Search results for

how to start a blog

Daily life, Planning,

2018Q1 Goals

This year, I plan on reporting on my goals every quarter. I will keep you guys updated regarding not only the goals of each quarter but my accomplishments on each quarter.

As I said before, my number one goal this year is rebuilding my health, so it is also likely that these report posts will start off with my health goals. However, I still want to grow about 100k in my net worth, so I need to keep up with those high expectations as well.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I am a very goal-oriented guy, and so these goals should come at no surprise.

These are the goals for the first quarter of 2018:

 

Health (my no. one goal this year)

  1. Improve my health tremendously by treating my gut, my adrenals, doing physical and mental detoxes.
    1. Fix my gut. If you’re not aware of this, all disease begins and ends in the gut.
    2. Resolve my dizziness. I’ve been dealing with this for a long time now.
    3. Improve my energy and strength. I complain that I don’t have enough time, but I really don’t have enough energy.
    4. Follow my “resting plan”. That is, I work on Tuesdays and Thursdays on 2018Q1 and stop on Wednesdays and Sundays in the rest of the year (check this out here).
  2. Go to bed until 10:30 every single day.
    1. This will help me fix my circadian rhythm.
  3. Meditate and visualize every single day.
  4. Follow my routine 95% of the time.

 

from cents to retirement logo

 

  1. Be featured in a major newspaper.
  2. Write at least 3 guest posts.
  3. Write 2 posts every week without fail.
  4. Increase the number of views steadily.
  5. Be scheduled out until the end of the second quarter.
  6. Increase my authority beyond 50.

 

minimalism save money

Company (co-owned by a partner)

  1. Generate about 15k through my real estate company.
  2. Have 150 high-quality backlinks to my companies site.
    1. Write about 15 guest posts and 15 blog posts.
  3. Have 3-5 products ready to be sold (my company will sell books, courses and what not).
    1. Have our primary book (on Real Estate) rock and rollin’ hard.
    2. On top of that, have our 6 main products (market studies) up and selling.
    3. Have 3 agreements for books.
  4. Hit 1000 likes on Facebook.

money

Net worth

  1. Sell my primary property for a profit, and buy a primary property that is better (aka more valuable) for 75% of whatever I make on my property.
  2. Finish my part-time job and move to a new one.
    1. Save 3k.
  3. Write another book.
  4. Buy at least 2 properties.
    1. I am truly excited about this!
Uncategorized,

5 Tricks for Direct Sales Success

Direct sales is a marketing approach that involves selling products directly to consumers, bypassing the middleman. Sales typically occur outside of the retail environment, often in people’s homes or workplaces.

You can use direct sales to earn extra income or turn your business into a full-time career. Whatever your goal is, be patient with yourself as you hone your skills. As with any profession, it takes time to learn and perfect the techniques necessary for success.

If you’re ready to give direct sales a try, follow the tips below to get started.

Build Strong Relationships

In today’s busy digital society, people crave human interaction. Direct sales provide an avenue for you to give people the interaction they desire while growing your business. Through your presentations and conversations, you’ll build rapport with your customers in ways that only direct selling allows.

Consumers tend to buy from people they trust, so work on developing a friendly, enthusiastic attitude. Following-up with customers will cement your relationship and is the backbone of good customer service. On-going contact is the best way to build repeat business.

Strive to build personal, meaningful relationships. It’s the most effective way to get referrals and build a team.

Set Reasonable Goals

Set reasonable goals for yourself. Without concrete objectives, you can easily overthink instead of act.

Figure out what you want to accomplish, divide large goals into small tasks, set a timeline, and record everything. For example, if your goal is to make enough money to quit your full-time job, determine what achievable tasks you need to complete to attain it.

Set a deadline for making your first sale, presentation, thousand dollars, and so on, but give yourself a reasonable length of time for each. Regularly accomplishing tasks will give you confidence that will propel you forward.

Take Advantage of the Built-in Support Network

One of the most important advantages direct sales professionals have over other entrepreneurs is their access to a built-in support network. Amway, a leading direct sales company that specializes in health, beauty, and home care products, provides these networks so that you can seek advice from experienced independent business owners who were once in your position. Using and applying what you learn will prevent you from making common mistakes, save you time, and allow you to reach your goals more quickly.

Reach out, ask questions, and build relationships with your colleagues. Those activities will benefit you now and for years to come.

Identify Your Target Market

Figure out who wants your product and concentrate on targeting them. This approach is the most efficient use of your time; don’t waste your energy marketing to people who don’t want what you’re selling.

After you’ve determined who needs your product, figure out where to find them. Learn about what websites they frequent, social media groups they use, magazines they read, and organizations they belong to. Focus your marketing efforts in these areas.

