The Stress of Poverty Is Horrible // HUSTLE 14 HOURS PER DAY // Quest for Financial Freedom
$100 / day would change my life. That’s the new short-term goal. I don’t give a fuck if I have to work 14 hours a day so long as I can find a way to make that happen.
The biggest threat to my financial well-being is my own brain.
“My moods live on that swing, push me harder - push me, push me swinging to tomorrow” - MC Ride (Death Grips)
It’s an awkward and ridiculous fact that being poor makes it harder to earn money. I don’t care about what is or isn’t fair, life isn’t fair, but it’s just.. weird.
The stress of worrying about making rent is a horrible strain on the brain and the body. Stress increases inflammation, makes it harder to focus, and turns into self-abusive thoughts like “this is all my fault, I suck, I can’t do this”
Luckily I am a naturally motivated and ambitious person… but even so, I’ll admit that my mood has been very up and down. I usually wake up with all the stress, like “fuck there’s no way I can deal with all this shit.” Then I meditate for 20 mins, take a shower, and eat a healthy breakfast… by the end of that, I can usually shift to a healthier mindset.
$100 Per Day is the Short Term Goal
I’m extraordinarily fortunate to have the skills and network to earn about $10 / hour. It’s not totally steady or reliable - but I think if I pool all of my resources, I can find a way to generate an average of 10/hour across 10 hours per day.
If I do that 6 days a week… that’s a good living. That’s a great living, a wonderful baseline to survive on for the next year or two as I work towards bigger and better things.
Here are the places I think I can earn $10/hour right now:
(1) textbroker.com - when there are orders available (sometimes it’s dry), I can usually work quick and pump articles out. The rates are abysmal here, but I’ve learned enough tricks to do it quickly and get that $10/hour. Maybe more like $8/hour when shit hits the fan.
(2) constant-content.com - I can average $10/hour based on selling 50% of my articles and pricing them at a $20/hour level. But it requires intense hustle to pull this off, I can’t slow down or be distracted at all… and it’s unsteady w/ regard to when people buy.
(3) steemit.com :-) I’m lucky to average about $10/hour I think, although that doesn’t factor in the unpaid stuff like responding to comments, reading/engaging with other content, participating in steem chat and discord…
Three spots is pretty good. I wonder what else I could do that hits that $10/hour rough average… one or two more would really round it out.
I Need to Do This
I have to figure this shit out. I know I can do it. It won’t be easy to hustle for 10 hours a day on top of the time I spend on unpaid work (practicing music, working on long-term goals, etc)… but if I can just hustle my ass off I know I can find the way.
What I can’t do is live with the fucking stress and fear of homelessness, hunger, lack of warm clothing, shit like that.
I dunno. I hope I make it through December. Might end up paying my rent like two weeks late or some shit. On the plus side, I found a new place to move in with some friends that will reduce my rent by 40% (from $500 to $300) starting in January… if that comes through, life will get a lot easier.
UGHHHH
Does anybody have tips on other places online I can work my ass off at and earn $10/hour?
Much love,
good post. all I can say is keep steeming and if you write articles look out for contests on steemit. that bit about waking up stressing and getting to the end of the day in a better mindstate. I highly recommend you try the meditation at night too, last thing before you go to sleep, ideally in bed. Your subconscious is telling you to worry at night. Ideally keep a note by your bedside. write down your dreams when you awake. they will help guide you. If you do it regularly they will help ease the stress as your conscious mind begins a dialogue with your subconscious. It will help you find the $10/ph pathway which will probably end up being $20-$30 and a regular working day. You will get there
Thanks for the advice @outerground. I do need to write out some kind of "mission statement" or dream list or something... it's all in my head, I have specific goals, but putting it on paper near my bed or in front of my desk would be cool. I might actually do that this weekend :-)
re: meditation, I agree with you 100%! I used to meditate right before bed but found that it wasn't ideal. Now I do it first thing in the morning, and again a few hours after the sun goes down. That second meditation used to be a struggle, but now its my favorite part of the day... especially if i take like one hit of cannabis first, just a tiny bit stoned, I can enter into a fuckin beautiful state where my mind feels good and my whole body is glowing with warmth. LOVE IT.
oh and re: dreams - my most vivid dream last week was about organic almond milk. So I bought some. haha
sounds like you are doing all the right things. a Roadmap is like a business plan. if you have one, you can see where your'e going and you won't get lost !
Matt, can you give us a bit more data about yourself? I'm looking for age, educational background, previous work experience. Nothing long winded, just a sentence or two.
Business chases value. With that in mind, what is the most valuable service you can offer the world today? Is it writing or something else? If writing, what subjects do you have an expertise? Think of yourself as a craftsman. What is the finest product/service you can craft today?
To avoid the stress ...
