​We are sitting on the precipice of a big holiday, Christmas. And this made me think about the average financial mentality. The trend is to buy buy buy and then pay later. But the time you pay that off (maybe) it is time to buy again! It happens in all aspects of life. Our world is lackadaisical about increasing their debt load. But seriously, it’s time to stop that trend and just say no to debt! Let’s take Christmas as an example. This upcoming holiday is one that is one that many times involves a lot of spending. I get it, we want to pour love out to our families and friends by buying gifts and giving them nice presents. But what is the cost? Are you ending the season in debt? Is that the way that you want to live your life? Adding to your debt each December, paying off Christmas for most of the following year and then doing it all again the next Christmas? It sounds a whole lot like spinning wheels and going nowhere fast to me. I think it’s time to say no to debt!
Changing your Mindset about Debt
If you have dreams and aspirations for a better life, a new house, that big Rv, a life of financial freedom, etc; then living a debt free life is paramount! We need to face the truth. And that truth is that having debt is crippling to these plans! If you want to achieve any of these big goals, the. You have to change your mindset about debt. You have to say no to adding to your debt load. You have to have the mindset that debt is bad and something to avoid!
At one point in my life I was in debt with a mad amount of credit card debt. I wanted so much out of life. I wanted to live in a nice house, travel, buy a new (newer) car and do so much. I had dreams, but I was paying well over $1500 each month the in credit card minimums. I wanted to live my dreams and I desperately wanted to be out of debt. I was in a really bad place in my life and I didn’t say no to debt. As soon as a little credit would open up (due to my payments) we (my ex) would go shopping and max the card out again! Much to my shame I didn’t say no to debt and it just kept building! I needed to change my mindset about debt.
A new Financial Start
The change to this new mindset wasn’t easy. I had to dig myself out of a huge hole! I had to get rid of a lot of debt. For me this happened all in conjunction with the end of my marriage. I made sacrifices during that divorce, leaving with nothing but my personal belongings. I didn’t take anything for the house/property (and the property had no mortgage) or the business that my ex owned that I helped to build. I lived with my parents for a few years after my divorce. Yes, it was humbling to move in with my parents in my 40’s, but it was necessary for me to find a restart. I did everything that I could to give myself a fresh start....one with no debt!
I found what worked for my situation. There are many debt busting websites out there with plans and methods to get out of debt. We will talk about them in a later post. I found what worked best for ME and I steadfastly followed my chosen path. We are all unique and in different situations and times within our lives. We have to find what works for us, and it will be different for each of us.
The biggest aspect of my fresh start was my new mindset. That mindset was the strict adherence to the belief that I would not ever be in debt again!
Good Debt Versus Bad Debt
While my mindset that debt is bad has been at the forefront of my mind since my divorce. I have always had one or two caveats in there. I always knew that while I would like to buy a house outright with cash, that it would be highly unlikely. I also knew that my car was old and that there was a very good chance that I would need to replace a car before I had the cash to buy one outright. While I still believe and would in the perfect world prefer to have no debt, I knew that these were debts that I would consider ‘good debt’.
What is a good debt? A good debt is a debt that you have something tangible that you can easily sell and with the proceeds pay off the debt. In other words, a house or car loan. When you take out the loan the bank is the true owner of the property. If life goes belly up and you can’t pay or they call the loan due tomorrow, you have the property that is worth the amount of the loan and you can sell to pay the loan! Or at the worst case, the bank will take possession. Sure your credit score will take a hit, but you will most likely not be left with some huge debt that you need to be paying off. A debt that will inhibit your future!
So what is bad debt then? Bad debt is debt that you accrue with nothing real to show for it. Sure you have new clothes in your closet. You have great memories of your vacation! The dinner out at that restaurant was fantastic and your family loved those Christmas gifts. But you have absolutely nothing to show for those purchases. If the loan/credit card was called due tomorrow you would have no way to cover the loan! this bad credit. Bad credit is those credit cards that you use so freely! Bad credit is those personal loans that you ask friends for ‘cover me until payday’. It is the month you spend that you have no way to ever recover! And unfortunately there are lots of those expenses in life. We have to eat. We have to buy clothes to wear, unless you live in a nudist colony. But seriously, don’t go into debt to do it! Spend what you can afford and not a penny over!!! Take on the mindset of no new debt!!!
No new debt is a huge mindset to undertake! It isn’t easy to stop the spending and building of debt, especially when you feel like you are spinning your wheels and spending every penny on paying the minimum payments. It is going to require a change in how you look at spending. But if you stop adding debt, those payments will slowly start decreasing your balances. It won’t be easy. It is going to involve changes to your life. It is going to be a complete overhaul. But I challenge you. No New Debt!  

