My February 2019 income mostly came from my healthcare consulting and the rest from Just Answer and a few other sources. In total I earned $5,594. This is more than enough to run my household and gives me a little extra money to invest with.
You can view my month income reports and my monthly spending reports by clicking on each of those categories.
February 2019 Income
I had 4 income sources. It’s a good mix of telemedicine, consulting, and sales. This is an ideal setup which I would love to continue with for a while.
1. Just Answer – $2,409
I didn’t track how much time I spent on JA. My routine in February was to go to the coffee shop around 11am and click on a few questions in the first 30 minutes. Once I lock on a question then I have several days to answer it as me and the customer communicate back and forth.
I can usually complete half of the questions right away because I know what to say and how to say it. The rest require some back and forth which I’m happy to do. I also have learned when to use the phone call option which has added to my profit margin on Just Answer.
I’ve been a contractor with JA for a long time and it has been a steady income source. If I were to go live overseas again then this is the only company which I would do work for. They have no problem with me living abroad as long as I have a board certification – which is really easy to do through NBPAS.
2. Healthcare Consulting – $3,000
I have a solid arrangement with 2 of my consulting clients. Most of the income I list is from only one of them. I have been in negotiations with the other in order to figure out how they want to pay me moving forward. Though the work is picking up and there is a higher income opportunity I’m not planning on dedicating more than a handful of hours to healthcare consulting each week.
As I gain more experience I can charge a higher hourly rate. That’s when it would make sense to add more hours of this kind of work. But I have to enjoy it. I’m reluctant to take on a project if it’s tedious and not engaging.
The base commitment is 10 hours a week. That’s the retainer model which I feel most comfortable with. Whether I work or don’t work 10 hours a week I still get paid $3k for the month. Usually there is some work to be done.
I worked probably 10 hours all of February for this money – $300/hour. This month I have done 1 hour of work and it’s March 5th. I expect that this week will take up 30 hours of my time which I’ll bill at an additional rate of $75/hour.
3. Oscar Telemedicine – $105
I’m excited to be back on Oscar. It’s a telemedicine company which I think is in 9 states. They are the only company I know who is both the insurer and the telemedicine provider. This is a solid position to be in and they are very tech-forward. In fact, most of the patients I see are in their mid-20’s.
They are smart to cater to the techy crowd and they provide a text-based and telephone based mode of communication. It’s probably the only telemedicine company which is providing their telehealth in a concierge-like manner. Patients are given warm handoffs rather than discharged into an abyss.
I only worked 1 hour because I was getting retrained. I had been away from this platform for a year due to medical license issues.
4. Product Sales – $80
I have a few tutorials for sale on this website which were ranging from $5-$15. I was testing the model and getting some feedback, making some changes. Now I have increased the prices to $10-$150.
The money may not seem like much but creating a digital product only takes a little bit of upfront work. The income coming from the ongoing sales requires little effort on my part. It’s a passive income which will continue to take place as long as the product is relevant and as long as I keep writing for this website.
There are so many talented doctors out there who have unique skills and information they could sell. If you’re interested then I recommend to start on your own platform to sell your own products. You can create your digital product with the help of outsourced nerds and then you can push your product to your consumers. It’s not hard.
Imagine a shoulder specialist recording a solid video tutorial for ED and PC docs in order to diagnose common shoulder issues. Maybe then add in some bonus material for how to treat a shoulder bursitis or non-surgically manage a labral tear. You don’t have to charge $500. Record it on your iPhone and send it to a video editor for $100 to be edited. Sell each video for $5. Create more in-depth videos and sell those for $150.
Taxes
I’m a sole proprietor and earn my money on a 1099-MISC from Oscar. I earn money from JA through Paypal. And the products I sell on my website are through PayPal or Stripe. It’s easy for me to keep track of the income and expenses because I have a separate email and account for my business.
Hiding Income
I could get by not reporting some of these incomes on taxes. The IRS would have no way of knowing whether Paypal paid me or not since they don’t do any reporting. But I’ll tell you that the headache of this isn’t worth it. When I first started with JA I didn’t report the income. For 2 years after that I was constantly worried about a full audit because then I would have to answer for that income. Fuck it. Not worth it. If you earn it report it.
Accounting
My suggestion is that whatever business(es) you start have one checking account that’s separate from your personal account. Throw all the income in there and spend all your business related shit from that same account. Done. No headache, no tracking, no CPA needed. Paypal income and 1099-MISC income all goes into my business checking account. Everything I use for the business gets paid out of that.
For taxes, every quarter take 25% of the profits from the business and send that into the IRS and your state’s tax board.
Looking Ahead
I’ve picked up more shifts with Oscar. As much as I saw myself completely getting the hell out of medicine it’s been a treat seeing patients again. I don’t feel stressed by it and it’s a good challenge. I’ll write more about my telemedicine experience with Oscar in the future.
I also do telemedicine for DialCare but they don’t have a lot of volume so it’s sporadic. And that’s okay. I have plenty of income sources now so I would rather focus on a single telemedicine platform and learn the shit out of it.
