How to make money with your junk mail

You may be getting money every month in your mailbox, and throwing it away without even realizing it!

Now it's not a lot of money, but it is free with only a little bit of time investment. What am I talking about? Coupons. And not just using them, but selling them on eBay.

This is something I have been doing for a while, and I occasionally buy coupons online too. You aren't going to get rich, since the coupons usually only sell for a couple bucks, but it is a great way to make an extra 10 or 20 bucks a month fairly easily. And occasionally you get a rare or useful coupon that sells for a lot more.

The key is to become adept at using eBay and develop systems or templates where it takes less than 5 minutes to list a coupon. This isn't too hard, and since you will usually be selling the same kinds of coupons over and over, so you can use stock images, and saved listing templates. And you can ship by home by simply using a stamped envelope, so you don't have to spend any time going to the post office.

Something to look into for those who are looking for ANY ways to increase their income!




-The Money Monk

Don't go on a financial diet

The lifestyle necessary to attaining financial independence without a huge salary or windfall can be related to trying to lose weight. Think of the way the word "diet' is used. Most times when somebody says 'diet' they mean temporarily restricting themselves to certain types or amounts of food, in the attempt to reach a specific goal, like losing 30 lbs.

The personal finance equivalent of this is for somebody to make a goal of getting to a certain amount of money, like 100k, and make certain cuts to their lifestyle to reach this goal.

The problem with this method is you are putting yourself in a position of continual sacrifice.

Compare it to the real meaning of the word diet, as in "a Koala bear's diet consists of mainly Eucalyptus leaves." The Koala bear isn't going ON a diet, it just has a diet. It's not sacrificing, that is just what it is designed to eat to be healthy.

Same with a person. If instead of going ON a diet, they change their diet to what it is supposed to be, they will be healthier automatically. The main difference is that it is a permanent thing, and realizing that instead of the modern american diet being the stauts quo, and being ON a diet a temporary deviation, the proper diet is instead the status quo, and the junk food is a drug that can be indulged in carefully from time to time.

This is important for a couple reasons:

1. It causes a permanent lifestyle change, instead of just a temporary deviation from the norm to achieve a specific goal.

2. It eliminates the idea that life is a constant sacrifice waiting for a payoff.

3. The process becomes the goal in stead of specific benchmarks.



This works just as well with personal finance. When you realize that most of the spending in your life is the equivalent of 'junk food' and revert back to the proper financial 'diet' of you will automatically accumulate wealth. And you will no longer be feeling that you are constantly sacrificing and waiting until you have enough to get off your 'diet', in stead you will adjust to the new status quo and appreciate the luxuries we have access too, instead of seeing them as necessities you are being forced to do without.

It's not an easy change to make, and it is mostly a perspective thing, but it is important.



-The Money Monk

Build resiliency with diverse income streams

No matter what your financial goals are, they will be served well by creating for yourself diverse sources of income. Most people in America have a normal job as their main source of income, bringing in thousands of dollars a year, even on the lower end of the scale. However these people's next highest source of income may only bring in only $25 or $50 dollars a year.

This means that they are completely dependent on their primary source of income. This is a totally rigid system that leaves no room for variance of any kind. You are basically a slave to the job since you can't continue your lifestyle without it.

Consider two individuals with identical monthly expenses:

A. Guy A makes $2000 a month working 40 hours a week in a cubicle. Other than the occasional gift and similar small windfalls, this is his only source of income.

B. Guy B makes $1000 a month working a part time job at a local business. He also makes $150 a month from online ad revenue and affiliate sales from a blog, $350 reselling on eBay and Craigslist, and $200 a month doing odd jobs.


Guy A makes slightly more money, but he is totally dependent on his single source of income, and can't do anything to jeopardize it. He is a slave to it.

Guy B has income from various sources, so a disruption in any of them is not catastrophic. Even if the biggest source of income (the job) goes away, it is much easier to find another part time job making $1k a month. And he still has some income in the meantime. He may even be able to expand his efforts in the other areas to make up the slack.

Obviously if you can combine Guy A and Guy B, then you are really going to be on the fast track to financial independence. But whatever you are doing, and whatever situation you are in, you should seek additional sources of income. It will make you much more resilient.



-The Money Monk

2 week no purchase challenge update!

