One of my goals that I’m talking about in this blog is Financial Independence. This one means a lot to me. When I graduated college, I spent money a little too freely. I needed a new wardrobe for my new life as a professional, I needed new furniture, I needed fun things and dinners out and travel. I needed to adopt not one, but TWO new animals (for a total of 3). And now, three years later, I’m stepping back and asking myself how I can be more strategic about getting to my financial goals because I’ve taken the time to figure out exactly what those goals are.
Right now, my focus is primarily on finding ways to make more money (though I’m also trying to be a lot more frugal at the same time). I know there are a lot of great side hustles out there, but I want to write about two that I’m exploring. One has already made me money, and one hasn’t.
The first is pet-sitting (because this way I get to meet new animals without trying to cram more into my one-bedroom apartment). The main reason I’m going this route is because of the sheer amount of money I spend on my own pet sitting. I travel a decent amount for work, and I also take at least a couple of short trips a year. I spent well over $2000 on pet sitting last year. Can we just stop and appreciate how absurd that is?? So I signed up on Rover.com and started pet sitting for other people. Right now, I’m saving all of my earnings from this to put toward my own pet sitting expenses, which means more of my normal income will be freed up for other things. Maybe as my sitting business expands, I’ll take funds out for other saving goals, but right now, it’s working pretty well. I’ve slowly started getting more business, and I really enjoy it. I mostly sit cats (I go to other people’s homes rather than have more animals in my apartment). It’s almost therapeutic to have nothing to do for 30 minutes but play with and entertain a cat. And it’s even better to get paid to do it! I’ve made some good money so far, and I’m hoping things will pick up even more as the holidays approach.
The second side hustle actually has me in the hole financially, for now. I’ve long been passionate about photography, and especially travel photography. Up until now, I’ve taken photos for myself and shared them with family and friends. I got a DSLR camera in college with some saved money, and I used Lightroom to edit. I’m not all that artistic, but photography is something that I think I’m good at (it remains to be seen if strangers agree). I decided to take the plunge and find out if that’s true by posting some of my best work on a photography print-on-demand site, where people can buy prints and products with my photos. I spent $30 for the profile. Hopefully people will spend some money and I’ll make that back, but if I end up out of $30 at the end of the day, it’s still worth it. Why? Because I loved the feeling of optimism and potential that came with opening up that online shop. It feels like such a departure from my norm, and I’m putting myself and something that’s very personal to me (my photography) out there for the world to see. It’s also given me this drive to really explore my potential and be productive. I feel the same way about this blog. Maybe no one reads it. Maybe I’m just talking to myself on the internet. But it feels good to get my words out there and flesh out my thoughts. My photos are the visual version of that.
I’d love to hear about your passions or projects–what’s driving you? What goals are you working toward?