Differentiate Yourself from Others in Your Network

Give people a reason to buy from you. The best way to achieve this goal is to offer exceptional service. Word-of-mouth referrals are an easy, inexpensive, and effective way to grow your business.

To set yourself apart, consider handing out freebies, giving discounts, writing thank-you notes, and maintaining a blog or website. Anything you can do to offer a higher level of service than your business counterparts will give you an advantage.

Takeaway

Direct sales opportunities are feasible, worthwhile, and rewarding ways to start a business. Like any profession, it takes time to hone the skills necessary for success, but the structure of the industry gives you a head start. You don’t need any formal qualifications. The built-in support network provides encouragement and assistance, and its flexibility allows you to earn extra income without quitting your day job.

If you’re ready to jump into the world of entrepreneurship, direct sales can provide a good avenue for you to do so.

investment hunting interview
Interviews,

Interview #8 – Angry Retail Banker from AngryRetailBanker.com

Interview #8 – Angry Retail Banker from AngryRetailBanker.com

This is the eighth interview of my interview series, where I interview bloggers blogging about Early Retirement, Personal Finance, and related topics. After publishing my first book, I am writing my second book, which will be on what I learned interviewing millionaires. As you can see, I love interviewing people.

ARB actually gave me this interview in mid-2017 so this is why there is a leg in terms of timespan. Either way, it is a great interview, I hope you guys like it.

Q1 – Who is ARB?

Classified. Next?
[Ben: Too bad you can’t say anything about yourself ;)]

Q2 – What do you do for a living and what do you like the most about it?

As the Angry Retail Banker, I make a living being an angry retail banker. Specifically, I work as a licensed banker in a bank branch, selling insurance and annuities along with your standard banking products. As for what I like the most, I’d really have to say the benefits. The benefits for even a part-time teller straight out of high school with no work experience are absolutely amazing. Honestly, there’s not much past that to like. It’s a great job if you love meeting new people day in and day out. I hate the general public. As well as the nonsensical regulations, the tight leash we’re all kept on, the office politics, the low pay, and all the other hallmarks of being an employee of Corporate America.

[Ben: Corporate America and Corporate rest-of-the-word suck. FIRE is the way to go, especially if you have the general public. I also hate stress and dealing with people who I don’t really like. I feel your pain man!]

Q3 – Why did you start your blog and what is your main goal with it?

I started my blog as part of a plan to earn passive retirement for financial freedom. I’ve seen bloggers earn four to five figures monthly from blogging, and I thought “Why not me? Why not now?” Well, I’ve only earned about three figures in as many years, so that. But I also started a blog on banking (rather than something like cars, which I have zero interest in) for the purposes of venting my frustration with retail customer service, learning more about banking than I would during my forty hours per week and learning things that I wouldn’t know otherwise, and to help others with a part of personal finance that is so prevalent in our lives yet so misunderstood. Eventually, I would like to be earning a decent income from my blog (be it through Google Adsense, affiliate marketing, or sponsored guest posts) while becoming one of the bigger names in the finance blogging community.

[Ben: My experience tells me that if you do it for the money, you should have a well-tuned selling machine from day 1. Otherwise, you’ll only make a few bucks. Going the other way, as I did, will take you to much higher figures but will take you infinitely longer to get there.]

Q4 – Any big plans for your blog for the near future?

Other than not running it more into the ground than it already is? I have a few things that I’m looking to have happen by the end of this year, but I’m keeping that stuff close to the vest. Wait, “close to the vest”, no that’s not the term. What’s the expression? I swear I’m a native English speaker.

[Ben: Ahaha, not sure you ran it to the ground. Keep hustling!]

Q5 – What was the main reason for you to think about early retirement?

I hate working.

That’s really the number 1 reason. I know it’s the “wrong” reason, but it really is the case. I want to live the life I want to live. I don’t want to spend my days fighting customers over the verification requirements for their business accounts. I don’t want to spend my days worrying about neverending sales quotas. I have other things I want to do with my life, so early retirement to me doesn’t involve sitting around and doing nothing all day. But to simply not have to worry about work-related stuff–stuff that’s not even really important–and to have that stress off me is reason enough to shoot for financial freedom regardless of what I do or don’t do afterwards.

[Ben: I would not say that is the wrong motivation. If do you have working, then FIRE up!]

Q6 – At what age are you most likely to retire from your day job?

172

[Ben: Make sure you get some beers then, you’ll likely want to enjoy them!]

Q7 – What do you plan on doing after retirement?

Blogging full time. Running my side business full time. Traveling more (or rather, traveling in the first place). Volunteering my time to teach financial literacy (me and another banker are already considering doing that now, but other obligations have pretty much put the kibosh on that). Devoting more time to keeping my body healthy. Maybe starting another blog devoted to anime/manga reviews (“One Piece”=best manga EVER). Doing Youtube/Twitch Let’s Play’s.

