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What Do You Do at Night? I Try to Make Money

I was truly inspired last night by two Bloggers.  Whenever I have a website programming problem I have my go to people, one of which is the bad ass Jesse, from Personal Finance Firewall, and as I emailed him last night but someone on Twitter responded to my complaining about the problem very quickly.  That guy is Jake from DebtSucksBlog.  Jesse had responded too but Jake was already working.  Both guys provided some real inspiration.

It is inevitable that every time the conversation of this blog, my side businesses or even twitter comes up, I receive the question, “When do you have time?”  I will be honest the question really irritates the shit out of me, because I don’t understand how people don’t have time!

I work 50 or so hours a week, have The Wife, and The Baby in my life and I still find time to do side ventures…so why the hell don’t you? I spend a lot of time with The Wife, I see The Baby a lot, but he goes to bed at 7pm and my job never complains that I am not available.

Choose your Nightly Activities Wisely

I get home around 6pm (granted that is early for most), kid is asleep by 7pm, The Wife by 10pm and I go to sleep around 1amish (granted late for most).  During that time The Wife watches a lot of TV…some of it good…some of it bad…but 92% of it I don’t care about. This is the time that I start to work on side projects, because what else am I going to do? Can’t play PS3 since it is on that TV and I try to avoid addicting computer games (anyone heard of Civilization, it is probably the closest thing to crack in my life).

I will be honest building this blog’s reputation, and working towards making money in my other ventures brings me a lot of happiness…it is my hobby (that and using way too many ‘…’).  I feel a sense of accomplishment when I make my family an extra $1,000, $2,500 or even $3,500 per month outside of my regular income.  Will this bring me 7million in 7 Years? No, but it can pay off my car, build my perpetual income machine and generally help my family for years to come all while The Wife has shitty TV on.

Working at Night

Lets get back to my buddies Jesse and Jake, both of whom I have never met in real life.  Last night I Jake made $40 from me.  Is it a lot of money? Nope, but is it better that he spent 2 hours working for $20 an hour than playing video games? Absolutely.

A couple weeks ago, I had a quick problem and it took Jesse literally 5 minutes to fix I threw him a quick $10.  Is it going to feed his 2 kids? Maybe if they hit up the dollar menu at McDonalds, but it is one step in the right direction to build a side hustle empire all from the comfort of his couch while hanging with his “The Wife” or his “The Children.”

These guys have a talent with programming I can’t begin to understand, but that is no excuse.  Every month I send $20 to Melissa from MomsPlans for doing some blogging housekeeping for me.  From that relationship with me she has entered into other blog housekeeping arrangements and even paid writing gigs.  Again, are we talking six digits? No, but she is providing some sort of income for her family so she can be a stay at home mom.

So, stop bitching about time and prioritize your life.

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55 COMMENTS

  1. Working longer has, as it will forever be, the hardest way to make the easiest money.

    There is no shortage of people who dream at night. There is, however, a shortage of people who make those dreams reality. I think this is most evidenced by a “lack of jobs,” which I construe to mean that we have a lack of entrepreneurs.

    • “There is no shortage of people who dream at night. There is, however, a shortage of people who make those dreams reality”

      – HELL YEAH.

    • lack of jobs = lack of entrepreneurs … I never thought of it that way, but that’s really insightful. We DO lack entrepreneurs, though hopefully the recession and the internet are both changing this for the better.

  2. I think that I started my blog after I discovered some other pf blogs and found myself spending way too much time reading through their archives. I figured that instead of wasting time reading about this stuff, I could start writing and doing this myself.

    My daughter goes to bed around 7pm too, and I can’t stand Grey’s Anatomy or whatever else my wife is watching at night. So it the hobby works out perfectly for me, and since I make a bit of money my wife doesn’t complain if I have to spend a bit more time on the blog some nights.

    • I don’t think reading older PF Blog archives is as much of a waste of time as lets say TV or video games.

      Glad you started your blog have you expanded anywhere else online?

      • Nope, just focused on growing one site at this time. I’ve done a lot of guest posting (and some paid writing) lately trying to get more exposure for our site.

        I’m probably in the minority amongst bloggers these days, but I’d rather grow one big site than have multiple niche sites.

