Before going into how I plan to make $5,000 in side income this year, I thought I would mention why. Why not just focus on making more at work? $5,000 doesn’t seem like much, why not $50,000 or enough to replace the income from my job?
First, I wanted to make non-job income so that it would be independent of whether I was working. Working hard and getting a big raise is nice, but what happens when you move? I want to find ways to make money that work regardless of where I am or what I do from 9-5.
Second, I chose $5,000 precisely because it was a more attainable figure than “make as much as I do at work” or “make $50 grand”. I didn’t want to give myself the excuse that “Well, it’s OK to fail at this goal because it’s so big. Really, I have so little chance that it’s hardly worth trying.” $5,000 in a year is less than $2 per day. On the other hand, investing an extra $5,000 annually adds up to $250,000 or so over 20 years (at 8% return). Not bad at all!
OK, that’s all well and good but first I have to actually make the money! I’ve decided on a two pronged approach. Prong 1 is the old standby of credit card arbitrage. A bit late to the party for me, but there are still 0% balance transfers out there, and since I have good credit I intend to take advantage of this. Projected income: $500-1000
Prong #2 is the real meat of the plan: I will start an affiliate marketing business with an initial budget of $250. I chose affiliate marketing because I’ve been interested in marketing and copy-writing for years, and it’s finally time to do something more than read about it! I will establish the business as it’d own entity (more on selecting and setting up a business structure later in the week), with periodic updates on progress and any helpful tidbits I learn along the way. Projected income: $4,000+
It’s going to be an interesting (and hopefully profitable) year!
Where are you?
Left by Nour on June 7th, 2008