I’ll tell you what I won’t do after retirement. Deal with customers.

[Ben: Angry customers. I see the problem.]

Q8 – What investments do you like the best, and why?

Income producing assets are the best, and I’m specifically a fan of dividend growth investing. If you buy dividend stocks across a spectrum of industries, geographies, and market caps, then you have a diversified portfolio of assets that can be nearly recession-proof even if you are only in one “asset class”. Being in one asset class is only a problem when all the assets are the same. With dividend stocks, you are investing in so many quality businesses all over the world. Plus, isn’t it wonderful to earn money while having ZERO obligations? Even a landlord has to fix a toilet or deal with a rowdy tenant every now and again; a shareholder collects his dividends and there is NOTHING expected of him.

[Ben: I agree that dividend stocks are AWESOME when it comes to obligations. In my company, I am trying to invest the surplus in stocks rather than RE. But I still think RE is the best investment vehicle to go with.]

Q9 – How about eleven places you love that you’ve visited or have lived in?

I haven’t been to eleven places.

[Ben: Dude! Traveling doesn’t have to be expensive!]

Q10 – What are your goals for the rest of 2017?

Become a homeowner, leave retail banking, and not lock anybody in a room and set them on fire. All three goals are looking iffy.

[Ben: I am curious – how many have you achieved?]

Planning,

Goals for 2018

Goals for 2018

Hi guys,

As I’ve been saying, I am very excited about 2018 because I have many goals and I deeply believe I will be able to reach them. This year will probably be the most important year towards achieving financial independence.

Don’t get me wrong. 2017 was awesome, from several different angles. It was also bad in the sense that struggled with dizziness and sickness the entire year.

Health (my no. 1 goal)

  • Resolve my dizziness and brain fog for good.
    • By following my naturopath’s treatment, doing a lot of acupuncture sessions and having a healthy diet and routine.
  • Resolve my CFS.
    • By following the plan above.
  • Go for a run whenever there is sunlight out there.
  • Get my circadian rhythm fixed.
    • I will write an article called “the perfect routine”, which I’ve been following, and you’ll learn about this.
  • Do at least 2-4 detoxes in the year.
    • Everyone should do this, but for me they are particularly important.
  • Eat tons of sauerkraut and start drinking kombucha. Eat tons of fermented fruits.
    • Gotta move my lazy ass and start making sauerkraut.
  • Get bloodwork done every quarter (March, June, September, December).
    • I will actually take 2 weeks at the end of each quarter to take care of lots of stuff, including this.

 

From Cents To Retirement

  • Grow my Facebook page to, at least, 5,000 likes.
    • I will have to hire some FB ninja because my skills suck and I don’t have the time to do this.
  • Grow my subscriber list to, at least, 5,000 subscribers (currently at about 2,000).
    • Start to foster subscribers to participate often in the “cult”.
  • Hit Domain authority >50, Page authority >60 and Spam score 0.
  • Hit at least 1,000 sessions a day from organic searches (I am currently at 120-150).
    • Rank TOP3 for 200-300 keywords (currently at 30).
  • Grow monthly traffic to at least 50,000-75,000 readers often (organic searches should be a third at the very least).
    • The goal is to have always at least 50,000 readers/mo even if I don’t drive additional traffic.
  • Post over 100 articles.
    • This is roughly 2 posts/week.
  • Be scheduled out for 3 months all the time.
    • And publish an interview/guest post every month.
  • Publish at least 10 guest posts.
    • This year I will aim for the biggest blogs out there.
  • Hit $300/mo on truly passive income.
    • This means without pushing a single sale.
  • Post a lot on psychology, business, and efficient spending.
    • Because I got more interested in these topics as time went by and I want FCTR to be a reference for all this, not only ER.
  • Optimize the heck out of this site in terms of speed, resources, and UX.
    • I have a specialist working on this already. Hopefully, we’ll have tremendous results. I want to have a very clean, easy to use, fast website.
  • Be featured on two global major sites.
  • Publish 2-4 books.
    • One is already written and the other one is already planned.

