Business Income Archives - Page 17 of 19

Should You Get a Prenup?

Last Updated: September 25, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 86 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.

Recently, a friend asked me what I thought about prenups. She isn’t married yet, but she was wondering if it was “right” or “wrong” to bring it up to her fiancé.

She thinks that he won’t take it the correct way, but she wants to protect herself in case anything were to happen.

Does this mean she doesn’t believe in their relationship? I don’t think so at all!

These days, with all of the statistics you hear about divorce and the crazy stories you hear about exes taking them for everything that they have, it may make sense for some couples.

What is a prenup?

A prenuptial agreement (“prenup” for short) is what a couple signs to lay out and figure out their assets and finances. This contract is usually made before the couple gets married (however, it can be created afterwards) to protect themselves in case the marriage ends badly.

A prenup will help you in cases where:

You have a lot of assets and your spouse does not. Maybe you have a family property that would be horrible if you were to lose it?
You make more money than your spouse.
You have a business.
You win the lottery.
You know you will be receiving an inheritance.
If you plan on having children and you want to stay at home. This then protects the stay-at-home parent who has been out of work for years.
You have been divorced before and you want to protect yourself.

I have also heard of couples putting a cheating clause into their prenup. I’m not sure if this is true but I heard gossip that Jessica Biel has one of these contracts where if Justin Timberlake cheats then she will get around $500,000.

Other celebrities have put drug clauses where if the person relapses then the other will receive $1,000,000 for each year that the person was drug free.

It’s not romantic.

One of the main reasons why couples say that they do not want a prenup is because they consider it extremely unromantic and almost like you are saying that your marriage is doomed from the very beginning.

I don’t believe that is the case. I think each relationship is different, and prenups work for some, whereas they may not work for others. I do not think there is a right or wrong answer for all.

Here is what some of you had to say about the subject.

What about us? Before anyone gets snarky about what I’m about to say, I want to say that I don’t care 🙂 What we did works for us, but I do realize that it does not work for many, many others. We do not have a prenup, mainly because we started everything together when we were very young (when we had absolutely nothing), bought a house together when we were 20 (yes, 20!) and already have combined finances.

Always discuss finances.

No matter what you decide to do, I always think that you should discuss finances with your significant other until there is absolutely nothing left to talk about.

I have seen so many relationships where finances are not discussed anywhere the amount that they should be, and this is just scary to me. I know people where:

They don’t know how much their monthly mortgage payment is. This person couldn’t even make a guess.
They don’t know how much they spend each month. They leave everything up to the other and don’t even ask.
They don’t know how much debt they have. Do you know if you even have debt? The other day I heard someone say (I can’t remember who said this, I think it was on Twitter?) that one person in a marriage thought they had $500,000 in debt, whereas the other thought it was $1,000,000. WHAT? How do you not know? That’s a big difference!
They don’t know their income. Come on people, if you have joint finances, you need to have a realistic idea of how much you are bringing in.
They don’t know how much they put on credit cards each month. These people are in debt and they don’t even know it!
They lie to their significant other about things that they buy. I specifically know of someone who tells their significant other that a hobby that they have only costs a few hundred dollars every few months. This hobby is actually a few thousand, and this person uses extra money that they make to hide how much it actually costs.

Do you have a prenup? Why or why not?

How To Become a Stella & Dot Independent Stylist: Income Series

Last Updated: July 18, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 178 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.

Hey everyone. If you are new to my website, I am all about making extra money to improve your financial situation such as by becoming a Stella & Dot Stylist. Before I left my day job, I was making around $5,000 to $10,000 each month on the side with my online business. Now, this online business is my full-time business and I LOVE it 🙂

Today I bring you the next edition of my “Extra Income” series which talks about Stella and Dot jobs. If you would like to be featured, please send me an e-mail. Other hustles in this series can be found here. Sign up as a Stella & Dot Stylist for $199 and get $450 in free accessories! I will let our interviewee take it away now.

I am a wife, mom of a 3-year-old girl, and public health dentist.

I recently decided to join my friends as a Stylist with Stella & Dot, the jewelry and accessory company and hold one of the many great Stella and Dot jobs.

I was looking for a creative outlet and a fun, flexible way to earn extra income.

As an independent Stylist with Stella & Dot I share and sell irresistible jewelry and accessories online and at in home trunk shows or pop up shops. Currently there are 12,000 active stylists for this Inc. 500 fastest growing company with a $25 billion global market opportunity.

The products are often featured in style magazines and are described as modern-vintage boutique style, chic yet affordable. I absolutely love their products, that was a lot of my motivation to get involved! They carry irresistible products from statement necklaces, earrings, bracelets, scarves, bags, and tech accessories. [Read more…]

What You’re Doing Wrong With Your Business

Last Updated: August 9, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 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.

