Pennies Not Perfection

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Starting Dividend Investing on Robinhood | Penny Portfolio

| Personal Finance

I love watching investing videos on YouTube about dividend stock investing, but I’ve put off doing it myself for almost two years. But no more, dear friends, because I’ve got a goal and taking action toward that goal is more important than fear.

Dividend Investing on Robinhood

Why Start Dividend Stock Investing Now?

I’ve put off investing in dividend stocks for a long time because it’s not a main financial goal for us and I also felt overwhelmed by the concept of research “the best stocks”. I didn’t want to dedicate lots of time to learning and analyzing stocks one by one, but I also knew that dividend stocks could provide a huge income once you have a portfolio of a certain size.

Because I’ve seen many videos about the power of dividend stocks, I wanted to find a way where I could start small and invest without risking much.

I like easing in to things that are new to me as I learn about them and get more comfortable. Investing in single stocks is something that I’m not comfortable with since I’ve always been an index fund investor in my retirement accounts. Because of that I’m dipping my toes into stock market investing with a specific goal – building a dividend portfolio that eventually helps provide for my daughter in the future.

Why Invest In Dividend Stocks?

So why invest in dividend stocks over other investments? Why not invest in something else?

I chose building a dividend stock portfolio for this purpose because I want to play with investing in single stocks that build a larger portfolio that provides dividends and growth. Since I only invest in index funds in my regular retirement investments, I want to build an asset that provides either dividend income so I can later use that money for a monthly allowance or something I can sell to pay for my daughter’s education if the 529 plan isn’t enough.

Another reasons is simply because I needed to take action on something I’ve been interested in doing. I’ve literally been watching dividend investing videos for over a year and a half and talking myself out of doing anything with it. I’ve watched over a year of possible investing opportunities slip out of my hands.

I could easily tell myself its not the right time because the market is too high or I don’t have extra money for it, but I realized that if I keep doing this it will be another five years later and I still didn’t do anything. I could easily talk myself out of ever investing at all. Too much risk. Too much unknown. Too many other financial goals.

However, action towards a goal is always better than nothing. Even if it’s a small action, movement toward a goal is better than just thinking about doing something. We all know small consistent actions add up to success.

Also, I’ve realized that because the WHY behind everything I’m doing here on this channel and blog is FREEDOM, this is yet another way to eventually build freedom. Dividend stock investing eventually leads to an income that is not tied to selling your hours of labor. That income not tied to a job means freedom and that will be amazing for me and for Penny and everyone else in our family.

Where To Invest In Dividend Stocks

Once I decided I wanted to finally jump in to investing in single dividend stocks and building a dividend portfolio I had to decide where I wanted to invest. I looked at several options but my Robinhood account I owned years ago – and ignored for literally 3 or 4 years – finally emailed me to say I was open to fractional shares and that made the decision for me: I’m building a dividend stock portfolio inside of Robinhood.

Fractional shares just means that instead of having to purchase a full stock at the full price – like a $750 investment in one share of Tesla, I could instead invest a smaller amount of money – even just $5 or $10 – and buy a fraction of a share. This ability to buy a fraction of shares opened up many most possibilities for a small beginning dividend stock investor.

This sounded perfect for how I planned to use the account, so I decided to go for it and buy my first dividend stock inside of my Robinhood portfolio. I realized I also am very comfortable with Robinhood because I watch dozens of investing YouTube channels that all use Robinhood and have portfolios there. 

How I’m Investing In Dividend Stocks

My plan for investing in dividend stocks in my “Penny Portfolio” is a little bit different than the normal way most people invest. I will be investing a small amount monthly, but I mostly plan to use this as another impulse spending tool. I plan to fund this account irregularly in a couple different ways.

First way I will invest in these dividend stocks, whenever I want to impulse buy something my daughter doesn’t need like cute clothes, I will instead invest in her account. She has enough clothes to last til she goes to kindergarten so I don’t need to buy them, I just want to. Instead I plan to buy a stock share with that money and continue to create an asset that will last for decades instead of a piece of clothing she will outgrow in a few months.