As the year 2020 ends, I sit back and think about where I am in my financial health and where I want to be at this time next year. It is time to set some goals and plan for my future!
2020 Financial Review
2020 was a year of getting back on my feet. I had been working really hard in the previous year to get back on my feet and to start building a savings. I was enjoying moderate success when I was told by a mechanic that my trusty 15 year old Honda Civic was ready for the junk yard as they couldn't find what was wrong with it. I had no choice but to purchase a new car. I had a good idea of where I wanted (needed) my car payment to be in order to remain comfortable within my financial means. That meant that I had to literally drain my savings account. I started the year 2020 with virtually no money in my savings. I spent the year 2020 regaining a footing financially and building that savings account to a more comfortable level.
Throughout this year I have gone back and forth with what would be the best route for my 'extra' money. At the beginning of the year I was totally focused on rebuilding that savings account. But as the year dwindled, I began to ponder another option. I began to think deeply about the car payment. The car loan was my only loan and I do not like being in debt! I wanted that gone. So I began to dump all of my extra money into the car payment. My reasoning was that I am paying a higher interest for the car than I am earning on my money in the savings account. I had attained 'magical' minimum amount that I feel comfortable with in my savings account and was ok with slowing down on the rebuilding of that account. It made and still does make financial sense to instead put every penny into the car loan and that is exactly what I did during the last months of the year 2020.
Looking financially forward to 2021 and beyond
We have been talking a lot lately about moving. We are currently renting an apartment and we cringe each month as we throw money down a drain..money that we will never see every again. Now don't get me wrong, we need shelter and a place to live. But every month we watch $1500 leave our bank account and each month we say "if we were paying a mortgage instead of rent at least we would be investing in something that we could recoup some of our money if we ever sold our house." Couple that desire to stop throwing our money down the rental pit is the need for a larger place to live. This apartment was perfect for us when we moved in. We were both starting over in life and we didn't have much in the way of furniture and household belongings. We moved in and had to buy a couch and tv stand that first weekend! We literally had a bedroom suit and that was it. Over the last 2.5 years we have accumulated furniture, belongings and an extra pet or two and we are not bursting at the seams. We know that our time at this apartment is nearing the end. That means that we need to be working on our plans for the future!
That plan includes seriously looking into buying a house! There are a few other non-financial things that need to fall into place before we take the leap, so we do have a bit of time. (Barring any unforeseen changes or life events that speed up that plan of course) And that time gives me the opportunity to work on our financial stability and readiness to purchase a house!
That brings me to my financial goals for the upcoming year! SAVE SAVE SAVE. While I shifted my focus at the end of 2020 to pay off the car, I am shifting back to throwing as much money into my savings account as possible. The more money we have in savings, the better off we will be when it comes time to move.
This thrust to save as much as possible comes with a multi faceted approach. It will include in depth reviews of my personal financial budget, an effort to build my side hustles (aka my weight loss blog and accompanying YouTube channel) and a conscious effort to curb spending and make wise money decisions. I don't have a set amount in my head of what I would like to save...a goal. I want to closely review my budget again and make a set plan on what will go into the savings each month without fail. But I will say that I would love to have my bank account increase by 5 to 10 thousand this year. (I would be happy if more....but if it is $5000 higher, I will also be happy).
I can do this. I have a mission. My future is dependent upon my success in this goal and quest to save money in 2021!
As the year 2020 ends, I sit back and think about where I am in my financial health and where I want to be at this time next year. It is time to set some goals and plan for my future!
2020 Financial Review
2020 was a year of getting back on my feet. I had been working really hard in the previous year to get back on my feet and to start building a savings. I was enjoying moderate success when I was told by a mechanic that my trusty 15 year old Honda Civic was ready for the junk yard as they couldn't find what was wrong with it. I had no choice but to purchase a new car. I had a good idea of where I wanted (needed) my car payment to be in order to remain comfortable within my financial means. That meant that I had to literally drain my savings account. I started the year 2020 with virtually no money in my savings. I spent the year 2020 regaining a footing financially and building that savings account to a more comfortable level.
Throughout this year I have gone back and forth with what would be the best route for my 'extra' money. At the beginning of the year I was totally focused on rebuilding that savings account. But as the year dwindled, I began to ponder another option. I began to think deeply about the car payment. The car loan was my only loan and I do not like being in debt! I wanted that gone. So I began to dump all of my extra money into the car payment. My reasoning was that I am paying a higher interest for the car than I am earning on my money in the savings account. I had attained 'magical' minimum amount that I feel comfortable with in my savings account and was ok with slowing down on the rebuilding of that account. It made and still does make financial sense to instead put every penny into the car loan and that is exactly what I did during the last months of the year 2020.
Looking financially forward to 2021 and beyond
We have been talking a lot lately about moving. We are currently renting an apartment and we cringe each month as we throw money down a drain..money that we will never see every again. Now don't get me wrong, we need shelter and a place to live. But every month we watch $1500 leave our bank account and each month we say "if we were paying a mortgage instead of rent at least we would be investing in something that we could recoup some of our money if we ever sold our house." Couple that desire to stop throwing our money down the rental pit is the need for a larger place to live. This apartment was perfect for us when we moved in. We were both starting over in life and we didn't have much in the way of furniture and household belongings. We moved in and had to buy a couch and tv stand that first weekend! We literally had a bedroom suit and that was it. Over the last 2.5 years we have accumulated furniture, belongings and an extra pet or two and we are not bursting at the seams. We know that our time at this apartment is nearing the end. That means that we need to be working on our plans for the future!
That plan includes seriously looking into buying a house! There are a few other non-financial things that need to fall into place before we take the leap, so we do have a bit of time. (Barring any unforeseen changes or life events that speed up that plan of course) And that time gives me the opportunity to work on our financial stability and readiness to purchase a house!
That brings me to my financial goals for the upcoming year! SAVE SAVE SAVE. While I shifted my focus at the end of 2020 to pay off the car, I am shifting back to throwing as much money into my savings account as possible. The more money we have in savings, the better off we will be when it comes time to move.
This thrust to save as much as possible comes with a multi faceted approach. It will include in depth reviews of my personal financial budget, an effort to build my side hustles (aka my weight loss blog and accompanying YouTube channel) and a conscious effort to curb spending and make wise money decisions. I don't have a set amount in my head of what I would like to save...a goal. I want to closely review my budget again and make a set plan on what will go into the savings each month without fail. But I will say that I would love to have my bank account increase by 5 to 10 thousand this year. (I would be happy if more....but if it is $5000 higher, I will also be happy).
I can do this. I have a mission. My future is dependent upon my success in this goal and quest to save money in 2021!

