Here is a breakdown of my income for December.
| Online Income | $112.50 |
| Interest | $1.69 |
| Uber | $131.93 |
| Amazon FBA | $1449.52 |
| Cash Back | $475.25 |
| Class Action | $33.21 |
| Total | $2204.10 |
My income recovered nicely in December. Since my income was about $1000 more than my expenses I can afford to stay self-employed for a while longer.
The big improvement in my income came from my FBA income which increased from $1000 from the previous month. The Christmas spending frenzy was great for me and I sold a record amount of stuff in December. It will be difficult to match that this month now that the Christmas frenzy is over, but I’m hoping I can keep the income to at least the $1000 level. I’ve still got quite a few products in the Amazon warehouse so another big month is possible.
The cash back income of $475.25 was mostly (I’d estimate over 90%) from buying stuff to resell on Amazon. The Chase Freedom card paying 10% on Amazon purchases provided a $150 of the cashback and the Discover 10% Apple Pay promotion and 5% back at department stores contributed over $200. There should be another big amount of cashback from Discover this month.
The class action income was a random check I received due to a settlement from a former employer. I’m not sure what the suit was about, but I’ll take the money.
I didn’t do a lot of Uber driving in December. Although I spent quite a bit of time working on my FBA business and did have some holiday obligations I could have spent a lot more time driving for Uber. I plan to work at least half-time for Uber this month.
For the first time in several months the online income category showed a profit. It would be nice to have another profitable month. That will depend mostly on luck since I’ll be concentrating more on increasing my FBA and Uber income this month and not on my online income.
Although I made about $1000 more than my expenses last month I need to make a lot more. If I’m going to be able to pay off my student loans in a reasonable amount of time I need to make at least $2000 a month more than my expenses. That level of income won’t be easy for me to obtain, but it is something to strive for.