Financial Update: February 2019

February was a good month financially but its temporary as the majority of the progress I made is going to be undone in March due to needing new flooring.... it was supposed to hit the budget in February but took longer than expected. They're actually being installed today which I'm super excited about. 

Every month I give you a net worth chart from January 2018 to present but its become unreadable at this point due to the sheet number of months on this journey so we're going to shrink it down a bit. For reference I had a net worth of -$26,291.16 in January of 2018 and for February 2019 that net worth is -$2,068.96 giving me a net worth gain of $24,222.20 which I'm thrilled with. I should to be net worth positive this year despite the flooring set back.

On the debt side here's how it breaks out. I'm most wanting the student loans gone as there are 4 of them lumped into that sum (I've paid off all of my undergraduate degree already so I'm not working on my Master's degree loans) and even knocking out one of those suckers could free up a nice chunk of change to start a faster snowball on the rest of them and my credit card. 

Am I happy that I racked up that much consumer debt? Of course not. I did so mostly when I was first divorced... I used my card to move to Texas, get items that I thought I needed for my new life and generally get myself through the first year when I wasn't making great money choices as my brain was just trying to cope with the aftermath of my world imploding. It's not a good excuse- but its an excuse nonetheless. Now I'm working to reverse that mistake a little at a time. Like I said, I've done really well the last year or so with net worth changes but so much of my monthly payments have to go towards interest that sometimes it seems like I'm crawling when I just want to sprint to the finish line. Patience isn't always easy.

Also, don't buy a new car... I know that's personal finance 101 but its one of my dumbest money mistakes of all time. I let fear and anxiety push me into making a decision- that I convinced myself was a good financial one when it was really an emotional decision- that was not in my own best interest. I had my car totaled in a hit-and-run and only a few days of rental post declaration to find a replacement so I went to the dealership to look at cars and ended up buying a hybrid that I am now horribly upside down on. I won't do that again in the future (the new car, not the hybrid, that I love- gas budget line is AWESOME). Expensive lesson learned.

This month I brought in $134.71 from side hustles without putting any real effort into it as I've been prepping for a crazy amount of things recently so took my side hustling down to slow burner status until near the end of the month. I had several trips to plan, decluttering and organizing my house (then repacking it all due to the flooring situation), learning new music, work projects, getting Learning with Heather Mac planned out (my next project which is in the works) and so much more. This year is going to be amazing!

​I had $124 of that from Facebook sales of items I was decluttering (1-2 minutes to post online per item and then just click to refresh the posts weekly so once they were up maybe 5 minutes of work a week and arranging to meet up with buyers at McDonald's or etc. while I was already heading out so not much added time or cost) and the rest was from cash back apps like CoinOut and Fetch- which I'm reviewing soon. I did work a few hours in February for VIPKID to get back in the swing of things for this month but I won't receive much money and it will get to me in March.  I have 14 classes this weekend though so I'd say I'm back to work again. I plan on working 2 weekends and 2 weeknights in March so should see a few hundred on next month's side hustles income again. It's good to be back in the classroom and I'm loving my office so once the floors are done and everything has been put back to rights I'll give you guys a tour on my YouTube channel. 

I plan on trying to work in another new side hustle trial during March and April depending on my travel schedule. The pups are going to be visiting their Oma several times in the next couple months as I'll be in and out of DFW for various trips over the next couple months- exciting but not great for my current side hustle list (outside of VIPKID of course which can be done basically everywhere so long as you have a set schedule... I taught in my hotel in Montreal last year!). What kinds of side hustles do you guys do? What do you suggest I try out this year? 

​Until next time,