If you are like half of the world. You just emptied our your wallet to buy Christmas gifts for your family and friends! It is maddening how much money is spent over the holiday season. Maybe you were lucky and had a savings built up for the gifts. And hopefully you didn’t go into debt to pay for your Christmas gifts. No matter what happened over this past holiday, it is time to prepare for the upcoming Christmas!
I know! You think I am insane right now! There are literally over 350 days until Christmas and here I am talking about preparing for the holiday! But I am not crazy! I am smart because now is the time to think about what you want your expenditures to look like next Christmas! It seems early but now is the time to
There are a few routes you may take for your Christmas gift giving for next year. Each of them can help you navigate the expenses of Christmas gift giving that seems to hit insuring the holiday season. Some of these ideas may even save you a bundle of money! There are three main concepts and they are: shop early, make handcrafted gifts, set aside money in a Christmas find right now!

​Now is the time to start shopping for Christmas for next year! In fact, we should have been out shopping the day after the holiday. There is no such thing as being too early. If you know your lights need to be replaced on the Christmas tree, don’t wait until next November to replace them. Head to the stores right now and buy them when they are 75% off (or dare we dream 90%). Now is the time to buy your Christmas items for next year. They are deeply discounted! And it’s not just decorations you should be looking for. Look for gifts!
One year I went shopping the day after Christmas. I bought new Christmas lights and ornaments. But I also purchased a huge box of items. I bought crystal Christmas platters for 25 cents. I bought Christmas tea towels, I bought all sorts of items. I didn’t have a need for them at that moment, but I put them in a big box in my spare room closet. Every time that year when I saw an incredible sale, I purchased the item and dropped it into that box! When Christmas time came around I opened that box and I had amazing gifts! I made cookies and used those 25 cent platters for my coworkers. I made gift baskets with items. Sure, I had to buy some small things, but the bulk of Christmas was purchased well in advance and at deep discounts!
The other benefit of the Christmas gift box of sale items? I had a friend that moved into a new house! I ran to the box and I pulled put items to put together a house warming gift! Yes, that box came in handy year round! The trick of the gift box? But when you see something on sale and out it aside! Sure you may not use it for a year or two, but you will be glad you have it when you need it!
But shopping early isn’t the only thing we should be doing early!  

​Do you have an incredible skill? Do you enjoy quilting? Woodworking? Baking? Crochet? What is your skill, your hobby? Turn that hobby into a gift! If you make hand crafted items plan ahead and make Christmas gifts! I have given quilts, rugs, cookies, pictures and photography items. I have used my hobbies and skills to generate hand crafted items.
Your friends and family will love the thought and appreciate the time you spend to create these one of a kind items! It speaks volumes of your attention! I once worked on a large team of people and I didn’t want to spend the money to buy each person a gift but I wanted to show my appreciation at Christmas. I made 45 sock snowmen, one for each person! It took time and planning...but it cost me pennies to make and the appreciation from my coworkers was astronomical! It just took time and planning!
So your not crafty you say? You can make a coupon book and offer your services. Friends that have a young child...offer baby sitting services so that they can have a date night. Offer to work on their landscaping, clean their house, take a home cooked meal! in our busy world, those are the gifts that are appreciated...and cost little but your time!

​Ok, so you don’t want to make hand crafted gifts. And you don’t have room for a Christmas box to stock up on random items. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be thinking about Christmas now. Plan how much you want to spend on Christmas for next year. Use this year as your example budget. And then figure out how much you can put aside (or need to put aside) into savings each week. Don’t tough that savings account until it’s time to shop for Christmas! That money is sacred!!!! Start saving now so that come December you won’t be struggling to find money to give gifts...or worse yet going into debt!
Christmas seems far away, but it is time to plan. It is time to come up with a game plan and think about what route you want to follow when it comes to Christmas gifts for next year. If you want to avoid the crazy drain on your wallet and the inevitable debt, plan now!!!

A few weeks ago I decided to try to learn more about SEO, otherwise known as Search Engine Optimization.    I sat down and read article after article.  I watched videos on SEO. I wanted to learn how to be an SEO master!   I wanted to do it perfectly and know what I was doing.  But very quickly I started to become overwhelmed.   I decided to take what I learned and move slowly and in small steps.  In that way I could learn as I go and really work to implement the practices.  I started immediately with my existing personal blog and within weeks I could see a definite improvement in my site traffic.

These first steps can be done easily and quickly without changing anything on your website/blog.   You can do it without spending a single penny for a consultant, paid website or any fancy app.   

