Andy Hough

Now vs. Future

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I have a constant struggle between now and the future. I tend to focus on whichever one is easiest to deal with at the moment and that is usually to my detriment.

For example right now I am constantly thinking about my hike that won’t start for two months. Instead of doing school work I am spending my time reading people’s trail journals and browsing trail forums. I still have a lot of work to do for school and I’m spending too much time thinking about my hike. In this case I’m living in the future and ignoring my now. Although I am ignoring the part of my future where I graduate.

Usually I think more about what is happening now and ignore my future. I know that eating fast food and drinking soda all the time is going to cause me health problems. I enjoy eating my fast food and drinking soda now though and any future health problems still seem remote. This is the same way I used to be about my savings. It was much easier to spend the money now than save it for some future time. Now that I do have some money saved though it is comforting to know it is there in case I need it.

I need to spend more time analyzing my motivations for my actions and come up with a better balance between what I do for now and what I do for the future.

February Investment Income- $51.69

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My investment income for February went down to $51.69 from $53.58 the month before.  With the market continuing to slide my portfolio balances are getting smaller and I expect to have another decline in investment income this month.  I’m not putting any money into my retirement savings now because I prefer to keep my money liquid until I start making more money.  It is unlikely I’ll add any more money to my retirement savings until I return from my hike which will probably be sometime in October.  Until then the only way I’ll see any increase in my investment income is if my portfolio actually regains some value.

Disclaimer:This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement accounts, emergency fund, and any other money I consider permanent savings. What the total of my savings would earn at 6% interest for a month is my monthly investment income.

February Income- $721.47

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Here is a breakdown of my income for February.

Online Income

$367.68

Interest

$25.04

Bank/Other Bonuses

$87.60

Survey/Half

 $2.39

Stock Dividends

$4.11

Cash Back/Mystery Shop

$4.65

Medical Study

$230

Total

$721.47

My income for February was down slightly from the month before.  I had a big dropoff in online income but much of that was from increased expenses since I renewed a couple of domain names for three years.  My online income for this month will probably be about the same.

Only one of my stocks had a dividend payable in February.  My dividend income will go up this month since I have several stocks that will be paying dividends.

I won’t have any medical study income this month which will probably result in a lower income total this month.  Hopefully, I can replace at least some of that income.  Overall, I am pleased with this amount of income since it is all alternative income.  Now if I could make this much in passive income every month I would be really pleased.

Ehow Earnings Update

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Dell Studio 17
photo credit: CLF

I had a guest post at Smart Passive Income yesterday which explained how to increase eHow income with referral links.  I know there are a lot of people interested in using eHow as a passive income stream and  I thought I would update my eHow earnings so far.

Since I wrote that post my earnings for February came to a total of $1.47.  This isn’t much but I haven’t written anything since early December and I wasn’t active on the eHow site during February so this is actually decent for only having 5 articles.  I also received another $25 referral bonus this Monday which makes a total of $75 in bonuses since writing the article. That makes my time spent writing for eHow worthwhile.

I need to write more articles for eHow but I don’t have much time right now.  I’ve read that some people can write an article in twenty minutes but it takes me about an hour.  I also want to do some more research before I write any more articles to increase their potential for earnings.  There are several ebooks by eHow authors on how to make money with eHow but I’m not sure which one to buy if any.  The books may contain good advice but if I don’t get around to writing any articles the advice won’t be of any help.

What ebook on eHow would you recommend?

February Expenses- $919.01

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for February.

Household $423.62
Transportation $43.53
Food $29.56
Entertainment $102.49
Debt/Education $83.00
Phone $33.99
Medical/Dental $61.66
Income Tax $141.16
Total $919.01

My expenses were up a little from the previous month mainly because I had to pay self-employment tax when I filed my federal tax return. My transportation bill should go down this month since last month’s total includes gas I bought for an out of town trip and we don’t have any long trips planned this month. I plan on buying my plane tickets this month which will cause my entertainment and overall expenses to spike this month. My other expenses should be about the same. Note that the food amount is only for lunches and snacks that I purchased away from home. I’m on track for my goal of only having $10,000 in expenses this year considering that my expenses will be drastically reduced when I am hiking.