Budget Archives - Page 3 of 109 - Making Sense Of Cents

Is it cheaper to buy eggs or raise chickens?

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 4 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 great article to share about raising backyard chickens for eggs, and how much it will cost you to raise chickens. I have several different family members who raise chickens for eggs, so I am familiar with the topic. When Chris approached me with the guest post idea, I had to say yes because I thought it would be interesting to learn more about the money side of it. Enjoy!

Like many, I didn’t decide to start raising chickens with a spreadsheet in front of me.

I had just returned from visiting my parents’ new retirement project, a hobby farm in northern Vermont that was bustling with chickens and ducks and all sorts of wonderful, useful livestock I had never considered keeping for myself until that moment.

After all, I grew up in the suburbs, full of cats, dogs, and the snake the “weird kid” in middle school loved to talk about, and the only “livestock” were the cows that were shipped in every summer to picturesquely dot the fields behind the local ice cream place – carefully kept too far away from customers to smell.

I was thinking about delicious, farm-fresh eggs; endless access to high-quality fertilizer and pest controls; taking control of where my food came from and developing a healthier, organic diet; and of course, just the joys of animal ownership. [Read more…]

What is Value Investing, and Why Should You Care?

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 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 great guest post from Chris about value investing. Chris started a digital marketing business that focuses on freelance writing, content marketing, and SEO — all while working full-time and playing dad to two kids. You can check out his blog – Money Mozart to read more.

Have you been thinking about getting into the investing game, but have no idea where to start when it comes to choosing a strategy? Find yourself totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options and information?

Then you may want to take a look at one of the best long-term, proven investing strategies around— value investing.

Let’s take a deep dive into this technique, learn more about value investing, and explore why you should care about it in the first place.

Related content on how to start investing:

[Read more…]

12 Ways To Stay Motivated So You Can Reach Your Money Goals

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 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.

Learning how to stay motivated is incredibly important if you’re paying off debt, trying to reach a savings goal, learning a new skill, or doing anything challenging.

While it can be difficult, you have to learn how to get motivated and then learn how to stay motivated every day if you want to make your goals happen.

I know how hard this is because I struggled at times with motivation when I was paying off my $40,000 in student loan debt in just 7 months.

And, one of the top questions I receive about my debt payoff story is how I was able to push myself and stay motivated to pay off all of my debt.

Paying off my debt was extremely hard – I will not lie about that!

I took on several side jobs to make extra money.

I had to wake up early in the morning to work on them before I went to my regular day job, and then I stayed up late working on my side jobs too. [Read more…]

6 Simple Steps That Will Teach You How To Write A Check

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 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.

Do you want to learn how to write a check to someone? Wondering how do you properly write a check? Want to learn how to fill out a check for specific dollar amounts? Have you ever written a check?

While some of you may be thinking that you’ll never need to write a check, or wondering why someone like me would ever write a check, it does happen!

In fact, if you are choosing to read this article, then I’m guessing you may need to write a check and have questions about how to write a personal check.

I remember learning how to write a check for the first time, and it used to be taught in school.

But not everyone is taught to write checks these days, and some people have never needed to write one.

And, even though most people have switched over to using debit cards or are using apps that make it easy to transfer money, it’s still important to know how to write a check.

There are actually many situations when a check is the preferred or only way to pay. [Read more…]

13+ Easy Zero Waste Swaps That Will Save The Environment And Money

Last Updated: November 8, 2020 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.

Are you looking for easy zero waste swaps that are good for the environment and will help you save money?

I’m always looking for things that I can reuse, and I love when I am able to find easy zero waste swaps.

Not only do they produce much less waste, but many times I am able to save money and space (because I don’t have to store as much!). So, many of these easy zero waste swaps are great if you travel full-time as well!

If you’re not sure what I mean by easy zero waste swaps, I am talking about replacing disposable household products with ones you can reuse over and over again. And, there are swaps for all over your house – there are low waste swaps, plastic free swaps, and more.

As a full-time traveler, one of the problems we have with disposable items is that we have to store a lot of things, and many of them will just be thrown away. [Read more…]

How We Reached Financial Independence Using Airbnb & Real Estate – Plus Strategies During The Pandemic

Last Updated: May 12, 2020 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.

Hello! Today, I have a great guest post from Boris and Susan. They purchased their first real estate property in 2017, and became Airbnb hosts. This was a 4-bedroom home that ended up generating them $120,000 in revenue in the first 12 months. They now host close to 10,000 guests per year across all of their properties and do all of this remotely. Below is their story, enjoy!

A foreword given the current state of the world

We wrote this post back in February to describe and share our experience using real estate and Airbnb over the past 3 years to build additional sources of (semi-passive) income. As everyone else, we had no idea that the world would change so dramatically in less than a month after that.

However, although it certainly did change – especially given that the travel and hospitality industry came to a grinding halt and caused a few heartburn-filled weeks – the fundamentals remained valid.

As we’ll discuss towards the end of the article, we’ve been able to make adjustments and pivot in a way that kept our properties occupied, covering costs, and still generating a profit (albeit a smaller one than usually).

The truth is that if we’re looking at a 3-9 months horizon, things will remain challenging and uncertain. However, this was never a short-term strategy for us, as we try to plan for the next 3-10 years and make decisions based on that sort of a timeline. But first, let’s start in the beginning.

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Here’s how it all got started as Airbnb hosts.

For many years, real estate was not really on my radar.

I was happily renting, enjoying the flexibility that it offered, and generally thought of real estate in the context of owning your own home – mainly that it limited your options and didn’t really bring too many positives, other than the hassle of maintenance and doing your own lawn every Saturday.

When I met my wife, Susan, on the other hand, she grew up with a completely different mindset.

When she was growing up in China, the common wisdom was that you should always strive to own your own place as soon as you can afford it.

When she moved to the U.S., she maintained the same viewpoint that owning real estate is a key to becoming financially secure. [Read more…]

Why Save Money Now? 9 Reasons That Will Help You Start Saving

Last Updated: July 27, 2020 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.

Learning to save money is one of the best things you can do for yourself.

Saving money can help you prepare for emergencies, start a business, retire, and more.

Financial security is one of the best reasons for why you should save money, and being prepared financially is one of the best feelings in the world. You can travel more, pursue your passions, quit a job you don’t love, try new things, and more.

But, I hear over and over again from people that they don’t want to save money now because they think they have the rest of their life to do so.

However, that’s far from true, especially if you want to be prepared for emergencies or retire.

When you decide to start saving money now, you will be ready to live the rest of your life.

You can take chances, try new things, and be ready in case something awful were to happen. Saving money gives you the freedom to worry less and live more. [Read more…]

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