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“The plan” crypto bot review (5 months later & my results)

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I recently did a review of my results of this new Crypto bots experiment using “The Plan” by Dan Hollings that I’ve been doing for the last 5 months.

You can watch the full video below or keep reading for the transcription.

(The following is an abbreviated transcription from a video I recorded on May 5th, 2022. Scroll to see my most recent update. Please excuse any typos or errors.)

Today I want to talk about something pretty interesting. I want to share how I’m making about $400 a month passive income from crypto bots on a relatively small investment. And if you’re part of the SeedTime community and have been paying attention at all, you know, that I’m working towards having a full-time passive income by 2024.

I’m in the phase of trying a lot of stuff out and experimenting with a lot of different stuff and this is an experiment that I’ve actually been working on for about five months. So I want to take you into my account and show you exactly how this works, exactly what I’ve been doing and what kind of results I’ve been getting from it.

The plan bot trading disclaimer 🙂

Before we dive in, I have to say that this is not financial advice for you. I’m not your financial advisor and we’re talking about cryptocurrency. So in case you don’t know, this is risky. You can lose money with any investment but cryptocurrency is probably one of the more risky investments that you can make.

But I will say that I’ve experimented with a lot of different crypto stuff over the last five months or so and I think this is one of the least risky ways to invest in crypto.

But the point is that you can lose money. You have to know that upfront. There’s no investment that is a guarantee that you will not lose money. So you have to know that this is cryptocurrency and there’s definitely risk involved. So I just want to make sure we are on the same page with that before we dive deeper into this.

What is this crypto bot experiment?

Passive income crypto bots?

Ok so let’s break down The Plan cryptocurrency bot trading thing. Explaining what’s actually happening here and what we’re doing before I dive into our account – what I am doing with this method is I am setting up bots that are automatically trading. It’s called grid trading. So they are automatically trading at different points as the price of a specific cryptocurrency goes up or down. And so it’s completely passive, which I absolutely love.

With this method, you’re profiting off of the volatility of crypto. We all know crypto is very volatile. It’s going up and down a lot, and that’s what makes this work. If crypto wasn’t volatile, this wouldn’t work at all but because it is, we can set up little automated bots that are constantly buying and selling for us as the market moves up and down a little bit. And each time they do, we make just a little bit of money.

A lot of these trades that they are making for me, I might only be making $.25 or $.50, but when it’s making hundreds or thousands of trades, that begins to add up. This is a unique approach to investing in crypto that I haven’t seen before at all.

Let’s take a look at my crypto bots

The Plan crypto bots actual results
The Plan crypto bots results

This is my Bitsgap account, and this is the actual trading software that I’m using to make all these trades. I have two bots set up and what’s happening here is all the little dots are all the grid lines. So each time you see a little dot, it’s a buy or sell. This is called grid trading and what we’re doing is we’re setting up a whole bunch of buy and sell lines, spread out just a little bit all throughout here for these different prices.

You can see the red lines and the green lines. When we set up one of these bots, we’re setting up all these different buy and sell orders at different prices all throughout and then, as the price of the coin goes up and down, each time it’ll buy some or it’ll sell some and then each time it sells some, I’m making just a little bit of money.

The plan crypto course

The plan crypto bots actual trades
Each of the actual trades being made by the bots

On all of the different buy and sell orders, the amount of profit I’m making is about $.09 on each of them and there’s about 633 transactions, most of them being sell orders so I’m making about $.09 each time. So for the one that has been up for a little less than 4 days, it’s yielded me $20.

And again, this was off about a $900 investment in 20 days, which if it continues at this rate that comes out to $180 or something in one month off of $900. So that’s the gist of how this one has been performing.

Results from one of my crypto bots

The other one you see is Ethereum/USDT. You’ve probably heard of Ethereum and USDT is a stable coin. So this is a coin pairing and those two are working together. It’s alternating between the two, either buying Ethereum and trading that for USDT or doing the opposite. And this particular one I’ve had open for about two months and a day, and it’s earned me $449. I think it was about a $5,000 investment, which comes out to an 8.5% return over two months.

This continues to be hard for me to wrap my brain around because I come from the financial world where if you’re making more than 10% per year, you should be really, really happy, you know? And no doubt, in crypto there’s a lot of volatility, but I’m really excited about the potential of this. And like I said, I’ve been doing this for five months now and experimenting with it and I’ve opened some bots and close some bots and I’ve seen the market go up and I’ve seen the market come down. In November and December, we saw the market dropped quite a bit. And that was interesting for me to watch and I’m really glad I got to experience it.

The bot profit is what the bot has actually earned. So in this case, the GMT bot has earned $20 in the three days that has been open, the ETH/USDT one has earned about $450 in the two months it’s been opened. So this is actual earnings that I have. So, because it sold it, this money has now added to my account so I can just leave these bots and just let them keep running and it’s just going to be spitting little amounts of money into my account and then I can take that money and then do whatever I want. So it’s just straight passive income and that is what’s really cool about this.

And they don’t always continue at such a great rate. The ETH/USDT one was actually over 10% for a while and now it’s down to 8.5%. So they’re not necessarily always staying at the same rate of return because it’s based off of how volatile that coin is and how many trades you’re doing.

Then you can see our total bot profit of $469, our total average return since we’ve done this and then the sum total (P&L) is only $48. And the reason for this is because two of these coins have actually gone down in value. The coins can go up or down in value themselves, which will either amplify or decrease what’s going on with your total earnings. So even though the bots have earned me $469, my total, if I were to close everything out right now, would only be a $48 gain because the coins have gone down in value. Now, if the coins are going up in value, then it kind of amplifies it.

So I might have had $469 in bot profit, but I might have $700 of total profit because the coins went up. So what’s cool about this it reduces your losses – I saw this firsthand in November and December when the market was just kind of tanking. If you’re going to be holding cryptocurrency anyway, if you’re holding Bitcoin, Ethereum, or really any other altcoins that you’re excited about holding for the long term, what’s great is that when those coins go down, you’re still making money. So it reduces your loss. And that’s what I meant at the beginning where I said this might be the least risky way to invest in cryptocurrency, or it could be depending on what you’re investing in. And so I found that to be pretty cool because there were certain coins I was invested in that dropped 50% in value, but I only actually lost about 20% because of this, because it was earning me money all the way down.

Are crypto trading bots worth it?

Ultimately, you will need to decide for yourself. If you have money that you can afford to lose (because crypto is really volatile) and want a good chance at beating traditional stock market returns, then this might be something to consider.

So how did I learn about this?

Back in October, I had a friend who was recommending a program that he went through from this guy named Dan who was teaching his exact strategy of how he did this. And this guy actually spent millions of dollars kind of going through, trying to figure out the perfect settings and the perfect way to do this, to minimize risk and maximize gains.

So I ended up going through his program and that’s how I learned this whole thing. And I would love to share all the details with you, the exact details, but I can’t. Part of being a part of that program is that you have to sign an NDA non-disclosure agreement basically saying that you will not share the secret sauce with anyone else.

Like I said, Dan spent millions of dollars figuring this out so I can appreciate that he doesn’t want it to get out too far and wide. So you have to go through his course in order to learn the actual method and I can speak to it being a good course since I went through it.

So who is Dan Hollings?

He’s a former teacher so he’s really good at explaining things. And I’ve been in a lot of different online courses and there’s a lot of people with online courses who are not good teachers and he’s actually a really good teacher. I found it to be very, very helpful and I honestly think even if you don’t know anything about crypto, he can take you from those beginning stages to kind of help you navigate through this because, to be honest, it’s really pretty easy. You need to go through the training, it’ll take some time to learn everything but then once you have everything setup, it’s super passive and it’s very set it and forget it.

Some of my experience

Since I’ve began, I’ve changed my bots maybe three or four times. And you can just leave a bot run for sometimes months at a time without making any changes. And as Dan says in the class, a lot of times the best ones are the ones who just don’t do anything, just leave it alone and just let it run and run its course and just let it keep making you money passively throughout.

So like I said, I started doing this about five months ago and I feel like I’ve learned a lot in this process and I’ll just share a few of the highlights of things, some pros and cons.

Pros

1. I definitely think it’s legit

When I first saw this, there was a part of me that thought “no way, this is too good to be true.” But I don’t think this is a scam in any way. I’ve had my own money invested in this for over five months now, Dan seems completely legit, they have over 10,000 students at this point and he just does a lot of things really, really well.