Finances

  • Hit a total net worth of €400,000-€450,000 (currently at 300k).
    • And be ready to hit €750,000-€800,000 in 2019 so that I can retire.
  • Scale my RE portfolio as projected here, with lines of credit, as announced here.
    • In theory, this should allow me to grow my assets’ value to $798,000 (this will come from deep-value deals).
  • Get way more exposed to dividend stocks and the stock market in general, even if I predict it will crash in the next 2 years.
    • I always liked stocks but holding on to cash is SO boring… plus, I want to enjoy compound interest.
  • Increase my truly passive income (excluding rental income) to $700/mo.
    • This will come from the stock market, royalties and stuff.
  • Be able to retire if I go with extreme minimalism.
    • which I won’t, but this will provide a mental shift and an emotional comfort…

 

RE company

  • Bring at the very least 50k in revenue.
    • In 2017, it brought in about €25,000 with a practically inexistent structure.
  • Hit 3k/mo (conservative goal) or 5k/mo (aggressive goal) on fixed-income (through contracts and investments).
    • Currently at 0/mo.
    • This is really what will enable me to jump to the next level, because I will be able to hire 1/2 full-time employees.
  • Keep costs below 10k, so that it makes 40k at the end of the year (which will be enough to buy a property).
    • The main goal is to keep on acquiring properties for the company so that I am able to bring in 5,000€/mo on fixed income.
  • Be featured in at least one major newspaper.
    • This will help me with exposure. I already have the contacts in place, it will simply be a question of time.
  • Publish 2 e-products (which will be big in the future of the company).
    • I will probably publish 1 or 2 books in the first year.
    • After that, I want to move into online courses, small e-books and what not. This is when I will capitalize on all the content I’ve been creating, e.g. articles like “invest in small towns or big towns“.

 

Personal development

  • Continue to learn about health and test what works for me.
    • This is actually a big goal that I have in my life. I’ve been learning a LOT about health and next year I plan to keep it that way.
  • Being able to enjoy life every single day, being able to relax and not feel pressured to make money/whatever.
    • The truth is that, since I started to execute my plan to retire early, I am obsessed with making money. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I want to ease this feeling.
  • Follow a success routine that I carefully put together.
    • I will write a post this month on a wonderful routine that will put my self-discipline to the test.
  • Not let other people influence me negatively.
    • This is something I struggle with for a long time – this is the year to really make it happen.
  • Do a people and technology fast every quarter.
    • I am so doing this!

 

As time goes by, I plan to talk release quarterly reports on these goals (both for what I have accomplished and what are the goals for the following quarter).

If you think I am forgetting something, please let me know in the comments down below.

Ben

Health, Lifestyle, Planning,

Relection on 2017 and a brief look at 2018 in terms of health, work and finances

Relection on 2017 and a brief look at 2018 in terms of health, work and finances

Happy new year guys!

I am so very excited about the new year. 2017 was probably one of the most special years of my life and I learned a lot. It is scaring that 2017 is already over. Time flies even when you’re not having fun!

There were a few things that happened in 2017 that make me consider it very peculiar:

  • I moved to Portugal and I started living alone, in one of my beautiful rental properties. Living alone on this property is freaking awesome!
  • I felt dizzy/nauseous for the most part of the year, and my CFS/adrenal fatigue was exacerbated in specific parts of the year. This was so relevant and debilitating for me, that 2017 was marked by my dizziness.
  • Although I first considered doing a gap year, being off of work for 12 months, I ended up getting a part-time, reasonably well-paying job, which allowed me to focus on other projects in my life. This enabled me to grow wiser.
  • My real estate business took off and brought home some decent income. I realized I can retire earlier than I expected at first, especially if my projections for 2018 are met.
  • I was able to re-structure my real estate portfolio and hit €1,800/mo in rental income (with about €400/mo in liabilities).
  • …among many other things.

You can also check out the entire list of my goals I had for the year. Overall, I did pretty well:

  • Post at least 3 times a week. ALMOST DONE. There was a period where I clearly published less often but I was able to keep 2 posts/week for most of the time. Sadly, anything above this is not realistic (unless I do like 90% of the bloggers – who hire ghostwriters – which I don’t want). In fact, many great blogs, such as Backlinko only have a few articles published and yet they get a ton of traffic.
  • I hope to complete the task of re-reading 100 books, and provide summaries and reviews for all of them. FAIL. This is more like “I changed the plans for the year. Entirely.” I do hope to read some books this year (and publish reviews and summaries) but it won’t be close to 100 for sure. I have plenty of things that I could do with my time beyond that.
  • Grow the number of subscribers of the blog to 6000 (I was at 650 last year), and 25.000 likes on Facebook. FAIL. This was also pretty unrealistic without spending more money on Facebook ads and what not. I am not disappointed though. This year, I hope to double the number of Facebook likes. Not sure if this is totally realistic, but I hope it is.
  • Find a fully flexible (probably freelancing or consultancy) job, which permits me to live in one of my units and make $25k for the year. DONE. I worked part-time at a Portuguese university and got a pretty nice salary for the Portuguese standards. I used most of it to fund the renovation of RP#3 so I definitely feel I put the money to work!
  • Rent out all my units and make $20k from that. DONE. Fortunately, the demand for apartments in my markets is pretty high, and so I don’t have many troubles in renting them out. I feel this will be the case in the following years, but I plan to rent out many or my properties to companies anyways.
  • Make $40k on my investments and businesses. ALMOST DONE. I only made 50-60% of that but I am still happy with this.
  • The ultimate goal was to make $85k, net $50k. DONE. I didn’t net $50k in cash, but I was able to grow my portfolio by LINK LINK.
  • I wanted to dominate the Portuguese fiscal code. ALMOST DONE. I sure learned a lot but mastering it like an accountant would retire me way more attention than I am willing to put into this.
  • I wanted to participate a lot on Quora. ALMOST DONE. I missed the stats that I aimed for, but I was able to reach more than 10k followers.
  • I wanted to publish 3 books. ALMOST DONE. The first one is published, the second one is written and the third one is planned. Good enough?
  • Not letting other people affect me in a negative way. FAIL. This is also why I wanted to fast from people during Christmas time LINK.
  • Cultivate all my friendships and create at least 10 new great relationships. ALMOST DONE. I was able to make 3 or 4 new great friends.
  • Learn a lot about renovating homes (and doing it myself). FAIL. I swear I tried, but feeling exhausted and dizzy all the time was a killer.
  • I wanted to regain the shape I had in 2011. FAIL. Again, I swear I tried, but feeling exhausted and dizzy all the time was a killer.
  • Do one or two 7-day juice cleanse with organic juicing. ALMOST DONE. I did at least 3 different detoxes so this is done.
  • Move to my dream home, and live alone. DONE. Just not the home I initially thought I was going to move to.

Why am I so excited about 2018

2018 will be big for me because I feel that although this may take a while, I am moving towards the right direction with my health, at the same time I am taking my company to a whole new level. The big thing for my company will be hiring 1 or 2 full-time employees and grow the fixed income to €5,000/mo.

In other words, I can now see the dream a few miles away from me. And the dream is to be healthy and set up an efficient real estate company that has a few employees and runs pretty much automatically.

I also feel that 2018 will be big for From Cents To Retirement. I will work badly to grow it to a reference blog in early retirement. I do hope to hit 3x more the traffic I currently have, by the end of the year.

As for my health, I have a few plans as well. And this year I will be sticking to them badly! I will write a complete article on my perfect morning and evening routines and I will cover all the plans for my health in 2018.

Later this week I will be publishing an article on the goals for 2018 and you can scrutinize them thoroughly. 😉

Let me know how 2017 was for you.

Ben

online income report income diary report how to make money online
Reports,

December 2017 (Online Income: $317.49)

My online income and blog stats in December 2017

Welcome to my income diary. If you wonder how do websites make money and how to make money with a website, you may find my reports useful.

I release reports on my online income every month.

I’ve received many e-mails concerning this matter. Most people ask me “What can I do to start a side online business?” or “What can I do to make a few hundred bucks at the end of the month”? First, know that I offer consulting services for this, on 1:1 consultations. Either way, let me hash out a general recipe here:

0) Choose a niche. Many people choose niches based on keyword search. I highly recommend people to blog about what they are passionate about instead. If you add value, any niche will work out for you.

1) Set up a website. I host my website on Bluehost, which I highly recommend. For one, its cheap, two is highly reliable. If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, I created a tutorial here, to help you start off.

2) Blog. A lot. You may have noticed that I’ve posted twice in the month, on specific months when I started From cents to Retirement. Doesn’t work. It won’t tie people in, it won’t please search engines and your blog will rapidly be forgotten. Note that I am not saying “publish crap”. Do not, if you expect to have loyal fans and grow. But do not forget to publish.

3) Promote your blog. A big part of having your blog out there for people to see is through high-quality posts – eventually, people will share. Promoting your blog will not only get it out there faster but deeper. Promoting your blog can be very hard, but its necessary.

4) Monetize. Adsense is an option. I like Amazon a lot. If you offer consultancy services, as I do, you need to show you can do it yourself first, but clients will pop up eventually.

So, how did I make $317.49 this month? First, the breakdown:

Bluehost : $0 (vs $0 in November)
Affiliate marketing : $31.05 (vs $29.26 in November)
My book : $36.34 (vs $49.10 in November)
Consultancy fees : $0 (vs $0 in November)
Sponsored posts on other sites : $300 (vs $0 in November)
Produts to review: $250

Total : $317.49

Disclaimer: the BlueHost and the Amazon links are affiliate links, which means that I get commissions if you buy products or services through them. The amounts reported above are before any fees, taxes or expenses. I can’t say exactly how much I will net from this.

This month, I haven’t consulted as I am still sick and I don’t feel like consulting. I feel dizzy and overwhelmed, and I experience nausea throughout the day.

