Hey y’all,
I haven’t talked about it in a while since I’ve been focused on my skin health, but I’m actually kind of poor.
I had a brain aneurysm and a stroke a few years ago, and it, unfortunately, left me without the ability to hold down a job outside the home.
I am married, and my spouse makes decent money. However, that was decent money when he was living alone. Then I moved in… and we got a dog… then another dog came… and we needed a new vehicle… and medical bills happened… and we’re having a baby… and we’re buying a house. With all of these things, the money my spouse makes is being stretched thin. It would be easy to say “be frugal,” but we’re already pretty frugal (and I’ve had to fight for every cent, because the spouse likes to spend money – I got to teach him to think frugally).
If we weren’t so frugal, there’s no way we could do all of this. It’s going to be tough going for the next few years. If we can make it through two years, then the pressure should ease a bit since we’ll be able to pay off the medical bills in that time, and hopefully pay down the credit card some. But the big step is to make it to the five-year mark. In five years, we’ll have paid off the vehicle in full. That will put several hundred dollars back in our pockets each month.
However, it would be nice to beat that five-year date. That’s where my passive e-commerce idea comes into play. I watched a video of a woman telling how she set up an e-commerce store to be able to run passively. I believe I can do this fairly easily. That woman has been honing and refining her business plus others for years and makes $1000 per week, but I’d love to even make a portion of that.
I really appreciate this lady, because I’ve researched ways to make passive income for years, and I always come across the common answers of “write a blog” or “make YouTube videos” or “put these affiliate links on social media.” I’ve tried the first two, and I refuse to do the third. None of the methods I’ve tried have made any money. I do have an Etsy store where I sell digital copies of my crochet patterns, but I can’t sell just a pattern for that much, and I think I’ve made about two dollars. I’ve also attempted to play the stock market, but I’ve found that that’s a long-term game. If I get a stock, I won’t get any significant money for at least several months… usually years.
This is the only idea I’ve heard that may actually be able to generate some revenue. While I would love to be able to go the standard route and get a part-time gig stocking groceries or delivering pizzas, I just can’t. No one will hire me, and it’s not for lack of trying. I’ve pounded the pavement. I’ve done more than my fair share. After a while, I decided that my time would be better spent trying to create my own revenue rather than searching for that golden goose of a job that would hire me. (I’m seen as a worker’s compensation risk.)
I’m definitely going to be discussing this more in the future after we get settled in our new place.
Frugal Treehugger 