2. You’ll have some hand-holding if you need it

The training is very thorough and very comprehensive. I went through at 2x speed because I’ve already been invested in some crypto and I feel like I knew the space a little bit, but for someone who hasn’t invested in any crypto at all, he definitely holds your hand and guides you through the whole process really well.

3. Fantastic customer support

They are very responsive and just very, very helpful. There were a lot of questions that I asked, maybe even to an annoying point, and they answered them all and there were even a handful where Dan himself came back and answered for me if someone else couldn’t find the answer.

And let me just make this clear – I consider this an experiment for myself and I’m okay losing my own money but before I ever talk about it with you, I want to feel confident that this isn’t a scam. Which I do feel confident of now! But I can’t guarantee that anyone is going to make or lose money with this. Which leads me to my next point – I want to show you how I did actually lose some money on a bot.

Like I was saying, when the coin value goes down – the GMT coin, let’s say this drops by 50% – if that’s the case, the value of this is going to go down. So unless I’ve earned enough to offset that with bot profit, if I were to sell it at this point, I would lose money in total on this bot. But that’s the thing, you don’t actually lose money until you sell. A big part of this whole thing is figuring out which coin pairs to pick and that is part of what Dan and his whole training was helpful in figuring out. So if I’m I’m confident in the coin pair I have, I can just hold onto it because it’s still making me money in the process. As long as it doesn’t go out of the grid range. And even if it does, I can still expand to that grid range. So even if it drops all the way down out of the grid range and it’s not making me money, I can extend the grid down and have it be making me money again.

All that to say, I had a couple coins that dropped in value but because I was using these bots on a lot of the coins I was holding, I didn’t lose nearly as much because it was making me money in the process.

“Cons”

1. Training takes some time

I probably spent a few hours going through the training so to some that might be a con. I already owned some Bitcoin, Ethereum, I had exchanges setup, I had a headstart. Someone brand new to crypto is going to have to open those accounts and some of those accounts take a day or two to open so it’s going to take a little time transferring money, etc. But once that’s done, like I said above, you’re literally just doing what he says to do and it’s pretty simple.

2. The course is expensive

Like I said above, Dan spent a lot of money trying to figure out the secret sauce so I understand why he wants to protect it so it’s an expensive thing to get into. But, if you look at the returns that you’re getting on even just a single bot, you can see how you’re earning your money back. Even if I continue to get 8% for the rest of the year, that’s close to a 50% return from this one coin pair. And that example is Ethereum which is proably one of the least volatile coins. So if I were investing in any other coins, even a little bit more volatile than this, the returns get a lot better.

To continue this example, in those transactions, it shows in just 4 days, it has done 636 transactions. Meanwhile, the far less volatile one has done 74 transactions in 2 months. More volatile = more transactions = more opportunity for earnings.

Dan said in the program that the average student is earning about 70% per year, which, again coming from the financial world is insane.

The caveat here, again, is that this is risky. It’s crypto, it’s a new world and a new industry. Just like when the internet started, there were so many people who made a lot of money because they were at the beginning of something really big. We’re still relatively at the beginning of mass adoption with crypto, and it’s becoming more and more widely used and adopted, but there’s still a lot of opportunity.

3. Sales team is a little pushy IMO

Like I said earlier, Dan is a former teacher, very gentle and does a great job explaining all this stuff. But the sales team he hired is a little bit salesy for my taste. And I might be sensitive to this but it’s just a bit more salesy than I’d like.

So what I did and what I would recommend you do is just look past that and look at the actual product itself and decide for yourself if this is something that you want to do.

4. It’s risky

I know I’ve said this a million times already but I want to make sure this isn’t lost on anyone. Risky means that there’s a big upside but there’s also a big downside. And you just have to know that going into it. I would never invest money that I was not comfortable losing in this. So don’t invest your grocery money, your retirement savings or your kids college funds in this.

We talk about the more stable, slower approach to investing in our 10x Investing Course and that is where I feel very confident in over the longterm. There will still be ups and downs but with crypto, it’s just a bigger roller coaster of ups and downs.

UPDATE 10/07/22

Since I wrote this in May, the market has been mostly down but the bots have been continuing to passively kick out profit each day.

My current returns are a little lower than they were in May, but for the last 3.5 months they have generated a 13.98% return of $558 of which I am thrilled.

The Plan bots earnings from the last 3 months
My current bots and their returns

And as to the passive nature of it, I changed a couple bots and added a couple new ones with profits and have probably spent less than 1 hour over the last 5 months working on it.

So all in all, I am happy with how they have been working. I would never want something like this to be my ONLY investment as it is too risky, but I personally allocate about 10% of my investments to riskier ones like this.

Interested in learning more about “the Plan”?

They only open enrollment 2-3 times a year and are currently closed. If you drop your email down below I can send you an email when they open up again.

Want to just try to this whole thing out without the training I took?

I am deeply grateful for “The Plan” and what I learned in it, but it is only open for enrollment a few times a year and I know some of you are adventurous explorers and like to just dive in. If that is you, you can learn more about the actual bot software that I use called Bitsgap here for as little as $29/month.

The training provides a ton of valuable info as well as Dan’s “secret sauce” settings to use at Bitsgap to get the best returns. But again if you want to explore Bitsgap on your own go for it!

If you join, let me know!

And if you have are part of the program, send me an email and let me know because I created a private group where we are all sharing ideas and what is working best with each other. Really I have just found it to be helpful to have others to chat with about the whole thing.

Have questions or comments? Leave them below and I’ll do my best to get back to you. I’m happy to be at the point with this that I feel comfortable sharing my opinion on this and helping you make the right decision for yourself, whatever that is!

Making a living off passive income in < 2 years

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If you have been part of the SeedTime family for a while you know some of our story.

You might know that my financial story began when I was stranded 1,000 miles from home in debt up to my eyeballs with only $7 to my name.

And out of that and through a series of adventures that God has led us on, He has helped us reach some goals that I would have thought were impossible:

By the way, I share the keys to how we did all this in our upcoming book and the pre-order bonuses are pretty spectacular, just FYI. 😉

What’s ahead for us

But for the purposes of this article, I just wanted to give you a peek into what is ahead for us.

Taking that 1-year sabbatical in 2017 was one of the most life-changing experiences I’ve ever had.

And for reasons that I explain in the article I wrote about it here, I told God at the end of it that I’d love to take a 1-year sabbatical every 7 years for the rest of my life.

I know that sounds crazy.

It is probably impossible.

But to be honest I thought taking a 1 week sabbatical was impossible the first time I did it. Then I did a month for about 5 years in a row.

And then God invited me to do a year.

And guess what?

He sustained us and provided for us through it all.

Our business didn’t blow up. We were able to pay the bills. And most importantly Linda got to live indoors (which she really likes).

And so, I am open to whatever God has, but I figure why not try to create a rhythm of Sabbath rest every 7 years?

Again, it might be impossible, but this is what I am praying to see happen in 2024.

So what does this have to do with passive income?

A lot actually.

In 2017, a part of the natural provision that allowed us to eat and live indoors was some streams of passive income that we had.

Since then, for a variety of reasons, those streams are gone.

So for the next 2 years I have a goal that I am trying to reach. By 2024 I want to be making a living off passive income that we are generating. And so I am going to be working to systematically create enough passive income to replace our current earned income and carry us through 2024.

The reason I am sharing this with you is because I know you might be interested in increasing the amount of passive income you have coming in as well.

So over the next couple years my plan is to share a lot of the journey that we are on to create enough passive income to live on for a year.

My hope is that there will be a lot of ideas, strategies, and concepts that you can borrow from us as well.

I don’t have all the details yet, but we will probably sharing a lot of the journey with our readers (like you) and will probably be creating a course pulling everything in one place and going deeper into the details.

Either way, we will still be creating articles and videos on a variety of topics to help you thrive financially, but within that we are going to be sharing our journey to these next two “impossible” goals:

  • Creating enough passive income to live off of in < 2 years
  • Taking another 1-year sabbatical

This is about you too

Just as an encouragement to you, I know many people feel like “that’s good for you, but I’ll never be able to…”

Let me encourage you – I had that same feeling.

I remember being really scared when God first challenged me to take a Sabbath rest day each week (no work, no email, nothing).

And I remember literally dancing around our 1-bedroom apartment because we had made our first 7 cents of passive income.