  3. I absolutely agree. We don’t have a TV or Netflix and I try to make sure that sitting passively doesn’t become a hobby of mine (though I’ll make an exception for a good book). I’m not making much side income but at least we’re getting out, exercising and doing stuff.

    Like Echo I also started my blog after spending too much time reading and not enough time doing. It’s an ongoing effort to progress.

    • I wish I could make the jump to no tv (I just discovered how bad ass netflix on PS3 is) but I would feel awkward if people came by and I love football too much

  4. Evan,

    I dig your advice on choosing nightly activities wisely.

    TV doesn’t benefit me like reading a good book does. That’s why I cut it out.

    Reading, and blogging about what I’m learning, has become my hobby and gives me a sense of accomplishment!

  5. Thanks for the awesome shout out Evan! One thing I’d like to mention is that even though I do pretty much work around the clock, that doesn’t mean I have no life or don’t spend time with my wife and kids.

    We spend a lot of time just hanging out. It’s surprising when you cut out the biggest time-wasters of all how much time you actually have in a day.

    • See, I’m kind of the opposite – I *don’t* work around the clock, but am absolutely able to. I just choose to spend most of my time staring at the screen for lack of anything better to do.

    • @Jesse,

      I hope you don’t think I was hinting at a lack of life…just trying to ! point out that you know how to prioritize

      • Oh absolutely not, but when I mention the kinds of things I do, I often get that response. I make lots of time for family and want to make sure people know that it is possible! 🙂

  6. Great post. The biggest change I had was really cutting down time watching TV. Now if you don’t watch too much TV already you can’t cut that, but many people have equally useless things to cut. Look at working at home several days a week (I do that) and you gain the commute time. There are lots of ways to find time for many people.

  7. “Nope, but is it better that he spent 2 hours working for $20 an hour than playing video games? Absolutely.”

    I have to respectfully disagree! With how much of a pain this has turned out to be… ugh! 😀 And then I failed in the end anyway.

    • hahahahaha you didn’t fail! You helped me out so much, and the game is still waiting if you have some down time.

      Imagine picking up a few side clients? That debt would be gone a lot quicker.

  8. I was just talking to someone who asked me if I made any money on my blog. I talked about it a little bit, and she said “oh…that’s not much money!”

    Well, I promptly responded that as a hobby, it’s better than most in terms of money. Instead of watching TV or SPENDING money on all kinds of potential hobbies, I’m now blogging for fun and knowledge. And yes, I’m getting some money out of it as well. I like that part.

    Wathcing TV or playing video games makes you NOTHING, and many other hobbies cost a lot of money. Might as well make money in your free time, right? If you’re enjoying it, why not?

    • If you go MLG pro, video games *can* indeed make you something. That’s about as likely as any other sport, though.

  9. Yeah, I complain that I don’t have enough time, but it’s because I want to do even more with my site.

    TV is definitely a time suck! I’ve discovered in the last couple of years I really can live without most TV. It’s so much more fun putting my time into something that can grow long-term.

    And yes, Netfix is pretty awesome when you can stream it. We have it through our Wii (which was a gift and we have a total of 2 games). It’s nice chillax time to be able to sit and zone out for an hour or so when needed, but I now for me, I’ve wasted WAY too much of my life on the boob-tube (wait, they don’t even make TV’s with tubes anymore, do they?).

    • Pretty sure if you google boob-tube you are going to get some interesting sites LOL.

      I didn’t know you could stream through Wii also…that’s cool.

  10. The side hustle is just not something that I have ever really been successful at. I am still trying to find the balance between work, family, and side hustle. Add in the recent stressors of the past 4 months….and I have been a major slacker!

    My original goal was $2k of side hustle money this month. We have a yard sale next week…and if we are lucky we will be 1/4 of the way to the goal.

    You rock.

    • I think the very fact that you have been keeping up on your blog has kept you focused in the times of stress. You have an audience that cares about your successes and I think that keeps you going! That may be better than the actual dollars coming in

      Or I am playing dime store psychiatrist and am full of shit lol

      • I have always said that I didn’t start the blog to make money. But a few bucks here or there would be nice.

        I do have a great audience…and I love to write about our success and failures. I am all about keepin’ it real!!