Second way I will invest in dividend stocks is whenever I sell something of hers that is currently not being used I will invest that amount of money. I have a pile of toys that need to be out of my house soon, so when I declutter I will contribute that amount earned into the Penny Portfolio.

The final way I will invest in dividend stocks in this portfolio, is to contribute $10 a month in our normal budget. As you guys know, I like having small amounts like this in our budget just as a reminder of our bigger goals. While it may not be a focus, those little amounts add up in the background as we are doing other things with the majority of our money. Plus, $10 isn’t much and doesn’t hurt out budget since we’ve cut so many regular expenses and focus on free fun activities!

Finally, you guys who watch my videos and read my blog will probably help build this portfolio of stocks. I’m going to be including my referral link in the description box for Robinhood. If you sign up, you will get 1 free stock and I will get 1 free stock as well. So if you use my link you will be contributing to the Penny Portfolio and we will all be building this up to provide an amazing future to the cutest kid I know.

Why I’m Talking About Dividend Stock Investing

I wanted to share this little dividend stock portfolio project I started in order to let you know why there was a $10 Robinhood line item in our budget for those who were curious.

February 2020 was the first month for this account and we currently have a balance of $23 all invested in Disney. We invested the money so far in fractional shares of Diseny because I’m going to invest in companies I know, understand, and use.

This is the perfect time for a reminder that I am not an expert at all and this is just me sharing my personal experience. This is not financial advice, this is just entertainment and me sharing my experience. My stock picks are personal and never a suggestion that you should pick the same. Do your own research!

So that’s it! I’m excited about complimenting my debt payoff and side hustle strategies with also building assets that will provide income. There are so many ways to achieve financial success and this is just another one of them. I’m dipping my toes in the dividend stock investing world and I couldn’t me more excited about it!

January 2020 Online Income Report – $1,931.00

| Online Income Reports

Welcome to my monthly online income report! And to the biggest income report so far! January 2020 was my best online income month yet. This little creative side project has turned into a side hustle with real legs.

Each month here on the blog I share what I earned from online endeavors like this personal finance blog, my YouTube channel, and my Etsy shop. I like sharing real numbers to inspire myself and others.

I know that earning more online income could stop me from working 45 hours each week so I’ve tried to squeeze as much work into online income generating activities as possible. Because I’m back to working full time hours for a season I’m unable to put more than a few hours each week into my online income activities, but the income this month has me hopeful that I can continue growing the income by being extremely helpful and reaching more people.

Growing my online income is so important to my current financial goals and that focus matters so much to my family right now! It also means that as my income grows, I’m helping more people.

Why Share An Online Income Report

I’m sharing my online income reports as a YouTuber (my main priority these days even though I started years ago as a blogger) to show people that it is possible to make money online. Lots of people want to know how much small youtubers make and if you can make money from a small YouTube channel.

I’m a small YouTuber that started just so I could share videos of my Alaska vacation, but it’s turned into so much more than that over the two years that I’ve been making videos on YouTube.

Once I realized I could also earn money with the videos, I decided to set a goal of making YouTube into a side hustle. My original goal with earning income on YouTube was to earn at least $600 dollars a month to help pay for the additional daycare expenses for my daughter.

Any amount of money would help our financial situation since we had increased expenses and I wanted to work less as well. Those two things don’t go together without added stress, so my plan was to increase my side hustle income!

I knew that earning money online was possible because I had done it once before as a blogger on a small scale and even though I’d let that income and blog life go, I had seen hundreds of others do the same and more by reading their online income reports. If people could earn tens of thousands a month online, surely I could earn $600 a month.

Income reports inspired me to try to work harder and do more while building my online income through my YouTube channel

While I’m not earning a full time income online currently, I am happy to show that I’ve grown my income to hit that original online income goal and I’ve been able to help a lot of people along the way. It’s amazing that we can earn money creating and sharing content online.

Previous Online Income Reports

If you’re interested in past income reports, you can see all of them here:

Online Income Reports – Pennies Not Perfection

As you can see from past income reports, my online income in 2019 has been trending much higher than my income last year. The growth is not viral or explosive but it is moving up every single month.

I’m consistently earning $1,000 a month now when I was only earning $300-500 last year when I started tracking my online income. That might not seem huge since it’s small numbers but that means I have doubled my monthly online income!

