Ok I admit it. For the past week I have been acting like a 10-year-old kid on summer vacation. Why? One, I’ve been on the road and two, you guessed it, I got totally hooked on Pokemon Go! If you haven’t heard about the crazy hysteria around this game, Pokemon Go fever is literally everywhere. And yes, even 30-something-year-olds like me have become obsessed with catching pokemon, collecting items, running to lure stations and hatching eggs.
When I first heard about the game I was skeptical about why it was supposedly such a big deal. But my curiosity led me to try it for myself. Hey if it’s free, there’s nothing to lose, right? Long story short I got hooked. Who doesn’t love Pikachu or Jigglypuff? Not to mention Psyduck, Exeggcute and Clefairy. I could care less for magikarp, pidgeys, rattatas and zubats though. I’m partial to the cuter ones.
Since the game has very little info available within it on how to play and improve your skills, I resorted to reading a lot of articles and watching videos on gameplay strategies and tips for the first couple days. I was having so much fun that I literally lost track of time and didn’t get much work done.
Anyway, it’s been about a week since I started playing the game and finally my interest has started to wane. It’s kind of nuts how I went from crazy addicted to rather indifferent in just roughly seven days.
The countless inopportune freezes and server issues are a huge reason why my enthusiasm dropped and the crashes haven’t gotten much better. I can’t count the number of times the game has frozen right before my pokemon gets added to the pokedex. Plus, it’s darn near impossible to win a gym battle and it drives me nuts when the poke balls don’t cooperate. I still can’t get raspberries to work and have no idea how to control a curve ball. Do you? But Pokemon Go does make taking walks a lot more fun, especially with friends.
My fear of ginormous data charges and the huge time sink factor started to get to me too. My work duties are calling and I get antsy when I start spending too much time on consumption. I don’t like the feeling of goofing off too much for too long. My grit gene start to kick in and push me to get back to producing, hustling and generating income.
After all, I owe my successes to hard work, managing priorities and making sacrifices. My short-lived case of Pokemon Go fever was incredibly fun and now I’ve shifted my focus back to business and building wealth for continued financial and lifestyle freedom.
New Here? Welcome! Be sure to check out my about page and read how I got paid to break free from a grueling desk job. I publish monthly income reports to track my progress and push myself forward.
2016 Goals Update
I have a couple main career goals for 2016 that I’m actively hustling to meet or beat this year. In each of my income reports, I provide a quick update on my progress:
1) Goal: Invest At Least $5,000 Every Month
After several months of avoiding the stock market, I finally added to positions in June. I had been doing research on Brexit prior to the vote and decided to wait and see what happened with the referendum before buying anything.
I had an inkling Brexit would pass based on the polls and general sentiment I gathered from my research, but it was really anyone’s guess. I stayed late at work on Thursday as the vote tallies started to flow in to watch history making in the process.
Low and behold Brexit ended up passing. I monitored the international stock markets late into the night on Thursday, June 23rd (which was already June 24th in Europe) and was shocked how much Japan and Germany were tanking, not to mention the British pound.
Shortly after the U.S. markets opened the next morning I decided to start legging in. Over the next two trading days I bought about $20,000 of DVY. It felt good to deploy cash that I’d been sitting on for a while during a dip. Who would have thought the markets would rebound to all time highs just a couple weeks later.
2) Goal: Grow My Net Worth By $75,000
I’m on a quest to become a multi-millionaire! It’s a long journey, but an exciting and fulfilling one. I recently ran my mid-year net worth figures and was happily surprised that I hit my goal and passed the $1 million mark for the first time ever. I think I can stay above $1 million if I continue to save and the markets don’t tank significantly in the next few years. But it wouldn’t surprise me if we go into another recession next year or in 2018.
I plan to continue freelancing, limiting my spending and diligently investing in order to hit more financial goals before I turn 40. Time accelerates as we get older and I feel very fortunate to have a healthy work-life balance. I must remind myself how hard I had it in the past. It’s so difficult when you feel unappreciated, overworked and underpaid, but fortunately there are ways to turn things around.
