Side Hustle, Self Employed, Entrepreneurship

Some of you know, others are jealous, many wonder but yesterday, one person actually asked.

You are making a living sharing what you do day to day and you seem to love it. I can only wish to make money doing what I love. What’s the secret?

I was flattered by the question. It’s true that I love writing over here, and I’m very fortunate that what I love to do happens to put bread on the table (those are for show of course, I secretly eat steak instead since I’m a meat kind of guy). It’s great now, even though it hasn’t always been like this.



When I started writing, I was excited when I made just one dollar that particular day. To give you some perspective on my earnings expectation, Emma and I used to have a little competition to see who could have a bigger paypal account at the end of the month. She would sell her one or two items a month on ebay, I would write.

You see. I never planned for this to become my primary source of income. At the beginning, I saw this as a hobby that gave me cash on the side. I was already passionate about money topics, and I was excited to learn about putting up a website, changing the look of it and adding new features. The time I spent on it (and it was a ton of time because I practically did nothing else back then) didn’t matter because I wasn’t keeping track.

It didn’t matter that I wasn’t making nearly as much as I could by working a part time job. I loved it. I couldn’t wait to get home to work on my site and read up on the latest news. I wrote and wrote and wrote, changing, improving and adapting at the same time. Slowly, more money came my way and that only fueled my desire to tweak, change and improve some more.

There are no secrets. I just kept doing stuff and not settling for what’s good enough. I spent more time on the look of the website. I wrote longer and more interesting posts. I made some friends and wrote on their websites. I even wrote a budget travel book that is coming out soon. As time went on, I did more, tried to be more efficient, and then took on more projects.

Whether it’s getting out of debt, saving or making money. The key is always to do something about it. Stop reading how others do it. Study them and apply it to your own situation. There’s no right way. Just start.

Otherwise, you are still hoping, wishing and dreaming while others are doing, living, and enjoying.