The Finance Castle

I have always prided myself on building new income streams on a shoestring. My thinking has always been that many new businesses such as, say, a restaurant, often fail because they lack adequate funding. Many times business owners must borrow money in order to start a business, and as soon as they do, the clock starts ticking. If the business fails, that leaves the owner with nothing to show for their efforts but a pile of debt and a lot of phone calls from angry creditors. To avoid this situation, I have only sunk what money I could afford to lose into my businesses.

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Running a business in this manner has some serious drawbacks. First, it can take a tremendous amount of effort and time as you don’t have the budget to bring in outside help or advise you on your next step. In addition, the amount of money you’ll be making will also start out small. I was absolutely floored when our first 2 sites were pulling in $1.00 a day in Adsense revenue, even when I knew that our hosting and domain costs took a large chunk of that away from actual profit.

The advantage to starting a low-budget business is that you really don’t have anything to lose but time. If your idea fails, you can immediately scrap it and move onto something else without needing to worry about the potential ramifications of failure. Given that most business owners suffer several failures before they find success, this gives you an advantage.

Once your shoestring business has found some success, though, you may need to invest additional money to expand your income. This is best if the revenue to do that comes from the business itself (and why starting a side business on the cheap is best when you already have a full time income).  So it is that our portfolio of small niche sites is currently earning about $10 a day in Adsense, but my goal is to bring that number up to $15.00 per day before the end of the year. $5.00 a day may not seem like much, but it adds up quickly.

New Horizons

The problem with building new sites from scratch is that it takes significant amounts of time for search engines to really appreciate them and rank the site accordingly. Most often this means a few months of updating content despite getting little in return in terms of revenue.

Now that the portfolio brings in enough money to invest elsewhere, we’re considering plunging that money into existing sites that are making rather small sums of money consistently. This means that we’ll be buying a site that has already gone through the growing pains of a new domain and can hit the ground running. This does raise the price point of the site, generally what it will earn in 6-12 months is what you can expect to pay up front. If we can get enough data to show that the site has current rankings, good content, and longetivity, we can buy these sites to get above the $15.00/day mark. I’ll keep you posted.

And why to take good care of your teeth.

I should have known better with the knowledge that I come from a genetic background that has enamel on the weaker side. My older brother and father have both had fairly extenstive problems with their teeth, but I had last my job at the time and without dental insurance I figured I could put off a few cavities. Unfortunately now going back to the dentist one such cavity now requires a root canal. Not fun right? Certainly not, but the situation could be much worse.

First, I’m glad to have the peace of mind that I’m getting my teeth taken care of, and I have already taken some extra steps to help prevent (or at least slow down) the occurrence in the future like a Consumer Reports recommended, a waterpik, and glider floss (I have a retainer on my bottom front teeth). It’s also nice to know that when an expensive event comes your way, and they undoubtedly will, that your bank account has the fortitude to withstand such expenses. I hate the dentist as much as the next person, but waiting will only make the pricepoint higher. I do have dental insurance (whew) but I’ve also found that dental insurance is great for regular checkups or the occasional filling but woefully inadequate for more costly procedures.

I hope this serves as a good reminder to those of you putting off getting at least a few months of living expenses socked away in a taxable account. Much like my teeth, the pain (both physical, emotional, and financial) will only become more severe with time when you need your emergency fund for support.

I can’t help but shake my head when I read another business piece about successful business owners and the character traits they share. Many of these now-millionaires had companies before their big success. Some of them folded, some of them failed, and some of them were auctioned off to the highest bidder before the owner moved on to his/her next big idea. I don’t get it. The thinking seems to be that in order to succeed one must be willing to take risks. This is true, but how big of a risk are you willing to take?

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It helps if all of your chips are on the table, anyway. Many successful business owners (and bloggers!) succeeded simply because they had no choice but to succeed. If your house is on the line and your car is about to reposessed, that is one hell of a motivator to hit the ground running. While it’s an approach that works for many..I don’t really recommend it as a path for those looking to strike out on their own.

Part of the reason I’m self-employed now is because the mutual fund that I worked for decided to outsource their shareholder services to another firm. I was faced with the option of making the leap or continuing my current path of faithful corporate drone.  I decided to take the leap, but I had a safety net. I had a freelance gig lined up that would give me enough to live on, and my site portfolio has been steadily gaining steam as well. I wouldn’t starve if my new endeavors failed, I had a plan. Sure, it was a risk, but with my benefits covered and a base salary in place, it really wasn’t that hard of a decision.

