Work Hard Play Hard: Untemplater Income Report March 2016

If I were to sum up my month of March in one phrase it would no doubt be work hard, play hard. It was a blast! I went on two short but super sweet vacations – one to the beach and another to the desert. It was cool to experience two contrasting environments that were both nice and warm, a welcome change from chilly San Francisco. And I busted my buns burning the midnight oil on lots of work projects and client requests on the days in between.

I also got to spend time with my baby nephew and family, which was a lot of fun. My lil’ nephew is a total chubb’stopher and it was awesome holding him in my arms until he fell asleep on my shoulder. He’s such a good eater his little face reminds me of chipmunk cheeks. Now I understand why our grandparents used to want to squeeze our cheeks all the time when we were kids lol.

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 earlier this year. I publish monthly income reports to track my progress and push myself forward.

2016 Goals Update

I have three main career goals for 2016 and I’m actively hustling to meet or beat them 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

I beat my $5,000 monthly investment goal by investing $10,ooo into the iShares National Muni Bond (MUB). If you haven’t heard of MUB before, it’s an exchange traded fund, aka an ETF, that tracks the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal Bond Index. The fund is focused mostly on A, AA and AAA rated munis.

I was kicking myself a bit for not legging in a few weeks earlier, but better late than never. I’m pretty happy with my $111.15 cost basis now considering the fund has run up to 112.26 at the time of writing this post.

2) Goal: Grow My Net Worth By $75,000

I am on a quest to become a multi-millionaire! It’s a long journey, but an exciting and fulfilling one. If I can grow my net worth by $75,000 this year I’ll pass a net worth of $1 million and will be in good shape to hit some financial goals I want to reach before I turn 40. How do I plan to accomplish this goal? I work roughly 60-70 hours a week on average and save aggressively.

I’m thrilled that tax season is finally over and my Q1 estimated taxes and property taxes are now out of the way. Taxes are a big PITA but they can teach you so much.

I’m not sure if my highest paying freelancing job will still be going strong into the summer, but if they have work for me to do, I’m game. It feels good to hustle while opportunities are available. And I want to continue growing my net worth as much as possible before I do my next update mid-year.

3) Goal: Grow More Traffic

Growing traffic is easier said than done, but I keep reminding myself its possible as I’ve witnessed by many other sites. Not much to report on traffic for March. Traffic was flat for Untemplater if I adjust the prior period comparison to a full 31 days. I’m satisfied with flat versus being down, but still hope to do better. It was up about 5% if I compare the full month of March to the 29 days in February.

I need to do a better job about squeezing in time to respond to comments and swing by other sites on a more regular basis. Thank you to all of you for your continued readership and support!

March vs February:

Looking at year over year numbers, I’m still hovering above. Every time I look at my year over year numbers I just keep thinking, man I want another huge ramp up like I had in December 2014 lol! Now that Google’s search algorithms update so much faster, I’d favor a guess it’s a lot harder to get sudden big ramp ups like that. Traffic movements are probably a lot more gradual across the board. If any of you bloggers out there have had any big spikes up or down recently, please share your experience in the comments section.

Year over Year:

Income Report March 2016

Onwards to my March Income report…

Total Revenue Streams = $19,367

FREELANCING: $14,510

• Project consulting $11,200
• Editorial, writing, online marketing $3,220
• Teaching music $90

INVESTMENTS: $1,155

• Dividends & Interest income $802
• Rental income $338
• Prosper P2P investment income $21

ADVERTISING & AFFILIATE: $3,696

• Affiliate Partnerships: $3,119
• Bluehost: $270
• Contextual Advertising (Adsense): $230
• How To Engineer Your Layoff $75
• Amazon Associates: $2
• Advertising other: $0
• Profitable Online Store: $0
• Unconventional Guides: $0

Expenses = $(5,770)

BUSINESS: $(1,180)

• Meals & Entertainment – business: $(450)
• Aweber, Marketing, Subscriptions, Fees: $(355)
• Travel – business: $(280)
• Quickbooks: $(50)
• Hosting, web related: $(30)
• Supplies & misc: $(15)

PERSONAL: $(4,590)

• Living expenses: $(3,310)
• Travel – personal: $(750)
• Meals & Entertainment – personal: $(520)
• Shopping & misc expenses – personal $(10)

$19,367 (Income) – $5,770 (Expenses) = $13,597 PROFITS

March Takeaways

As my best friend likes to say, “The best thing about hard work is that it’s over.” I try to remind myself of that every day when I come home from a full day at a client’s office and sit down to quick dinner before diving into a few more hours of work in the evenings from home. It might be tiring and trying in the moment, but the rewards of hard work are so worth it. Every time I cross something off my to-do list I give myself a high five.

March was a really nice balance of taking some time off to travel while also staying focused on the days in between. I had a lot of fun treating myself to a couple nights of cocktails with friends and friends of friends, which I rarely do, and had a lot of great laughs about work, life and love. It was refreshing to get out of the city for a change of scenery and climate when I went to the beach and the desert in SoCal. Desert environments are really neat! But I don’t think I’d want to live in one year round. I think I’d melt in the summers! But dry heat does make for glorious afternoons in the pool and wonderful walks under the stars after a fun night out.

Recommendations

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Break free! If you’re burnt out of your day job, believe that you 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 I 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, was your February filled with snow, rain or sunshine? Have you been taking care of your health lately? Did any significant events happen to you in February?

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