Blog - Making Sense Of Cents

The Airbnb For Cars: Your Guide To Making Money On Turo

October 22, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 1 Comment

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Did you know that you can share your car with travelers on a daily, weekly, or even on a long-term basis and make extra money? I’m talking about listing your car and making money on Turo, which is like Airbnb for cars.

It takes as little as 10 minutes to list your car, and you can earn up to 90% of the trip price.

Sharing your car and making money on Turo has many benefits, such as:

You can use the money to pay for your car expenses. With the average Turo Host earning $500 each month, most people generate enough money to completely offset their car payments.
If you don’t have a car payment, the extra money you make with Turo can be used for retirement savings, paying off debt, and more.
You can make extra money passively. This is a no brainer!
The average car sits idle in driveways 95% of the time. If your car goes unused a lot, then this can be a way to offset a depreciating asset.

But, what is Turo exactly? [Read more…]

How I Made Money Blogging In September 2019 + Best Ways To Grow A Loyal Audience

October 15, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 14 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Welcome to September 2019's business report where I show you how I made money online and traveled full-time last month. It's time to look at this month's update and see how I did.

If you're new to Making Sense of Cents, you may be wondering why I would want to publish my business report each month.

This all started as my extra income report because, in the beginning, it was all about the money I was earning from my side jobs. In my side income reports from the beginning, I included all of the income I made except for what I made at my day job.

However, I left my day job as a financial analyst in October of 2013 and now my monthly business reports consist of the many ways I earn a living with my business. [Read more…]

How I Paid Off $30,000 of Student Loans in 2 Years by Paying the Minimum Balance

October 11, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 6 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hello! Today, I have a debt payoff story from Alyssa Hunt. Alyssa is the creator of TheLifeHunt.com a blog that helps busy hustlers work towards business success and financial freedom all while managing full-time jobs. She is currently working towards a Master’s degree in English Literature and she teaches writing composition to university freshmen.

When I graduated college in 2014 with my undergraduate degree, I had racked up $30,000 in student loan debt. During my four years of college, I didn’t think much of taking out a loan here and there.

After all, I needed a way to pay for tuition.

Once the excitement and celebrations of graduation ended, I felt a mound of debt on my shoulders.

It was then that I decided to focus all my attention on paying off my debt as fast as I could. And by fast, I meant that I wanted to have all $30,000 paid off in exactly 2 years after receiving my first bill.

Setting my goal of 2 years felt entirely achievable to me, but to everyone else, it was crazy and impossible. I don’t believe a single person thought it could be done. So many people tried to convince me that student loan debt is “good debt” and that it’s “normal” to have debt. [Read more…]

18 Of The Best Ways To Make Extra Money For The Holidays

October 7, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 14 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Because the holidays are quickly approaching, meaning many people will be spending more money, I want to share some ideas for how you can make extra money for the holidays. Let’s make this holiday season as happy and stress free as possible!

See, for the average person, the fall and winter holidays can be very expensive.

Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year's, and the many other holidays, the average person tends to spend around $1,000 just on gifts.

That’s a lot of financial stress.

And, that $1,000 amount doesn't even account for other holiday spending, such as travel costs, food, get-togethers, decorations, clothing, and more.

We don’t nearly spend as much on the holidays as we used to do. Now, we’re only buying gifts for the kids in our family and the adults draw names. While this has cut our holiday spending by a lot, I know many people who buy gifts for dozens of people. [Read more…]

How To Reduce, Reuse, And Save More Cash

October 2, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 12 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hi, this is Michelle’s editor, Ariel! You may have seen me here before talking about taking my side hustle full-time, living in a small house, and real life frugality. When I’m not working for Michelle, you can find me spending a lot of time over at M$M, working as a staff writer and editor-in-chief.

The other day I found myself asking this question in a popular FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) Facebook group:

Anyone else focusing on a zero/low waste lifestyle and merging that principal with FI?

I asked this question because, while I don’t hang around in those kinds of communities a ton, I find that what I often see is more focused on sexier topics like investing strategies and increasing your income.

Both of those are incredibly valuable tools when you’re working to improve your financial health, even if you aren’t working towards FIRE, but I was searching for advice that felt a little more relatable to my personal goals.

It turns out that I wasn’t alone. [Read more…]

Are Budget Airlines Worth It? Here Are 6 Of The Best Tips To Cut Your Costs

September 30, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 10 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you thinking about saving money on airfare by flying with budget airlines such as Allegiant, Frontier, or Spirit Airlines? Here are my tips to find cheap plane tickets and the best flight deals.

Recently, Wes (my husband) took a couple of last minute flights to visit family and we booked his flights on budget airlines. I had first started looking for flights like I normally do, with traditional airlines like American, Delta, and Southwest. But, everything was super expensive because we were booking last minute.

Then, I got the idea to look at some of the budget airlines, such as Allegiant, Frontier, and Spirit so that we could save some money.

I found a super affordable flight on Allegiant, AND it was direct. Whereas all of the expensive flights had multiple stops and would take all day.

My first thought was that something had to be wrong since the price was so low, so I asked around to see if these discount flights were the real deal.

I had numerous people tell me not to do it, but I had more people tell me that these cheap plane tickets were too good to pass up.

Well, I bought the Allegiant flights, and it went well. Then he flew again a few weeks later, and he used Allegiant again. [Read more…]

How To Start As A New Freelance Writer

September 27, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I want to introduce you to Laura Pennington Briggs. She is a former teacher turned freelance writer and author.

She has delivered two TEDx talks on the freelance economy and is the author of “How to Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business” with Entrepreneur Press.

In our interview, she talks about how she started freelance writing in 2012 and just a year later she had gone full-time and was making a great income from it. She also shares how this is a great way to make extra money or even as a full-time career.

Check out the interview below for more information and be sure to check out Laura's book on how to become a freelance writer – Start Your Own Freelance Writing Business: The Complete Guide to Starting and Scaling from Scratch.

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