Spend 1/2 hour today to write up a small "disaster plan." It will be a short list of things you can do if an evil hurricane of doom hits and your entire freelance business dries up to $0/day. It might include things like bagging groceries at a local grocery within walking distance, or walking dogs for the neighbors. It doesn't matter what it is, just as long as you're comfortable with actually doing these things. Keep the disaster plan somewhere, and update it whenever you think of an even better survival scheme. Now that it's written down, this simple act will take an immense amount of stress off. Why? Because you will have faced your worst fear of failure and defeated it. Think about it. If the total absolute worst happened, you will be prepared for it. In this way, your worst fear will no longer have any power over you. Then your mind can switch gears from worrying about things to a completely different mindset: "how can I do things even better than yesterday?"
Another stress reliever: whenever you feel it coming on, stop whatever it is that you are doing, and take a 20 minute walk around the block. Sunshine and exercise and diverting your attention to the world outside can have an amazing effect. As an alternative, drop and do 20 push ups and 20 sit ups/crunches. Stressing the body heals the mind. And if it doesn't relieve the stress, at least you will get buff and be able to get a job at the local gym. :)
IDK if you've ever done dog walking or shit like that you'll realize the wages are terrible. most people do that stuff when they're in college and need beer money or something.
I'm not trying to do any huge new projects or life-changing things TBH, I don't think it needs to be so intense. The first step at this point seems pretty clear to me, which is to maximize my short term opportunities (i.e. the three gigs listed in my post here) and find one or two additional sources of income like a part time job
You should start doing some internet marketing/affiliate marketing. A lot of money in that. All you really need is a Wordpress blog, some content, and affiliate produts. No need to pay for traffic.
Ehh I feel like thats the kind of thing that takes months and months of unpaid work / putting money IN before I would start earning. Not a bad idea, but maybe not the best way to try and earn some cash in the short term. Am I wrong?
What I do wanna do is promote my first record some more, cuz I've already earned $50 from sales and think I could get more if I put in the work. That might be my version of internet marketing lol.
Or I could start affiliate marketing by including those kinds of links in my steem blog... but... IDK
That could work as well! Or you could just get a part-time job lol
yea I applied to a bunch of shit
I feel you on this brother... Keep kicking ass and taking names!
thanks cryptostache, appreciate it
Dear @heymattsokol, you got your reward of your hardworking and concentration . i think 100$ per day is a big deal for me. congrats for achieving your short term goal, and my best wishes for your new projects and long term goals. appreciated and support your struggles. good luck dear.
Yea $100 per day would be a big deal. I know thats a ton of money in some areas of the world, here in Raleigh it would be considered an OK lower class income. I'm not there yet but hopefully soon
you are right friend, my best wishes for you.
Good luck, been there and won’t forget
thanks @prufarchy, I'm gonna keep hustling til I'm good
Here's an idea. I think you have an expertise in cryptocurrencies, right? Make a plan to write an ebook or PDF on the subject. It should be something of value, with ideas and strategies that most people would know nothing about, but would want to. And it should be a platform for you to learn even more about the subject (but don't make that publicly known). Your goal is to become THE EXPERT on the subject. Chase down all relevant material, articles, online MOOCs, research papers, industry journal articles ... you name it.
Create a crowdfunding proposal on one of the popular sites: Kickstarter, Indiegogo, RocketHub, and/or peerbackers. Crowdfunding is a great way to secure capital for a fledgling business, which a typical bank might not be so willing to lend to. In the proposal, include some interesting questions that the book will answer for readers. You need a really good hook that will draw people in. Also, add that if the funding campaign is successful, the project will evolve from ebook to published book. The money will help defray expenses since time spent on the book will take you away from your normal job. As an incentive, reward donations over some dollar amount with a promise to receive your finished book. Finally, you might include in your proposal links to 3 of your best online articles, so people can evaluate the quality of your work. But be careful with that. Freeloaders will figure that they can learn from you by just reading the free stuff online. So make this confusing. Maybe link to 2 articles on different web sites. Or add a line to the proposal that the book will efficient tie everything together into one convenient source, and perhaps walk the reader through strategies that haven't been written about yet.
And this proposal provide more organic marketing for your personal brand. Your online articles will point to the crowdfunding campaign, the campaign will point back to your online writing.
I mean this is like a major project that would take months to pull off lol. I've heard people talk about writing ebooks to make money but I'd rather focus on promoting my music and trying to monetize that I think. I might turn my top 50 tokens series into an ebook when it's done tho I wouldnt crowdsource it
I heard on the news that some people are using price comparison apps to compete with Amazon. Here's how it works. Go to Walmart and look for sales, closeouts, and clearance items selling at rock bottom prices. Scan each product's bar code with a smartphone app that retrieves the best online price. If the product sells for more online, buy the product at Walmart. When you get back home, sign up on Amazon's site as a reseller and then post ads for what you bought. Sell the item for a marked-up price that is less than the best online price. People interviewed by the reporter claimed that they could sell things online at a 50% profit.
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/01/retail-price-comparison-apps-empower-shoppers.html
It's the passive income that will really help you. I am up to about $100/mo on Youtube, $100/mo on Amazon Affiliate, $50.mo on Adsense and then extra bitcoin on bitcoinget and earncrypto. It all adds up. - Just keep creating content
How long did it take to get there? That's $250/mo, which is totally cool, but I wouldn't want to invest too much time or energy for that kind of payout right now I think
plz back upvote and comment