2010 Secondary Income Update

This was my second full year of officiating basketball and I continued to enjoy myself with every game I did.  The best part about this job is that it does not feel like work when I am running up and down the basketball court.  I really feel this is my true calling and the money only serves as icing on the cake because this sport is one of my passions.
Boy did I do a ton of games this season!  My weekends consisted of doing the Catholic grade school games and the normal recreation league games.  I would usually referee anywhere from 8 to 16 games in a Friday through Sunday stretch.  The difference for this year as opposed to last year was that I began receiving a high school schedule this year.  These games took up my Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday nights and they paid me more (Although I am still waiting for some checks!).

• December - 24 games for $762 - The season started slow, not much high school work and I lost one weekend to snow.

• January -  52 games for $1860 - Games were flying in left and right.  I worked every night this month except New Year's Day!  High school games picked up big time which caused the huge spike in the number of games.

• February/March - 33 games for $1258 - End of the season slow down time where I had a ton of make up games.  I received a ton of last minute phone calls to work the same day.  In this business, people always remember when you do them a favor.

After the season was all said and done, I refereed 109 games for a grand total of $3,987 (with all w2's reported).  I made the habit of opening up a new ING Checking Account to help me keep track of all of my referee money.  The best part about it is that I have not touched any of it.  I could have put it towards my mortgage student loan, but I have all that stuff under control, for now.  While the secondary income stream was flowing for a few months, the season is over, time to look for a new stream.

Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself

My name is not "Hov", but I am back on the scene (If you have no clue about this song lyric reference, see the video at the bottom of the article).

I am back! This is going to serve as one of those lame posts where the author explains and justifies why he or she has not been posting at all.  I won't bore you with my lame excuses and drawn out anecdotes today, but I will tell you this much: I was busy as hell!

Over the last month, I had more things on my plate than I could handle, however, I really was not complaining about it.  Referee work has been crazy ever since December 1st, which meant my secondary income stream has been flowing champagne on New Year's Eve!  I experienced a bunch of very long days doing the normal 7:30 AM to 4:00 PM shift and then doing a bunch of basketball games that would have me eating dinner at 10:00 PM.  Again, not complaining at all about that because officiating basketball games do not feel like work to me.

The major thing that I accomplished over the last month was completing my master's degree.  I will be sharing a ton of stories about this over the next few weeks, but my final course forced me to put in a ton of hours dedicated to busy work required by a mindless professor.  I earned a Masters of Information Systems from the school with the largest alumni network in the USA.  Any guesses? 

Call your neighbors, family members, and friends.  Let them know I am back for now.  Hopefully, my 33 subscribers were not too worried about my dissappearing act and will return to reading and chiming in on my rubbish.  I must say, this feels normal hitting the "publish post" button. 

Be easy. 

Secondary Income: List Books on Amazon

I was dumb during my undergraduate days. When I did buy textbooks for my classes, I just returned them back to the bookstore to get back cash that was 75% less than the original retail price that I paid. Boy was I a moron. While I refuse to purchase any books for my graduate program that I am currently in, I still do have quite a library of books that I have barely used, all sitting in my lovely cube at work.

Last month I decided to dabble with Amazon.com and post up some of the books. I listed four books to sell and then forgot about them. A week later, I got an email for me to ship the book out immediately! I actually sold something! I surprised myself, so then I immediately listed a bunch of other textbooks I had collecting dust.

The first book I sold for $55, then last weekend I got a notice for another one of my technical books that was sold for $28. One more sale of a book and I believe they call that a winning streak! I mentioned it to a co-worker of mine and he gave me a bunch of books from his cube to list and he said we could split profits 50/50.

There is a little bit of strategy involved when listing your books on Amazon. Make sure you check the prices that other people list your book at because you want to offer something less than the norm. A brand new version of your book at a lesser price than the other listings is more attractive for a user to select. All about supply and demand right?

My recommendation to you is to take the 10 minutes to gather all of your books together and enter in their ISBN numbers into your seller's account. Once you do that, your work is done. Just set it and forget it! Especially with school season coming up around the corner, many people will be looking for cheaper alternatives when it comes to textbooks! Boycott your school's bookstore and surf the web for the best price. Just make sure you do it ahead of time so you are not sitting in class without the required materials. If you did that, you would be acting like me and that is something I definitely do not recommend!