The point is, these things start small.

It seems impossible to get from A to Z, but like our name suggests, everything starts with a seed.

I obviously can’t promise that you will be able to take a 1-year sabbatical or create enough passive income to live off of, but I can assure you that if you start with where you are and what you have, then we can help you make that seed grow.

You can have more of both than you have now.

Additionally, it is REALLY clear that sabbath rest is Biblical and God’s best for us.

Passive income may not be as overt Biblically, but I believe there are far too many enslaved to a 9-5 not doing the work God put them on the earth to do, and I want to see that changed.

All this to say, God has more for you so let’s get after it – what do you say?

So summing all this up…

I just wanted to share a little bit about what’s going on with us and our current financial goals.

And how if any of this sounds interesting to you, hopefully as we share our journey, it will help you on yours!

Should Christians chase financial independence (FIRE)?

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(The following is an abbreviated transcription from a video Linda and I recorded. Please excuse any typos or errors.)

Today we are talking about financial independence, retiring early, and whether or not this is what Christians should be chasing after.

Have you heard of F.I.R.E. before? 

In case you haven’t heard of this term, that’s the acronym: Financial Independence & Retiring Early.

Before we get into all the details and discuss if Christians chase after financial independence, Linda and I recorded our discussion that you can listen to on our Podcast or watch below if you’d rather hear our discussion.

Or, you read the full transcription below:

What is F.I.R.E.?

Bob: It’s a pretty big movement in the personal finance space, if you’re nerdy and curious. And so there’s a lot of people who are just obsessed with this goal. Reaching financial independence and wanting to retire early. And financial independence, being the point where you have enough assets, generate an income for you, that you can live off of that. Rather than needing to have a job. That’s pretty attractive. 

Linda: So is this normally longterm? They’re like, I retired at 35 and then I never work again. 

Bob: Yeah. If you play your cards right. And do it right. 

Linda: That is impressive. And so we’re going to do another podcast where we talk or break down the numbers of how to actually retire in 10-15 years. 

Bob: So you can look out for that one.

Questions You Should Ask Yourself About Your Financial Goals

Bob: But now I want to talk about first, should we do this? Is this something we should chase after? And I think there’s a few key questions we should be asking to determine whether or not this is something we should be chasing after. So for any financial goal that I go after there are three questions that I like to ask myself about this.

1. Why Do You Want To Achieve this Financial Goal?

Bob: So number one, as I try to ask myself, honestly. Or get an honest response out of myself. Why do I want to achieve this goal? Whatever it is. If it’s paying off debt, if it’s saving for retirement, if it’s saving for my college or my kid’s college, if it’s becoming financially independent, if it’s retiring early, like why do I want that?

What is the motivation? And I’ve known for myself sometimes that motivation isn’t what it should be. Sometimes it’s I want to get to the point where I don’t need to depend on God anymore. Where I have enough money in the bank account that I don’t need God. 

Linda: Right. 

Bob: If I’m being completely honest. And that’s not what I want my response to be, but I’ve found what I’ve asked myself questions in certain things that sometimes that’s the answer. And if that’s the reason I’m chasing it, then that’s a problem.

Linda: Right. Yeah. I mean, it’s the deceitfulness of riches, right? You don’t have to be wealthy and you don’t have to be poor in order to be caught in the middle of this deceitfulness of riches. Which is basically that money is more important than God. Really, that’s essentially what it is. You’re putting more value in the money. 

Bob: Yeah. 

Linda: And so, yeah, I mean, I think that’s a good question to ask, just to keep our hearts pure. Because money is just a tool. We need to see it as just a tool and that our source is really God. Right?

Bob:  Yeah, exactly. And so that’s the thing it’s like anytime we find ourselves trying to, and CS Lewis has a great quote talking about this, but anytime we find ourselves trying to replace our need for God, with something. Including money.

Linda:  Right.

Bob: We’re heading down the wrong path, you know what I mean? So that’s the first question that I like to ask. 

2. Will achieving this financial goal honor God?

Bob: The second question is, do I want to achieve this goal, to honor God or is it because I want to reduce my dependence on him. And if it’s to honor God in some way, if that’s the intention behind it, if that’s the pure heart motivation behind it then that’s a good thing.

That’s, that means you might be headed in a good path. 

Linda: Okay. So that CS Lewis quote that he was talking about, it says:

“All that we call human history: money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery is the long, terrible story of man trying to find something other than God, which will make him happy.”

It is really true. I mean… 

Bob: Yep.

Linda: I feel like it keeps happening. It keeps coming up over and over again.  And I find myself doing it, where I see an outfit in the store window. I think, if I could just have that… 

Bob: That’s gonna do it. 

Linda: …my life will be complete. And. I, get the outfit and guess what? My life isn’t complete. 

Bob: It’s like drinking salt water, right?

Linda: It is. It’s well, now I gotta have more. Now I need shoes to go with it. Oh. And I need some new jewelry and it just, it keeps going. 

Bob: Yeah.

Linda:  And then by the time I get all the stuff that I want for it, I need something else. I’m ready to buy something else. 

Bob: Yeah. And so this is I think we’ve talked about this before, but. Debt elimination can become an idol. And I’ve talked to many people who have kind of struggled with that, where it becomes such an idol in their life that… 

Linda: That when they pay it off, they’re not satisfied. 

Bob: Exactly. I mean, it’s a biblical, and really solid goal to chase after. It makes a lot of sense, but that’s the amazing thing. We can try to replace God with anything. And if we think, man, once I get that debt paid off, I’ll be self-sufficient and I won’t need to depend on God. And some of this stuff is not like conscious thoughts that you’re thinking.

Some of it’s just like really, subtle stuff. So far down in your heart that only God can actually show you it’s there. 

Linda: Well I mean, I think the whole thing about the enemy, the devil is that he tries to take the things that God put in us for a purpose and for a calling. And so that we can do what he has for us to do on the earth. Be the hands and feet of Jesus in whatever capacity that is.

And he tries to take it and ruin it and twist it so that it’s no longer a blessing. And then you see this thing in your life. And you think, oh, well, I’ve got to get that under control and I have to shut it up because it’s not godly when it actually is godly. It just needs to be submitted. 

Bob: Yeah. 

Linda: There’s lots of examples of this. But I mean, just even debt or I think giving was one for us, whereas God has called us to be givers. That’s fine. Everybody has their own calling and their own gift. And I noticed there were times when I think we started to turn it into a little bit of an idol. And it was like something that God had called us to, and it was starting to get ruined because our hearts were looking at that instead of looking at God. 

Bob: Yeah. 

Linda: And we kind of had a few talks about it, where it’s just are we, is this just because we want to appear we’re really good at giving?

Or is this because we are actually submitted to the Lord? 

Bob: Yeah. 

Linda: Right? 

Bob: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. 

Linda: So, we’re continuing to ask these questions all the time. I think just because the enemy loves to steal, kill and destroy, he’s trying to steal the gift that God has given us. And to kill the purpose that we have.

And destroy others lives because we can’t keep ourselves in check. Right? That’s what the fruit of the spirit is for. 

3. Can I be content in God, if I never achieve this financial goal?

Bob: Yeah. So the third question is, can I be content in him if I never achieved this goal? And that is a tough one because can I be content if we never… we’re out of debt, now we’re a hundred percent debt free, but can I be content in him if we never pay off her debt? Or what if we never own a house. Whatever that thing is, for you. 

Linda: Right. The question right there is can I be content in him? I think it’s when we are looking at everything else. That we can’t answer that question the way we should. Or the way we want to be able to is because we’re saying: well but the house isn’t paid off, or that we’re not out of debt yet, or we’re not even in a house, whatever the thing may be.

We’re looking at that too much. And if we are just submitted to God’s will and submitted to what he wants and we are seeking first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness, then all the other stuff is kind of in the background. And it doesn’t really matter that much.

I think about when we’re cooking and we put the things that are least important, like on the back burner. We’re like, let’s throw the peas on the back. We’ll put them on low they’re frozen. Believe them there for a while. They’re low maintenance, right? Like they don’t need much attention. But the things that are in front of us are the ones that we need to be attending to. And I think it’s the same thing with God. Like he needs to be the one on the front burner.

He needs the one that we’re paying the most attention to. And those other things, maybe they’re still there and they might need a little bit of attention, but they should not be getting the same amount of attention. 

