Andy Hough

Buy Retail – Sell on Ebay

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A couple of months ago I found a free book on Amazon on the subject of how to make money selling things on Amazon.  Overall, I didn’t find the book very impressive, but it did have some interesting information.  One of the things I found interesting was the author’s suggestion that you could buy products on clearance deals at your local retail stores and resell them for a profit on Amazon or eBay.  That seemed unlikely to me, but I made a note to check the clearance deals next time I was in a retail store.

My first check of clearance deals was at a Walmart and they had lots of stuff on clearance.  Most of the stuff didn’t look like it would sell for much.  I did spot a Mint floor cleaner that had been marked down from $198 to $75.  It looked to be in new condition.  A quick check on my phone showed the floor cleaners were selling for over $150 on eBay.  That seemed like a good profit to me so I went ahead and bought it.  I figured if it didn’t work or didn’t sell I could just return it.

The floor cleaner ended up selling for just over $150 on eBay.  After fees I made about $50 in profit. I was a little worried that there would be a problem with the cleaner. The cleaner worked fine though, and I received positive feedback from the buyer. It was a pretty good profit for maybe an hour’s worth of work.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find another deal anywhere near as good as that one.  Maybe some stores have more stuff marked down low enough that you can resell them for a profit, but I haven’t found them.  If you are in a store with a clearance section it might be worth taking a look though. It is one more way of possibly making a little extra money.

 

Moving Forward

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Now that I’m officially single it is time to get on with my life. Between the divorce and the comments on my last post I’ve taken a lot of lumps in the past few days. I’m not going to let that get me down though, and I am moving forward. I don’t have a complete plan yet because I’m not sure what all I want to do.

The first thing I’m going to do is get a job. My preference is to get a job as an attorney. Despite what has been said in the comments it is not easy to get a job in the legal field and I certainly haven’t turned down a legal job.
I have applied several places and I had one interview that I thought went well, but I haven’t heard from them yet. I’ll continue to search for legal work, but if I don’t have a job by the end of the month I’ll take a non-legal job.

I’m also moving to Kansas City. There aren’t many job opportunities where I’m currently living. All of the companies I’ve applied to have been in Kansas City. Even if I’m not able to get a legal job right away, I still think I’ll have a much better chance of getting one in KC. A change of scenery will be nice too.

One other thing I want to do is to increase my self-employment income. Although I don’t have a job, I was making thousands in self-employment income just a few months ago. If I can get back to that level and have job income as well I should be able to pay off my van loan quickly and replenish my savings. After that is done I could start on my student loans.

There isn’t much of a plan yet. Once I have moved and gotten a job I’ll work on setting goals and a plan to achieve them.

Why I’m Not Concerned About My $120,000 Student Loan Debt

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While I was in law school I racked up about $100,000 in federal student loans.  Since I finished law school my debt has risen to about $120,000 due to accumulated interest.  Going into this much debt wasn’t smart, but I’m not concerned about the debt.

The reason I’m not concerned is because I am on the Income-Based Repayment Plan.  You can read more about the this plan at IBRinfo.org Income-based repayment caps monthly payments at 15% of your monthly discretionary income. Discretionary income is defined as the difference between adjusted gross income (AGI) and 150% of the federal poverty line based on where you live and your family size.  Based on my current income I’m not required to make any monthly payments.  That will probably change next year since I will be single.

Under IBR payments are made over a period of 25 years.  Any debt remaining at the end of 25 years will be forgiven.  That means I have about 22 more years until my loan will be paid off or forgiven.  There is also a 10 year public service loan forgiveness option that I could use if I were to obtain a public service job. This program rewards those who go into public service fields like nursing, law enforcement, and public interest law services by creating a sliding scale that determines how much I would pay each month. The amount that I would end up paying every month depends on my overall financial situation and the size of my family. Under this program, I would pay a reasonable amount every month and the rest of the payment amount is forgiven. To maintain eligibility for public service loan forgiveness, I would need to have a federally insured student loan, hold a public service job for 10 years, and make 120 payments during those years.

Some might think I should be doing everything possible to pay off this debt.  I’m not concerned about the debt though since the payments are capped at 15% of my discretionary income.  Therefore, the payments should always be easily affordable.  I’m not deliberately keeping my income low to avoid paying back the debt, but I’m not going to take just any job to pay off the debt either.

There is a risk that I will end up paying more on my debt under the IBR than using the Standard Repayment plan.  This is because the payments are spread out over 25 years resulting in a lot more interest.  I think this risk is acceptable considering the current benefits of this plan.

Do you think it is smart to use the IBR plan or do you think it is stealing?  What do you think?

 

July Income – $1226.91

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Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

Online Income

 $371.75

Interest/Dividends

$32.36

Extra Job

$606.39

Cash Back

$11.59

Bank Bonus

 $10

Mystery Shopping

$189.50

Sell Stuff

$5.32

Total

$1226.91

My overall income was up a bit due to working as an extra.  If I were to deduct the cost of my motel stay and gas expense to get to Atlanta and back though, I would barely make any money from the extra job.  My online income was down once again.  This was the first month in over four years that I didn’t get a payout from Adsense.  I barely missed making the minimum for the Adsense payment and made more than enough in July so I’ll have a larger payment this month.  I also didn’t receive any affiliate income in July, but I made some income that will be paid this month.  I can already tell that August will be a better month than July for online income.

My other sources of passive and alternative income don’t add up to much and that probably won’t change this month.  I did almost no mystery shopping in July since there are very few jobs where I’m currently staying and with the poor MPG of my van it doesn’t make sense to travel very far for a shop.  I might sell more stuff this month.  That depends on whether I’m hired for the job I interviewed for yesterday.  If I get the job I’ll have a significant increase in income.

July Expenses – $1245.87

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Here is a breakdown of my expenses for July.

Household

$44.21
Entertainment

$100.41

Transportation

 $621.66

Food

$112.59
Shoes $21
Travel $263.06
Phone

$26.81
Health

$56.13

Total

 $1245.87

My expenses were down slightly from June. The biggest expense was for transportation, but it was quite a bit lower than last month.  I didn’t spend any money on gas after the 16th.  I did use a lot of gas though to drive to Atlanta and back and to visit my brother in South Carolina.  I’m hoping I can cut down on the miles this month.  I have a trip to Kansas City today so I’m not off to a good start.  My food expense is low because I spent the last half of the month at my mom’s.  I still spent money on meals out and some food though or that expense could have been even lower.  The travel expense was for working so I’m ok with it.  Entertainment was the main category I could have cut back on.  It should be lower this month.  This is probably about the level my expenses will be until I pay off my van.  I’m still going to try to get them a little lower though.