What a year, with no updates to boot. Standard. So what’s been happening since my last post? Passive income took a dive for me after the Redbubble fiasco of 2020 but I’m clawing my way back up through other means. Looking at it now that’s probably my biggest financial blunder, but a few years ago I also lost 50,000 DOGECOIN so I suppose time will tell which one of those is worse.
I have a very long way to go to get back to my highest point but I’m quite confident I’ll get there. Quite a lot has changed since my last post so I’ll go through the big events and how it has changed passive income for me!
I got a job
The biggest change since my last post was that last month, I got a job. Alongside my side-gig as a dating app, it’s a full time job in IT. It pays well and I can work from home, which I honestly prefer (Thanks COVID!). The job itself isn’t too bad but its 8 hours a day, which leaves little time for my own personal projects.
As money goes, I don’t really mind talking about it, it’s £27500/pa, so about £14 an hour (Just under $20). It’s pays less than my previous full time job, but the 100% remote working nature of it and flexitime make it somewhat enjoyable.
Honestly I miss not having a fulltime job, but sometimes you have to take the hit. I especially miss living on my own schedule, going and having a coffee in the woods and doing things at my own pace. I want to move house and I’ll need a job to prove I can pay a mortgage anyway. I’d have been a fool not to accept a fulltime job when it was offered considering the climate; I’m terrible enough at interviews and I always struggle to find a job.
I lost my lodger
A big hit to my passive income, I lost my lodger at the start of the month. While it coincided with getting a job which more than balances out, it was a rather big hit. I mentioned it here briefly; that was £495 a month (and he paid on time too thank God).
I prefer living alone, and to be honest towards the end it just started to become a drag, so I am glad this is over. All in all an okay experience but renting a room isn’t for me.
If you’re ever in the position to give it a shot though, I’d strongly back renting a room out. It can be very little effort for quite a lot of money. I just treated it as somebody else paying my mortgage for me.
Passive income now
So from the above; passive income has changed for me. Because of the job, I have less time to work on my own money generating projects. The beauty of this however is that what I have already done is still paying off!
Passive income (as well as side gig income) has temporarily gone from my focus to a tasty side benefit; I’m able to save extra money and offset my other expenses by doing very little. It’s also become my stupid purchase fund (VR is great!)
MBA (Merch by Amazon)
I’m stunned by how well some designs are selling. I am still in T500 and I get sales every few weeks. I should upload more but we all know that. MBA is the true reflection of ‘You get out what you put in’. I could see so many more sales if I maxxed out my upload limit but I just haven’t. And that’s on me.
I find the upload process quite clunky and you just never know if something is going to sell, so I’ve just been taking the designs that do sell, and relisting those on other products.
Teepublic
Thank you monthly sales. I sell on TeePublic every day or two, though often at a discount due to a sitewide sale. Just had a check and I’ve made around $800 across all my accounts, which is great for the complete lack of energy I’ve put into it. May this continue.
The upload process to TeePublic is really easy to use and I’d suggest anybody wanting to start out in Print on Demand start with TeePublic. It’s so easy to get designs up and selling.
Other platforms
I’ve seen some good sales on other platforms coming up as well, which I may talk about later. It’s always nice to see things grow. Just earlier today I made an out of the blue £20 sale. I’ll never get tired of that.
Investments / Crypto
I still haven’t invested a lot, but all of my current investments are up. My year long investment ISA returned a profit albeit a small one and I’m making money through apps like Free Trade and Trading212.
I have taken all of my crypto out of Coinbase, but they often give away Crypto for free that you can use to invest. I’ve put all of mine into Tezos or Algo as it stakes itself. Very small-time for me though, Crypto is such a gamble.
As I mentioned in the intro, I lost 50,000 Dogecoin. That’s around £20,000. I mean I did lose it years ago and i would have cashed out much sooner but what a lesson.
Premium bonds
Available in the UK, premium bonds allow you to deposit a cash amount into a Government back account. Each £1 entered is essentially an entry into a prize draw every month. You can win anywhere from £25 to a million every month, and withdraw the money whenever you want. At most you can have £50,000 invested.
It’s a bit of a vanity goal for me to max out my premium bonds account and I have a long way to go. Currently I’m up to £8,500, and I’ll be topping it up every month from now while I’m employed fulltime.
So what is the point of this post?
I wanted to sum up my experience so far this year, as well as note down what I’m doing moving forward. Passive income for me, likely through the rest of 2021 will be a side-note to my full time job.
100% passive income and nothing else doesn’t have to be your goal. For me it was, but now I’m seriously looking forward to having a consistent income that I can top up on the side with my side-gig income and passive income.
My rough numbers going off of last month and predictions are looking to be:
| Monthly Income | |
| Full time Job | 1850 |
| Side-Gig income | 300 |
| MBA | 50 |
| Teepublic | 200 |
| Adsense | 50 |
| Other Passive Income | 150 |
| Total income: | 2600~ |
From this my expenses are around:
| Expenses Monthly | |
| Mortgage | 550 |
| All Bills combined | 250 |
| Premium Bond investment | 500 |
| Food, Groceries etc | 120 |
| Total Expenses: | 1420~ |
Numbers are approximate, but even after all my outgoings, that’s still at least a £1000 increase in my bank every month which is quite comfortable. As I mentioned my passive income has become my silly purchase fund, but it’ll likely turn into my ‘investment fund’ soon enough because I’m a pretty stingy person who doesn’t like spending money.
Short term goals:
Like my earlier posts, I’ll write some short term goals I’ll be working on before my next post, whenever that will be.
- Upload more designs
- Get £10,000 in Premium bonds
- Think about long term goals
Regarding point 3, I have no long term goals, at least not financial/business ones. I’d like to own a physical business one day I think, but it needs considerable thought.
Anyway just wanted to get something out there and posted. It might seem like a pointless ramble but that’s all this blog has ever been. If you found some value from this post then that’s great. For me it helped me clear my mind and visualise the numbers and what I’ve done so far. To me thoughts only become actionable when they’re put down on paper.