Occasionally, I receive an e-mail asking for any business tips that I may have. I haven’t been working on my business full-time for very long, but I do think I know a little bit about different types of businesses.

Before I switched to full-time self-employment, I worked as a business analyst and saw many different types of businesses. I saw many businesses that were thriving, and I also saw many that were making mistakes and not doing quite as well.

This post isn’t meant to scare anyone, it’s meant to be more informative. Not all of these mistakes will lead to total business failure, but they could lead to something that you don’t want such as lost revenue, net losses, losing employees, losing customers and more.

Read further at Diversified Finances. Also, if you haven’t yet, please check out my post $12,640 in January Business Income.

$12,640 in January Business Income

Last Updated: August 9, 2022 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 92 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.

The beginning of January seemed incredibly slow. I still had work to do, but I wasn’t working anywhere near 8 hours a day. The first two weeks almost seemed dead. I’m guessing it’s because most people were still recuperating from the holidays.

The last two weeks were extremely busy, and now it’s all flowing over into February. And I’m loving it! It looks like February will be a decent month.

I’m actually a little surprised that January was a better month than December. I didn’t think it would be as good as it was.

My business income seems stuck.

In January of 2014, I made $13,539 in business income, before expenses. I seem to be stuck around this range (you can see this in the graph below), but I have no problem with that. It’s definitely a good level of income.

Even though it is a great level of income to be at, I am still looking at other ways to increase my income. I would like to build more websites, work harder on the ones that I currently have, and try to find additional ways to grow the services that I already offer.

Even though my income seems stuck, I have come a long way.

In July of 2012, I made $1,425 in extra income. $1,425 is still a great amount, especially for extra income, and each month I am happy with my progress.

Like I say every month, when I first started blogging, I didn’t think this level of income was possible. I read (and still read) income reports from bloggers such as Pat at Smart Passive Income and Crystal at Budgeting in the Fun Stuff.

When I first started reading, I thought their levels were just completely unattainable for me.

I’m sure many of you feel the same about your level of “extra income” and that my story is just a lucky story. However, I read stories on other blogs and used them as motivation for myself.

[Read more…]

Extra Income Series: I’m A Group Cruise Planner

Last Updated: May 1, 2018 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.

Hey everyone. Today I bring to you the next edition of my “Extra Income” series. If you would like to be featured, please send me an e-mail. Other hustles in this series can be found here.

My side hustle is selling group cruises. I plan cruises for organizations, weddings and private groups. Family reunions, scrapbooking clubs, photography clubs, spring break – you name it.

I didn’t make any money from the first cruise I planned, but in the year since I’ve been a group cruise planner, my side hustle income has almost exceeded my full-time income.

How did you get started with your side hustle?

I got started with my side hustle by accident. I had never intended to get into the travel business, I simply loved to travel to new tropical destinations. I planned a group cruise for a few friends, and while the planning was stressful and hard work, everyone had a great time.

After planning that trip, I decided that I wanted to break into cruise travel sales.

What got you interested in this job?

Since I love to take cruises, making money for selling dream vacations to other people was a natural extension. I never knew how complex the cruise industry was or how far they go to train their sales agents. While selling is hard work, seeing the enjoyment of my group members is well worth the effort.

Tell me more about what it is that you do.

I plan group cruises. I put together custom itineraries for groups, set up their amenities, plan their onboard and land-based activities and keep everyone excited throughout the process.

I manage the hard parts of the process so that my group members can just have fun and enjoy themselves. Because I handle everything, group leaders don’t have to worry about collecting payments, selecting activities or planning meals. I do everything.

What has surprised you most about owning a business?

Owning a business is hard work. I often get up before dawn to start working and don’t stop until well after midnight.

I am the marketing department, the billing department and the sales department. While it can be tough at times, the rewards make it worth the effort.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a small business owner?

The biggest lesson I’ve learned as a small business owner is not to try to do everything. If you pick one thing that you’re good at and specialize in that, you’ll make more of an impact. I’ve also learned not to believe in scarcity. Even if there are 1,000 other people out there who do what I do, there are enough customers who want my service.

What are the start-up costs?

My start-up costs were $75 for business cards, a website and a domain name. I partnered with a host agency to become a travel seller, so I received free training and certification.

What’s the most positive thing about your side job?

The most positive thing about my job is the opportunity to continually learn and grow. I love hearing about new ships, touring cruise ships and attending cruise trade show events. I also enjoy the free and reduced price travel.

What are your business goals for the upcoming year?