Bob: Yeah. 

Linda: As the potatoes that are about to boil over type of thing.

Bob: Yeah. All right.

Following the financial path God is leading you on

Bob: So now let’s talk about this back to F.I.R.E., and I’ll talk about me personally with it. I’m a money nerd and I’m really interested in this idea of financial independence and having our investments generate enough income for us to live off of. That sounds really enticing and exciting to me, it sounds great. 

Linda: Yeah. 

Bob: To be able to free us up more time, to be able to focus on what God’s called us to do, I love that. But God has called us to give our age as a percentage of our income.

And so right now, that means 40% of our income. And what that means is that we just have a lot less financial energy to this goal of early retirement.

Linda:  Right. 

Bob: You know what I mean? If we weren’t giving that much, we’d be able to do that. But I know for us personally, we are supposed to give more. So that is our number one priority. That is the highest and best use of our financial energy.

Big and “small” paths are equally important

Bob: And for someone else, it might be different. Like it might be that God is leading you to this path of financial independence so that whatever you can go be in the mission field for the next 20 years or whatever the thing may be. But yeah. 

Linda: Take care of your grandkids and help raise them, or there’s a million different scenarios. It doesn’t have to be. I think sometimes we think that the thing that the Lord has for us to do has to be this really big, I’ll be on the mission field. Which I think is a good example because it’s easy to understand and relate to. But I think that there are a whole lot of other things… 

Bob:  Yep, absolutely.

Linda: …God has us to do right in our own backyard. Or even just in our home that needs to be done. Right now, honestly, our kids are downstairs. We have a sweet woman from our church who comes once a week and takes care of our kids so we can work.

And she does not charge us. This is her ministry to us. What a beautiful thing that is. And we are so grateful to her, but it’s like what a great thing that she’s able to do that. Right?

Bob:  Yeah. 

Linda: And I think there’s a whole lot of stuff like that yeah, God is calling people to do. 

The need for Christians to have strong financial footing

Bob: Yeah and I would love to see more of the body of Christ in a position to be able to do that and not have to be a slave to a nine to five.

And to all the creditor companies and all this debt that we’ve all accumulated. Like that is so enticing to me. Like how do we get more of the church to break out of that and to  break into a really strong financial footing. To be more freed up, to do what God has called them and led them to do. 

Linda: Right. Yeah, and I think this is the problem with what the personal finance space has done to this F.I.R.E. thing is because it’s made it very selfish. And I think that’s why we’re even asking this question. I don’t think that this is wrong or right. I think it depends on what God has for you to do. 

Bob: Exactly. 

Linda: This is not right for us right now. Our main goal is giving our age as a percentage.

Bob: Yeah. I mean, but that said this is still a secondary goal that I would like to reach. It’s just not our number one priority. And so it’s not going to cut into our giving because this is the thing we know we’re supposed to do.

Linda: Right. 

Bob: That makes sense?

Linda:  Yeah. 

Bob: Like I would love to be able to reach that at some point, but. And we’re doing things in terms of our investments, in terms of our income and continuing to use the extra that we have outside of the giving to move in that direction.But… 

Linda: Yeah. …

Bob: ….like I said, we’re moving a good bit slower because of our giving percentage at this point.

Linda:  Yeah, and that’s okay.

The negative side effect of retiring early

Bob:  Yeah. Another thing that’s worth mentioning here is that I have a good number of friends who have sold businesses for significant amounts of money. Sums that allowed them to instantly retire early. And I would say that if I looked at most of their lives and had an honest conversation with most of them. Not all, but most of them. I think most of them would say financial independence and retiring early is not as satisfying as you might think. 

Linda: It’s interesting. 

Bob: Which is I think a big shock and surprise to some people. But I’ve seen this pattern play a lot out with a lot of different people. So immediately it happens. It’s great. And then you go buy a sports car and then you go maybe buy a bigger house and you do all these things. And it’s oh, this is really fun.

I go on vacation for three weeks. You do all this stuff and it’s fun for a month or two or something like that. But a couple years in many of them seem to be wandering and trying to figure out what’s my purpose now. And I think that’s something to consider. 

Finding purpose for your money after early retirement

Linda: What’s interesting is I think about Elon Musk because didn’t he get a big chunk of change? What did he sell?

Bob: PayPal. 

Linda: Okay. So PayPal.

Bob:  I think he walked away, I want to say walk with 10 or 12 million from that sale. 

Linda: Not bad. He probably could have done a lot with that. But instead he was like, What, am I going to do if I just sit here with a bunch of money? 

Bob: I could be way off on those numbers, but he walked away with a significant amount. But I think where you’re going is, he ended up reinvesting every penny had back into SpaceX.

Linda: Was it SpaceX or Tesla?

Bob: Probably both, but SpaceX was the one that it was all or nothing. Like the third shuttle launch, the first two failed. And the third one, if it would have failed, he would have been penniless.

Linda:  Yeah. I thought it was more than 10 or 12 million. 

Bob: No, it might’ve been way more. I don’t remember the exact numbers.

Linda:  But a lot of money. Let’s just say enough to do nothing for, at least for a while. Right? 

Bob: Yeah. 

Linda: I just think that’s interesting that he was like, it was not in him to just sit around and spend money. He was like, I have to do something. So I like that. I think that’s what God has called us to.

I think the idea of retiring at all is just the, world’s way of saying something that maybe God has for us. But in a selfish way. 

So what are you going to do in your retirement? Really? Is the question that I have. Is it really just about you at that point? Or are you looking for, what does God have for me in this next season?

Struggling and feeling unsatisfied when lacking work

Bob: Yeah. So another just anecdotal thing is if you’ve read the book Four Hour Work Week, or heard about Four Hour Work Week. I read this book in 2008, maybe. 

Linda: And it changed your life. 

Bob: And it did. 

Linda: Yeah. 

Bob: I got inspired and it sent me on a path. I basically built my business with this in mind. And couple years later, I essentially found myself with a four hour work week and I have this really passive business that.

I can go do whatever I want whenever I want. So I wasn’t financially independent, but I was time independent. And I had a very low maintenance, passive business. For a few months, this was amazing. I loved it. 

Linda: It was great. 

Bob: But in a few years, I found myself just really struggling. 

Linda: Bored. Unmotivated. 

Bob: Just lacking and, really unsatisfied. I think that’s what it comes down to just feeling very, unsatisfied. I have this thing that everybody dreams about and wants. But it just isn’t satisfying.

We are wired to work

Bob: And I think the thing is that God designed us to work. God designed us to work from the beginning. Like you should go, just do a study on all the Bible verses about work.

This has always been part of God’s plan. And it’s in us, we’re wired to work. And if we don’t have that. If we’re not actually putting our hand to something you get weird really fast.  You know what I mean? 

Linda: Yeah. 

Bob: And so it’s just part of who we’re supposed to be. 

Enjoying the season we are in

Linda: And I kind of liked that it was there for a season. You know what I mean? It’s like we… 

Bob: For us to experience it. 

Linda: Yeah, we experienced that for a little while we enjoyed it while it was there and then it was gone, then it was over, you know what I mean? And I, think it’s just something that I really love about God is just something that you are finding purpose in, maybe at that point in time. That was something you were working towards and you finally got the reward of it. And it was great.

We enjoyed it while it was there. And then it was not the end of the road for us. We need more than this. And so we continued on the journey and didn’t just sit there and just go, well, just give up. He, takes you on a journey and a path and it goes, winds through all these roads and different scenery. 

Our purpose and motivation changes

Bob: Yeah, to be honest, we’re in the same business. It just looks different. You know what I mean? Because the motivation is different. And so before, all of the motivation was how can I do as little work as possible and get paid as long as I can.

And whereas now we’re focused on impact. It’s like, how can we have more impact in people’s lives? And in just changing that question, has changed really, I think our fulfillment and what we do. 

Linda: Yeah. 

Bob: And the impact that we’re making for sure, because we’re seeking first impact rather than how can we live as passive lifestyle as possible. Like it just changes things. It’s like we get different emails from people now than we did then. We get more emails of my life has been changed because of your course or because of this. That stuff feels really, good and very satisfying, knowing that you’re going to take part in what God has…. 

Linda: Right. 

Bob: … planned and you get to be part of that equation. It’s really, good.

Summary

Bob: So summing all this up. Should Christians chase after F.I.R.E., and being financially independent, retiring early.