Income Report June 2016
Onwards to my June Income report…
Total Revenue Streams = $18,541
FREELANCING: $13,990
- Project management $11,200
- Editorial, writing, marketing $2,700
- Teaching music, pet sitting, misc. $90
INVESTMENTS: $1,026
- Dividends & interest income $857
- Rental income $169
ADVERTISING & AFFILIATE: $3,525
- Affiliate Partnerships: $2,907
- Contextual Advertising (Adsense): $166
- Bluehost: $180
- Other advertising $180
- How To Engineer Your Layoff $75
- Amazon Associates: $17
Expenses = $(5,950)
BUSINESS: $(1,130)
- Travel – business: $(400)
- Aweber, Marketing, Subscriptions, Fees: $(355)
- Meals & Entertainment – business: $(300)
- Supplies, fees & misc: $(75)
PERSONAL: $(4,820)
- Living expenses: $(3,540)
- Meals & entertainment – personal: $(360)
- Shopping & misc expenses – personal $(120)
- Travel – personal: $(800)
$18,541 (Income) – $5,950 (Expenses) = $12,591 PROFITS
June Takeaways
June was a glorious, low stress month for me. It’s crazy summer is already more than half way over though. I finally started working on one of my 2016 goals to export and reorganize my ~225 GB worth of photo libraries in preparations for finally saying goodbye to Aperture (photo library and editing software) since I plan to buy a new laptop later this year. I still have a long way to go, but am glad I got started.
I also went to a spectacular plant sale hosted by the San Francisco Succulent and Cactus Society and purchased some beautiful plants. Over a couple weekends I planted my new succulents in some empty ceramic pots I’d been neglecting for months – ok, I really mean years – that I’m hoping will thrive. I don’t have the greenest thumb when it comes to gardening and plants, but I’m trying to get better. I do enjoy the many varieties of succulent plants you can find in California and the fact that they are drought friendly – aka low maintenance for busy people like me.
Pokemon Go was tons of fun, but I feel ok putting it aside for now so I can refocus on working hard and generating income.
After all, to be repeatedly successful it takes a lot of discipline to spend time wisely and not lose sight of goals. It’s healthy to take breaks and have fun of course, but we have be careful not to fall down the slippery slope of laziness and procrastination. Don’t forget to be careful how much you spend this summer if you want to keep your financial targets on track too.
Recommendations
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Break free! If you’re burnt out of your day job, believe that you too have options and can turn your career around. I didn’t believe I could escape for the longest time, but fortunately I wised up before stress destroyed my relationships with family and my health. I never would have thought I could negotiate a severance package and get paid to leave a job I grew to hate, but I did! Learn how you too can get paid to leave your job like I did and open your eyes to new opportunities.
Untemplaters, do you have Pokemon Go fever? What are you up to this summer? Care to share some of your income and net worth goals?
Copyright 2016. Original content and photography authorized to appear solely on Untemplater.com. Thank you for reading!
I’m impressed that your living expenses are so low. It removes quite a bit of stress when your income to expense ratio is so high.
Nice work.
Thanks! I think my parent’s struggles with money really helped me turn into a super saver.
Nice succulents 🙂
I like how the affiliate slice of the pie is growing. It’s the best way to earn and run a business.
thanks! I hope both the plants and the affiliate slice keep growing.
I’m shocked you have any time to play Pokémon Go, Sydney, but you work hard and deserve a chance to play a bit. I love that you’re still hustling and raising the bar with your goal to become a multi-millionaire.
Haha, yeah I allowed myself some unusually long goof-off time to play Pokemon Go that week. I’ve only turned it on for about 5 minutes in the last three days though so I don’t think I’ll be playing it much more. I’ve totally lost patience with the crashes!
Congrats on a great month. Nice job adding on the BREXIT dip. On to Pokemon. I left work Friday night, and while walking to BART, I saw hundreds in small groups playing Pokemon. Average age – 30! 🙂
Thanks! That’s so funny they were mostly around age 30! A guy sat next to me on the train today and was playing the whole ride. He also looked like he was around 30 or 33.