Research Keywords 

The first thing that I did was to research keywords.   There are apps and websites out there that will help you find keywords that would be relevant to your website or YouTube channel.    I can not attest to them because I went with good old fashioned research which was free.  I sat down at my computer and I pulled up google, YouTube and Bing.  I started to type in words and phrases that pertained to my sites and I let the predictive text finish the phrases.  Predictive text will complete the phrase/search with the most popular searches.  So when I put in a few words from my website, I was given a list of the most common words and phrases that people look for.    For example, if I typed in the word weight, I might have seen the phrases weight loss journey and losing weight.  Voila I now had a much better list of keywords for my sites! 

After I got my keywords, I went a bit further.  I researched phrases that people look for.  For my personal weight loss blog that mean using things like "how do I lose 100 pounds" and 'losing weight after age 40". This generated more focused phrases to help narrow down someone's search and therefore keyword phrases that I could use to be found by them.  Once again, I popped the phrases into google and as I typed them in I was able to see various other options that were a bit more searchable then my original intent. 

How to use Keywords 
So now that I had my keywords, what in the world was I to do with the keywords?    What good was it going to do me to know the keywords if I didn't know how to use them.   I dug deeper into my research to find the solution.

The first and easiest way was to pop those keywords into the tags and keywords areas that are built into most sites.  YouTube, Weebly Blogger and Wordpress all have the option to add tags and keywords when you publish an article or video.   It is imperative that these highly searchable keywords that actually pertain to your post/video end up in your tags.   You want people to be able to find your work and tags and keywords are a great way for them to find you!

The second way to use keywords is in the actual content of your post.   If you are writing a blog post, make sure that you are using your keywords and phrases in the opening paragraph and closing paragraph.   The search engines specifically search these two highpoints of any article written.  Use the keywords wisely in those paragraphs!

If you are posting a video on YouTube, make sure that your keywords are in your description paragraph.  Give the search engines every chance to find your content!

Length of Articles for a Blog for Optimal SEO

While I was reading about SEO, I found various articles about the magic number of words for a blog post and the perfect number of minutes in a YouTube video for optimal search engine results.  There is definitely an algorithm in how things are decided.  My gut instinct tells me to write what I need to say, film what I need to show and be clear and concise and let the rest happen accordingly.  However, I was able to find actual numbers that are widely recommended for the length of these two outlets. 

The consensus was 1000 to 1300 words.  Everything indicated that the longer posts would struggle to retain readers interest and the shorter posts would not be flagged as worthwhile content due to the lack of words.  

I have seen similar advice for the length of YouTube videos with the magic minutes being somewhere between 8-12 minutes.   

Writing posts in a different Format for SEO
I used to write all of my posts in standard format.  I would write and break for a paragraph and then move on.  But as I researched SEO, I began to see the importance of breaking down the article into smaller segments.   This is done for a few reasons.  First, it breaks down the information so that people who are busy can quickly get through the article.  But secondly by breaking it down into segments, I can add titles and headings for each section, which gives me another opportunity to add SEO keywords!  

These are the very first and very basic tips that I used to as my first experiments to grow my blog and learn proper SEO.   I didn't change my content.  I didn't change the look of my blog.  I made these simple changes that didn't cost me a dime.  And as I reported in a previous post, the visitors to my site doubled almost overnight!   What a small investment with a huge reward!  There are plenty of other SEO tricks.  I am working to become a master at these basic simple steps before I leap into the next change.  But so far, I'm liking what I am seeing!
  

​I started a savings account when I was quite young. I loved seeing the numbers grow.  I delighted in asking for some odd jobs to increase what I was savings.  Because of this, everyone that knew me as a youngster assumed that I would have my act together as an adult.  Everyone figured that I would be the last person on earth to have financial problems.  Yet, I was at one point almost destitute and deeply in debt.  How did that happen?  How did I let my finances go belly upside down?  

​My financial demise was brought about by a bad marriage.   That marriage eventually ended, but while I was in that marriage, I sat back and let my finances spiral way out of control.

 When I got married for the first time, I was naïve and believed that the only way to handle finances as a married couple was to combine everything.  That is how my parents handled their finances.  That was how most of my friend’s parents handled their finances.  It seemed absolutely normal and exactly how things were done.   One of the first things we did as newlyweds was to combine all of our financial accounts.  I was sure that it was going to be perfect and wonderful. Boy, was I wrong.   Almost from the first I struggled to keep my ex-husband’s spending under control.  There was always something that he wanted.  There was always something that he ‘needed’.   Our accounts were always perilously close to being totally empty.    Each month I scraped together our money to pay the bills, barely!   It was a hard scrabble financial life.  But we were making it!   But that wasn’t to last.   Eventually came the month where I couldn’t pay the monthly bills.  I had to chose which bills to pay and which bills to let ride.  It tore me apart!  I vowed to get the spending under control and I stopped buying anything that was unnecessary!

