Welcome to the Trapped Rat Monthly Income Report. Here we go through last month's side consulting income, goals, and struggles.
Here we discuss my journey of financial independence through a side consulting business to retire early and escape the rat race of Corporate America. If you are new here you may be wondering what the Rat Race is, Why do I want to Escape it, and How I plan on doing it. If you aren’t new here, please scroll below to my 2018 income report and goal status report.
What do I define as the Rat Race?
I define the rat race as being a normal American financially forced to get up and go tot work for 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year until you can claim social security at age 65. Normal American is someone who on average has $351/Month in Student Loan Debt (According to the Federal Reserve), $8377 in credit card debt (According to WalletHub), $503/Month in Car Payments (According to Experian), and $1061/Month in mortgage payments (Acoording to Lending Tree).
Why do I want to Escape the Rat Race?
- I don’t like being called normal because normal sucks.
- I hate being forced to do anything, especially forced to work. It makes it feel like a slave to master relationship.
- I want to work because I choose to work.
- I want to spend more time with my wife & kids.
- I want to be financially independent to retire early and beat my Dad (retired at 56 1/2) and my Grandpa (Retired at 57)
- I want to retire with money to travel an enjoy life with my wife before old age sets in rather than working an entire 3rd of my life.
- I want to leave a legacy for my children
How am going to Escape the Rate Race?
We are saving for retirement in our 401k & will be starting a SEP IRA this year for the side hustle. We are planning on paying our house off within the next 5 years (Paid off house at age 40). Budgeting to give every dollar a name in our budget. I am making money through a side consulting business. We plan on paying cash for everything going forward and not take out any more debt, as a borrower is slave to the lender.
In 2018 our Side Hustle Gross Income Totaled: $$80,700
| Month | Income |
| Jan-18 | $3,530.00 |
| Feb-18 | $4,215.94 |
| Mar-18 | $4,780.00 |
| Apr-18 | $8,995.00 |
| May-18 | $9,820.00 |
| Jun-18 | $6,205.00 |
| Jul-18 | $5,080.00 |
| Aug-18 | $6,585.00 |
| Sep-18 | $8,130.00 |
| Oct-18 | $15,510.00 |
| Nov-18 | $1,890.00 |
| Dec-18 | $5,960.00 |
| TOTAL | $80,700.94 |
How did this match up for my 2018 goal for increasing side income by 25%?
My adjusted gross income for 2017 came to $72,064.
- My goal for 2018 was to increase my side hustle income by 25% to $90,000.
- I only increased the side business by 12% to $80,700.
- I fell $9,300 short but I still increased the side hustle by $8636.
Goal for 2019 is to match 2018 of $80,700.
- It is tough to increase side hustle income as time is a finite element.
- Working a 40 hour full-time job & raising 3 kids consumes a lot of time.
- I only have time for so much side work which makes increasing side hustle income plateauing without having my full-time job or family suffer.
