*This blog post is my personal opinion only and contains affiliate/referral links.
A very late 2021 greeting, dear friends, i know i’ve been inactive on this blog but that is not to say i am dormant on my investments and side hustles. I hope you are all doing well in your career and personal affairs on the first half of the first month of the new year. 2020 was a memorable year for all, and it’s easy to remember it as one of the worst year of any lifetime, but there are positives to be gleaned if we look deeper.
I’ll start by saying the pandemic has taught me to be more careful with my spending. The word “essential” comes to mind when disbursing monies. Necessary expenses like rent, groceries, bills… take priority, and the stuffs-i-can-live-without are sidelined or permanently ignored. On the top of my head, i can think i forego buying some clothes and shoes, maybe because i know i am just at home and on a lockdown most of the time just like the majority of people worldwide.
The remote structure of working and living changed everybody’s lifestyle too. On a more personal level, i think it made us more spiritual and also be more close to our family. I believe the essence of family as the very basic support level is ever more pronounced because of the pandemic.
The excess of time we have on our hands also taught us that we cannot be idle with our time. Surviving on this trying time takes a more serious tone, as millions of people were laid off and were on state unemployment. This sad state of affairs became a trigger to find a side hustle for some people including me.
Affiliate marketing, dividend investing, stocks, options, ecommerce POD shops, KDP self publishing, blogging and more (check my links ) these are passive incomes that i learned in the past year. I can honestly say i have more source of income now than the past years combined.
In an odd and unconventional way, i learned most of this knowledge and skills in the internet. The rise of remote work became the norm and so are online learning. One may say i met some online mentors too who aided me on starting a side businesses.
There are high points and disappointments, but it’s all part of the learning. I now have four POD platforms, two are income generating and the other two are still on the tweaking process. I branched out my investing from passive index funds to an active self managed dividend and growth stock investor, thanks from the boost of knowledge and confidence from the reliable stock courses that i took.
In actuality, there are more courses and ventures waiting to be learned and applied, and as part of my 2021 goals, i want to be able to learn web design, review and polish Facebook ads, revive a Shopify store, try some phone flipping and continue to educate myself on stock investing and POD marketing. Hopefully by year end, i can double my passive income and my ventures will become sustaining enough to support me and my family.
What are your goals for 2021? I love to hear them on the comments.
Thank you for reading and see you on the next blog post.
Jay
The Middle Rule 