I think you should know by now my answer is not yes or no. It depends. You know what I mean?

It depends on your situation and this is something that you need to pray and you need to spend time with God, but go back and ask yourself those questions.

And I’ll just read over them one more time to leave you with them. 

Ask yourself, honestly and ask the Lord to reveal in your heart, this answer, because sometimes you can’t see it yourself. Why do you want to achieve the goal? What is the actual root cause and desire of wanting to achieve the goal?

Is it to honor God or to reduce your dependence on him? And can you be content if you never achieve the goal? 

And so I would apply those questions to every financial goal that you have. I think it’s worth asking for each one of them, but I think that helps you get a clear mind and direction on whether or not you should be chasing whatever that goal is. 

So with that, have a great rest of the day. If you need it, know anybody who needs this, go ahead and share that with them. 

30 Passive Income Ideas

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(The following is an abbreviated transcription from a video I recorded. Please excuse any typos or errors.)

30 Passive Income Ideas For 2021 And Beyond

Today we’re talking about 30 passive income ideas for 2021 and beyond.

So a friend of mine, Grant Sabatier has this article where he lists 62 passive income ideas.

And I went through that list, and there’s some really great ones in there that I want to share with you.

I’m pulling the top 30, and we’re going to go through them together.

If you didn’t see our other passive income articles about the difference between passive vs non-passive income or 4 things no one ever tells you about passive income be sure to check those out as well.

If you want to watch the passive income ideas video and hear my commentary on each, check it out below.

Otherwise, just keep on scrolling.

1. Crowdfunded Rental Property

Number one, crowdfunded rental properties. So this is like Fundrise, where you can invest in real estate, but you don’t have to do any of the work. A hundred percent passive. I have another article about Fundrise, where I reviewed it and compared it to my rental property. So check that one out for more on this.

2. Refinance Your Student Loans

Number two is to refinance your student loans. This is a huge money-saver for most people. When I had student loans, I refinanced them and saved many thousands of dollars, and it most likely will be the same for you. One of the big players in this space is a website called Credible, so check them out if you’re going to go down this path.

3. Bank CDs

Next on the list is bank certificates of deposits, also known as CDs. These are super boring, but they’re also super safe. They’re backed by FDIC insurance. So, simple, easy way to get some passive income.

4. Renting Out Storage Space

Renting out storage space. Now, this is a cool idea. I like this one. So he has in here, did you know that 1 in 11 Americans pays for extra storage space? I had no idea. And so, there’s a website called Neighbor, which is basically like the Airbnb of storage. And so you can rent out your basement or rent out a room to allow people to store there and make some passive income.

5. High Dividend Stocks

High dividend stocks and funds. I love buying stocks that have dividends, because you can earn two different ways, and that’s really fun. I have a video I did with a financial expert about some of the best dividend-paying stocks and funds out there, so you can check that out for more information. Then I took it even further and created an entire course on investing that lays out my strategy and walks you through setting up your own; check out the 10x Investing Course.

6. Starting A Blog

Next up is starting a blog, and this is the thing that’s worked the best for me, so I’m a big fan of it. It does take work. It takes time. But it’s a whole lot easier now than it was when I got started over 10 years ago.

And we have a free course to kind of help you. It’s called our Start Your Blog Now Course. And so if you’re interested, dive on into that, and that’ll get you up and running.

7. Peer-To-Peer Lending

Next up is peer-to-peer lending. So some people want to bypass the banks, and just lend to people individually. And so there’s sites like Lending Club or Prosper where you can do this. And so you can borrow money when you might not otherwise be able to get it from a bank, but you can also lend money and earn passively as well.

8. Sub-Lease To Housemates

Sub lease to housemates. If you have a house and you have a room in there that you can rent out to a housemate, this is a great way to make some passive income.

9. Rent Out Your Car

You can rent out your car, and actually makes him money. So if you ever heard of a website called Turo, T-U-R-O, also did another review about them as well. And you can rent your car in there and make money. And while it might take a little bit of time and not be a hundred percent passive, it’s a pretty passive way to make a little but extra cash.

10. Write A Book

You could write a book. I’m working on my first traditionally published book right now, which I’m super excited to share more details about with you soon. But in addition to getting an upfront payment with the book advance, I hopefully will earn all of that out and be making royalties from those books sales for years to come.

11. Write An E-Book

Or for an even simpler path, you can consider just writing an ebook or Kindle book, and I’ve done this four different times. And those books are still earning passive income each month, even though one of them was written over 10 years ago.

12. Create An Alexa Skill Or App

You could create an Alexa skill, or an app. And admittedly, I don’t know much about this, but I do know that there are certain apps that probably don’t require too much maintenance or upkeep, thus making them pretty passive.

13. Buy Royalties

You could buy other people’s royalties. And this was a new one to me. I hadn’t heard of this, but this is really cool. There is this website called The Royalty Exchange, where you can actually buy royalties from a particular song or from a movie. And so anytime that sells, you are the one getting royalty. Now, obviously there’s an upfront investment that you need to make to get those royalties, but interesting idea, for sure.

14. Build An Affiliate Niche Site

You could build a niche site that allows you to do some sort of affiliate marketing. For example, let’s say you know a whole bunch about dog leashes or dog collars. You could build a website about it, talking about the best dog leashes or dog collars. In each one of those, you’re linking with an affiliate link over to Amazon or somewhere. And then anytime anyone goes and clicks on that link and goes and purchases, you earn money, passively.

15. Start A Podcast

You can start a podcast. Now, this is a good amount of active work, getting it up and running. But potentially, if it’s a fairly evergreen podcast and the traffic keeps coming, you could earn from that for years to come.

16. Create An Online Course

You could create an online course. This is also something that I’ve done, that I’ve really enjoyed a lot. It’s a lot of work creating on the front end, but it’s really nice once that work is done. You might need to do some updates once in a while and improve it a little bit. But in general, most of the work is done on the front end. And then you can earn passive income on the back end.

17. Outsource

You can outsource your business. One of the best things you can do as a business owner is start buying back some of your own time. Hire people to help you, so you can buy back some of your own time.

18. Buy A Laundromat

A laundry mat is a classic example of a very passive business. People are coming in day or night and just putting quarters in, over and over and over again.

19. Vending Machines

Vending machines. Many businesses still have vending machines, and just collecting that passive income as people get their Pepsi and Coke each day is a great way to get some passive income.

20. Start A YouTube Channel

Start a YouTube channel. And this is not for the faint of heart, and there’s a lot of work here creating, and getting it up and running. But there are facets of running a YouTube channel that are passive and done right, you could create a passive income source with this, for sure.

21. Take And Sell Stock Photos

You could take and sell stock photos. Now, as an amateur photographers, this is something I struggled with. I actually attempted to do this, and just did not have much success. But you might be better than me. So give it a shot.

22. Buy And Sell Domain Names

You can buy and sell domain names. Now that’s just something I’ve done a little bit of. Bought a bunch of domains over the years, and have had some success with selling some of them off profitably. My most recent one, I sold for about six times more than I bought it, which is pretty fun.

23. Create Software You Can License

If you have some web development skills, you could create some sort of software that could be sold as a passive income stream.

24. Install Apps On Your Phone

You could get paid to install some apps on your phone. And this is kind of funny. I have come across a few of these, and you’re not going to learn much from this at all. But if you want to exchange some of your privacy for a little bit extra cash, there are plenty of apps that allow you to do that.

25. Rent On AirBnB

You could rent out your place, or a single room, on Airbnb. I have one friend who does this. Every time he goes on vacation, he rents out his house on Airbnb. And while he’s gone, he’s earning money from his house. And oftentimes, this pays for his vacation. So it’s definitely one of the easiest and more accessible sources of passive income for a lot of us.

26. Invest In a Food Truck

You can invest into food trucks. If you know anybody wanting to start one, you could invest in their business and if structured properly, then you have some passive income.

27. Start An Etsy Store

You can start an Etsy store selling digital product. If you’re only selling handmade widgets that you need to create each time, then it’s not a super passive business. But if you’re creating a digital product that you can sell over and over again, you’re looking at a very passive business.

28. Rent Out Baby Gear

You could rent out old baby gear. As a dad with a couple of little kids, we have so much of this, and there’s a site called babyquip.com that allows you to rent out your old baby gear.

