Just when I thought May was starting to heat up, then came along June and totally blew my passive income expectations away. AirBnB has been exploding up in revenue, and we recorded a $1610 income stream through it. For the year, our AirBnB revenue is at $2,468, which is only $32 short of my 2017 goal of generating $2,500 for the year! If this breakneck pace keeps up, then I'd estimate that our revenue will be closer to $7,500 for the year.
A lot of people might be wondering if Airbnb takes a lot of time. Honestly, I utilize my kids to assist me with cleaning the house (which I pay them for), and as my, Grandpa use to say…”Many hands make for light work!” I probably spend about 2-4 hours of cleaning on each visit, and another 1-2 hours per visitor doing management interaction with our customers. I have learned a lot about how 20% more effort will generate us 80% of the gains. What I mean by this is that I've focused on taking quality pics, providing clear and concise instructions, always keeping a clean house, and trying to go above and beyond to appeal to our customers' needs. This has translated into 13 – Five Star Ratings, and a lot of satisfied customers. Even when the tornado hit, I provided our visitors with candles and flashlights while we were without power for 36 hours, and still got a five-star rating!
Overall, June 2017 was our best month ever, since I've been publicly showing how much I'm making through passive income streams. As we near mortgage payoff, I feel more and more confident about the direction we are heading with our finances, and the effort to rid ourselves of debt. The other income sources that I put effort into (i.e. the blog, pension payout, Schwab monthly income fund, and lending club) have also contributed a lot to having a diversified set of assets that are paying us.
Speaking of assets, this past month I watched a number of YouTube videos, but one that really stuck out to me was an animated video produced by “The Better Man Project“. In it, he walks through Robert Kiyosaki's concept of money. I really like how he describes what is defined as an asset. Let me ask you a question before you watch it. Would you consider your house an asset or liability?
Pretty interesting, huh? As we near paying off our house, the more it has me thinking about what are my true assets? What do I have working for me? What is paying me while I sleep? This past month, visitors at our AirBnB stay, paid me while I slept! It felt good to go to bed every night knowing that I had to do very little effort while people stayed visited, and I was generating revenue while I did nothing. In fact, I calculated it out, and I earned $8.25/hour that someone stayed at my house in one particular stay I had in May. I didn't have to work at McDonald's or check out customers at Walmart to earn this $8.25/hour. Nope! I just sat in my bed and slept.
As a result of our passive income streams, here is a record of how our mortgage payoff is going, which benefited significantly from the blog and AirBnB.
Mortgage Pay Off Countdown
Balance: $35,345
Paid last month: $3,311
Extra Money That Was Applied: $2,003
Goal of Pay Off Date: August 2018
Much like May, we were able to add a lot extra to our mortgage payoff due to the passive income streams. Again, it teaches me that a little bit of hustle goes a long way!
Here is a breakdown of my passive income streams from this past month and how we are doing it:
2017 Goals
- Pension – [2017 Goal $1308] [made $654 in 2017] – didn't lift a finger this past month to cash in on my previous employer's pension and collected $109. Sweet!
- Blog Income – [2017 Goal – $7500] – [made $3,221 in 2017] – Now that we are halfway through the year, I'm a little bit short of 50% of my 2017 goal. I need to make up some time, and get out there and continue to hustle!
- AirBnB – [2017 Goal $2500] – [made $2,468 in 2017] – best month ever for our AirBnB revenue with $1,610 coming in. This is one of the biggest factors in helping us get out of debt quicker!
- Sell Stuff – [2017 Goal $2500] – [made $54 in 2017] – I really haven't tried to sell anything this year, and am not confident that I'll make the $2,500 goal. I'll see how my other income sources go, but will probably be in a holding pattern with trying to sell stuff.
- Peer-to-Peer Lending – [2017 Goal $25] – [made $16.43 in 2017] – LendingClub continues to disappoint me with having a negative return on our investment, and I've had four loan defaults. Ugh! I can't wait to get out of this investment and move onto investing in dividend stocks!
- YouTube Channel – [2017 Goal $25] – [made $12 in 2017] – didn't earn much from YouTube this past month, but I'm still on track to make my yearly goal.
- Schwab Monthly Income Fund – [2017 Goal $10] – [made $4.50 in 2017] – my 2016 investment of $500 from egg sales and selling other household items continues to pay dividends each month. I continue to reinvest these dividends to help grow this passive income.
I couldn't be more pleased with the trajectory that things are going with our increased passive income streams, and our efforts to get out of debt. We were also able to buy our a new kitchen table in June for the first time in 16 years! Our original table and chairs were purchased from a used furniture store in 2001 for $250! I felt good about paying all cash for our new table, and what was even better is that it made my wife happy! :)
This is my report of how I'm making side income and using that to payoff my mortgage. I'd be interested to hear what side hustles you've got, and what you are doing with your extra cash! Leave a comment below!
2 Comments
Thanks Picky! Every little $100 bit helps! No matter what it is ultimately helping you get towards debt freedom! Keep up the good work!
Great job with paying down that mortgage again! I earned about $100 from my freelance writing side gig. I like to make a little more, but considering how busy/lazy I’ve been, that’s not a shabby number.