Tag: Personal Finance

Savvy Couple Grows Finance Blog into Six Figure Business

What It’s About

This couple makes bank teaching other couples how to do the same.

Words of Wisdom

Kelan encourages side hustlers to start now. “The longer you wait the harder it’s going to become. This side hustle has changed a lot over the last few years. I would gather up your passions, experience, and education and pick a profitable niche to own.”

Fun Fact

While paying off their debt, Kelan and Brittany used eBay and Facebook Marketplace to flip items like electronics and sports memorabilia. Their most unusual flip was an antique playset they found by the side of the road and flipped for over $200.

Notes from Chris

Episode 1620
Kelan and Brittany Kline left college with over $40,000 worth of student loan debt. Brittany’s job teaching and Kelan’s job in law enforcement only brought in so much money, so they wanted another way to get ahead financially.

In 2016, they started a blog called The Savvy Couple. The blog’s mission was to help families like them put more money in their pockets so they can spend more time doing the things they love. Sounds good, right? But they weren’t the first to try this, so it took some time to get going.

Initial startup costs were less than $100. They didn’t have children at the time, so they gave up watching TV and spent weekends, weeknights, and holidays working to grow the blog.

Nine months in, they made their first $50 from a sponsored post. Kelan says it was the most impactful money they ever made, because it was a tipping point of knowing the hard work was paying off. (Yes, he’s a little optimistic … so much so, that two weeks later, he told Brittany he needed to quit his job and run the site full-time.)

Jumping in with both feet that quickly isn’t for everyone, but in his case, it paid off. He did have a backup plan to become a home inspector if blogging didn’t work out—but he was determined to make it work. While he scaled up the blog, he also found freelance work teaching English to Chinese students for $20 an hour. Within two months, the blog was making $2,000-$3,000 per month and he was able to focus fully on that.

That year, they grew the site to six figures and paid off their remaining student loans. Once they became debt-free, they had a month where they made over $43,000 because they were hitting on all cylinders and landed a big sponsorship. Forty-three thousand dollars was more than Brittany’s entire year’s salary as a teacher, so it was a clear sign it was time for her to quit teaching and join Kelan full-time.

The Savvy Couple is now one of the most popular family finance blogs reaching millions of readers each year and profiting over $10,000 per month. While these numbers are impressive, they have adjusted their strategy over time to keep up.

In the future, their goal is to grow the blog into a household name in the family finance space and generate seven figures a year. Keep an eye on this savvy couple.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

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I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"This side hustle has changed a lot over the last few years. I would gather up your passions, experience, and education and pick a profitable niche to own."
—Kelan Kline #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Piggy Bank Disaster Turns Millennial Into Money Master

What It’s About

A Millennial goes from bankrupt to bank!

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Start a blog, don’t worry about monetising it or promoting it straight away, concentrate on finding a useful niche, doing your homework and research in your chosen field, establishing a unique voice, accepting opportunities to talk about what you do, being active (but not too much!) on social media and take the long view.

Focusing on producing something quality, different and useful will lead to a slow-burn and far more satisfying reward in the long-term.

Fun Fact

According to a study conducted by CNBC, millennials don’t believe in putting savings away for a rainy day. As a matter of fact, nearly half have nothing saved at all! Of those taking part in the survey, most between 18 and 24 had less than $1000 in the bank.

Notes from Chris

Episode 779

In 2011, Iona Bain was in her early twenties, working as a music teacher, scrimping and saving every penny she could. There was no real organization to her finances, no proper bank account or credit card. She wasn’t your typical millennial—half of them have zero savings—but she wasn’t far off.

In fact, Iona was trying to do what she could to avoid that trap. But she made one critical mistake. No, it wasn’t spending too much on clothes or partying every week. Hers was an error of a more unusual kind. Instead of using a bank account, she kept all of the money made from music lessons in a good old fashioned piggy bank in her bedroom. And the money was piling up, that little piggy bank was full to the brim of sweet cash.

But little did she know, disaster was about to strike! Iona was about to have her own Global Financial Crisis. Although it was no laughing matter, what transpired feels like it was pulled straight from the plot of a Seth Rogen movie.

