Back to the Real World

Guest post written by Alex Brown

Things in Idaho have been pretty easygoing for the past few months. Last month we had a chance to take a plane trip all the way to Shelton, Connecticut to go have Christmas with my brother's family and my parents. That was a great time for everyone. Around New Years, we had a local party with some of our friends. We grilled inside with a george forman grill, drank punch and watched the celebrations in New York on the television. Now that the holidays are way behind us, it's been a lot of staying inside and watching the television after a hard day's work.

On the weekends, I've started to get back to the housework. Fixing things up in the winter isn't too much fun, but I've received some help from the Iapwai sears home improvement team along the way. Pretty soon the housework will be done and perhaps I can finally start to pursue some more recreational activities. My wife and I would really like to sign up for a cardio-kickboxing class...why not improve our health, too?

Just cash out $99.65

Finally my account at Churpchurp has reached $100.65 and I clicked on cash out now - which means that a cheque is on its way next month. There is a $1.00 deduction for admin fee, leaving me with $99.65. It took me a few years to reach this target, but still it is online money from the internet. My hobby is blogging and you might have guessed by now. It is good that I am able to turn my hobby into earning some extra pocket money from the internet. If you are patient and diligent, it is possible to earn cash from your hard work.

Buy Property to Beat Inflation

If you have disposable income and savings in the bank, it is better to invest in properties than to park your money in Fixed Deposits or put in the savings account. Using the rule of 72, if the inflation rate is 4% per year, then it takes 72/4 equals 18 years for your money to become half its value. Prices keep increasing and the cost of living keeps rising due to inflation. Hence, it is better to invest in properties to get rental income and to get capital appreciation as time goes on.

For instance, if you buy a property for $160,000.00 and rent it out for $800 a month, your returns would be 6% compared to putting it in the Fixed Deposit for only 2.75%. Just my 2 cents.

Need to Concentrate on my Main Job

Now I need to concentrate on my main job working in a home office. Previously, in my spare time, I used to moonlight blogging and writing articles for extra cash. Now I have less time to blog and need to find a way to work smart and not hard. My main job is my bread and butter and my boss has been very lenient to me. He knows I also blog part time and as long as it does not interfere with my work, it is ok. But he still prefers if I can concentrate on his work 100%. We are a small company, hence everyone has to play their part and fully utilise whatever we have - our skills and resources.