29. Lease Equipment

And along this vein of renting stuff, you can lease out equipment. So if you have any kind of machinery, anything around your house or your business that you’re not using, think about how I could rent this out and earn some passive income from it.

30. Vehicle Advertising

And last on the list is vehicle advertising. So if you’re fine with advertisements all over your car, you can go to a site called Wrapify, they can connect you with companies who might want to advertise on your car.

It’s Your Turn

So those are the 30! I’d love to hear from you… in the list, what you would add to it? If you enjoyed this article, let me know in the comment section below.

And that is all for today, be blessed, be a blessing!

4 Passive Income Secrets: 4 Things NO ONE Ever Tells You

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(The following is an abbreviated transcription from a video I recorded. Please excuse any typos or errors.)

Passive Income 4 Things No One Ever Tells You

As someone who has had multiple streams of passive income for the last 10+ years, I am always frustrated at all the passive income articles and videos out there.

Most of them seem to be hiding the truth about passive income. I am not sure if it is intentional or if they just don’t know because they aren’t actually generating any, but here are 4 things about passive income that no one seems to ever want to share.

And if this is a new concept to you, essentially passive income is money that you work for one time and then just keeps coming to you passively.

As someone who’s been into this a lot for the last 10 or 12 years, and who has experienced the good and bad with it I definitely have some thoughts.

For me personally, I have about six or seven streams of passive income at this point, some are smaller, some are bigger, some are more passive than others. But I have another article where I go into all that. So I won’t go into the detail on that now. But in this article like I said, I want to talk about some of these truths that I think are hidden.

Now, these streams of passive income have been amazing for me, I absolutely have loved it. It’s allowed me to take a month off of work every single year for the last seven years, I was also able to once take a year long sabbatical.

And, it’s allowed me to spend more time with my family, it’s given me flexibility. It’s allowed me to not have to exchange hours for dollars and it really is great, there’s no denying it, but there are things that you need to know.

And that’s what we’re going to highlight now.

1. Passive Income Does Not Mean “Easy” Income

Number one is that most people, when they hear passive income, when they think of passive income, they just think of easy income because I just sit on the couch and the money comes to me. But in reality, it’s the opposite.

Requires Money Or Time

Creating a stream of passive income is always going to require one of two things from you. It’s either going to require money that you have already, that you can use to earn you more money, or it’s going to require your time and a big investment of your time in order to build something good enough that you can continue to get paid for it for months or years to come.

And so generally what this looks like for most people is that you’re working and spending a lot of your time without making much money on the front end. So if you’re caught up in this mindset of exchanging hours for dollars and just thinking how much money am I going to make for this hour spent working, it’s not going to be real exciting.

So for example, I started a blog in 2007 and I spent from June through December of that year working probably about five to 10 hours a week of my free time spending, growing this blog to make a total, a total of $100 for that entire year. And if you get a calculator out and kind of calculate how much I was making per hour for that year, it probably was a few cents per hour. Now, granted, it’s a lot easier to make a living from a blog now than it was then, but the fact still remains, I had to put a lot of time and energy into this thing without getting anything out of it before it started generating something passive.

And I’m really glad that I did because just a couple of years later, that same blog was generating enough passive income for me to take an entire month off and step away from it and make just as much money whether I was working on it or not. It’s not going to happen overnight, it is hard work, and you just need to be prepared for that. It is still worth it, but you need to know that this isn’t easy money, you still have to work and in many cases you have to work harder than you do with a typical day job.

2. Just Because It Is Passive Right Now Doesn’t Mean It Always Will Be

Number two, is that something that is passive right now may not always be passive. We all know this, the internet is changing things super fast. And so a business, a turnkey kind of passive business right now, might not be in a couple of years and things can change radically overnight.

So for example, going back to this blog example, which has always been one of my bigger sources of passive income, one of the reasons that it’s been passive in the first place, it’s just that Google would send us traffic. And while that’s great, and I love it, the fact is that, Google changes things a lot. And in a big way, we’ve had days, 24 hour periods, where our traffic would drop more than 50%. And so what this means, if that passive stream of income was generating $6,000 this month, it’s only generating $3,000 the following month. Volatility like that can be pretty challenging.

Another example is that I had a rental property that we had a great tenant and I didn’t have to do anything. And it was just completely passive and then checks just came each month. But anyone who has multiple rental properties or who’s been doing this for a while or any landlord, they will tell you that there are tenants who are anything but passive and kind of the opposite of passive and require a lot of time and energy and attention. And so while it might be really passive today, it might not be as passive tomorrow.

3. Some Forms Of Passive Income Are Easier Than Others

Number three is that some forms of passive income are just a lot easier than others. So for example, you could just buy a dividend paying stock and you instantly have a stream of passive income. Now you need money to buy it, but if you have money to buy it, that’s a really easy stream of income that you can get started now.

And if you compare that to building up a blog in 2008, or starting a YouTube channel or writing a book or selling music, like any of these things, they’re going to require much more work than just going and buying a dividend playing stock. And even within each one of these, some of them are going to be more or less work depending on your own natural giftings and your own skills in the market cycles, and there’s just a whole bunch of variables that kind of play into the ease or difficulty of a different source of income.

4. Daily Work Is A Good Thing

Number four is that daily work is actually a good thing. Now, just because you have some streams of passive income doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t be doing work. I mean, ideally, you’re continuing to do work to build up those passive streams and to make them more passive or to help them to generate more money for you. But in my case, what I found was that, I kind of became lazy. I was so interested in seeing how far I could push this thing and kind of got to the point where it wasn’t really working in it anymore, and that doesn’t leave you feeling very satisfied.

I think the idea of being on vacation all the time is something that’s kind of appealing in the back of our minds. But I think the reality for most of us is that if we’re actually living that, it’s not very satisfying, it’s not very fulfilling. And maybe for a couple of weeks or something, but there’s something hardwired into us that God put in us to desire to work and to need to do something.

I have multiple friends who have sold their businesses for seven or eight figures and it’s been interesting watching each one of them, how they’ve handled it after they sold off their business. And as they kind of stumbled through, all right, now I have a bunch of money, what do I do? And in trying to figure that out, and some of them have handled it really well and of them haven’t, some of them have kind of wandered like lost puppies.

And I think the warning here is that if you get to that point, where you do generate a lot of passive income, make sure that you’re still working, make sure that you still have something for you to do, something to accomplish something, to put your hand to. Because just living a life of sitting on the beach, cashing checks is not all it’s cracked up to.

All the internet marketers want you to believe that that’s the dream and that’s the thing you want, but in reality, it’s not, I believe the highest and best use of passive income is to create some freedom, to allow us to go after and to chase that thing that God has created us to do. It should help us become more active in serving people rather than more focused on self and more focused on how I can make my life comfortable.

So with all that, get out there and start working on building some streams of passive income!

Need some ideas for passive income? Check out this list of 30 for 2021!

Our Money Mastery Quiz

If you haven’t yet taken our money mastery quiz, be sure to do that. It’s just a super quick two minute quiz and it’s going to help you understand how good you are with your money.

And, it’s going to provide a custom report giving you specific suggestions and how you can reach your financial goals up to 10 times faster. Head over to seedtime.com/quiz to get started now.

How To Find Unclaimed Money

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(The following is a transcription from a video Lauren and I recorded. Please excuse any typos or errors.)

Find money you may be missing

If you’re looking to find unclaimed money that might be owed to you without having to pay any money to find out, you’re going to love this article.

You just might be one of those lucky people who ends up finding thousands of dollars. So you just never know, and that’s why it’s so important to check.

I got an email from a reader recently who ended up finding over $400 using this technique, so I hope you have tons of success as well, and you find all kinds of money, but either way, this just doesn’t take much time.

If we haven’t met, my name is Bob Lotich and on this site, we give you tips and strategies just to put more money in your pocket, and then we also talk about some of the timeless biblical principles on how to handle that money.

Our Business Operations Manager, Lauren, and I created a video on this very subject. So, if you’d rather follow along in this process by watching, just click here:

If you’re watching the video, my suggestion would be to just pause it, so you can follow through with us step by step and then let us know down in the comments if you actually found some money.

Find Missing Money

What Is MissingMoney.com?

Alright, so we wanted to take a couple minutes to show you this great website called missingmoney.com. It’s essentially a website that searches all the States that participate, in the United States, to find any: missing, lost, or unclaimed property, money, or assets that you might have. It’s super simple.

