Passive Income Q1 2019 – April Edition

As a passionate retirement planner, my goal is to FIRE (Fire Independence Retire Early). This means I need to make a significant income quickly, save loads of it, and retire in the next decade. One of the ways to retire quickly is to have strong passive income streams that work while you sleep. That is, in a nutshell, the goal of this blog and my other passive income sources.

This quarterly report will dive into the revenue from this blog as well as my other passive income sources, with the simple goal of showing you that you can do it too. Not too long ago I was sitting in your shoes, worried about retirement, not sure how to generate passive income to attain my goals.

My April 2019 Quarterly Income Report

I publish this every quarter. Why am I doing this?

Helps me keep track of my progress – It really helps to see the numbers and charts to understand how I’m doing over time. I can also see the impact of any new ventures I take on.

Show it’s possible – I want everyone to know that it’s possible as a busy professional to develop multiple passive income streams. 

Motivation & Accountability – If I publish this and I know people are looking at it, it makes me want to perform better. It’s been shown that you’re much more likely to attain your goals if you have other people keeping you accountable.

Retirement Nut Blog

Display Advertising – Total revenue for the 1st quarter was $0 which is a 0% increase from last quarter. This was due to me not writing any content since the summer of 2018.

Affiliate Advertising – Total revenue for the 1st quarter was $0 which is a 0% increase from last quarter. This was due to me not writing any content since the summer of 2018 and needing to set up partnerships as traffic increases.

Course Income – These have yet to be created but are the long term goal of leveraging the Retirement Nut readers, providing high-quality courses that offer a great ROI on my time.

Take out some expenses for the website, some technical help, etc which amounted to $250 and the net profit for the site this quarter was -$250. Not a great start to 2019, but plenty of room for improvement.

Passive Income

Book 1 Sales – Total revenue for the 1st quarter was $2,965 which is a 95% increase from last quarter. This was due mostly to seasonality and some optimized ad spend.

Audiobook 1 Sales – Total revenue for the 1st quarter was $360 which is a 100% increase from last quarter. This was due to the late launch of the audiobook in 2018, which is now reaping benefits.

Take out some expenses for the advertising for the period and the net profit for the first book was $2,726. This year I invested in my second book, so most of those dollars are allocated towards editing, design and recording the audiobook. I believe that by reinvesting in an even better niche, I should be able to double this income if not triple it into the end of the year. And of course, I pay taxes on the remainder.

Personal Passive Income

This goal of Financial Independence from my main career means I could stop allocating all my time to other people’s money and all my expenses would be covered by outside ventures, all of which are passive to some degree.

Overall Thoughts This Quarter:

There is still quite a lot of work to do on this blog. My distraction with launching my consulting agency has resulted in less time allocation for my passive income ventures. I need to do better.

The Breakdown

My passive income investing was limited for Q1 2019 as I transitioned into working for myself. I did have some great luck in the stock marketing making $600 on some nice out of the money calls. My overall passive income for Q1 2019 was $3,326.

How passive income impacted my life this quarter:

I see glimpses of freedom as I transition from full-time employment to running my own firm. I was able to get away for a long weekend with family, unfortunately, I had to make up those lost hours working the following weekend. The passive income journey has never been more appealing.

Plans for the Next Quarter

Publish my second book in an even better niche.

Start preparing to launch my online course in another niche.