Hiding Money From Myself

Lately, I have been feeling like a 7 year old kid again that is pouring a bowl of Lucky Charms in the morning when, all of a sudden, a little toy falls into my cereal bowl! Look what I found! Over the past few days, I have found loose cash just sitting around my house. I put spare cash in certain spots over the summer and I totally forgot that I left it there.

It is all money that I earned from refereeing because that is the only source of cold hard cash that I make. I recently counted up my summer refereeing cash from the beginning of June to the end of July and totalled around $1,300. That great feeling lasted all about two days because I had to help my rents out with a financial obligation that needed to be handled immediately. It's all good.

Over the weekend, I needed a little tote bag to stash a shirt and some contact lenses equipment because I was hitting up a friend's house party. I do not drink and drive, so I wanted to prepare myself to sleep on the couch and wake up in one piece. Much to my surprise, I found $60 in the bag I found in the living room! The last time I used that bag was when I was refereeing last month way up in the Boondocks of Suburban Philadelphia.

The fun does not end there. This morning I decided that I did not want to dress 100% professional for work and went with the white Nike crew length socks. I must say they look great with my black leather Sketchers and cream linen pants. Regardless, in the sock drawer that I opened (I have 3 sock drawers, never can have enough of them!) I found $140 in cash stuffed in one of my socks! I was sure it was also some recent referee money because the money was folded in two separate stashes, both containing a $50 bill and a $20 bill evenly folded perfectly. The $70 is a two game fee that I get for a certain summer league.

Sometimes we can outsmart ourselves. I thought I was so clever saving my money in these hiding places but, if not for needing my bag and a few pair of socks, I would have had not idea that this money was just sitting around. I am going to run to my bank at lunch to deposit this $200 into my checking before I get any other ideas. A damn good way to start the week, no case of the Mooondays here. Be easy.

Secondary Income Rolls an AnkIe

My secondary income stream has been on point this summer. The basketball leagues for the summertime have been real consistent and I have been working at least 3 nights a week. The only downside is most of the leagues I have been working are paying $5 less than my normal $30 a game fee. But I am not complaining, I will take the work any way I can get it!

The mishap came on Wednesday night, I took a spill trying to avoid a player diving on the ground and I rolled up on my ankle pretty damn bad. So bad that I have taken off the rest of the week from my normal desk job. The worst part is explaining to people that I hurt my ankle while refereeing basketball, as opposed to playing basketball.

Since I've been unable to walk, I had to give back the games I was assigned the rest of the week. Thursday night I was scheduled for two late games and this upcoming Monday as well. To make matters worse, one assignor called me on Thursday night to see if I could take on two more games earlier in the night, would have been four games I could have reffed that night! I am hoping to be back at it by next Wednesday, so then the grand total I would have missed out on would be $160!

There is no better way to improve your personal finance than striking up a secondary income stream. Find something you love to do that you can make money off of and start doing the damn thing. Just watch where you step so you don't end up on the injured list like me!

Secondary Income: Summer Work

It is almost Memorial Day Weekend which means summer is finally upon us! This also means that the season is here to take advantage of making some extra cash during the warmer season! Set up a lemonade stand, cut a neighbor's grass, or try becoming a lifeguard like Jim Carey! The bottom line is that there is no excuse for you to be sitting on your tail doing nothing and wondering why you can't make some extra money!

For me, the summer season means hoops season is starting back up in the form of AAU basketball. A few weeks ago I sent out almost fifteen emails to various basketball assignors across the area inquiring about some referee work for the upcoming summer season. I actually got a call back for some games to referee two weeks ago but I was unable to commit since I was actually called into the office that weekend! Go figure, the one time they actually make me work on the weekends, I actually get some summer work to referee.

The good part is the guy kept me on his last and assigned me some work for this weekend. It starts bright and early Saturday morning at 8:45 AM and is about an hour drive from my house, but that won't stop me from saying yes. In the refereeing business, it is all about networking and getting face time in front of the people who hand out games. Kind of like the corporate world where you need to network your way through your company and take advantage of those fifteen second elevator conversations with the VP's.