How The Process Works

We’re going to walk through this and show you how the process works. Again, it’s missingmoney.com. So you’re going to click on the search feature from the menu. I’m just going to put my name in, select the State of Missouri, and hit go.

find missing money

It’ll tell me if I have any money out there waiting for me. So you’ll see, these are all names that came up. None of them are my name, so I do not have any money out there waiting for me.

Missing Money Search Results

But, I’m going to go ahead and try another name just to see if I can show you what it looks like. I’m going to try my dad’s name, Robert Lotich, and pick Missouri and hit go. All right, so you’re going to see here, Robert Lotich has something out there, and it says that it’s under $50.

Finding Missing Money Online

How To Claim Your Unclaimed Funds

When you click on the name, you’ll have to answer some questions: verifying that you are this person, that you’ve lived at the address. If it lists the company that it’s reported by, and you have conducted business with them in the past, and then you just hit one of these buttons here, either: Yes I can claim, No, I cannot claim, or Email someone who can. I’m obviously not going to claim this because this is not me, it’s my dad. But, I’m definitely going to let him know that it’s out here.

Claiming Unclaimed Funds Online

The process to claim your funds will vary. Depending on who the money is being reported by and what company owes you. Or what agency owes you the money. You might have to just answer some questions on a website.

They might send you something in the mail, like a form to fill out, and then you’ll send that back and get the money via check in the mail. It just depends on who it’s coming from. So there’s not a black and white way for me to show you this is the exact process. But, this is at least the process to: enter your name, see if you have anything out there, and then you can follow the steps after that. So super simple, definitely worth the 30 seconds that it’ll take to go to the website, enter your name, see if you have anything out there.

Like you saw, I do not have anything, so you very well might not as well, but it’s worth a shot. But I hope you take a couple seconds and to search and I hope you all have some money waiting out there for you.

Do You Find Any Unclaimed Funds?

We hope you found this helpful. And like I mentioned above, if you did find some money (or even if you didn’t), let us know in the comments down below. I’d love to hear kind of what the success rates are for different people and if any of our readers found unclaimed funds!

How To Make Money Selling Books Online

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(The following is a transcription from a video I recorded. Please excuse any typos or errors.)

How To Make Money Selling Books Online
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Alright, today we are going to help you take books, if you have any laying around your house, and turn them into cash.

So, how do you do this? You might ask. Well, here’s what we do. First, grab your cell phone. Because, you’ll need this to start making money selling your books online.

I began to sell all of my books through my cell phone. And, I had a whole bunch of books. I had, I think, 400 to 500 different books that I’d gathered over the years. And I really just wasn’t going back and reading them.

So I figured I’m just going to get rid of all of them, other than the ones that I absolutely love and that I go back to regularly. This process could be really messy and not lucrative. But, I found a way to make selling books really quick and easy, as well as to help you maximize the amount of money that you can make from selling your books.

If you would rather watch the video on How To Make Money Selling Books Online, you can view it here:

BookScouter

The first thing you want to do is to open the app store on your cell phone. And when you get this popped open, go ahead and hit the search box search for an app called BookScouter. Install this app. Give that a minute to install, and then just click “open” to open the app.

The BookScouter app allows you to quickly find out how much money you’re going to be able to sell each of your books for.

When in the app, take the book you’re wanting to sell and type in it’s ISBN number (which it’s a long, probably a 12 digit number or something on the back of the book).

Or, to save some time, you can just scan the book’s barcode. This will allow you to quickly scan through all your books. You can go through a whole bunch of books really, really fast with this scan feature. All you have to do is to scan the barcode, found on the back of the book. It’s that simple.

Selling Your Books

After scanning the book’s barcode, now you will see all the different companies who are willing to buy this book back from you. It will also show how much they’re willing to pay you for the book. You’ll see that the buy back amounts will range from company to company, all the way down to a bunch of companies that don’t want to buy it at all.

To simplify this process, I found a handful of these companies who wanted to buy back my books. And I sent the books to only a few of them, I think it was three or four different companies in total.

The way this buy back process works is that you just fill up a big box of all of these books that they’ve given you a quote for and then mail the box to that company. So it’s not like you have to mail individual books to 25 different companies. That’s not a win for anybody.

Tips For Selling Multiple Books At Once

When selling multiple books at once, what you want to do is click “sell,” on the book you just scanned. By doing so, it will add the book over to your cart at the company of the buy back quote you liked. To sell another book, just come back over to BookScouter and start a new search. We can just look up another book and go ahead and scan that book’s barcode.

Note: When you’re looking at these barcodes, you’ll notice there are two different ones on the book. What you want to do is just scan the one on the left side. The barcode that’s the actual ISBN. Sometimes the app has a problem if you’re scanning the whole thing.

Sometimes a book just does not look like it’s worth much money to these companies. It may only worth $0.12. When this happened to me, and if I was sending something back to that same company, I would just throw it in the box with the other books going to that company. This is great to earn just a little but making more room in your home (especially if you’re decluttering). But, if you’d rather just keep that book, you can totally keep it. You’ll find that some of the books are just not worth anything and other ones actually are worth something.

I’ll continue this process as I go through the books I’d like to sell. So I’ll find all the books for SellBackYourBook and I’ll just add that book to the cart. And then it’ll just continue adding up the totals all the ones that you’ve added to the cart.

Shipping Your Books

Once you get everything of value in the BookScouter cart, you can then go to those companies and print off the shipping label. Each one of them is slightly different.

But, what’s great is that these companies will pay for shipping! You just print off the shipping label and mail the box of books back to them. And then, they send you a check. It’s as simple as that. The shipping process is not too bad at all.

How Much Money Did I Make?

When I did this, I ended up making about $179 for all the books that I sold back to these companies. And then the books I couldn’t sell, I just took over to Goodwill and dropped them off over there.

To sum this up, it’s one simple app. You take a few minutes of your time to scan the books, you send them off, and you get paid. Pretty simple way to turn your books into cash.

Bonus Tip: Making Extra Cash

You can go to garage sales, or you could go to thrift stores like Goodwill, and just scan the books there via the app. Find out how much companies are willing to buy them back for. At Goodwill, you can get books for very little money (I got some for a quarter) and you might be able to sell that same book for five bucks on BookScouter.

That’s not a bad way to make some extra cash as well! Don’t you think?

12 Side Hustles That Pay Well

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12 side hustles that actually pay well

Could you use some extra cash?

There’s never been a better time to make some extra income on the side! 

I have researched several possibilities, I have even tried some myself, and want to share with you 12 different side hustles that you can do that actually will generate a decent amount of earnings for you in your free time.

If you would need any further information on the items listed below, be sure to check out this video for more details…

1. Uber or Lyft

I’m sure you’ve probably ridden with Uber or Lyft. But, you can become a driver and earn money with these companies. Maybe you’ve thought about it, and the thought does deserve consideration if you’re looking for some extra cash. 

Being a driver for Uber or Lyft is a flexible side hustle that you can take advantage of and actually earn a decent amount of money as well. They both have different earnings. I’ve seen them advertise anything from $20 to $35 an hour. 

Now, every town is going to be different, so it’s a hard one to know exactly what you’re going to earn until you start driving. What I think is great about becoming a driver is truly the flexibility offered, as it gives you some control over your own schedule and when you want to work. Both Uber and Lyft are really trying to recruit drivers at the time this article was written. So it’s definitely an option to consider if you’re looking for a good flexible way to make some extra cash.

2. CleanLots

This one’s kind of interesting. So I stumbled across CleanLots probably six or nine months ago, but basically this guy named Brian, built his own business where he was going around to different local businesses and cleaning, picking up the trash on their parking lots.

He developed a system where he’s doing this and is now making over six figures just picking up trash off the parking lot! Brian has created an eBook where he shows exactly how to do this and basically tells you exactly what you need to do in order to build a business like he did.  And, if you’re not looking into building your own business, and you like being outside walking a lot, working for CleanLots something definitely to consider.

3. Airbnb

You might’ve already used Airbnb, and if you haven’t heard of Airbnb yet, let me introduce you. Not only can you stay at an Airbnb rental, you can actually earn some really good money just by renting out your house or by renting out even a room in your house (I’ve even heard about students renting out their dorm rooms). 