It’s amazing to think that I have earned over $1,000 a month with Pennies Not Perfection and other online activities these past few months.

I like sharing these numbers to show small YouTubers what is possible with a channel that isn’t huge or growing by hundreds of thousands of subscribers in a year. While that would be amazing, it is possible to still earn income as a small channel.

Seeing these numbers in this format helps me to see the growth I’ve already had and inspires me to keep growing.

I plan to grow this blog/website around my channel as well and hopefully these income report numbers inspire anyone looking to grow from humble beginnings online.

January 2020 Online Income Report

Here are the main income sources broken down by what I earned for the month of January. I’ve included referral links to each if you want to join too!

Advertising Income – $$774.05

  • YouTube Advertising Channel 1 – $652.84
  • YouTube Advertising Channel 2 – $103.21
  • Adsense & Sponsored – $18.00

Affiliate Marketing Income – $695.50

  • Amazon – $108.06
  • Awin – $101.07
  • Impact Radius – $60.00
  • Shareasale – $1.37
  • Rakuten – $25.00
  • Capital One – $400.00

Product Sales Income – $461.45

  • Etsy Products – $461.45

Total Income: $1,931.00

This is the amount earned in January 2020 before any fees, expenses, or taxes.

That means I don’t keep all of it it and at least 25% will be gone for taxes before it hits my bank account. I also won’t be paid all of it in the month it is earned since each source pays out at different times.

However, I must say with much excitement: I continue to stay above the $1,000 mark in income earned!

This makes me hopeful since the income has been consistent month after month being over $1,000 a month. Of course I know that this could change at any moment but I’m grateful for the continued earnings!

I hit the goal of earning $1,000 in a month from mostly YouTube generated activity which is insane and exciting and worth all the work that has gone into it. I’ve been making videos for over 2 years now and not a single one has gone viral.

What I Worked On In January 2020

In January I worked on a few different priorities both growing income sources I already had and creating new ones.

Made for videos for my YouTube channel.

I continued to make and post videos at least three times a week in January. A few of my videos did well because of all the people trying to get their finances in order in January. I was happy to see some take off!

My revenue for ads in January was higher than I expected, due to that increase in people watching. Typically January revenue is bad for YouTubers but I think it is a bit flipped for financial channels.

Made affiliate marketing improvements.

I continued with my implementation of tweaks I learned from taking the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course. Some of the older posts and videos I made focused on affiliate marketing are doing well even now, so I’m reaping the benefits of past work.

I also continued to make tweaks on my existing ones should help increase the affiliate revenue. I’m very happy with the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course so far because it’s helped me focus into a better direction.

I signed on to two new programs I want to promote as well. I was also contacted to join a third which I did but then I felt a bit of hesitation about signing up for their product so ultimately decided not to promote that company.

Added products to my Etsy shop.

I continued to add more products to my Etsy shop and increased the amount of higher priced products. Having multiple items listed at $8.50 has increased my overall order amount. It also works well for people purchasing because my printables are priced competitively and much less than many alternatives.

While I have a clean aesthetic for my budgeting printables and trackers, I also decided to offer colors and fun versions! This came about from wanting a colorful version for myself in February and I’m thrilled to also sell them!

January 2020 Online Income Wins

Time to celebrate some things that went right with online income in the month of January!

Income over $1,900.

My first big goal with online income was to get to earning at least $600 a month to help pay for daycare and debt payments. More recently I challenged myself to start hitting $1,000 a month. I managed to do that for several months in a row and then last month I earned over $1,900!

That number blew my mind. So much so that I had to count up everything multiple times and recount my numbers. It was incredibly exciting to see that I earned so much during the month.

This is the best side hustle by far of any I’ve ever done! It definitely took a lot of work to learn the skills needed and it’s take a long time to ramp up to this level of income, but I love being able to earn online income through making videos, writing blog posts, recommending and creating products that help other people. This allows me to be creative, supportive, and encouraging which is all the things I want to be in life.

Etsy revenue over $450.

Etsy was amazing in the month on January! I couldn’t even believe the amount that I sold because it was triple the amount sold in January.