Her piggy bank… was stolen from her home!

What followed was one of the most embarrassing and surreal moments of this young millennial’s life. There she was, a grown adult, explaining to a police officer, that her piggy bank had been taken by thieves in the dead of night.

To add insult to injury, the officer asked all sorts of questions to try and identify the piggy bank, should it be recovered. Where did you last see it? Was it pink? Did it have a squiggly tail?

It was at that moment that Iona knew she had to make a financial change in her life. She needed some common cents. She resolved to learn everything she could about the financial world, and take control of her monetary destiny. Step 1: don’t actually keep your money in a piggy bank.

Iona was studying journalism at the time, so she decided to write about everything she learned on a blog. Luckily—since she was broke—the cost of launching a blog was tiny. She registered a domain name and The Young Money Blog was born. There’d she’d write about financial matters that concerned her and other millennials.

She earned £15,000 (or $19,202.10) in her first year, but that annual figure has more than tripled in the last couple of years since giving up full-time work and pursuing her “side hustle” more efficiently.

For Iona, the wealth has only just began. She plans to take things to the next level by publishing more content from both herself and other contributors in 2019. She also plans on launching a course for her readers that may be struggling to improve their financial position. Along with that, she’s producing video content, as well as doing some consulting with British financial brands.

So far she has no regrets, other than not taking the blog more seriously from the very beginning. Oh, and she now keeps her savings in the bank.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The Young Money Blog: Ditch the piggy bank and pick up some financial cents over on Iona’s blog!
  • WordPress: Iona used WordPress to setup The Young Money Blog, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes

 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"It’s wonderful to not have to go into an office, ask others for permission to do what I want, and tick certain boxes. Pursuing my side hustle gives me the freedom to be creative, independent, and have a varied life."
—Iona Bain #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Financial Blog Sprouts into $35,000/Month Money Tree

What It’s About

Two financially savvy guys help millennials keep their minds on their money and their money on their minds.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

When they first started, they invested a lot of man hours digging deeper into SEO best practices and getting their brand out there. Their lesson? “You have to provide the best value for your readers and compete with the websites that are in the top five positions of the Google search engine. You have to look at these higher ranking articles and ask yourself, ‘How can I provide more value than this is already providing?’”

Fun Fact

Think carefully before you get that paper (money). In 2002, a study found that about 94% of the world’s paper money is covered in bacteria. That’s fine, normally, but about 7% of that bacteria is hazardous to your health. Maybe pull out your debit card, next time.

Notes from Chris

Episode 670

Ben Huber, a registered nurse from Virginia, was worried about money. And, like most millennials, he wasn’t the only one. So to ease the worries, he began to invest money into stocks and poured over everything he could learn about assets, liquidity, and other related investment terms in between shifts at the hospital.

It helped that he had friends in high places to help him along the way. More specifically, one friend, Jeff, who also happened to be a private wealth manager. They were always worried about money and knew they weren’t alone. But, contrary to what some opinionated individuals may tell you, it wasn’t just because they liked having avocado toast for breakfast.

As a wise man once said, they knew they needed to keep their mind on their money, and their money on their mind.

What’s the best way to share information about stocks? A blog, of course. So, Ben and Jeff took it upon themselves to create DollarSprout, a blog that gave them a platform to share their analysis and perspective on the stock market in a more accessible way.

They wanted to experiment with monetizing their content, so they set it up as a membership site that readers could pay a monthly fee to access and learn more about specific stocks, stock market commentary, and anything else they decided to put on their website.

Ben realized, pretty quickly, that their site was very niche… which also meant that not a lot of people would pay to access it. They also realized how competitive their chosen space was. They found themselves competing with large banks and advisory services with bigger budgets, so it wasn’t exactly feasible for them to present themselves as competition in the long term. The duo knew they could offer value to their readers, but it would be a real uphill battle to get their side hustle off the ground.

Soon, they began churning out content that appealed to millennials, with posts like “10 ways to make extra money” and “20 ways to save money,” and soon started seeing a consistent, monthly 5-figure traffic count rolling into their website.

