​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.