Online Income: December 2014

The end of December marks my 6th month as a freelance writer and virtual assistant. I’m still loving my online work and I can’t wait to meet my 2015 goal of quitting my FT job by the end of the year!

Since I started, I’ve learned a lot of new skills, gotten some great tips and advice from the “pros” who’ve been doing it much longer than I have, and had a lot of fun too. Plus, I get paid to do it!

Unfortunately, freelancing has ups and downs. Sometimes you are landing new jobs left and right, and other times you lose a job here or there (or your contract expires, or they change their business model, etc., etc.). Both things have happened to me multiple times since I started in July and I know they are going to continue to happen. The difference is now that I’ve quit my cleaning job, I have to rely on at least some of my online income to help balance my budget.

In order to reach my goal of quitting my job to freelance, I’m going to have to keep on hustlin’ and I am looking to expand a bit more. So, if you are hiring (or if you know of someone who is), please send them my way! I’d really appreciate it.

My online income for December 2014: $1,503.50

Here is a breakdown of how I earned my money:

VA/Blog Management Services – $896.50

Writing – $460.00

Other – $147.00

So I basically doubled my December income goal of $750, which is awesome! But there are several factors that play into why my income was so much higher for December, including:

• Christmas Bonuses – I have some very generous clients. Several of them gave me a Christmas bonus and I’m really thankful for that!
• Timing of payments – Because of December having 31 days and ending in the middle of a week, I was able to get my December month-end work done early and send out my invoices a few months early. $526 came in after Christmas!

Because a lot of my income for work I did the second half of December has already been paid out, I’m 99.9% sure my January income is going to be MUCH lower. With that in mind, I’m setting my January goal at $600.

Now wait a minute, didn’t I just tell you I had to make $600 (after tax) in side income to cover my January budget and now this goal is for $600 (pre-tax)? Yes, but I have quite a bit of carryover from December side income and I also work a PT job on the weekends that will probably bring in about $200 (after-tax).

As always, you need to know that I don’t count my online income until the month it gets deposited into my account, so this is from some work at the end of November through about mid-December. I have made some more since then, but it will be included in my next report since it didn’t hit my account until January 1st (or later).

Remember, that my online income has not yet been taxed, which means that about 30% of what I make is going to be taken by Uncle Sam, and another (small) portion of my income will be used for expenses, like internet, computer repairs, and Paypal fees. I’m also saving some of my income to be used for FINCON15!

While I’m enjoying my online work, I’m certainly no pro at blogging or at making money online, but if I can get started you can too! If you have any questions about how to get started blogging, freelancing, or about my online income don’t hesitate to contact me! I promise that I will do my best to answer your questions and if I can’t I will point you to someone who can!

Here are my other online income reports to date:

November 2014 – $753

October 2014 – $1,080

September 2014 – $581

August 2014 – $280

July 2014 – $285

Total Earned in 2014 – $4,482.50

Did you make money online in December?