passive income

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 Investment Income – $96.04

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My October investment income rose to $96.04 from $93.78.  This was pretty nice since I didn’t add any money to my investment.  It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to add any money to my investments until at least next year so any increase will have to be from market gains.  I did take some of my accumulated dividends out and invest them in my Roth IRA.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to fully fund my Roth IRA by tax time next year.  Doing so should result in a nice tax credit.

This is not my actual investment income. To get this figure I first add up my retirement savings, 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. My goal is to get this amount to $1000 a month. If I have $1000 in monthly passive investment income I will be able to retire early. You can see what my actual investment income for the month was by looking at my monthly income report and adding the interest and dividend amounts.

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.

Ehow Two Years Later

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It was in November 2008 that I started writing for eHow.  Inspired by Pat’s eHow experiment at SmartPassiveIncome.com I planned to write a 100 articles in a month.  Like many of my plans that didn’t happen but I eventually wrote six articles for them but two of them were later deleted so I only have four articles there now.

So far I have earned $74.71.  I also earned about that much in affiliate income but I don’t have any links now.  That might not sound too impressive but considering I spent maybe three hours writing the articles it is a pretty good hourly rate.  I’m on pace to make slightly more than $35 from them this year and that should continue in the future.  It is now a steady passive income source.

Ehow has changed the way their site works so I can’t submit any more articles and make passive income.  There are other similar sites out there but I’m not sure if any of them are worth writing for.  I wish I would have wrote more articles for eHow but I won’t complain about making $35 this year for doing nothing.

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.