The Finance Castle

It’s whispered about on blogs, referenced to endlessly on forums, and longed after by many a daydreamer stuck in the daily grind doldrums of their local cubicle. It’s championed by a number of individuals, some with good intentions at hear and others to sell snake oil to an unsuspecting public. Who wouldn’t want to be able to bring in money without any work involved, to be able to pursue whatever is they want without being bound by the daily need for money?

I know I do.

With that said, I’ll let you in on a little secret: passive income is out there. Unfortunately in order to obtain it you’re going to have to put in a lot of work or money initially.  In my own adventures, here’s what I’ve discovered as successful sources of passive income. Note that nothing is truly passive, you’ll always have to do some maintenance or check portfolios, but about as passive as it gets (for me).

Marketing: My brother and I currently have a niche site portfolio consisting of about 16 sites. Some have managed a Google Pagerank, some not, but all manage to rank for their particular targeted keywords and bring in various amounts of visitors. These visitors are valuable to Google, as visitors click on the locally displayed Adsense, and earn money for me. These can earn up to $2.00 per click, though it varies wildly. Those that have PR are also valuable to other advertisers, and these income sources combine to make a significant amount of passive income. Whether I’m there to update the site or not, visitors still come and occasionally click.

Investing: You don’t get much more passive than shoving your money in an income-producing investment vehicle and watching the dividend check roll out. Unfortunately you’ll need 2 things if you expect to make passive money in the long run: money and patience. Investing in dividend paying stocks and ETFs can reward you with dividends every 1-6 months, but you have to be willing to take your lumps in the stock market. In addition you’ll need seed money, and that can take time to build up.

Everyone has their own version of “passive” income. Some claim real estate is a viable option as well, but it’s not something that interests me due to the legal hassles of finding and keeping tenants and the fact that most landlords borrow to obtain the property their renting. It’s not for me, but it could be for you. The sources above are my own way of earning extra cash without having to constantly put in effort. They could work for you too.

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So, here I am once again gainfully employed and also having my freelancing on the side (can you tell I’ve been busy?), and I’ve been doing quite a lot of planning as to where to allocate my money. It’s a tough spread. There always seems to be more places to put my capital than I have..well capital. Top priorities on the list are three fold:

1. My last bastion of debt, my student loan

2. A home

3. Investing in alternate income sources/the stock market

Now, currently, 1 and 2 are on the top of my list, with 3 being allocated when possible. I’ve been discussing things with my fiance, and it appears (assuming things don’t get much worse, which they could. Additional emergency funds are being pumped up as well…remember what I said about multiple priorities?) that we could buy a home outright within 5 years. Not a big home, mind you, something small, efficient..ours. With rent out of the way we’d have a lot more to do in the way of options. Yet my debt is constantly haggling me. My distaste for debt in an economic downturn like this one has only grown, so a good part of my extra income will go to that as well. More to come.

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Well it’s that time of year again! For some reason winter has always been a good time for travel to me. Part of the reason for this is that we have 2 annual trips that we take every year. The first is off to Katsucon in Crystal City, which is an Anime Convention, an admittedly geeky event that involves a lot of fun, boozing, and cartoons.

I also love to ski..full of love. Having (hopefully) introduced my fiance to the hobby as well, we’ll be heading off the following weekend to a weekend near Blue Mountain. I’ve come to the realization that traveling really isn’t all that expensive in many cases, so if you like to travel, don’t let the potential expenses keep you from going. It’s an enriching experience to be out on the road, but here are some tips to keep your costs low:

• Travel In Groups: The more people you have, the more likely you are to get group rates, share hotel rooms/cabins/houses and the ability to split the cost between you. More people = less money.
• Take Packages: The hotel we’re staying at for our skiing weekend also includes the lift tickets and the price is much much lower than if we bought them individually. With the economy in a downturn, many companies have cut prices significantly, so keep an eye out for travel deals on the cheap.

Hmm, with that in mind maybe next year I’ll peruse an Anime Chat Room or two for some like minded friends to come with to Katsucon!

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The New Year has come and gone and we’re already a month in to 2009. Looking back I wonder where the month went. Unlike my co-workers, who love the idea of going some place warm and toasty, I dream of snowscapes. Winter then, being my favorite season, has the unfortunate effect of flying by. I’ve thankfully squeezed in some plans to go skiing in the near future, as we’ve only got a month of good ski season left.

But lately I’ve gotten that restless feeling again. I have a good number of my ducks in a row at the moment, but there’s…well something, and I can’t seem to pinpoint what. I suspect that part of it is related to the fact that I’d like to travel, to shed my current arrangements and just set out. Unfortunately in practice, this process takes time, planning, and of course money. It’s just that when I think about it, I’m constantly haunted by a Henry David Thoreau quote:

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.

And at times that’s how I feel. Despite having an awesome job topped off with fun freelance work that’s allowing me to once again get back on my fitness track with a gym membership and paying off my debts in short order, at times I feel..well trapped. Perhaps it’s the attachment to the status quo that bothers me, or that I know where I want to go but I’m still slogging down my path to get there. Whatever the case, the only way to go is forward.

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So yes, I’m still here! It’s been a long time, certainly longer than I’ve ever taken off from the bog, but I promise it’s been for good reason. Here’s the thing, I’ve gotten a new full time job, but also maintained a good portion of my freelance work on the side. Combine that with still working on my Adsense site portfolio (which had a stellar year!) and the fact that I still like to have fun, and you can see the reason for my absence, I hope.

Readers tend to be unforgiving when it comes to this kind of stuff, but for those of you sticking around, I’ll be the first to say thanks! Now I can’t promise that I’ll be back to post  everyday from now and forever, but we’re (hopefully) a new era here.

Given the new stream of income from my main job, I’m going to be rapidly destroying all of my remaining debt and investing it into other income producing cash machines like dividend paying stocks (not you Bank of America) and others. So, feel free to follow along.

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