Triple. Yes, triple the amount. That also blew my mind. That seems to be the theme for the income earned in January.

I’m thrilled that people are connecting and using and loving something I’ve made. I didn’t realize how awesome selling something could be. Before I started my Etsy shop I only felt fear over selling – what if no one bought anything? what if people hated it? what if I only got 1 star reviews? Now I realize that the upside of creating and selling is amazing. Not only do I receive an income but I help other people.

What I’m Working On Next

So what’s on tap for next month? I’ve got a few things planned:

Grow the products in my Etsy shop. I plan to create more items and also promote what is already there. I have a big goal of eventually getting to 100 items listed in 2020 so I’m hoping I can continue to add products and grow the amount of listing and sales.

It’s a huge goal and I have a long way to go but I want to at least add 4 new products in February. I have a list of over a hundred new items I’d like to make, but time considerations make it a little bit hard. Aiming for 1 per week is a good compromise that moves me closer to the goal.

Create more affiliate focused videos. I made a couple affiliate product focused videos and they did quite well for my channel based on the response and the income. Since I’ve determined I will never recommend things I won’t use myself, I’m happy to do affiliate based videos. I’ve turned down more lucrative offers because they felt sketchy and instead I’m focusing on things I use and love. This strategy might not be the fastest way to wealth, but it feels the best to me.

After taking Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing I have so many ideas to implement and just need to find the time to do so. I’m planning to create more affiliate focused videos by focusing on single products and being super helpful in the content. I honestly never want to create anything that isn’t helpful to at least one person.

Popular YouTube videos on my channel:

Thanks for reading/watching/following along with this online income journey! Stay tuned for more online income reports.

How To Set Up A Debt Snowball

| Debt Payoff

There are many reasons to pay off debt and there are almost as many ways to successfully create a debt payoff plan. The debt snowball plan of paying off debts is a great system front-loaded with rewards and positive psychological wins that has helped millions of people pay off debt.

With the debt snowball you attack debt by tackling the smallest obligation first. You then roll that payment amount into tackling the next largest debt. You continue this process knocking off bigger and bigger debts with a larger payment amount, just like a snowball rolling down a hill.

Why the debt snowball works

The debt snowball is derided by many as the worst way to repay debt because it doesn’t take interest rates into account. This means for many people it is not the best mathematical choice. So why does the debt snowball method work so well for people paying off debt?

The debt snowball method works well because the small victories people achieve up front when paying off debt. For many people seeing those small debts paid off quickly helps keep them engaged and ready to tackle bigger challenges.

The debt snowball might not be the best way financially to pay off debt compared to a technique like the debt avalanche strategy, but it uses psychological strategies that work for many people.

how to set up a debt snowball method plan

How to set up a debt snowball

Setting up a debt snowball is actually very straightforward. There’s only 5 steps to setting up and completing a debt snowball.

Step 1: To start you will list all of your debts from smallest balance to largest balance regardless of interest rate.
Step 2: Make minimum payments on all your debts except the smallest debt balance.
Step 3: Pay as much as possible on your smallest debt balance until it is completely paid off.
Step 4: Take the minimum payment from the previous loan and all your extra income and apply it to the next largest debt balance.
Step 5: Repeat until each debt is paid in full.

There are many examples online of setting up a debt snowball to repay debts.

When we starting paying off debt together my husband and I set up our debt snowball as follows:

Loan 1: $1,043.99
Loan 2: $5,400.05
Loan 3: $5,792.96
Loan 4: $31,129.13

Total debt: $43,366.13

You can see how we worked through the debt snowball with our debt snowball playlist where we adding videos showing our progress working through the debt snowball.

The debt snowball method worked well for me when I paid off $22,000 in student loans and $5,000 in credit card debt in my early 20s so I knew that the method would work well for me again. While the interest rates of our newer debt snowball meant the lowest interest rate debt would be paid last, I knew the method was effective.

If you want to see how long it will take you to pay off your debt using the debt snowball method, you can use a debt snowball calculator is a great way to see how quickly a debt snowball can get you out of debt.

Using the debt snowball method

Using the debt snowball to pay off debt is very simple in practice and works well for many people.

