My Oyster 123

Guest post written by Alex Brown

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

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

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

Just because I have 6 blogs, some copycat no brainer obnoxious colleague also bought 10 personal domain blogs to compete with me. You know who you are! Well, making money online is not everyone's cup of tea. Many tried and gave up. If you continue, it is merely a hobby to voice your thoughts. You might be better off working outside and keep job hopping no matter how bad it is than to try to earn online. And if you do earn, it will most likely be pennies and cents, not enough to buy a cup of Starbucks coffee. So, in the meantime, keep stalking this blog of mine!

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

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

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

On average, I earn more than $100 per month from the internet and this is enough to cover expenses for broadband connectivity with some left over for savings. I know there are many other successful netpreneurs out there who are making much more through programs like MLM, Asteria, etc. But you also need to come out with cold hard cash to pay for gold membership monthly in order to earn from your downlines. I don't want to be distracted by too many money making programs, so that I can concentrate on my job which is my main bread and butter.

There are many copycats here online spying what others are doing and trying to imitate them in the hope to earn money online - but there is no free lunch for you, baby! That's because not everyone is blessed to earn online. If you are earning cents and pennies, it is better to treat the internet as a paying hobby than a source of income. There are many others who gave up eventually and just surf the internet for fun or to kill the boredom in their lives. With this in mind, it might be better for most people to find a real job outside than to copy others in the hope of earning money online!