My business goals are to grow and expand my business. I hope to take on another agent to help with business growth and sales. I also hope to increase my marketing efforts and capture more niches in the cruise travel industry.

My Bio: Alison Moxley is a professional writer and group cruise planner from Brooklyn, New York. In her free time, she enjoys non-fiction writing, photography and of course—travel. She also serves as a workshop presenter in New York City and a non-profit consultant. Her side hustles have included cake decorating, blogging and grantwriting. Alison Moxley is in the process of publishing her first book where she details her clever plans to pay off her student loans.

Would you like a side job in the travel industry? What do you want to do?

Work is Picking Up and Weekly Update

Last Updated: January 27, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 48 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.

Many people have asked if that is our house in the background. No, it is not (we live about 10 miles away). Yes, that is our car though.

Hello! I hope all of you had a fun (and productive!) weekend. I know I did. I went out on Friday night for dancing with my friends. Then the rest of the weekend was filled with working and relaxing.

The weather is still all over the place here. I’m ready for it to be Spring! Yesterday it was 60 degrees and then at night-time it dropped to ZERO DEGREES. Who is ready for nicer weather?

Spending

Spending in the past week was higher than normal. Lots of wedding spending was made in the past week (see tomorrow’s post about my wedding), and also Wes was sick.

Wes was sick last week (he has had a stomach bug FOUR times in the past 4 weeks), so we decided that it was time to go to the doctor to see what was up. They prescribed him some medication and if he doesn’t get better in the next 14 days then he has to see a stomach specialist.

We also bought two new tires for the Camaro as well. We have had this on hold for months now since the weather has been bad, and we have only taken the car out of the garage maybe 5 times in the past few months. Earlier last week we finally bought new tires (the old ones only had 10K miles on it and already had to be replaced).

Cost of the new tires? $400 each. Happy early Birthday Wes! 🙂

Business Income

The first two weeks of January were VERY slow for me. It must have been slow for everyone else as well because I had some freelancers e-mailing me about how slow it has been for them as well.

This is why a large emergency fund is good for when you are a freelancer – slow weeks won’t be as painful and scary.

Slow weeks always scare me though – which is stupid I know. This past week has been extremely crazy though, with work all over the place. Of course, it is slow for two weeks and then the last two weeks of the month are busy…

If anyone needs any help, check out my Hire Me page and let me know what services you are interested in.

Lately, website owners have asked me to help run their website while they are gone for just a month or two, so this is a new service that I am also offering. If you are starting a new job, about to have a baby, want to do some long-term travel or something else, please let me know. I also started doing some shorter blog management.

So far this month I did one-week blog management for John at Frugal Rules, and also Cat at Budget Blonde while they took a one week vacation. Just a short vacation from your website can feel amazing 🙂 I managed their e-mails, website, and social media so that they could both fully enjoy their trips.

Being healthy

I have not been very healthy in the past week. Unless you count dancing as a workout. If so, then I did well 🙂

I worked out a few times, but nothing that was really life changing. If you have some healthy recipes that you would like to share, please leave them in the comments below. Any links to an awesome recipe would be loved as well.

Wedding Planning

Usually I include a section about my wedding planning in my weekly update posts, but it was so long that I had to break it apart into its own post. Come back tomorrow to read about how my wedding planning is going!

Posts from Making Sense of Cents

Common Myths About Working From Home – Working from home has been great so far. I also don’t see that changing any time soon. There are many common myths that I have heard (and also some that I used to believe myself).
Following Your Passion Is Not Just Luck – Following your passion takes hard work. It’s not all about luck.
What is Early Retirement? – Everyone seems to have a different view of what early retirement should be.
Income Series: Creating Passive Income from Niche Websites – This is a post for my weekly side hustle series.

Have you been doing well with your income, spending and being healthy?

Income Series: Creating Passive Income from Niche Websites

Last Updated: August 19, 2019 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 32 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.

Hey everyone. Today I bring to you the next edition of my “Extra Income” series. If you would like to be featured, please send me an e-mail. Other hustles in this series include: I Run a Resume Business, I Help Businesses Create Online Campaigns, I’m a Creative Web Entrepreneur, I’m a Beachbody Coach and I’m a Frequent Flyer Mile Redemption Specialist.

The following post is from MMD of MyMoneyDesign.com. My Money Design is a blog that not only tackles traditional topics in personal finance such as investing and retirement, but it also explores methods of building streams of passive income for making money on the side.

2013 was one of their most successful years when they started the niche website initiative. This was a project to start building a small collection of highly focused, authoritative websites that earn a passive income from advertising.

Here is more on how that is working out for My Money Design.

[Read more…]