The first step is to make sure you are covering the minimum monthly payments on all of your debts. You should not stop paying your debts unless you are unable to cover you basic living needs like rent or food.

After you’ve covered all the minimum payments on your debts, you work on attacking your debts in the order of the debt snowball list you’ve created. You will send all your extra money toward that first smallest debt.

Every single month you will put all your extra money budgeted for debt payoff toward your smallest debt. You do this even if you are paying more interest on a different one due to interest rate. Once you’ve paid off the smallest debt you then take that entire amount and send it to the next smallest debt.

Rinse and repeat by knocking off debts from your list and then sending all the freed up money toward the next debt in line.

In practice the debt snowball might look like this: you have a dental bill for $1,000 that you are paying interest-free, and two credit card bills for $5,000 (at 22.9% interest) and $1,500 (at 15.9%), and a student loan at $26,000 (at 6%). With the debt snowball you’d pay the dental bill first. Once you completed that loan you’d move on to the $1,500 credit card and then the second credit card and finally the student loan.

With the debt snowball you may end up paying off interest-free loans before you tackle the bigger interest debts.

If the debt snowball method makes you crazy because of the interest rates, you may want to consider the debt avalanche method or a debt consolidation loan.

How to make the debt snowball work for you

Once you’ve got your debt snowball set up you can set about the business of making the debt snowball even more effective.

First, make your budget and see how much extra money you have to put towards the debt each month above the minimum payments. That extra money is how you will eliminate the debt that you are tackling.

Next, find ways to free up even more money for your debt snowball. You can do this one of two ways: increasing income or decreasing expenses. You can decrease expenses by eliminating bills or living frugally or giving yourself less spending money each month. You can increase income by doing a side hustle or by increasing your income at your regular 9 to 5 job.

Your debt snowball will be most effective when you are able to find even more money to throw at the debt each month. The more money you put toward your debts, the more you will progress in the snowball and the faster it will go.

My favorite way to increase the effectiveness of a debt snowball is to use these spots of found money to make debt snowflake payments. The small daily savings and “found” money that you can add to the debt repayment in terms of debt snowflakes can truly add up and make a difference.

Is a debt snowball right for you?

When choosing your debt repayment method you have to select the right method for you, whether that is the debt snowball or the debt avalanche or another method.

Using a debt snowball calculator will let you compare the different options and decide which method is the best for paying off your debts.

It can be tempting to go with the debt avalanche plan for paying off debt but you have to think about more than just the numbers. You know yourself and how you handle money and what motivates you. The best debt payoff plan is the one that you will stick with. A debt payoff plan does you know good if it is mathematically the best choice but you abandon it. That’s why the less financially effective method of the debt snowball might be the best one for you – because it includes motivational wins that help you stick with it.

For me, I like breaking down larger goals into smaller ones. Having more frequent milestones and payments is motivating to me. (It’s also why I combine the Weekly Transfer Method with the Debt Snowball.)

Breaking down large goals into smaller subgoals can help you stick with an overall plan. This is especially helpful if you think it will take years to pay off all your debt.

If you think the debt snowball method will motivate you to pay off debt, then that is the method you should choose.

December 2019 Online Income Report – $1,372.82

| Online Income Reports

Welcome to my monthly online income report! And to the biggest income report so far! December 2019 was my best online income month yet.

Each month here on the blog I share what I earned from online endeavors like this personal finance blog, my YouTube channel, and my Etsy shop. I like sharing real numbers to inspire myself and others.

online income report celebrate money

I know that earning more online income could stop me from working 45 hours each week so I’ve tried to squeeze as much work into online income generating activities as possible. Because I’m back to working full time hours for a season I’m unable to put more than a few hours each week into my online income activities, but the income this month has me hopeful that I can continue growing the income by being extremely helpful and reaching more people.

Growing my online income is so important to my current financial goals and that focus matters so much to my family right now! It also means that as my income grows, I’m helping more people.

Why Share An Online Income Report

I’m sharing my online income reports as a YouTuber (my main priority these days even though I started years ago as a blogger) to show people that it is possible to make money online. Lots of people want to know how much small youtubers make and if you can make money from a small YouTube channel.

