a reality.
Depending on the card you have, you’ll score 1-2 miles with every dollar you spend. Capital One Miles can be used in a variety of ways, and are generally worth between half a cent and one cent apiece.
Earn 50,000 bonus miles (equivalent to $500) once you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening.
This month I was able to keep my spending down due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic that limits the amount time spent outside the house, thus limiting the amount of opportunities to throw away those hard earned paychecks.
After looking at my monthly expense report, I saw that I earned 4,913 miles, which is equivalent to $49.13.
November Side Income – Capital One Credit Card Cash-Back Rewards – $49.13
Well, that’s it for this month’s side income report! Hope you all had a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I’m grateful for my family, friends, health, and everyone reading these words. What are you grateful for? Let me know in the comments below.
I’m also grateful for the gains seen from the stock market, which is nearing an all time high. Although I continue to practice dollar cost averaging via my employer’s 401k, I will wait for some correction or downturn in the stock market before investing any more cash in my taxable brokerage account. Patience is a virtue!
Thank you for taking the time to read through my latest November income report and thank you for contributing if you have previously purchased something through one of my affiliate links!
If you wish to support this site, but don’t have a need for any of my affiliate products, you could simply do your regular Amazon shopping through any of the links on this site that lead to Amazon.com. You won’t pay any extra and FLA will receive a small commission. Thanks so much if you do so!
That’s a wrap for this income report! I am looking forward to earning more money on the side in the future. Stay hustlin’, my friends!
Total November Side Income: $371.13
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I say this every month but I'm going to have to take the plunge on at least one of those survey sites. Those are some pretty good payouts but I sort of just hate doing them haha. In my short experience with a hopefully not-too-intrusive Adsense sidebar, I like the way that it helps incentivize me to produce new content and improve my traffic. I'm barely making anything off of it so far, but even 10 cents a day compared to five cents is enough to get me energized. I wouldn't be mad at you for a tasteful little ad or two 🙂 on the site. Either way, keep crushing those side hustles!
IF, I completely understand. The hardest part of the surveys is just starting by signing up, but after that, it becomes a habit. And as you know, we are creatures of habit.
I could never stay mad at you either – it's funny that the miniscule ad revenue is equivalent to fractions of a percent of our net worth, but anything more than 0 is enough to motivate us!
Wow, $317 isn't too shabby. Still killing it with the surveys!! I need to start selling some of my "junk" that I have sitting around in my garage. Keep it up FLA!
Thanks Noel, I hope to inspire you to list some of those valuable items sitting in your garage. Just snap a few pictures, list it online, and wait for people to buy. You'd be surprised how many buyers will be interested! "One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure."
I always look forward to these posts! Great job this month. Those surveys are doing well! Really appreciate the transparency you give each month! Congrats on a successful month of side hustling!
Sean and Simone, I feel the same way when I see a new post on Our Intentional Farm! Transparency is key to building trust in the Blogosphere.
Thanks for sharing your side income report, FLA! I really enjoy reading posts like this, it's inspiring. Nice haul of side income and specifically the dividend income. That's a solid month. Keep it up!
Thanks Graham! It's encouragement like this that continues to motivate me to do better next month!
Congrats on saving 70% of your income! That's a huge milestone and I love reading these monthly reports as well, so much so that I seek them out lol. I'd like to start them on my real estate focused blog at some point, but I'm still getting all of that figured out. I currently have a couple properties and am looking at diversifying into dividend stocks at some point once I'm able to start saving money again. Keep hustling!
Welcome to FLA, Ryan – appreciate the comment! Real estate is also great asset for passive income. Having a couple properties already has set you up for nice returns. Cheers!
Hey FLA – I see you say you save 70% of your pay and are 25% of the way to retirement – that's a fantastic feat. I'm curious what's your goal amount you consider FI.
Hey Divs4Jesus, thanks so much for stopping by. I currently am aiming to hit $880,000 by age 37 when I plan to call it quits from the corporate world, but my goals may change over time, depending on many factors: health, # of children I plan to have, market performance, etc. Looking forward to reading more about your goals on your site!
Interesting report, thanks for sharing! I've always wondered if those surveys would be worth my time. It definitely seems so if I see your results, but how many hours have you actually spent on them?
Subscribed btw 🙂
Hey, good to hear from you Mr. Robot! I rarely keep track of my hours, but I may start to in the future. I keep the survey tabs open on my computer for most of the day at work. Whenever I have down time and a new survey is available, I'll asses the payout presented and take the survey. Typically, I shoot for anything over $5-7/hour. On an average week, I'd say I spend 1-3 hours a week on surveys for a conservative guess of 12 hours each month. Rarely is a survey ever take longer than 30 minutes. Thanks for subscribing! I'll continue to read your posts from here on out!
This is only the beginning! Can't wait to see what you've got going on by the end of next year!
Love the perspective! Much more to come!