Depending on what city you live in and how well traveled it is, will determine your potential earnings. I have friends, who every time they travel and go out of town, they rent their house out.  And, in many cases they actually earn money while they’re traveling because they’re getting paid more from a renting out their house than they’re actually spending to stay other places. 

Renting out your living space does come with some concerns. One of the big concerns that many people have is, “What happens if somebody comes in just a destroys my house?” Airbnb has already thought of this. They have a million dollar host guarantee where they will just take care of anything that happens (up to one million dollars), which is really great. They also offer host protection insurance. Being a host with Airbnb makes me feel a whole lot better versus just renting out to somebody on Craigslist, because with Airbnb you can see and choose who is going to rent out your place.

Another cool thing is that you can see what reviews the potential renters have, and if you don’t want to rent to somebody you don’t need to, nor do you have to. This kind of flexibility just eliminates a lot of concerns and risks. If you’re traveling, or if you are going on on a vacation, this is definitely something to consider… because you could easily make a few hundred, if not a couple thousand dollars, depending on how long you’re gone.

4. Amazon Flex

With Amazon Flex, you basically deliver boxes for Amazon. UPS just isn’t cutting it. Amazon is everywhere and they are delivering stuff like crazy, especially with their Prime Now program. This has created an even greater need for them to hire their own delivery drivers, and this is where the Amazon Flex program steps in.

As of the time I’m writing this article, one can make $18 to $25 an hour, which is really cool and it’s also a very flexible side hustle! You can be your own boss and set your own schedule. On top of this, I don’t know if it gets much easier than driving to an address using GPS, drop a package off on the doorstep and then walking away… and to be able to potentially make $25 dollars an hour doing just that! That is pretty cool.

5. UserTesting

There are a lot of companies who have built a website for their brand and they want to see how users respond to it. As well as, if the website is communicating what they want to be communicated. So they hire testers to come on and test their website. This is where UserTesting comes in to play.

You can become a website tester using the UserTesting app or website. Just think, you could be testing websites and getting paid to do it! During each test there will be several questions asked of you and these companies will be looking for your feedback. Like… Does this landing page makes sense? Do you know where to click to get to the store or where the checkout button is located? You simply just answer the questions posed to you using a headset microphone and your job is to answer questions that they ask you about their specific website.

So it’s really pretty simple, not much to it, and you get paid $10 a test while working from home. They estimate that most tests take about 20 minutes to complete. With these figures, you’re looking at earning around $30 an hour.

Now, the only downside about this one is that I don’t know how scalable it is…in that I don’t know that you could turn this into a full time job. The amount of tests available may not be the same from day to day, or even week to week, so you might be limited on what’s available to you. But either way it’s a pretty simple way to make some extra cash. Below is our step-by-step review of UserTesting, check it out:

6. Selling Used Books

Yes, you’ve read that right! You can earn some extra money by Selling Used Books. I’ve gone into Goodwills searching through and finding used books that I can buy and sell for a profit.

I use an app to scan each book to see what I could sell it for online. And, oftentimes you can go to Goodwill and buy a book for $0.25 that you might be able to sell for $5 or $10 online. If you can repeat this a few times, you can actually make some decent money in this side hustle.

So, if you don’t mind sifting through books at Goodwill (or any thrift store, flea market, garage sale, etc.), this may just be the gig for you. I think it’s a really fun and it’s something that you could do to earn some decent cash. If you’d like further details about selling used books like I have, here is our how-to video!

7.  Liveops

Liveops hire call center agents at their virtual call center. You can work from home as a call center agent, as long as your house is quiet or you have a quiet room in your home where you can answer phone calls. And, if you do, you’re good to go.

There’s a good amount of flexibility in terms of setting your own schedule with Liveops. The earnings on this one might be lower than a few of the other ones we’ve explored on this list so far. But obviously being able to work from home and being able to set your own hours is a pretty a desirable thing.

8. Starting an eBay Business

Starting an eBay business might sound more intimidating than it actually is. I did an experiment where I wanted to see if I could start an eBay business. I went out and bought guitar necks from a wholesaler, at a wholesale price. And then, I resold them on eBay. I measured out my profit to see how much I earned, and to see if this was something that could scale up. All of those results are in this blog post here.

eBay is a great place to start a business. A friend of mine paid off $80,000 of debt just using eBay and working a few hours on each Saturday. In my interview with him, found here, he talks about his strategy of how he used eBay to pay off his debt and how simple it was for him. So, if you haven’t sold anything on eBay, definitely check out the interview.

And, if you’re considering to start selling on eBay, start with the stuff around your house. That’s a great way to begin earning some extra cash. And then if you enjoyed that, you can then decide to turn it into a business if that’s something that you want to do.

9. Upwork

Upwork is a website where I actually go to hire a whole bunch of people. Basically it’s a community of freelancers who do just about everything. As a freelancer you can go here and create a profile of the hirable skill you have.

Do you excel in creative writing? Are you a fast typer? Can you give presentations for people or companies? How about logo design? Or, maybe you do web research or can offer virtual assistant services. The possibilities are nearly endless.

If you want to earn some money on the side, put your profile out there on Upwork!  You can set your own price and whatever you want to get paid. Companies and individuals alike will be searching for something, some skill.

Not only do I hire from this website, I know several others who hire almost exclusively from this website. So, if you have some sort of skill that you could freelance with, this is definitely something to consider because you have control on what jobs you take and what your pay is.

I’ve actually had a few friends who’ve started here and got their feet wet as they were trying to work out of working for another company to become a full time freelancer. It’s just a great way to start getting some business, if you’re starting your freelance business! 

10. Takelessons

And in the similar vein, something else you could do is if you have some sort of skill that you can teach other people. With Takelessons, you can become a teacher and you can teach about whatever the thing is that you’re really knowledgeable about.

There’s all kinds of lessons, like: academic tutoring, any kind of computer skills, cad software, Microsoft office, foreign languages, instruments, etc.!  That’s what I found to be really cool, I didn’t even know they offered music lessons until I started looking into this side gig in further detail. You could teach guitar lessons virtually, and you don’t even need to be local.

The lessons you teach on this site are virtual.  Therefore, you can reach a much wider audience than just the 15 miles around your house that you might normally be teaching guitar lessons. So it’s a great way to take your skill and turn it into some extra cash. So if you have a skill that you’re great at, share it with people and actually get paid to teach!

11. Real Estate Investing

Real Estate Investing is obviously not a very quick turn this into cash type of deal. But I did an interview with Brandon Turner and he explained some of the basics of how to get started as a beginner in Real Estate Investing. If you’re considering doing this, definitely check out the interview below, because Brandon is one of the smartest guys in the industry.

He works for probably the biggest real estate website, a real estate education website online right now called BiggerPockets. He’s written a few books and is just super, super knowledgeable. He started with one rental property and just continued to add more and more. Now he’s got a huge portfolio and he makes a really nice income from all of his real estate holdings.

So if you are thinking about getting into real estate investing, definitely check out the interview to get a little more detail before you move forward.

12. Turo

I really love Turo because it’s like Airbnb, but for your car. Individuals rent out their cars to other people needing a car. So instead of having to go to Enterprise or Hertz to rent a car, you can rent from individuals. Most of the time, you can get a rental for a fraction of the price. It’s just a whole lot easier and more convenient.

I haven’t rented out my car yet, but I’ve rented a lot of cars using Turo and it’s just brilliant. One of the things I love, obviously, is that it’s considerably cheaper than renting from the big car companies. This is a terrific and unique way to save money renting cars!

But on top of that, when I travel especially, is the time that is saved. In certain airports, I may need to take a couple trams or a bus to get over to the car rental area because airport is so big. Sometimes that takes me a half an hour just to get there, and then have to stand in line to get the rental. Many times when I’ve rented from Turo, the person renting the car to me will actually come right up to the baggage claim area and I can just walk right out with my bags and hop in the car!

Now, when it comes to earning money with Turo, the value of your car is a big component of how much you will earn. Lower end cars and older cars, may still be rented (I once rented a car that was 15 years old), but just at a lower price. People will still rent these cars because it’s going to be cheaper to rent! Even if you do have a newer or a nicer car, it’s something to consider as well because you’ll get paid considerably more.

And, if you’re worried about damages to your vehicle, they offer insurance to cover any accents that might happen. So, if you have a car and you’re interested in making some cash from it, definitely consider Turo.

So these are some of my favorite side hustles that pay well, but I’d love to hear from you down in the comments what else that you’d recommend!