I’m a small YouTuber that started just so I could share videos of my Alaska vacation, but it’s turned into so much more than that over the two years that I’ve been making videos on YouTube.

Once I realized I could also earn money with the videos, I decided to set a goal of making YouTube into a side hustle. My original goal with earning income on YouTube was to earn at least $600 dollars a month to help pay for the additional daycare expenses for my daughter.

Any amount of money would help our financial situation since we had increased expenses and I wanted to work less as well. Those two things don’t go together without added stress, so my plan was to increase my side hustle income!

I knew that earning money online was possible because I had done it once before as a blogger on a small scale and even though I’d let that income and blog life go, I had seen hundreds of others do the same and more by reading their online income reports. If people could earn tens of thousands a month online, surely I could earn $600 a month.

Income reports inspired me to try to work harder and do more while building my online income through my YouTube channel

While I’m not earning a full time income online currently, I am happy to show that I’ve grown my income to hit that original online income goal and I’ve been able to help a lot of people along the way. It’s amazing that we can earn money creating and sharing content online.

Previous Online Income Reports

If you’re interested in past income reports, you can see all of them here:

Online Income Reports – Pennies Not Perfection

As you can see from past income reports, my online income in 2019 has been trending much higher than my income last year. The growth is not viral or explosive but it is moving up every single month.

I’m consistently earning $1,000 a month now when I was only earning $300-500 last year when I started tracking my online income. That might not seem huge since it’s small numbers but that means I have doubled my monthly online income!

It’s amazing to think that I have earned over $1,000 a month with Pennies Not Perfection and other online activities these past few months.

I like sharing these numbers to show small YouTubers what is possible with a channel that isn’t huge or growing by hundreds of thousands of subscribers in a year. While that would be amazing, it is possible to still earn income as a small channel.

Seeing these numbers in this format helps me to see the growth I’ve already had and inspires me to keep growing.

I plan to grow this blog/website around my channel as well and hopefully these income report numbers inspire anyone looking to grow from humble beginnings online.

December 2019 Online Income Report

Here are the main income sources broken down by what I earned for the month of December. I’ve included referral links to each if you want to join too!

Advertising Income – $802.75

  • YouTube Advertising Channel 1 – $621.35
  • YouTube Advertising Channel 2 – $119.29
  • Adsense & Sponsored

Affiliate Marketing Income – $418.19

  • Amazon – $214.26
  • Awin – $117.73
  • Capital One – $80.00
  • Impact Radius – $6.00
  • Shareasale – $0.20

Product Sales Income – $151.88

  • Etsy Products – $151.88

Total Income: $1,372.82

This is the amount earned in December 2019, before any fees, expenses, or taxes.

That means I don’t keep all of it it and at least 25% will be gone for taxes before it hits my bank account. I also won’t be paid all of it in the month it is earned since each source pays out at different times.

However, I must say with much excitement: I continue to stay above the $1,000 mark in income earned!

This makes me hopeful since the income has been consistent month after month being over $1,000 a month. Of course I know that this could change at any moment but I’m grateful for the continued earnings!

I hit the goal of earning $1,000 in a month from mostly YouTube generated activity which is insane and exciting and worth all the work that has gone into it. I’ve been making videos for over 2 years now and not a single one has gone viral.

What I Worked On In December 2019

In December I worked on a few different priorities both growing income sources I already had and creating new ones.

Made for videos for my YouTube channel.

I started the month of December with Vlogmas which was an experiment to do daily videos during the month of December. I started the month with videos that were more vlog and lifestyle focused which ultimately did not get me as many views as normal.

I switched my strategy halfway through the month when I realized videos about Christmas and my life weren’t working out in terms of views and revenue. I decided to focus on daily videos on my normal finance topics and the ad revenue increased later in the month.

Made affiliate marketing improvements.

I continued with my implementation of tweaks I learned from taking the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course. I feel like this has helped me save a lot of time, even if this month’s affiliate income does not reflect it!

I added additional affiliate marketing programs for products in December as well! I plan to keep my number of promoted affiliate partnerships to under 20 so that they are manageable and never something I haven’t used myself. I’m super excited about some of the new products I’m now promoted.

I also continued to make tweaks on my existing ones should help increase the affiliate revenue. I’m very happy with the Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course so far because it’s helped me focus into a better direction.

