Passive Income Streams: July 2017 Report

Much like June, July was another rocking month for our passive income streams and road to debt freedom. In July, we were able to produce another $1,566 and continue to chip away at our debt.

In addition, as part of my monthly/yearly goals, I was able to study for my VMware VCP and pass my third VCP that helps make me competitive in my job field. I felt extremely relieved to have this out of the way. Now I need to figure out what other educational goals to include in my goals list.

Last month I talked about how we were needing to hold off on applying extra to our mortgage, which we did in July. It was nice to have my passive income streams, and the ability to redirect this money flow towards specific needs. In my case, we directed our pension, TTG income, Airbnb income, and additional primary job income towards pre-paying our private schooling. In a way, I think of it like directing all your missiles towards one specific target. It is all a matter of where I tell my assets to send their money towards.

In July I also had the chance to go on a family vacation to my in-law's cabin, and do some thinking. Thinking about what the next year holds for debt freedom. We normally save up every month to prepay for private school, but I decided to excel out some scenarios. Scenarios on what if we directed all of our extra money towards paying off our mortgage. In doing so I realized that we will be able to save money on mortgage interest and have the house paid off before Aug 2018.

After discussing the scenario with my wife, we decided to aim all of our “passive income missiles” towards our house. This should save us an extra $350 in interest, and hopefully, we can get enough Airbnb income to help us prepay for school next year too. We shall see…

Here is a breakdown of where we now sit with our mortgage payoff.

Mortgage Pay Off Countdown

Balance: $34,562

Paid last month:  $1,308

Extra Money That Was Applied: $0

Goal of Pay Off Date: August 2018

Next month we should be able to make a significant contribution and get focused on having the mortgage paid off by June of next year, but I'll keep my goal at Aug 2018. It is getting exciting to near the finish line.

Lately, I've been reading, “The Millionaire Real Estate Investor“, and it has been talking about following models and habits. You can follow small models and habits to either bigger and bigger goals or towards being deeper in debt. In my own life, I realize how the model and habits we form in our early careers have significant impacts to our future financial freedom. It is similar to how in college your first semester is so important to your GPA. My big take away is to work on forming better habits that will have higher future implications.

With that said, 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 $763 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 $3,953 in 2017] – Had another solid month with generating over $700. I expect this income to slow down a little bit as we move towards the end of the year, but I'm expecting to hit my $7,500 goal.
• AirBnB – [original 2017 Goal $2500 (completed in July) – new 2017 goal $7500] – [made $3,190 in 2017] – my original goal for 2017 Airbnb has now been blown out of the water and I've only really been working at this for four months. I'm going to readjust my goal now and set it for  $7,500. I'm putting a lot of work into this stream and trying to learn good habits out of it that will help me become a good landlord in the future.
• 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 $19.01 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 $110 in 2017] – earn $16.95 in July after producing three videos. So far this year I've produced, 10 Ways to Save Money on Your Electric Bill, DirecTV Review and How to Get Discounts, How to prepare for a Greater Depression, Passive Income Streams Require Continual Work, and Unused appliances that are using energy (and I didn't even know it!). In July I was able to hammer out three more videos, and looking at purchasing Camtasia video editing software. I'm really surprised how much money I've been able to make through YouTube this year and my only goal was to start small and make $25.
• Schwab Monthly Income Fund – [2017 Goal $10] – [made $5.28 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.

Just like I said last month, I continue to be amazed at how productive I've been with my income streams. I realize how the blog has helped me stay accountable to your all, and be responsible for recording my progress. I think if I didn't have the blog, then I probably wouldn't be putting in this much effort. The big lesson I can share with you all is to be intentional about recording your income or dividends whether you have a blog or not.

This is my report of how I'm making side income and using that to pay off 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!

You might also be interested in:

• Passive Income Streams: June 2017 Report
• Passive Income Streams: Nov 2016 Report
• 3 Phases to Passive Income Streams
• Passive Income Streams: May 2017 Report
• Passive Income Streams: Year End 2016 Report and 2017 Goals