The past month was definitely an interesting one. My Airbnb income came to a screeching halt! I thought the fall Airbnb income would slow down a little, but not to this extent. Then again, this is why I keep calling this multiple streams of income. I don't like being reliant on one sole source of passive income, because at any time (due to seen or unforeseen circumstances) your income can be yanked out from under you. I have to assume that Airbnb has probably halted because people are traveling less now that it is fall.
But regardless, my other income streams have performed as about as expected. The blog has continued to perform well and I've been looking at spending some time on advertising. At the same time, I bought Camtasia 9, and have started editing videos to publish on YouTube. Expect more videos from TTG between here and the end of the year. I've also my son has gotten into producing YouTube video on scripting in Roblox, so be sure to support “Scripting Maniac“! :)
Also on the passive income front, I've been really pleased with the consistent dividends I've been getting from Schwab Monthly Income investment and the quarterly dividends I've been receiving from my company stock purchase plan. Even though it is a small trickle right now, I know slowly but surely this will build steam as the dividends are reinvested and continue to compound. Hopefully, after the house is paid off, we will have a little extra money to invest more in dividend income streams and also make improvements on the house.
With that said, here is a breakdown of where we now sit with our mortgage payoff.
Mortgage Pay Off Countdown
Balance: $25,303
Paid last month: $3,792
Extra Money That Was Applied: $2,057
Goal of Pay Off Date: August 2018 – (new estimate: June 2018)
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 $1091 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 $5,722 in 2017] – a slight uptick in income from the past month, but with only two months to go, I think I might be a little short of my goal of $7,500 for the year, but it'll be close.
- AirBnB – [original 2017 Goal $2500 (completed in July) – new 2017 goal $7500] – [made $4,019 in 2017] – didn't make a dime this past month, which can be contributed to a fall cooldown. Regardless, I made some mods to our Airbnb listing, so hopefully, we will get some more visitors between now and the end of the year. Also, check out our Amazon listing of Airbnb gift cards! Might be a great idea for a Christmas gift for that special someone.
- Sell Stuff – [2017 Goal $2500] – [made $54 in 2017] – I've been thinking a lot about starting to sell some of my silver coins and converting these stagnant assets income generating assets. Possibly I'm looking to split 50% of these sales towards the mortgage and 50% towards my Schwab monthly income fund.
- Peer-to-Peer Lending – [2017 Goal $25] – [made $26.63 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 $122 in 2017] – earned $13.40. 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!). Slapped down $200 in buying Camtasia 9, which was hard to do (because I frugal). However, I'm really excited about getting started on producing some more videos for ThreeThriftyGuys and developing more content to the Two Checking Account System.
- Schwab Monthly Income Fund – [2017 Goal $10] – [made $8.04 in 2017] – consistently making just under $1 per month on this small dividend income fund that is basically on autopilot. Not bad for the chicken eggs sales I had in 2015 & 2016. If you haven't checked out the Schwab income fund, then read my review! Pretty cool investment option for consistent income.
My small efforts to build a passive income snowball are starting to pick up steam, and slowly but surely my intentional efforts are building upon one another. I'm going to continue to put effort into building a third leg of income, and at the same time balance family and other priorities.
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!
Charlie and his wife use the 2 Checking Account System to manage their finances – check it out for free.