  11. Same boat. I no longer watch sports on weekends, TV at night or do much of anything besides 1) kids 2) some time w wife and keeping up around the house and then 3) work on blog 9PM on. Cutting out TV (and unfortunately, reading) has been making me thousands per year.

    • I am a waste of space on Sundays come NFL Season, but I don’t know how any baseball fan gets shit done…what the hell do they play 4 nights a week?

  12. My blog is just a hobby, but definitely a fun one! I do have another side hustle that I spend about 15-30 minutes a night on, and if I’m lucky, four hours on the weekend on — and it’s bringing me in about $400/mo. I could definitely probably do a lot more with it, but then my house would look like hell, my teenager would subsist on chicken nuggets and pizza, the laundry would never be done and the pups would never get walked. So I balance however I can.

    As for TV watching, well, that’s what folding laundry and clipping coupons are for! 🙂 — And I, too, gave up watching sports on the weekends… but not for other priorities, but because its not college football season! Come September… well…

    • I feel you on the football thing (I am an NFL guy)…but it is all about priorities and side hustle has to come lower than your kid’s health, but the fact that it is above TV is HUGE at least compared to all those that complain about money and do nothing about it (end of run on sentence)

  13. Hey Evan,

    My wife is the same way…and DVR has made it even worse. I watch a handful of shows but there are just so many other things to do with your life besides watch TV.

      • Modern Family is the only comedy that really makes me laugh, and my wife loves it too. I still try to catch the Simpsons and Family Guy when I can, but I usually enjoy movies or documentaries on the Science Channel and nerdy stuff like that. 🙂

  14. Great post. Some people sit around and do nothing, and wonder how come they don’t make enough money. That’s one thing we have to understand. In order to get something, sacrifices need to be made. You’ll rarely get something for nothing in this world. The ones who have what we desire put in the time, effort, and discipline to get to where they’re at. just my two cents.

  15. I think TV is my biggest waste of time in the evening. Instead of watching TV I could easily spend an extra 3-4 hours on side projects, dreaming up new business ventures, or writing for my blog. Thanks for this important reminder.

  16. blame Ashley and friends – the couches these days are just way too comfortable and the blue ray programming just makes it soooo difficult to get off them!

  17. What an irony, I write my blogs at night, as I have a very challenging and demanding job. I don’t watch TV, some occasional movie may be. I use this time on building my blog, which, though not displaying any ads, but has potential to earn a lot of bucks for, eternal optimist I am 🙂

  18. Nice thoughts of priorities. If we were to step back and take a disembodied look at ourselves watching TV, then all we’re doing is… nothing.

    As long as there is daylight outside, I’m out working in the gardens or in the garage on some project. But I do try to spend late night TV time with my wife on the couch doing something on the computer, paying minimal attention what’s going on the tube. Although I’m bored with most of the programming on the DVR or regular programming, there are always reliable exceptions: dancing around and singing along to the Miami 5-0 theme (embarrassing the kids), the Tonight show monologue, the weather forecast on the local news …

    • You know I hate late night talk shows they are terrible hahah, but I really want to know what you mean by dancing to the Miami 5-0 theme lol

  19. Amen, brother! I figured it was a lot better to share knowledge on the internet than stupid pictures on facebook or play games. So that is what I am trying to do while my wife spends her time on the computer doing said activities.

  20. I think it’s fantastic that you’re channeling your time away from the TV and you’re able to spend time with your family and side projects. Maybe I’m very needy, but my 2 year old and I spend about 3 hours in the evening together with my husband (incl. dinnertime) and it still doesn’t seem like enough time! I don’t have a blog (but I read plenty of it between 11pm-1am), but I wish I could find the time for projects without giving up my family time (I watch 1 hour of TV a week and listen to ballgames on the radio while I work in the kitchen in the evening). I know plenty of people find the time, so maybe it’s time to rework my daily routine. Thx for the post!

  21. Right on!! It’s as important to prioritize your time as it is to prioritize how you spend your money. I have an easy time prioritizing money but a hard time with time. I don’t own a television, but I do get distracted by surfing the Web … plus I’m just plain SLOW at certain things. I read books slowly (I know how to skim, but I like to really savor a book.) And cleaning the house seems to take me twice as long as it takes other people; I don’t know why.

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