It wasn’t enough!  I wasn’t spending money, but my ex-husband was spending money faster than we could make it.  I didn't put a stop to his spending.  I was trying to play the part of a good wife and I let our finances be dictated by someone that had no control. Instead,  I learned the art of balance transfers on credit cards.   I tried to keep our interest low so that we would have a chance to pay off the debt but it wasn’t happening.  I mean, how could it; when we were spending more than we made?  Each month the debt grew.  Each month my feelings of despair grew.  I didn’t know what to do!
At the same time as our finances were blowing up in our faces, our marital life was also falling apart.  Things happened and changed within us and I decided that it was time to part ways.   We both knew it was coming for quite a while before hand.  I worked hard for a year to curb the spending and to get myself in a position that I could leave a relationship that was not healthy for me.  It was hard work!
​

I prepared myself financially for the separation and divorce by working on adding no new debt.  I worked and did everything I could to eliminate what debt was in my own name.  I tried to prepare myself in any way possible.  I did this by working various side hustles.  I worked and  hired myself out as a photographer.  I typically prefer to photograph buildings and scenery.  But for about two years straight I worked on weekends to photograph weddings, children, families, animals, concerts and bands.  Anything and everything.  It gave me money to work on my finances and to prepare myself for the split that was to come.  I also wrote some e-books that I self published.  It didn’t make me a great deal of money, but every penny counted in those days! 

​Now I am out of debt and out of that bad relationship.  I have vowed to remain as debt free as possible.  I did have to get a loan to buy a new car and we are hoping to one day soon buy a house and I know that will necessitate a loan.  That is ok.  What is NOT ok is credit cards and unsecured loans.  I use my credit card all the time but I pay it off every two weeks!  I do NOT carry a balance….EVER.   I will not fall into that trap of credit card debt again.    But it is time to start thinking about the future.  What do I need to do in my 40’s to make my financial future more strong.   What do I need to do to make my financial future bright?    I’m sitting in a good spot.  I only have a car loan.  I can make the changes necessary to make my financial future strong and robust!
 
It wasn’t easy to start over financially in my mid 40’s.  I had nothing and it wasn’t easy for a while.  However, slowly but surely I have found my footing and the old Maryfran, the gal that loved to save every penny is reemerging!   I am ready to face the future and better myself.  I have ideas and thoughts about how to increase my wealth and financial stability.  I may have been financially broken, but I’m not broken any longer.   The financial future looks bright!

​A few weeks back I vowed to make an effort to really learn about growing  my online presence.  I had been reading about ways to start a side hustle.  I had been researching ways to make a few extra dollars.  I had been trying to figure out a way to live the life that I wanted to live, financially free to follow my dreams and aspirations.  I had already dabbled with many of the ideas over the years.  I had written an e-book,  I had a youtube channel and I had a blog that had been around for 14.5 years.  I had started all of these things as a hobby.  I had never really tried to promote myself or my work.  I never even tried to do the most simplest of things to grow my internet presence.  At the end of June, I vowed to change that.  I few weeks ago I wrote about that vow.  I wrote that I  was going to commit time each day toward building my online hobbies into a side business.
Setting a Financial Goal while building an Online Side Hustle
Before we begin I would like to say that I would LOVE to be able to live off of these things that started as a hobby.  That would be the ultimate goal.  But I am not expecting that to happen anytime soon.   I wanted to set a first goal for myself.  My mind kept coming to the figure of $300 which would be enough to cover my car payment.  But that seemed high and lofty, considering my typical monthly revenue on adsense has been between $5 and $10.  I haven’t even made it to my first $100 payout yet!   My amazon affiliate links are similar, I don’t generate much at all, months can go by without any revenue being built, much less paid out.  Therefore, you can see why $300 seemed like a lofty goal.   With that in mind, my goal is to make $100 extra a month.  I will go from there to see what happens next!  But seriously, $100 a month is pretty nice.  $1200 a year.  Yes, $100 is my first monthly goal!
Research SEO to drive traffic to your Site
The first thing that I did is that I googled SEO.  I had heard of SEO plenty of times before.  But I knew NOTHING about it, much less how to correctly enact it.   In case you don’t know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.   In a nutshell, this is the process that you can create a blog or a youtube video so that it can be easily seen and found by others on the internet during internet searches.  SEO is the methods one can utilize to get traffic to their site.
I read constantly the first few days.  I took notes.  I will not go into detail in this post.  Maybe someday soon I will write an SEO post for the Uninformed (as I certainly have been) as I continue to learn and fine tune my own sites.  But let me just touch on some of the most basic of ways to optimize your SEO.    There are quite a few ways that you can format a blog post to make it easier to pop up on internet searches.  Keywords are very important and they should appear in various locations.  GOOD keywords and phrases is even more important!   The more I read and did my research,  more that advice and ideas rained down upon me.  I was going to go into overload mode.  So I stopped with those most basic ideas.  I decided to take these ideas to my own personal weight loss blog, my personal journal that chronicles my journey.  I decided to apply some of these principles to my upcoming posts.  I wanted to see if there was any effect on my statistics if I changed how I was doing things.
The Results of better SEO to boost traffic and income on a blog
I didn’t do a whole lot different.  I still posted the same type of content.  I just started to think more about my tags and keywords.   I made a conscious effort to make sure that my keywords were included in my opening paragraph and my closing paragraph.    I started to formulate my posts so that they were in shorter sections with headings for each section.  I tell you, nothing major in terms of changes.  My regular readers probably didn't' even notice a change. I decided to give it three to four weeks before I really looked at the statistics of my blog.  That time has come.  

​As you can see from the graph above, my blog was pretty level in terms of how many visitors that I was having each day.  Then, right around the first of the month, my numbers almost double  That is an incredible jump for VERY little work!   There can be no other reason for this jump other than my changes!   I will definitely call that a win.
 