Ben and Jeff only started making money in August of 2016, but by the end of the year, they’d made about $4,000. Their breakout month happened in January 2017, conveniently a great time for people to think about their own finances, and they generated $7,000 in revenue that month alone. By the next year, they eclipsed $12,000 in monthly revenue. In September 2018, they made over $36,000 in monthly revenue. And they’re only stacking up paper from there.

Ben says that the key to their success, especially since it took them years, was avoiding “shiny objects” syndrome, which posits that people look for what makes them the most money, rather than looking for something that allows them the luxury of time to scale and reflect on their next steps. They held out for consistency as they put in work to watch their status escalate and make their side hustle a success.

They’re cashing in on that consistency, especially as they’ve both turned their side hustle into their full-time job, and they’re hiring full-time employees to help them keep up with demand. They’ve got to fill an office now, after all. Money trees might be the perfect place for shade, but Ben and Jeff prove that investing time and hard work into a side hustle could be the second best place.

 

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • DollarSprout: Learn more about this financial success over on Ben’s website!

 

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

RELIABLE WEBHOST FOR $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for my past 5 websites. It's cheap, flexible, and you can get support 24 hours a day.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Rather than chase a large contract or chase larger sources of income, stick with the basics and find something that caters to your strengths. Find a way to build some kind of a base income from there. This gives you more flexibility and less stress when you move to the planning phase of things when you want to scale."
—Ben Huber #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳 Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau

Target Store Manager Makes $45,000 Per Month Writing a Blog

What It’s About

A personal finance junkie builds a blog to half a million in annual income, all while managing a Target store.

[podcast_details]

Words of Wisdom

Committing to posting three times per week on the blog, Robert decided to use his first year as a blogger to learn the trade. He didn’t know anything about marketing or writing and creating headlines, but since nobody was really reading the site anyway, he could afford to make mistakes and learn what the people who did read the site responded to.

Any new endeavor you may embark on is going to require a little trial and error. Create your own trials and A/B Testing in order to determine what your audience is looking for.

Fun Fact

When Robert first got to college, he was hoping to find some of his peers and share his great ideas by joining their investment club. But when he finally turned up, he was disappointed to find out that all of the advice they were giving—on penny stocks and active trading—was advice he not only disagreed with but also felt was outright bad for students.

So, he set about starting his own blog, The College Investor, to be a transparent voice and share the strategies he felt were more honest and viable for students.

Notes from Chris

Episode 247

For Target Store Manager Robert Farrington, investing has been a lifelong obsession. From when he first sat down at thirteen years old to help his dad with his taxes, to a few years later when he received $1,000 from his Grandfather to invest, he became hooked.

When Robert first got to college, he was hoping to find some of his peers and share his great ideas by joining their investment club. But when he finally turned up, he was disappointed to find out that all of the advice they were giving—on penny stocks and active trading—was advice he not only disagreed with but also felt was outright bad for students.

So, he set about starting his own blog, The College Investor, to be a transparent voice and share the strategies he felt were more honest and viable for students.

In January 2011—almost a year and a half of writing later—his blog finally made its first $25 of income through an affiliate product sale. When he told his wife she said, “You’ve invested all of this time and only made $25?”, but Robert couldn’t have been prouder. He knew his site was no longer just a passion, but a business.

These days, Robert’s side hustle is now averaging a remarkable $45,000 per month in revenue, and we think it’s safe to say that Robert knows what he’s doing.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • The College Investor: Learn how to crunch the numbers over on Robert’s resource blog
  • WordPress: Robert used WordPress to create The College Investor, and here you can learn how to install your own WordPress site in 5 minutes!
  • Drip: The free email marketing automation integration Robert used in order to streamline his day to day processes

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!
Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️ Learn More

Quote of the Day
"Your first year of blogging is about learning, but you have to remember to put in that practice if you want to be successful."
—Robert Farrington #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Get a FREE Audiobook from Audible!

Audible is offering SHS listeners a free copy of the Born For This audiobook with a 30-day trial membership. 📚

Just go to aonc.co/bftaudible and browse the unmatched selection of audio programs and start listening.
Get it Here

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.
Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!


To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau