Hey everyone! Happy Monday. This past weekend was a very lazy one, and I don’t think I got much done. I have been sick for the past week, and I’m hoping that I’ll start feeling better soon.
The weather has been great lately, but it’s been all over the place. It keeps switching from 90 degrees to 45 degrees which means that my allergies are horrible right now.
FinCon is this week and I am super excited. It’s my first blogging conference and I can’t wait to meet everyone. I hope everyone is ready for St. Louis because it will be pretty crazy considering everything that is going on with the Cardinals and baseball right now.
We have been thinking about travel a lot lately. Soon we will be going to Chicago to visit my family, and then we are going to St. Thomas.
Hopefully Colorado and a bunch of other states will be on our agenda for this year also. We have really been thinking about doing some long-term travel, but I guess I’m a little nervous as well. It just seems like there is so much to plan, and the expense of long-term traveling just seems crazy as well. Are you preparing for long-term travel? What’s something that I should know? What’s your favorite travel blog?
Spending
I don’t think we have bought much in the past couple of weeks. However, I do plan on buying a new laptop soon, as I need something a little more reliable. My current Mac isn’t doing exactly what I want it to do, and it’s pretty old also.
Food spending has still been pretty low. We spent $150 yesterday but that will last us awhile, and it included dog food.
Business Income:
Business income has been going very well. And I have added two decent-sized gigs to my business this month already. I am still thinking about how I will be more safe/secure with publicly publishing my business income. What do you think I should do?
I do plan on increasing my business even further, as I don’t know what I would do with all of my free time. I’m used to working, and I like to keep busy!
If anyone needs any help, check out my Hire Me page and let me know what services you are interested in. Lately, a few other website owners have asked me to help run their website while they are gone for just a month or two, so this is a new service that I am also offering. If you are starting a new job, about to have a baby, want to do some long-term travel or something else, please let me know.
Being healthy
Being healthy has not been going the greatest. I have been doing okay with eating healthy, but I honestly don’t think I’ve worked out in weeks. It doesn’t help that I’ve been sick for the past week, so working out is not something that I want to do at all.
I’m really hoping to switch this around soon. I just hope I start feeling better!
Wedding Planning
I have hardly done anything related to the wedding in a very long time. All I have paid for is the dress and the photography, and the wedding is in less than 8 months. AHH!
I think I will be choosing a very light peach for our main wedding color. The girls will each be choosing their own dress, and I’m pretty open as to whatever they want, as long as it’s all the same length and a similar material.
My goals for this month include finishing the save the dates, and looking for a caterer. And a DJ. And find a tent, chair, and table rental company. The other things can wait a little bit longer.
Have you been doing well with your extra income, spending and being healthy?
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I haven’t been reading long term travel blogs for a while but if you plan on keeping your business you have to travel slow. I am traveling for 2 months at the moment and it has been hard because we never spend more than 2 days in the same city. If you want to see things AND have time to get online you should spend at least a week in a place.
Good to know Pauline. I agree, it would be hard to get anything done if you were constantly moving around.
Michelle,
That’s the advantage of having an online business you can travel anywhere and work. I remember how stressed my wife was when we got married last year. For me, not so much I just had to show up.
Haha that’s how W feels.
I won’t be headed to FINCon, unfortunately, but I’m sure I will get to read everyone’s posts about it and be jealous haha. I’m glad your income is going so well and seems to be quite consistent. St. Thomas sounds amazing and it’s great that you will be travelling a lot!
Haha I remember being jealous the past couple of years, so I’m glad that I get to go this year.
Looks like another great week Michelle. We’re looking forward to FinCon as well and looks like the weather will be a little more normal this week…I hope. 🙂 We signed two pretty big clients over the last week so things are going well for us. We’ve been talking a lot about travelling as well. We can do much of our job from anywhere and have been getting the itch to go to Europe – so who knows what next year will hold.
Thank you John! I really want to go to Europe as well.
That’s great for side income this month! What are the two side gigs you picked up? As long as people don’t know who you are (only your first name), you should be okay with publishing your income. You just want to avoid people you know reading it and then trying to hit you up for money. As far as taxes go, just make sure you report the same or more than what you publish here on your site. If someone really wanted to audit you, you don’t want them to use your blog against you bringing up every past income blog post over the last year.
Thanks MMD! The two gigs are two new clients. Most people know my last name, so I can’t really be hidden anymore 🙂
I think someone posted a comment last week that was a great idea – maybe you could do a weekly/monthly newsletter and just include your income to those subscribers so it’s not at public? Either way I still love that you post it. Every month I tell my husband how great you’re doing and how I would love to make a PORTION of that every month in side income. It’s very motivating!
Thank you Jaclyn!
Sorry to hear you’ve been sick, and hope you’re feeling better soon! Take care of yourself, knowing that your income is great and the biz is going well. I’m on a renewed kick this week to get back into shape after a seriously lazy (in terms of working out) year. Day 3, and it’s going well so far!
Thanks Laurie! I’m really hoping that I feel 100% better soon.
Sounds like some fun times in the travel department. As you make more money, you could be exposing yourself to more risk by showing how much you make. I wouldn’t do it and never have. You are not a public company, but you will be putting yourself under the scrutiny if you continue to publish these numbers.
Yes, this is something that I keep thinking about.
I won’t be going to FinCon this year. I’m actually going to be out of the country. I’m not excited yet because I have to get through the work week. Hope your first week goes well!
Thanks!
Just to protect myself. If it’s my only income then I want to be more secretive.
Congrats on your self employment . I appreciate you sharing your business income but I can understand why you would want to keep it private. I love to travel but have never been on a long term trip. I think the longest i have been away is about 3 weeks. I always start missing home after a while.
Thank you! And yes, I would definitely start missing home as well. Especially my dogs.
Great start to October for the business income – good work!! We’ve also got to start planning the wedding a bit quicker so will be interested to hear your progress in the coming few months!
Thank you! And when is your wedding?
Sounds like another great week for you! FinCon sounds awesome, I’m jealous! 🙂 Maybe next year. Enjoy St. Louis!
Thank you!
Good luck on the travel plans. It might be expensive but the consistent work you are doing should cover it. I think sharing income is fine as long as it doesn’t affect it going forward. I still don’t know how you do it as I do not see many ads on your site. I will look forward to some cool pics on the travels and fincon.
Thank you!
Long-term travel can be a great thing for a freelancer, as it can help you save money; dependent upon your current situation. There are places in the world where you can find yearly rentals for about $500 per month. Perhaps it can help you expand your audience.
We would be spending more money, because we would be keeping our house, and would have to pay for someone to take awesome care of our dogs.