These early steps to taking control of my finances by learning to turn my hobbies into side hustles have been a success.  My efforts on my personal blog made it very obvious and clear that the changes that I have made and what I am doing, is in the right direction!   This is a learning process.  I am constantly looking to adapt and adjust and grow.  That is necessary if I am going to live my dream and become financially independent.  I am on the right path now!   I however think maybe I am ready for the next chapters in the SEO book.  What else can I implement?

We all have dreams. Your dreams might be living an existence of financial independence, to own your own home, buy a new car or RV, live more frugally or maybe you just want to get out of debt. It doesn't matter what your financial dreams and goals are but it is important to sit down and create a budget!
Why should you create a budget
There are quite a few benefits that can be gained from creating a budget. And all of them can help you on your road to financial freedom.
1. A budget will give you a clear picture of what you are spending each week and month. When you create a budget, you will be able to quickly see where your money is going. Are you spending most of your spare money at a convenience store buying lottery tickets hoping to win the lottery? Is your paycheck primarily going to buy new clothes, go to the movies, or for eating out? A budget will allow you to see any potential issues with your spending. For example, are you buying a cart full of groceries each week but then eating at restaurants for every meal? That could be a problem with your financial expenses. A budget will allow you to look at your expenses and see any trouble spots; like that overpayment of groceries that ends up sitting unused and eventually thrown away because you opt to eat out each day. A good budget will help you find items that may be wasteful or unnecessary.
2. A budget will allow you to stay focused on the end goal. For the person that is desperately wanting to buy a new house and is saving for the down payment , a budget will keep them on track. If your end goal is financial independence, a budget will allow you to continually fine tune your expenses so that you know exactly how much you have to be earning from all channels of income before you can leave you 9-5 job. A budget will keep you on track and focused on your eventual success.
3. Having a budget is a perfect way to make sure that you do not overspend your income. This is for me the most important reason that I have a budget. Sure, I want to reach my financial goals to buy a house, live financially free and be my own boss. But a budget for me is a way to ensure that what I am spending each week does not exceed my income. I am trying to save money and to live fiscally responsible. A budget allows me to know exactly what I have to spend each week. I know how much I have to spend toward groceries, toward eating out and toward fun and entertainment. Knowing how much I have available for those things in my life gives me the knowledge and power to control my spending. It keeps me from going into debt or dipping into my savings, two things that I want to avoid if at all possible, because neither one of those brings me closer to my end goals.
4. A budget will help you plan for emergencies. Life is going to happen. You are going to have that day when your car breaks down or you need to spend money on some large purchase. For me just the other week it was my laptop. It decided to give out on me. I certainly didn't want to spend the money on a new laptop, but I had no choice. Luckily for me, my budget allows for emergencies. I have put money aside for such occasions. Admittedly, I wasn't happy to pull that money out of my savings account but I had it there for when I needed it! No-one can predict when such an emergency will occur. But we can control the outcome by having an emergency fund built into your budget.
How do you create a Budget
​research-your-financial-freedom.htmlFor me the first step to creating a budget was with the process of diligently tracking my expenses for a few weeks. Before I could create a budget that would work for my lifestyle and within the constraints of my income I had to find out where I was spending my money. I did this the good old fashioned way. I wrote down every expense on a piece of paper.

Find your set monthly expenses when creating a budget
After you have a good month or two of your expenses you can start to really dive into the expenses and categorize them. The first thing you want to extract from the list is the monthly expenses that stay the same (or very close to the same) each month. This will typically be your rent/mortgage, phone bill, internet, cable tv, electric, water, garbage. List them out and add them up. These are your non-negotiable items.  

  The total dollar amount of these items needs to be deducted from your monthly income before any other items can be deducted.
After you have your monthly bills deducted from your income, you will see how much money you have or incidental expenses. Incidental expenses are things like groceries, eating out, entertainment, clothes, etc.  This is where budgeting money gets fun!
Decide what is important to you when creating a budget
Once you have deducted all of your monthly expenses, you should have a dollar amount of what is left for these incidental expenses. This dollar amount is what is left over after all of your bills and basic necessities have been paid. This is where you get to decide what is important to you. I call this the additional or extra budget. This is more negotiable and subject to change as my lifestyle adjusts and adapts to what is happening in the world and in my life. This is when you will decide what you are going to spend your extra money on. Will you spend $500 on eating eat each month or will you spend $200 on groceries and eat at home instead.
Start with the most important 'extra' item on the list. For us, that is groceries, but for you it may be something else. Refer back to your list of expenses that you started at the beginning of this month. You can easily calculate how much you spend on that item. List that item on your budget with the total dollar amount that you spend/plan to spend each month. Deduct that amount from the dollar amount that is left from your income.
If you still have money left from your income after you deduct that last planned budget item then you can refer back to your expenses list and find the next most important thing and calculate how much you spend/want to spend each month. Add that item to your budget list and deduct that from your income. Continue doing this until you have everything you find important listed and accounted for or until you have no more income left. Make sure that if building a savings account is important to you that you include savings as one of your line items. I would highly recommend a savings and an emergency fund, because life does happen and it's not always how we plan.
Sample Budget
I have created a sample budget to show how a budget can work. I built my budget based on a $3000.00 monthly income. These figures are fictional, but can show exactly how a budget works.  