Note that although I am committed to release my income diary and help those who want to know how to make money with a blog, if they and blogging for money, my primary focus is not to make money with the blog, but create a very valuable platform that people love.

Expenses

I had no expenses this month.

Views

Still dizzy and nauseous (for one year now!), I’ve been able to post as often as I wanted. I haven’t posted as much on Quora – I actually prefer to invest my time on awesome posts for From Cents To Retirement. I have been targeting posts with at least 2000 words, that are really comprehensive on the topic I post on.

Unlike what I thought, I haven’t been featured in another big newspaper again and so the views came down to “normal”, plus December is a really bad month in terms of traffic:

views december 2017

And the number of sessions:

sessions december 2017

Something odd happened with regards to this! I have been able to steadily increase the number of organic searches I have every month, and they finally surpassed 30% of the total number of visits. Yet, this month they came down aggressively – I hope I wasn’t penalized. I am still up with my goal to be at 1,000 views per day exclusively from organic searches until July 2018, and 25,000 likes on Facebook. If I am able to do this, my blog will have enough views to build the basis for a reference for early retirement. This is why I am so focused on hitting these two numbers!

My authority has increased: the domain authority is now at 34 and the page authority is 45. I actually thought I would have a higher increase based on last month’s acquired links, but this hasn’t been the case. Therefore, I am onto SEO once again.

My Alexa rank is now stable at 294,500!

Social Media

My Facebook page grew from 2059 likes to 2100. This is an increase of about 2%, which, compounded, would make me hit roughly 2400 likes by July 2018. Of course this is not good and I need to dramatically enhance what I am doing with my Facebook account. 🙂

As I said before, I am not keeping track of Pinterest anymore.

As for the subscriber count, I was able to grow it from 1726 to 1739, which means an increase of less than 1%. This is because I lost some subscribers as I sent too many newsletters (as I predicted before).

Goals for December 2017:

  • Increase the number of likes on my Facebook page to 2200. FAIL.
  • Maintain the number of blog subscribers, as I will clean up some that don’t open newsletters. DONE.
  • Write at least 1 guest post. DONE.
  • Make about $250 online. DONE.

Goals for January 2018:

  • Increase the number of likes on my Facebook page to 2200.
  • Maintain the number of blog subscribers, as I will clean up some that don’t open newsletters.
  • Write at least 1 guest post.
  • Make about $250 online.

In the meantime, let me know if this information is useful to you by commenting down below.

Your biggest fan,
Ben Davis

logo
Uncategorized,

Sponsored post by Envestio

Enjoy this sponsored post by Envestio. 🙂

About Us

Started as a private investment fund in 2014, Envestio is now one of the leading companies in the industry of “New Finance” or “Finance 2.0”, which offers investors from different countries premium investment opportunities through online crowdfunding marketplace. At Envestio we offer to the public investors only those investment projects, which successfully passed a thorough and unbiased due diligence process, conducted by our professional team.

Becoming a successful investor with Envestio is easy, secure, and quick. Register on Envestio website and choose one or several premium investment opportunities online using all necessary information attached to every project. Background information, situational analysis, development prospects, market overview, repayment schedules as well as other data available – Envestio makes it easy and comfortable to start investing in high-tech, energy, real estate or other projects.

During many decades making investments was a prerogative of very limited number of people of specific occupations. However, everything changed with start of the Age of Information and development of online crowdfunding marketplaces such as Envestio. Nowadays you don’t need to be a high-worth individual or finance professional to become a co-investor in a major project in your country or abroad. Online marketplace gives you secure, easy and instant access to investment opportunities from your home, office, or any other location. Complete and diversify your own investment portfolio, starting with EUR 100 minimum investment in a single project.

Crowdinvesting is a growing power on financial markets with thousands of great projects finding necessary financing for successful development through online marketplaces such as Envestio.

At Envestio we welcome also young and ambitious entrepreneurs who are looking for the new sources of financing their ventures. For them Envestio can act as a professional funding partner, more flexible but at the same time as reliable as traditional financial institutions such as commercial banks. Just send an application to Envestio, and if your project meets necessary requirements, it will be presented to the investors for quick and effective fundraising.

Ready to start investing or want to know more about the projects? Please complete free registration and find out about our current investment opportunities. Preview our current investment projects here.

Our Mission

It is our strong belief that nowadays everyone can become a successful investor. Invest into high-tech, real estate, power production, and other top-quality projects with Envestio and start earning high returns.

We will be happy to reply to any questions about us at info@envestio.com

Values

Excellence

We love what we do and we love doing it in the best possible way. Thousands of people and organizations trust us, therefore, everything we do at Envestio is aimed at making investment process easy, fast, secure, and efficient. We offer to our investors only premium level investment opportunities, which were extensively studied and checked by our expert team, and most comfortable virtual working environment.