This post is long overdue, but at the beginning of February I started a '2 week no purchase challenge'. I was spending too much on food so I decided to not buy any for 2 weeks. Because of my interests in preparedness I always have a bunch of food in the house and so it was easy logistically for me to just eat what I already had for those 2 weeks.

It went very well and wasn't altogether difficult. I did have one outing that I paid for at a restaurant, but it was a pre-scheduled event with friends so I consider it more entertainment than food.

This challenge went so well for me and had such a great impact on my food spending for the month that I think I am going to work this type of food spending moratorium into my monthly food budgeting.

Every month I will stop spending any money on food when I reach my predetermined spending limit. From that point on for the rest of the month I will eat only what I already have in the house.

Not only will this help me control my food spending, but it will also help cycle through the food supplies I have stored in my house.




-The Money Monk

Don't just do things CHEAPER, do them BETTER!

A lot of people on a quest for early retirement and financial independence will get very zealous about saving money, at least in the beginning. This drive is a good thing, but if not controlled and directed in a useful manner it can result in a lot of 'cheapness' that isn't necessarily helpful in the long term and may not even really be saving you that much money.

I have written before about the difference between being frugal and being cheap. What's interesting is that most of the people who are super 'cheap' continue to be poor, and everybody can tell too. The true "Mustachians" are often living off just as little money, many times LESS money, yet they appear to be the same as everybody else from the surface. They still have decent houses and decent cars, clothes aren't rags, they still have vacations, etc.

So what is the difference? how can the 'cheapskates' be spending so much time and effort to do everything as cheap as possible and still come out behind the real experts?

Because you need to do things BETTER, not just CHEAPER.

The cheapskate is only concerned on paying less right now. They often buy things simply because they it is way below retail, like at a garage sale, regardless of if it will save them money in the long term, or if they even need it.

The 'mustachian' buys less, but buys smart, so they actually usually have nice stuff that lasts forever and actually works. They can often resell their items for as much as they paid for it, or almost as much.

One example I often think of is people who wash out their Ziplocs. instead of buying expensive plastic bags and going to great and unseemly lengths to reuse them and make them last, buy 1 Tupperware for the same price as a box of Ziplocs and use it for 20 years. No body will think you are a weird cheap hobo for washing it out and reusing it either.

If you look at thrift stores and garage sales you can even get that Tupperware for .50 or so, maybe less. Anything you can put in a Ziploc you can put in a Tupperware.

As a student, i remember one substitute teacher talking about how he stripped his car of all the seats but the drivers seat to save weight and thus gas.  Why do all that work, remove functionality from your car, and look like a crazy person, when instead you can use simply drive less, and use hyper-miling techniques when you do drive and get 20% or more increase in MPG?

So remember, focus on doing things BETTER. not just CHEAPER. You'll save more time and money, and increase your quality of life.





-The Money Monk

Support The Money Monk! And Yourself!

In my quest for financial independence and early retirement I aim to seek out any possible sources of income to take advantage of. I don't want people to just give me money, but there are certain ways to help me out on my goals, if you are interested, that won't cost you anything! One good tactic that I use, (and that you should use too if you have a blog) is to have an Amazon affiliate account.

Now, I know we all are aiming to spend as little as possible, so we should't be buying a bunch of frivolous shit, but even the most frugal among us have to buy SOME things. When you do, Amazon.com is a great place to get it at market price. If you are going to buy something on Amazon anyway, I'd appreciate it if you could use the link in the upper left side of this blog. It won't cost you a penny more, but I will still get a piece of the pie.

just click on the link that says "Buy anything you need from Amazon.com" and then use the site like you normally would.

If you have a blog, put up your own link and let me know! I can't use my own affiliate account, so I will use somebody else's when I have to buy something.

Let's take advantage of this opportunity while it still lasts (before Amazon goes under due to their unsustainable method of operations and razor-thin profit margins!

Thanks!


-The Money Monk

My 2 week No-Purchase Challenge

I spent way too much on food last month so I have given myself a challenge: I am not going to spend any money on food for the first two weeks of this month. Not directly anyway. I will be eating only food that I already have in my house.

One of my interests is preparedness, so that won't be quite as difficult as it seems, and it will serve the dual purpose of rotating through some of my supplies so that I can refresh them.  It will keep me eating decent food that is not expensive (canned veggies, frozen meats, etc).

I will be keeping track of what I use and replacing it on Feb 15th, so while the food won't be free it will keep me from buying junk food, fast food, etc.

We'll see if I can do it!

-The Money Monk