My persistence of bothering people paid off and it is a great way for me to start me summer with some nice secondary income to start filling me shoebox back up. I deposited all of my previous shoebox money in April after the winter basketball season ended, I was kind of nervous going to the bank to deposit it because I never handed over that much cash at once. Baby steps right?

If it can work for me, it can work for anyone, you just need to find that skill/service that others would not mind paying for. It is time for you to find your niche and start filling up a shoebox of you own. For some ideas, check out Studenomics where he introduced a guide for productive summer jobs called "The Summer of George". He pulled together some other blogs to chime in on different ideas. So what are you waiting for? Get busy!

The Summer of George Guide

Learn a New Language @ TotalCandor.com
Take Up a Sport and Become Good At It @ FreeFromBroke.com
Help Your Local Church @ GatherLittleByLittle.com
Take Some College Courses This Summer @ PoorerThanYou.com
Work Abroad This Summer @ CashMoneyLife.com
Enjoy Cheap Summer Activities @ MoneySmartLife.com
Summer Jobs With Little Startup Funding Required- Part 1 @ MoneyNing.com
Summer Jobs With Little Startup Funding Required- Part 2 @ PTMoney.com
Take Control Of Your Financial Situation @ Bargaineering.com

Wedding Planning Begins

Even with no date set for the big day, the planning for the rest of my life has already begun. I have been engaged for only six days and life is already changing. I will not say that I have surprised by all of this, but just by the fact that everything is moving so quickly. The phone has been ringing off the hook with relatives calling to talk to my my parents, even though I am the one getting married (I am fine with this since I am not a talker). I am seriously thinking about disabling my email notifications on Facebook because my page is getting flooded with wishes from my friends and family.

One thing is for sure, I am going to have to some great material to share with everyone and I intend on doing it down to the finest detail. The one thing I am looking to do with the upcoming wedding is try and trim costs wherever I can. This is obvious right? Not really. My fiance is set on having her dream wedding, as she should, but it is going to be on me to make that happen for her and make practical decisions at the same time. I do not care if my parents or her parents are paying for the wedding, or even if it is coming out of my pocket. What I do care is that we are not making brash decisions on whoever is spending the money.

The other big challenge for me is going to be paying down as much debt as I can and not racking up any new debt due to wedding costs. I do not want to come out of this situation married and in credit card debt, but when certain things need to get done, I will have to pay for them somehow. I need to build up as big a cash reserve as I can in order to put myself in the best situation to end up good. I am hoping the secondary income stream will pick up over the next few months as spring and summer basketball leagues and AAU tourneys start up too!

Throughout it all, I will be looking to many of you for answers to my wedding questions. I am counting on you to be my ask.com! Help me out and enjoy the ride as I move towards the wedding day. If I get enough help from you, who knows, I might even invite you to the bachelor party!

Finally, I'd like to share with you my favorite wedding movie scene of all time. It represents where I am coming from and where I want to be... Enjoy!

Secondary Income: Put Books On Amazon

I never had an ounce of confidence that I would ever sell a book online. I used to give it a try a few years back on Half.com and Amazon. All attempts produced zero results. I never gave it a try because I did not think I would sell a single book. That is, until last Friday when I was bored at work and I decided to revive my Amazon selling account.

I am currently in graduate school and have a nice little library being built in my cubicle at work. I recently took a course in Data Mining and I used the book a total of zero times during the term. I absolutely hate the higher education system and their utilization of text books, but that is an argument for another time! I decided to throw my Applied Data Mining textbook on Amazon to try and see if I could find any takers. Low and behold, the laws of supply and demand took over and found a lucky human being to provide me with some financial retribution against my school's bookstore!

I listed my book for $8 less than the lowest asking price for my book. There were 11 other entries for my same book in new or barely used conditions. My thinking behind the sale is that another class somewhere on this globe was starting up, just like my new project management class that started last night, and it was using the same book that I owned. Why they would want this book is beyond my understanding! That is how textbooks are sold on online, the demand is created by another class using a certain book at some university and all the students in that class go on a mad rush to find that book cheaper.

That is where we, the sellers, come in by putting our books for sale on Amazon for a cheaper price. If you want to sell your books online, you have to be willing to take a small hit on the amount you spent. Would you rather wait for an unknown time to try and recoup your entire purchase or would you rather see a quicker purchase for around 60%-75% of what you spent?