Is this the “right” way to doing what you love? Should it always be a balls to the wall race to the goal and you better be eating, sleeping, and breathing your business or you’ll be cut down by those who will? I don’t knot, but it’s something to think about. Maybe huge risks aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.

p>I’ve always found it odd that there’s almost a stigma surrounding New Year’s Resolutions. I guess because the success rate for them is so low, most individuals write them off as wishful thinking or delusions of grandeur. That may be the case for many, but I ahve always found it helpful to set a small number of attainable goals and stick with it. This allows you to have some serious focus on where you want to be while still making a meaningful change in your life. Here are my three.

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1. Site Portfolio Revenue: Bring Adsense revenue up to $15.00 per day on average
2. Lose 30 Pounds/Increase number of daily pushups to 150.
3. Hire an Accountant

As you can see, most of my goals are fairly modest. Our sites currently bring in about $10 a day on average, and increasing that number to $15.00 would increase our revenue by $1,825 per year. Groundbreaking? No. Significant improvement? Yes. When I was still working the 9-5, I had a daily routine when it came to working out because my firm had a gym on the premises. Now being at home and on my own, I’ve slipped little by little throughout the year. I’ve made significant improvements both in weight and strength in November and December, and to lost 30 pounds by 2012 I would have to lose a meer 2.5 lbs per month.

Finally, whilst I have been socking away about 30% of any income I bring in, my understanding of my tax situation is still flimsy. To rectify this, I’m going to need to find an accountant to help guide me through the process. So with that in mind if you know of any that wouldn’t cost me an arm and a leg, I’d be happy to hear about them!

It is just shy of inevitable that in any Personal Finance blog, fitness will come up as a topic. There”s plenty of good reasoning behind this, and it isn”t because working toward your financial goals can be quite similar to working toward better health: tedious, slow, and occasionally boring (I kid, working out can be a lot of fun, but it won”t always be). How you take care of yourself physically can have a lasting and sometimes irreversible impact on your finances. If you eat junk food for most of your life and end up developing type 2 Diabetes, do you know how much that is going to cost you down the line. I have a hint for you: A Lot.

Yet if the holy grail of earning money is passive income, then logically it would make sense that passive calorie burning is in turn the holy grail of fitness. Now I can just hear the “skepticism” alerts going off and for the most part you”d be right, but stick with me here for a moment. Much like a portfolio of passive income like real estate, investments, or in my case small niche sites, they won”t provide you with all of the calorie burning power you need.  You will still need to monitor your nutrition,  and you will still need to exercise on a regular basis. There is no way around this, it”s just a fact.

Still, there are plenty of tips and tricks you can use to help augment how many calories you burn in an average day.  Here are some nutritional tips:

• Tea and Coffee: I blame the 9-5 workforce for addicting me to caffeine, but a cup of Joe or his weaker counterpart Ms. Tea can have some serious calorie burning effects. Studies have shown that your average cup of coffee will burn about 30-60 calories while 3 cups of green tea will knock off the same amount. Note that if you use creamer or milk the end result is null and void.
• Spicy!: The chemical (drawing a blank on Ruotsalainen kasino on tehnyt niinkuin uuden casinon kuuluukin: se on katsonut alan parhailta tekijoilta mallia ja yhdistanyt sitten muiden parhaat ominaisuudet nayttavaksi, napparaksi ja nykyaikaiseksi kokonaisuudeksi. the name) that give chilies their kick can also hep you burn those unwanted pounds off. Eat at least 1 a day and you could net up to 100 calories of calorie burning power.
• Portabella Mushrooms: Packed with potassium, these guys help flush salt out of your system.

If you”re looking for passive ways to exercise..well..there aren”t very many options. The whole idea behind exercising is getting your body to move around to burn calories, so you”re probably out of luck. Still, here are some helpful ideas.

• Embrace the Stairs: The bottom line is throughout the day you”re going to have to get from point A to point B, and I shake my head when I see people taking the elevator instead of one flight of stairs. They should put up a sign next to them that say “free calorie burning this way!” If you”re going that direction anyway, take the stairs and get some extra burning power in.
• Walk Fast: Sprinting to your car when you get out of work might send the wrong impression to your boss, but walking briskly not only saves you time but also helps burn significantly more calories. You don”t have to get winded every time you take a leisurely stroll, mind you, but it”s easy to turn it up a notch or two.
• Consider Mini-Workouts: So I”m breaking the line of “passive” here, but one of the biggest reasons people don”t exercise is that it”s long and boring. You can combat this problem by working at home in small intervals. If you have a stationary bike, hop on for 5 minutes before dinner and/or during your favorite show. I also like to get in 100 pushups a day, every day. 100 pushups at once is very hard (for me) but 20 at a time is easy.

As long as you  aren”t relying on these steps to do all of the dirty work for you, you can net better results by incorporating them into your daily routine. Fitness and finance are getting more linked by the day as healthcare costs continue to rise, so start making changes now.