​In this sample budget I have listed $1700.00 in monthly bills. I will deduct that from my $3000 monthly income. That will leave me with $1300.00 for my incidental/extra expenses. So lets see a sample budget for these additional expenses

As you can see, I have included a basic savings account that I personally use for those big items such as a down payment on a car or a house. And as that amount grows larger, it becomes savings for my future and retirement. As I spoke about earlier, I added an emergency fund and a vacation fund. I personally like to keep these funds separate. A vacation isn't an emergency and I don't want to wipe out my complete savings to go on vacation. An emergency could happen to you the day after you get home or three weeks later as was the case for me one year. You see, we went on vacation and three weeks later my car died with no notice and totally unplanned. I had to buy a new car. Most recently, we went away for a long weekend and the day I got back my laptop died necessitating the purchase of a new laptop. Thank heavens for an emergency fund! You will see other line items that are self explanatory. But maybe you don't know what I mean when I say incidental fund. I like to include an incidental fund. There will be the day that you forget your lunch and have to pick up a lunch at a restaurant or any number of unexpected expenses. A budget needs to have the freedom to live a little. However, for me that incidental fund becomes a challenge to see how much I can save from my incidental funds.  If I want a big item that isn't included in my budget, I try to save every penny from my incidental fund until I have enough to purchase that wanted item.
Creating a budget doesn't mean never buying new clothes or going out to eat. It doesn't mean denying yourself the luxuries of life that you really enjoy. Creating a budget is a way to make sure that you have the money for what truly is important to you. It gives you the roadmap to financial freedom.

Financial freedom is well within your ability. Your dreams of traveling full time, quitting your job and being your own boss is sitting right in front of you. Now is the time to get your finances in order and make the changes that are necessary to this life of living free. Most people start looking at a financially independent life and jump right to ideas to earn money that are away from a typical nine to five job as the first step. This is a great start because it is important to set these ideas into place so that you can begin to build your stream of income. However, one of the very first things that a person needs to do is to sit down and take a deep look at their expenditures. They need to look at their budget, or create a budget if one is not in place. Taking a deep look at your true cost of living is so very important. Research your expenditures.  It will give you a roadmap to successful financial freedom.
Review your Spending
Each week, I sit down with an old fashioned accounting book and my receipts. I write down the date of a purchase, the store and the amount that I spent. Everything goes into this book. A two dollar purchase at a convenience store for a drink?  It’s in there right beside the larger purchase for a computer or a down payment for a vacation. No expense is inconsequential. Why do I do this? It seems like a lot of work to a most people.  However, this simple act of notating my expenses is important for a few reasons. The first and most important reason is that it keeps me in check and I can know that I am not overspending my income. Secondly it gives me a very clear picture of where I am spending my money. Am I dropping hundreds of dollars a month on random useless purchase? Last but not least, It helps me keep my budget up to date and relevant to my current life status.
Track your Expenses
Why is it important to know where I am spending? As you move to financial freedom there is going to be a moment that you are going to be taking that leap of faith to quit your job and allow your side hustle become your main source of income. There is going to be that time when it’s time to step into the RV and drive away for a life of full time travel. Or maybe that magical moment will be when you quit your job and can work from home for yourself doing what makes you happy. Whatever your dream, there will be a wondrous moment when you decide that it is time to fly with that dream. You need to know exactly what you are spending each week.  You need to know what your basic financial needs truly are.  Do you need $1000 to live  or will you require $3000 a month?  You need to know what your goal is  and tracking your expenses is instrumental to creating that goal.
Cut your Expenses
Furthermore,  if you want to reach that ultimate goal a bit more quickly, you can pare back your spending so that you can reach your goals faster. What are you spending your money on? Are you picking up a lackluster breakfast every morning at a fast food restaurant. Something you don’t really like, but it’s just convenient? In that case, when you see the $25 a week/$100 a month that you are spending, you may just decide that the convenience is not worth the money you are spending.  That may be worth the convenience to you, but maybe that weekly and daily purchase may be holding you back.   

Spend time looking at your expenditures each time you review your logs.  Look for weeks where you found better bargains for the same service or product.   Review your information to  determine what differences occur between weeks.  Think about what is important to you.  Is it really important to have that $5 cup of coffee or will a to go cup from home work just as well?  Be willing to compromise.  A $5 cup of coffee may not be worth it, but a $1 cup of coffee at the gas station may be the perfect solution.  Find what works for you in the most financially sound way.   Look at your expenses!   Decide what is important and start spending your income on things that are worthwhile to you.  Only you can decide what is important for your life and what you can easily cut or at least scale back.   Cutting back my expenditures in my case is super important for a few reasons.  The first an main reason is that I want to save as much money as I possibly can.  Many of my goals and dreams require some large expenses right up front.  There are expenses like the purchase of an RV and/or the purchase of a home.  But even beyond building my savings account, cutting my expenses and therefore my monthly budget will allow me to reach my goal to be financially independent at a lower budgeted amount!    That sounds like a really good reason to cut expenses to me! There is no one size fits all solution to looking at expenses.  What is important to one person is not important to the next person.  However, you should be willing to look at where your money is being used with an open mind. Research the way that you spend money and the trends that you have with your income.  At the very least, you need to know exactly what your expenses are so that you can decide how to work that into your future financial plans.   At the best you will find ways that you can cut your expenses in order to reach your financial freedom more quickly!   ​

Maybe you want to travel full time and need a source of income?  Are you looking for a side hustle to help pay for your new car, RV or motorcycle?   Maybe you are wanting to work from home and  move toward being your own boss.  Whatever your reasons, there are ample opportunities online to become financially free and independent for someone that is willing to invest a bit of time and energy.   It is more than possible to quit your day job and live off of the income you can generate on your own. It will most likely not be easy.  It will most likely take some time and work.  It could very well lead to one of the most rewarding times in your life.  How would you like to be earning enough income to support your dreams and ambitions?  I am here to tell you that it can be done! People are doing it, each and everyday.  There are people travelling the world in vans and RV's, living off of their online income.  There are people that have purchased their dream house, quit their job and followed every imaginable dream.  And you can do it too.  There is no deep secret.  The ideas and means are found right at your fingertips, and I will be providing a list to get you started.