Go clean out your bookshelf and throw your books on Amazon. Be reasonable when you are pricing the books and then leave it alone. Sooner or later, you just might get an email notification ordering you to ship the book out within two days! Once you ship the book, you thank me by sending me a small commission check! Good luck!

Secondary Income on Snow Days

Thanks to the Nor'eastern, millions of children across the Mid-Atlantic region are cheering from the comfy, warm confines of their homes and enjoying a snow day. Many adults too, are calling out of work because of the horrible road conditions, but this guy braved the inclement conditions to make it into work. Our boss thanked each one of us for making it in, a gesture I thought was nice (Where is my raise!?!?!).

I remember back to the days when I was a wee young lad and the days I had off from school from similar weather conditions. I also think back to these days and realize how I totally dropped the ball on numerous opportunities to make some extra money and fuel some secondary income. Actually, when you are 10 years old and go to school everyday, it would be considered a primary income!

This brings me to presenting everyone with my list of ways to make some secondary income on a snow day. Drum roll please...

• Shoveling driveways - The obvious one yes, but if you organize the operation properly, you can rake in some serious cash. With modern technological advances (i.e. Snow blowers), you can complete even more driveways in the same amount of time! The economy is down so offer a good price based on the size of the driveway!


• Other snow removal services - Charge a few bucks extra for cleaning a neighbors sidewalk and brushing off their cars as well. Heck, even offer to lay down some rock salt when you are done. Emphasize the statistics related to people slipping, falling, and hurting themselves on unsalted pavement. Black ice can be very dangerous!


• Transportation services - Got an SUV? Take advantage of the fact that people still need to get places! Offer a round trip service to those who need to get to work, the grocery store, or even the doctor's office.


• Clean out your closet - The amount of stuff that is just sitting around your home gets higher and higher every weekend. Survey your home for items you do not use anymore, throw them in a box, and sell those items on eBay!!

A nice little list for you to try out on your day off! Got a better idea? Let's hear it! In all seriousness, at the top of your list should be checking up on any elderly neighbors you have living close to you. Check up on them and make sure they are doing well and have everything that they need. Doing a good deed should always trump making a quick buck. You will feel better after you do it and the people you help will never forget the favor (see Vito Corleone).

If you are off today, enjoy the day and take advantage of the opportunity to be productive. This coming from a person sitting at working and counting all the things I could do if I had a snow day. I definitely should have stay home today. Be safe.

Secondary Income: The Shoebox Money Chronicles

The past few months I have been aggressively searching for sources of secondary income. Much of my motivation was born after reading Pinyo's Extra Income Guide. I finally realize that my sole income of the nine to five job was not good enough anymore, not in the turbulent economy we live in today.

I looked to try and monetize my site but that lasted about three weeks before Adsense pulled the plug on me (I was new to the game cut me some slack!). I had little success selling my household items on eBay. I realize I was not going to be making hundreds of dollars a month blogging merely three months into my web 2.0 experience. That just was not realistic.

I found the answer to my secondary income predicament in the sport that I played for countless hours since I was eight years old: Basketball. I had passed the state's referee exam about two years earlier but never pursued it hard. I changed my stance on that very quickly and aggressively got into the refereeing scene.

I got my first games on December 4th last month and since then I have officiated 53 games for a accounts received total of $1,540. In December I did 12 games and made $360. At the end of the month I felt really good about myself but I knew I could do better. I was doing youth games for CYO levels and some recreation leagues. Each league has an assignor who contacts referees and gives them dates and times on which they are to officiate.

I got on the phone and began calling all the assignors on the website and it totally paid off! In January I will have completed 40 games and totalling $1,180. On top of my normal pay for the month, I must say it is a gratifying feeling. To make it even more rewarding, I have yet to spend a dime of it because it is ALL SITTING IN A SHOEBOX somewhere around here (I do not want anyone tracing my IP Address).

This is one of the first times I honestly can say that I set a financial and totally outdid my expectations for it and that is a big accomplishment for me. I am hoping to have another successful February and March, as the basketball season winds down around that time.

