My financial story

[stormchaser]

I realize many people are struggling financially right now but I’m posting this to share some positivity and to say keep your head up/keep grinding if you happen to be one of these people.

My Backstory:
I moved to Omaha in 2015 (originally from MN) after a split with my now ex-wife who took all our money (except $75) and I had no place to live and was now in a completely unfamiliar city where I basically knew nobody. Luckily I found an apartment that was decent and had a promotion for no deposit and first months rent free at the time.

With a place to live secured, I needed a job quickly. Instead of 1 job, I got 3 jobs (at times 4) though 1 was a sleep overnight position at a group home working with disabled adults.

Gradually I made progress but most times, I struggled to survive living paycheck to paycheck with most of these jobs paying at or just over minimum wage and only part time.

As example of the struggle, at one point I was getting ready to go to a job interview for a “better” paying job. In the process of tying one of my shoe laces on my “nice” pair of shoes, one of the laces broke and I didn’t have the $1-$2 to go out and buy new laces at the time so I tied the 2 broken pieces together in a knot to make it work.

Days were a real struggle at times, lonely, and unfortunately I made the mistake of charging up credit cards to pay for things.

Where I’m at today:
That job interview I went to where my laces broke when getting ready landed me a sales job at a local car dealership and it changed my life.

I sucked at sales and was on the brink of being fired from it but I showed enough drive (and skills with marketing) that they instead transitioned me into a marketing job within the company. In other words I finally caught a break.

I now make ~$65,000/yr in this marketing job with one of the largest automotive groups here in Omaha (I won’t specify which).

In addition, I learned (in my spare time) how to make mostly passive income online through a couple of websites that I built (with a couple more I’m in the process of starting). This alone now makes me ~$6,500/mo or ~$78,000/yr of passive income.

In total between my full time job and website income, I make ~$140,000/yr and I’m completely debt free. I’m at a point now where I could technically quit my full time job and just work on my websites and travel the world if I wanted (as long as where I went had internet I’d be set). But I’m not ready for that right now mentally anyway.

Anyhow, if you’ve read this far into this post, hopefully its helped to inspire you - especially if you’re struggling or not where you want to be financially. Keep your head up and keep grinding and working toward your big break. It might show up at the most unexpected time.

[nebugeater]

Great story and thanks for sharing.

It can be a struggle for many but IT CAN BE DONE

[NEDodger]

Fantastic story and message, and congratulations.

[damonhynes]

#waytogo :-)

[stormchaser]

Thanks guys, it’s been a life changing journey that’s for sure. The fact I struggled financially for so long (much of my life, even before coming to Omaha) makes me that much more grateful/appreciative. It’s why I hope to help inspire others - I know how hopeless it can feel at times.

[Cermak]

Amazing story! Yes, it can be done. Good luck to you!

[BRoss]

Nice, that's a good amount of passive income.

What kind of sites do you run? Other than this site, I don't run any other ones but have the skill set (and hardware if I wanted to self-host) to do so.

[stormchaser]

Amazing story! Yes, it can be done. Good luck to you!

Thanks!

Nice, that's a good amount of passive income.

What kind of sites do you run? Other than this site, I don't run any other ones but have the skill set (and hardware if I wanted to self-host) to do so.

I build blogs with mostly informational content about specific products and services (I target certain niches to build sites around). I don't write the content anymore - I outsource it. The only thing I need to do is topic research and post the content (which only takes a few hours per week - so I guess not technically completely "passive" but pretty darn close). The revenue is generated from ads that are placed within the content on my sites. Simple but effective