I am back in the game with a cent over $62 dollars last week in beer money income. In addition to hitting all my goals again this past week, I estimate that I’ll earn about 8 dollars and 30 cents per month. That’s just shy of $100 a year!
Throughout this entire process I have been collecting data on myself as is probably evident from the Income and Asset pages on this site. I have begun capturing data monthly as well to try and understand long-term trends, look at what is working, and drop what isn’t. I have also begun looking outward, researching both beer money data and income portfolio theory to see if I have any blind spots or areas where I can improve. From the cursory research I have done I can say I have a lot to learn.
I began by analyzing last month’s /r/BeerMoney thread on income. While it may not be 100% accurate because it is self-reported income from random people, I think the sample size is big enough to gain some insights. I learned what sites are most used, what sites have produced the most income for /r/BeerMoney members, and I even took it an extra step to look at the top income sources for the top ten percent of earners. From this I gathered that I should take another look at Swagbucks as a beer money source as well as CrowdTap. I don’t know anything about them, but they seem popular. At least for the month of January, anyway. The full report is available here.
I’ve also been reading about income portfolio theory. I am just getting started here. I have yet to solidify my strategy for investing. Loosely, for my purchases, I look at dividend payout history, payout ratios to see whether the dividend is (mostly) safe, overall growth, the sector it’s in, the company managing it, and the role it plays in my portfolio. But I know I’m still flying by the seat of my pants.