This list is by no means the only way that a person can make money online.  Nor is this list intended to be the holy grail of everything one must do in order to achieve a state of financial freedom.  This list is designed to not only give someone ideas as they make their own plans, but it is also designed to help spark the creativity within our minds.  Try as many of these ideas as you possibly can.  But at the same time, let your mind go free and think of ways that you can take these ideas and expand to make them bigger, better and uniquely yours!
 Start a blog to earn money
Are you a subject matter expert at something?  Do you enjoy writing?  Creating a blog and a website is actually quite easy.  There are a wide variety of companies that will host and manage the website for you.  Furthermore, there is still money to be made in blogs.  It may take a bit more work than it did just a few years back, but it is very much still a way to earn money on the internet. Starting a blog doesn't have to be a costly proposition. You can start a simple blog for free at blogger or Wordpress. From there you can add on to get your own domain name, upgrade your service levels at Wordpress or chose a different website/blog hosting site.
Start a YouTube channel
YouTube has exploded with videos created by people just like you and me. Some of these creators have managed to make a  VERY decent income off of their videos! In 2019 the top earner made $26 million! That is at the top end, but I also know a 19 year old that lives locally and he is making  $100,000 a year off of his YouTube channel. There is money to be made on YouTube! And it's easy to begin.  Setting up a YouTube channel is free, just visit the website and start filming.  Of course, to start your own channel you will need some sort of camera to film your footage and don't forget your imagination! Some people film with their phones, but I invested and bought a GoPro Hero 7 (affiliate link) due to the fact that I sometimes film hikes and mountain bike rides and needed something that was hearty and was capable of filming  action scenes well. I have not regretted that decision even once! It has been so awesome for creating videos that I may soon upgrade to the GoPro Hero 8! (affiliate link)
Capitalize on your photography skills
Sell  your photography through websites that specialize in  selling stock photography. There are a variety of websites that you can join that will manage your photographs. The royalties vary from site to site and you can still retain the rights to your photography through many of these sites. If you love photography and have multiple hard drives filled with high quality pictures, this is a great option to make some money.  There are a few different sites out there.  Adobe Stock   and  Shutterstock  are just two of them,  there are plenty more options out there.  Pick the site that best meets your desires based on the terms and conditions.
Write an ebook
If you have always wanted to write a book or have already done so, consider self publishing. The market is wide open for self publishing and one of the easiest places to do so is through Amazon. Amazon has made the process quick and painless. I have self published a few items, most recently a memoir about online dating. The sky is the limit. Write whatever genre interests you most:  How to, fiction, non fiction whatever you want! Find your niche and self publish!
Freelance Writing
Help companies out with their need for well written documents and earn a bit of money at the same time.  Sites like Writer Access and iwriter are great sites that open up the doors to start building a reputation and portfolio.  These sites may pay a bit less than some of the larger freelance websites, but these sites are perfect for beginners because it is easier to snag a job.  Write when you want and where you want by accepting the jobs and deadlines that work with your desired schedule
Create a Product to Sell
Do you have a great idea for a craft item that everyone would love?  Something that is unique?  Well made?  Fun?   Start creating and start selling your items on the internet. You can definitely sell your products on your own website that you build and maintain.  However, if you want to make it a bit easier on yourself, set up a store on Etsy.
Freelance Work
Visit a freelance marketplace and pick up random gigs.    You can go on and advertise your services at a place like Fivver and earn money for your services. This is a lower paying  site offering low budget services, but it is another great place to work on building your portfolio and actually obtaining jobs.
Podcasts
People are listening to podcasts, a lot. As of April 2020 it was estimated that 25% of the population listened to podcasts weekly.  But who is creating those podcasts?  People like you and me.  Everyday people that have something to say.   Find a niche and start talking!  You can start your own podcast at websites like Spreaker.
Affiliate Marketing
Build your internet presence and capitalize on that presence.  Utilize some of the various Affiliate Marketing programs.  Recommend products and include a link.  Anyone that clicks that link and purchases will earn you a small commission.  Amazon is one of the most common affiliate marketing programs, but you can find a multitude of them if you look.
Adsense
Another way that you can capitalize on the internet presence that you build is through advertisements.  With a relatively low amount of work, you can allow advertisements to be placed on your website, before and during your youtube videos and in other prominent places online.   You will receive a small fee for every time someone clicks on the ad.  AdSense is one of the main advertisement websites that is  used, but there are plenty of other ones out there, including but not limited to Adthrive and smarty ads.
Quit your Job
Financial Freedom is at your fingertips.  There is no reason why you too can't utilize these 10 methods for making money online and realize your every dream.   The dream to live independently from a typical job and to have enough money to live a full and vibrant life is yours.