income tracking

December Income – $1816.86

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Here is a breakdown of my income for December.

Online Income

$1511.80

Interest

$11.73

Stock Dividends

$111.94

Mystery Shops

$150

Bank Bonuses

$10

Survey/Cashback

$21.39

Total

$1816.86

It was a pretty good month for income.  My online income reached a new high.  If I could make that consistently I wouldn’t need to worry about a day job.  Since none of the income for the month was from a day job you might say I’m not worrying about the day job now.  My online income won’t be as high this month but it should still be over $1000 which I consider pretty good.

This month I’ll make more money from mystery shopping plus have job income.  Stock dividends will be down due to their quarterly nature.  There shouldn’t be any other big differences in my income.  My combination of alternative and passive income is working well and I plan to add to it this year.

October Income – $2135.84

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Here is a breakdown of my income for October.

Online Income

$1158.98

Interest

$15.57

Stock Dividends

$22.81

Mystery Shops

$222.17

Bank Bonuses

$10

Survey/Cashback

$26.31

Medical Study

$680

Total

$2135.84

It was a good month for income. My online income not only totaled more than $1000 for the fourth month in a row.  It was down a little from the month before but since I didn’t have any new text link sales I was pleased with it. I should have a good shot at making over $1000 online this month as well. If I continue to make over $2000 a month without a job I won’t be in any rush to get one. My mix of passive and alternative income is working well for me.

If I don’t do a medical study this month my overall income will be down but I’m not worried about it.  My income should still be more than my expenses.

My reported mystery shopping income does not include reimbursements but expenses such as mileage and printing have not been deducted from the total.  With my allowed mileage expense the amount of mystery shopping income I have to pay tax on will be much smaller.  Mystery shopping is like a part time job for me now.  I just do a few shops that I like when I feel like it and try to pick up a few heavily bonused shops at the end of the month.  I like this better than trying to maximize my income by doing every shop available.  I make a little less money but I get a much better hourly rate for the shops I do and have a much lower stress level.

If I continue to make over $2000 a month without a job I won’t be in any rush to get one. My mix of passive and alternative income is working well for me.

September Income – $3153.38

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Here is a breakdown of my income for September.

Online Income

$1402.16

Interest

$12.88

Stock Dividends

$95.61

Mystery Shops

$259.24

Bank Bonuses

$10

Survey/Cashback

$27.24

Medical Study

$800

Job

$546.25

Total

$3153.38

It was a good month for income.  My online income not only totaled more than $1000 for the third month in a row, it also reached a new high.  I don’t think I’ll match that high again this month but I should have a good shot at breaking $1000 again.  I was pleased that even without the job income I made over $2500.  My mix of passive and alternative income is working well for me.

My overall income is going to be down this month.  I will not have any job income this month.  I am screening for another medical study but even if I do get in it will pay less than the one last month.  Stock dividends will also be less because most of my stocks don’t have scheduled dividends in October.   The March, June, September, December distribution schedule is the most common among my stocks.

I was also quite pleased with my mystery shopping income.  I have cut back on the amount of shops I do the past couple months but since I’m getting better paying shops my income is still about the same.  I don’t include reimbursements in my mystery shop income but I don’t subtract expenses from it either.

We will see what this month brings.  My income should still be more than my expenses.  It would be great if I could consistently get my income above the $2000 level.

August Income – $1445.82

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Here is a breakdown of my income for August.

Online Income

$1101.00

Interest

$22.50

Stock Dividends

$12.90

Mystery Shops

$192.23

Bank Bonuses

$7.76

Survey/Cashback

$9.23

Job

$100.20

Total

$1445.82

It was a good month for income.  My income was higher than my expenses which is one of my goals.  I need to get my income up to about $2000 a month or more though to make progress on building up my savings.

I was pleased that my online income was its highest ever and once again was over $1000.  It won’t likely be that high this month but it should still be pretty good if I receive the affiliate checks that are due me.

Mystery shop income will be up a little this month.  Since most of the payments lag about a month behind I already have a good idea of what I will make this month.  The mystery shop total is my the actual income I receive before expenses.  It does not include reimbursements which were about $100 in August.

Job income will be up a lot for this month.  Although  I have already quit the job I still have a couple of paychecks coming.

July Income – $1519.91

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Here is a breakdown of my income for July.

Online Income

$1067.96

Interest

$12.35

Stock Dividends

$22.79

Mystery Shops

$373.52

Bank Bonuses

$20

Survey/Cashback

$23.29

Total

$1519.91

It was a good month for income.  My online income was my best ever.  Making a $1000 in a month has been a goal of mine for a while but I don’t think I’ve even made it over $800 before.  One of the reasons my online income was higher in July was because I had a couple of months of affiliate income owed to me that finally arrived.  Most of the increase was from the direct sale of links.   There was a large increase in people contacting me wanting to purchase links on one of my sites.   Most of the income was from links paid for a year upfront.  There are also a couple of links that pay monthly and a couple more people I’m still negotiating with so I will still make at least a little from selling links this month.  I doubt I will make a $1000 again this month but I should make at least $600 which I am pretty happy with.

Mystery shopping income will go down because I have a regular job now and won’t have as much time for mystery shopping.  Some of the shops I did last month won’t pay me until this month though so I should make at least $200 from mystery shops this month.

My new job is working for a non-profit and it doesn’t pay much but it should still cause my total income to increase over last month. Although if I could count on making $1500 a month every month without a job I wouldn’t worry about a job and just concentrate on increasing my alternative sources of income.   It would be nice to have all my money come from alternative income and passive income but that might take a while.