Innovation

At Envestio we respect traditional approaches, but in the Age of Information being highly flexible and result-oriented is one of the key success factors for any company. We carefully follow and swiftly react to latest FinTech trends and do not limit our selection of investment opportunities to traditional industries, willingly giving a chance also to business projects from innovative sphere such as cryptocurrency mining.

Transparency

You never make a successful business with people or organization you don’t fully trust, so, transparent business culture of is one of Envestio’s key values. We consistently communicate honest and unbiased information to our investors, investment project owners, press, and other market participants.

Start investing now

Investment buyback is guaranteed!
Sell an investment from your portfolio back to Envestio at any moment!

https://envestio.com/signup/?utm_source=blog

net worth update
Reports,

Net worth update: December 2017 (288,552.22€)

My current net worth is €288,552.22 (43.07% of my first goal – €670K).

net worth december 2017

This year was a unique year in my life! I was dizzy for the most part, struggled hard with CFS, but managed to grow my portfolio like never before!

If you remember, one of my goals for 2017 was to hit €300,000 in net worth (or very close to it), and I actually managed it. Well, let’s say that 290k is good enough. ^.^

My state of mind

I have finally made peace with the growth rate of my net worth!

I want to focus on my health above all and have enough energy to focus on my projects, including my company and my career. I do hope that 2018 will be the best year of my life, the year in which I reverse my illness! I promise to work hard and do my best towards that goal. To mark this commitment, I just spent a week without a computer and a cellphone.

Rental income

RP#1 is now my Primary Property (PP), as I said before, so it will show up as such in the next reports.

The rental income in December was €1,225. I’ve been saying it should be close to €2,000, but the renovation works in RP#3 took way longer than I expected. Also, I sold RP#4, which means €200 less in the total rental income.

In February, I should get over €1,700, as the renovation or RP#3 will certainly be over.

During 2018, I expect to hit €3,500/mo at some point and I am positive I will do that.

Online income

My online income in December was very low. As I said before, I either increment my SEO quality badly or it will be difficult to reach an amount that makes it a real business (at the very least €15,000/yr).

As I also said before, I don’t think that I can make a lot of money on my blog if I don’t push it or I start displaying ads, which is something I am not particularly keen on doing. The strategy to my blog will definitely have to be carefully planned, but for now, I am not desperate to make money with it, so I will just stick to the original plan (no ads, no monetization, focus on growing the blog organically as much as possible).

If you want to have instant cash do NOT replicate my strategy; this one is for the long haul!

My Real Estate business

My Real Estate business is still growing. Next year, I will try to make about €100,000 and cash out a part of that in dividends and mostly buy real estate through the company.

Goals for December

  1. Create and stick to my perfect routine (I will write a post on this). FAIL. I did improve my routine but being dizzy all the time doesn’t help. Yet, this has actually more to do with procrastination than being dizzy. In 2018, I can’t fail!
  2. Write at least another chapter of my second book. DONE!
  3. Put the computer away on Sundays – every single Sunday. FAIL. I am so god damn hooked on the online world…
  4. Write 8 posts on the blog. DONE!
  5. Write at least 1 guest post. DONE!
  6. Go to bed before 10.30pm every day. FAIL. This is something I really need to improve.
  7. Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that). ALMOST DONE! And in January I will be taking it to a point where faps are inexistent, I hope!
  8. Make at least $200 online.
  9.  DONE!
  10. Increase my page authority beyond 50. FAIL. This is really surprising me. I should be doing much better at this point in time…

Goals for January

  1. Stick to my perfect routine (I will write a post on this on January 8th).
  2. Finish my second book. 
  3. Take 1 week 100% off (and do this for the next 6 months!).
  4. Write 8 posts on the blog.
  5. Write at least 1 guest post.
  6. Take at least 7 cold showers.
  7. Go to bed before 10.30pm every day (I will actually try 9:45 to create a safety buffer).
  8. Follow the nofap protocol aggressively (for health reasons, not social phobia or anything like that).
  9. Increase my page authority beyond 50.

Enjoy life guys!

Ben

best investments 2018
Planning,

Best investments for 2018 – what I will do to get richer and what you can do

Best investments for 2018 – what I will do to get richer and what you can do

This year is coming to an end, so it is about time to plan the next year. I will write a bigger post on the various angles of my life, but I’d like to cover the financial aspect right away, as I review some good investments for 2018.

First I need to say that 2017 was way different than what I anticipated. I actually thought about doing a gap year, by my type-A personally didn’t let me rest as much as I needed; I was offered a well-paying part-time position, which I took, and I did more business than ever before.