Added products to my Etsy shop.

I continued to add more products to my Etsy shop and increase the amount of higher priced products. While I’m still not comfortable creating and selling products at a truly high price point, I did start offering items that were more than $2!

This resulted in a higher amount per order so my overall revenue from my Etsy shop increased. I will not be adding expensive products any time soon but I’m thrilled to have small increases like this.

This is also the third month in a row when I’ve earned over $100! I earned over $150 this month so I’m hoping this is a continued upward trend in revenue from Etsy. I love making products more than I expected and it is thrilling to see people using stuff I’ve made because they like my style.

I briefly got annoyed this month about people directly copying my style but I am trying to work through the emotions because no one will achieve success just being a copycat. They may think they can but they will always be a budget version of something better, so I’m trying to remember that when I get annoyed. I briefly thought that sharing my income reports like this was a mistake because it does encourage people to copy, but then again I was inspired by others who did income reports too. I plan to just stay in my lane and not look at what anyone else is doing any longer… because they don’t matter.

December 2019 Online Income Wins

Time to celebrate some things that went right with online income in the month of December!

Income over $1,000.

Like I’ve mentioned, my first goal with online income was to get to earning at least $600 a month to help pay for daycare and debt payments. More recently I challenged myself to start hitting $1,000 a month.

This month I feel like I sailed right past that $1k mark yet again and I’m thrilled that I’m consistently earning over $1,000 a month with Pennies Not Perfection.

This is the best side hustle by far of any I’ve ever done! It definitely took a lot of work to learn the skills needed and it’s take a long time to ramp up to this level of income, but I love being able to earn online income through making videos, writing blog posts, recommending and creating products that help other people. This allows me to be creative, supportive, and encouraging which is all the things I want to be in life.

Advertising income over $800.

December is a great month for advertising income because the last month of the year is always higher paid by advertisers. My CPM on videos was much higher in December and thanks to increased number of videos I also managed to make more overall.

I’m not sure how much my revenue will drop in January with lower CPMs but I’m excited to keep adding videos. I also plan to keep adding videos that are more evergreen and on topics that can reach a broader audience. Paycheck budgets are my “bread and butter” with ad revenue right now but ultimately I’d like to be able to create videos less often but still earn money with ad revenue.

What I’m Working On Next

So what’s on tap for next month? I’ve got a few things planned:

Grow the products in my Etsy shop. I plan to create more items and also promote what is already there. I have a big goal of eventually getting to 50 items listed in 2019 so I’m hoping I can continue to add products and grow the amount of listing and sales.

Create more affiliate focused videos. I made a couple affiliate product focused videos and they did quite well for my channel based on the response and the income. After taking Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing I have so many ideas to implement and just need to find the time to do so. I’m planning to create more affiliate focused videos by focusing on single products and being super helpful in the content. I honestly never want to create anything that isn’t helpful to at least one person.

Popular YouTube videos on my channel:

Thanks for reading/watching/following along with this online income journey! Stay tuned for more online income reports.

How To Get A Reluctant Spouse On Board With Budgeting

| Personal Finance

How do you get a reluctant spouse on board with budgeting? How does everyone convince their spouse to pay off debt? Why does it seem like everyone is working together on their finances except you?

If you’re like me and my husband, it wasn’t easy to get on the same page with money instantly. While I had big dreams of budgeting our money tightly and paying off debt my husband wasn’t ready to make the changes we needed. He wanted to keep spending money like he wanted, when he wanted, and every month I ended up in tears when what I had budgeted didn’t match what we had actually spent.

After 3 years of marriage and creating budgets for two years, we’ve finally recently gotten on the same page with money. It took A LOT of trial and error since my husband was reluctant to pay off debt or save heavily for goals.

Today I’m sharing many of the things I did to get my spouse on board with budgeting and paying off debt.

Have a positive money conversation… or two.

Having an honest conversation about why you need help and support with budgeting and why it matters to you is the first step to getting your spouse on board. For many couples this can be the first and last step because many supportive spouses immediately get on board once they realize how important it is to their partner.