I can now say I have a consistent Secondary Income Stream in my life now. Normally, I would describe a female in such praising fashion but this is just as good (Esp since the money doesn't talk back!). But I wanted to thank the other bloggers out there for writing the materials that inspired me to get off my can and start making moves.

I urge you to find your source of secondary income, you would be surprised as to what services people will pay money for..... so what do you enjoy to do?

Secondary Income: Shoebox Money is Back

I am officially back on my shoebox grind. Over the past few weeks I have made some moves to make a secondary income stream start flowing, albeit quite small right now, it is a start. I sold a few items on EBay last week and made a total of $77.65, after shipping costs it will be about $60 which ain't too shabby for selling items that were just sitting around the house.

Basketball season started up which means games needed referees! I got a phone call last Friday on my day off to ref games last Saturday and Sunday. I did four games total, two on Saturday and two on Sunday, and I walked out with a cool $120 in cash! If you can not see me, do not worry, I am smiling ear to ear! I have a good feeling that I am going to be getting games every weekend because there is a large demand for referees for the CYO levels. My hope is that I get so many games that it will be hard to manage the time, but somehow, someway, I will make it work and do every single game I am offered.

I do not view reffing as a job at all. I am a basketball junkie and have definitely found a job that I love where it does not feel like I am working at all. I am basically being paid to be in the gym and I will choose that over sitting at a desk any day of the week ladies and gentleman.

I want to hear your story if from the people who get paid to do what they absolutely LOVE! What do you do with that side income? Mine is going directly in my shoebox under my bed (If it gets stolen I will know you read about it on here!).

Anyways, keep working hard everyone, today is a good day because I finally can say that I am working hard everyday of the week now to move towards a brighter financial future. This is just the beginning. Be easy.

Ebay Income Stream Revisited

Earlier this month I posted about my initiative to get off my butt and start selling stuff on EBay.

As they say in baseball, "Swing and a Miss!!!!!" (I could not find any Bob Ueker ML clips)

I have sold things on EBay before, but this time I just dropped the ball totally. Most likely it had something to do with the actual products that I was selling. I auctioned off two pairs of sneakers and a used T-Mobile Sidekick 3. I did sell a pair of knock of Nike Air Jordan XII's for $25, however, the brand new pair of Puma Low Top Casual Shoes sold for $0.99 so i had to re-list them and that is the link that you will see if you click on it.

Bottom line is that this whole EBay thing is a learning process and I have a lot of learning to do! A little bit more research on items that have sold before for higher prices and I should be in better shape. But I am opening up to everyone out there who are experienced, professional, and much more successful EBay-ers than Doctor S to give me a shout after looking at my auctions and yell at me what my opportunity areas (sorry had to throw that horrible work terminology) might be! Enjoy hump day people and start fasting for that turkey dinner tomorrow!

Ebay Income Stream

Over the last few weeks I threw stuff on eBay hoping that someone would bid on them. A few days went by with very little action on these items. I am an avid T-Mobile Sidekick user and have a bunch of these devices that are used and broken sitting around my house. I saw online that people were selling used and broken phones on eBay so I posted my items on there and magically, I began getting some action!

EBay is an amazing tool to help generate some extra cash. I have dealt with a few idiots who won my auctions and then decided not to pay, which is fine because I can just re list the item. But I had the idea at work today that I need to just need comb every inch of my home and compile all the items that I could potentially sell online!

What type of experience have you had with eBay?

I am always looking for extra sources of income, who isn't? Sometimes the whole idea of having to create the auction listing is somewhat intimidating, but trust me, it is so easy that once you start doing it, you will be hooked! I am going to pull together all my things tonight when I get home and take some pictures of them with my digital camera. Then I am going to just starting listing these items nonstop and then leave it all alone. These items are not making me any money sitting in my living room, so why not? I will not miss them and either will you!

There is so much information out there on generating secondary sources of income, I must say that Moolanomy's write up on his Extra Income Guide is the cream of the crop! It is a comprehensive look at trying to build extra streams of income aside from your normal day job!

Also, Ramit at I Will Teach You To Be Rich is conducting a challenge on his site called the 30 Day Challenge to Save you $1000, and tip #3 was to Sell Something on EBay Today! Check it out because it really has some great tips and really will get you thinking about your life and how you can cut some corners to save a buck!

Be easy people!