Planning things for 2018

Next year, I will be dividing my time in the following way:

  • Mondays. I will continue to have a part-time position which will pay me enough money to live off of so that my basic expenses are covered.
  • Wednesdays and Sundays. These are the days I will take to rest, and I will not think about work at all. I think I will benefit from resting sparsely throughout the week, thus splitting rest between Wednesdays and Sundays. On Sundays, I will also
  • Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. These days I will be working full time on my RE company, which hopefully will grow tremendously in 2018. I am aiming for a total revenue of €75,000, which is great as I won’t have full-time employees (only people to work with me seasonally and part-time).I will also have to invest a lot of time on my second RE holding, which will be easy to manage but may consume a lot of time during the process of negotiating lines of credit and acquiring assets. The projections for this holding were calculated here.
  • Saturdays.  I will use this day to work on my side hustle, which guarantees my company a fixed amount of money every month. This is enough to pay for the fixed costs of the company and help me focus on other, variable and more risky investments that will hopefully help the company to grow.

This only applies from April 1st onwards… In the first quarter, I will be resting, as I want to fully reverse my adrenal fatigue/CFS and, even more importantly, my dizziness.

  • Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday: full rest.
  • Tuesday and Thursday: work on FromCentsToRetirement, my side hustle and on my RE company (I have suspended my part-time job in the first quarter. I will write a big post on this (and the first quarter as well).

How my RE company will operate

Having done almost €40,000 this year, I know exactly how to run the company and scale it. As I said, my goal is to hit €75,000. This is what the company will focus on:

  • Selling homes. This will be the biggest chunk of the revenue, I am sure. I have partnered up with another RE company which will probably help me sell even more. I may also hire some commission-based employees to put some gasoline in the fire. From this channel, I will probably make €50-€60k.
  • Market studies. This is a good thing to sell because you make it once and you can sell it many times. I am not sure what the size of the market is, but I guess I will learn that quickly. 🙂 This is an advertising play: I don’t think people will come up to me and ask for this service, so I will have to invest a lot into advertising (on Facebook, Adwords and e-mail marketing) to sell these reports. They are usually targeted at real estate investors who want to invest in Portugal or business owners who want to expand within the countr. I hope to sell €7,000 of these in the first year.
  • Dividends and rents. You got it – I also want to make this company a holding. This is because the dividends and rents I will get will allow me to build up some fixed income, thus allowing me to pay for the fixed expenses of the company and employees’ salaries. In the first year, I hope to bring in €1,000 from this channel (and boost it to €10,000 in 2019).
  • eBooks, online courses, and consultancy. I have identified a niche in the market which I can “easily” explore. As I bring in more people to the Facebook page and e-mail list, I will sell more. I’d be happy to have 10,000 people altogether in the lists during 2018. This should roughly translate into €10,000. In the second year though, I hope to sell more of these than selling homes, because this is way more passive.

Unless I really have to, I won’t cash out dividends from the company – I will re-invest all the profit back into the company and grow it as much as possible, so I make at least €150,000 in 2019 and €350,000 in 2020.

2 tips and info for you to invest in 2018

The stock market

As I said many times before, we’re in the second largest bull market ever. This is not a good indicator of a possible crash in the stock market, but …

As a result, there are various industries that seem to be about to break out. Thus, investing in stocks in these industries seems wise even in a very bull market as we are right now. Some of these industries are:

Cannabis

cannabis best investments 2018 2019

Ideally, the best way to invest in these startups is to create one or be involved in the process from the beginning. As this is extremely hard, my fellow blogger Cody Shirk launched explorer partnerships that allow you to invest with him in these hot markets.

Car manufacturers 

I personally think that we are walking towards a model where car ownership will be less and less relevant, and cars will be fully electric and eventually driverless. Thanks Tesla!

This will massively change the landscape of traffic, cars and… commodities. I expect that as the car industry changes, the other industries that depend on, influence or are related to cars also change.
Just so you have an idea of what is crossing my mind right now:
  • I believe that real estate will change a lot, because garages over the long run will be needed. As for short-term changes, we may see gas stations becoming obsolete and turning into stations of superchargers. Plus, as we see car ownership become less and less common, perhaps the need for parking lots will diminish.
  • Uber and uber-alike companies will become even more prominent and own the market entirely. As we move towards electric vehicles (and drones that deliver packages), we will witness massive layoffs in the transportation industry. If you drive a truck, consider starting doing something else.
  • Eventually, trains and plains will retain the technology that is being created for cars. Yes, I believe they will be electric at some point…

So, what is my point? Car manufacturers that are taking the lead in the electric revolution will be appealing investments.

Let me know if you agree or you have suggestions for good investments in 2018.

Ben

Newer Posts
Older Posts