However, not every spouse gets on board with budgeting and spending wisely with just one conversation. For many of us, there must be many conversations about this topic.

Unfortunately when you are having the same conversation over and over again with a partner it can often devolve into a negative experience full of blaming, shaming, nagging, and overall negativity. To really be effective with having these money conversations you have to do them without shaming or guilting or nagging.

If you can’t get through this type of financial conversation without defaulting to the negative habits of blaming and shaming, try writing a letter or email where you aren’t as emotionally charged. Sometimes you can get your thoughts out about why succeeding with money is so important when your brain has a chance to rational process your reasons without the impulsive desire to get defensive or angry.

write your spouse a letter about why budgeting matters

Focus on your money wins together.

Focusing on the wins that you’ve made with budgeting already while including your spouse is a great way to slowly engage them and bring them on board.

Instead of constantly nagging or feeling like your conversation is at a standstill, focus on talking about the wins and things that went well. Instead of screaming at your partner that they went over budget or spent too much or whatever frustrates you, tell them about what went well. “Say honey, last month we managed to spend less on our utility bill! That money will really help us reach ___ financial goal. I’m so proud of us.”

You can praise your partner for the things that went right first and foremost even if the thing that went well really had nothing to to with them. Tell them how the wins will help you get other, even bigger wins with your money. Include them on the team to share in the successes not just put them in the place of the enemy doing all the wrong things until that is all you can see.

This is something I had to learn to do after many fights with my husband and analyzing my husband’s nature. He wanted to be my teammate but he kept falling into the role of my adversary because all I could see were the places he wasn’t on board. Once I started talking about that less and giving him more credit with out successes he got more and more on board. 

Try separate spending money accounts.

One way to get your spouse on board is to give the more freedom with separate spending money. While I think it’s important to have your money together when you are married and you should NOT separate your money altogether, it can be very helpful to separate your spending money.

I firmly believe even when budgeting as a team, everyone needs a bit of freedom where they don’t have to account for each dollar they spend. 

You may also want to increase your spouse’s spending money or budget categories where you constantly butt heads. Maybe you can spend $100 on groceries when you are the only one eating. As a single person that might work but as a pair, maybe it doesn’t and it makes your partner rebel even further. If your spouse needs more spending money than you do, try increasing what they get and don’t have to account for in order to win overall.

Adjust your timeline expectations.

You may also just need to adjust your expectations about how quickly your spouse will get on board. Sometimes getting your spouse on board with budgeting takes a couple months. Sometimes getting your spouse on board with paying off debt can take a long time. You may not be the couple that gets on the same page instantly.

If you are continually butting heads on money but your partner is amazing in every other way, maybe you need to adjust your expectations of how quickly you think they should get on board. Sometimes it takes people longer than others to grasp a concept or to change their habits. Financial habits can be very hard to change for some people after years or decades of doing things one way.

You might be expecting your spouse to change instantly because it makes so much sense to you, but ultimately you need to adjust those expectations to better fit the reality of your situation. Your expectations are probably making everything harder when they are not meeting your expectations about getting on board with budgeting or paying off debt.

Take your spouse to a financial class.

Taking your spouse to a financial class like Financial Peace University can be very helpful when you are trying to get them on board financially.

I add this last on the list because actually having the knowledge on what to do doesn’t mean certain people will do it. Sometimes going through a financial literacy class does not change habits. My husband and I went through FPU before we got married and that didn’t solve our money problem or prevent our money fights.

Knowing what to do doesn’t always mean someone is going to comply or change deep seated behaviors to change. For many people doing a class like FPU is the step that is needed in order to finally get on board and make handling money click.

getting your spouse on board with paying off debt

Keep trying to make it work together!

Remember there is not a one size fits all answer here on how to get on the same page with your finances. Every person and every couple approaches money differently and getting on the same page needs an unique approach.

There are lots of behaviors and habits and emotions around money and those vary from person to person. Finding what works for your reluctant spouse and you as a couple can take a while but you should keep trying to find the right solution. You have to find the things that encourage and motivate your partner to get on board. 

It may take a lot of work, tears, and trials but eventually getting a “reluctant spouse” on board is totally worth the effort! Working together on your financial picture with a spouse on the same page is amazing!