Net Worth Update
The net worth is somewhere around $888,000. That’s the highest it has been and this includes my condo and all of my investments. Here is how my net worth has grown over the past few years:
- 3/2018 – $842,800
- 3/2017 – $705,400
- 3/2016 – $487,100
- 3/2015 – $322,800
- 3/2014 – $84,400
As long as you’re planning on doing more paid work in early retirement don’t worry too much about the current value of your net worth. Invest in less risky options such as index funds and you should be able to see the net worth grow over time.
Even at a conservative 5% compounding average annual growth this money should become worth $3,000,000 by the time I am 65 or 25 years from now. The portfolio is making enough money to sustain my lifestyle so I don’t have a need for it to go much higher. In fact, a larger net worth can have its own problems.
Of the money that’s invested I have a passive income of $2,200/month. If I were to invest all of my money including any cash and rent out the condo then I might have closer to $3,000/month. However I don’t have the need and would rather stay conservative.
I have rented out the condo before and it wasn’t hard to earn money on it through AirBnb.
The above graph shows my downward trending spending. My core spending this month was a touch under $1,000. With a paid off condo and groceries and no cell phone and no car I’m living like a king. Of course, my actual spending was $2,200 as I outlined in the previous post.
4 replies on “February 2019 Income”
It’s fascinating. How can you live with so little? I envy you.
My income is about 50k/month, and I spend half.
I would be panicked on so little.
Totally get what you’re saying. I used to spend closer to $20k a month so this is a big change for me. Household spending is a mathematical matter. The person who earns $2k/month could never grasp how we spent their annual salary every month. There are a set of categories we need to spend on and most which we want to spend on. Thanks to poverty and the allergic reaction Americans have to the state of poverty most things are heavily subsidized or free. There are 3 homeless camps outside of my window as I’m writing this. In the mornings the couple fights as they are intoxicated, yelling and throwing stuff at each other in their homeless tent. At night they light cigarettes and make a fire which fills my apartment with smoke since it’s right under the window I leave open to sleep at night. But they ARE able to sleep outside for free. They can then get free food from the shelter and free healthcare and free dental care and free cell phones and if they wanted to they could get subsidized housing in my apartment building for 1/4th the going rate.
In the US those who don’t earn much money don’t bake their own bread, don’t grow their own vegetables in their gardens (yes, many poor people have lawns), and they don’t scour craigslist for deals to flip. Many don’t go to the library to check out free books. It’s not that I’m blaming them – many never had the right guidance or much worse dealt with terrible shit in their life. But those services are offered for free so that politicians can appear to care. We’re not gonna lift dark people out of poverty like in a legit manner – hell no, we make too much good money enslaving the minority. The rest are willing to self-enslave in cubicles.
There is nothing wrong with spending $49k of your $50k/mo budget as long as you feel comfortable, secure, and can set enough aside to slowly develop a degree of freedom from full-time employment. You can enjoy a beautiful home, nice cars, and hire others to help you with certain chores and services.
Now imagine no car, no cell phone, a house the size of your smallest bedroom, 15 clothing items, a laptop and some utensils. Your spending would be stupid low. As my friend V. says whenever I spend close to $3k/month “WTF?! You’re a single guy living in a paid-off condo in Portland, WTF do you spend money on?!” She’s a lawyer herself and spends $1,500/month.
Amazing how you’re doing this! I am a GP and 2 years ago I started working part-time (moonlighting) to live a more relaxed life. People think I’m crazy settling for about 20% of what I used to earn. But I have 2 kids and I’m happier giving a large part of my time with them — plus without the constant stress in the hospital setting. I can spend my time on things I love like growing food. Haha.
I am now on my way to working online so that I have more time at home and quit my part-time job. I was searching the net and your blog inspired me more. I never knew someone else is doing this, and doing it quite well.
That’s incredible. Once you realize that you can live on less and still enjoy a really high quality lifestyle then you realize that you can cut back on work. It’s better to work 20 hours a week, every week, if it means that you can sustain that until the day you die. The next level of realization is that you could potentially find the kind of work which is so enjoyable that you don’t want to retire from it and don’t even want to do less of it. I feel that way about my consulting and my telemedicine stuff.
I know you already have but I encourage you to keep figuring out how to cut out even more spending – not to the point of feeling pressure but there is a sweetspot when the more you cut the more free you feel.
I have cut out a lot and still don’t feel a constrained life. As soon as I do I’ll add to my spending. Different times in our lives require us to spend differently. Like if you are enjoying growing your garden then see if you can add a rainwater collection so you don’t have to spend money watering your garden. If you’re growing from transplants then consider sprouting your own seeds indoors – the cost savings are huge even more a modest garden.
It’s so awesome that you are able to have more time with your kids this way – what other profession can allow us to work so little and make so much money. I hope that my website inspires you to constantly think outside of the box. As a GP there are so many ways you can earn income from your skills and knowledge – don’t be afraid to experiment. There is no reason why you can’t have your own tiny little 10-hour/week practice from your own home using mostly telemedicine and maybe making the occasional house call. I’m going to be writing about that topic a lot in the future.
Be sure to use justanswer and consider teladoc and other telemedicine websites to help you stitch together a great income. As an independent contractor you’ll save a lot on taxes and you can read plenty about that on my site. I paid 14% in income taxes and made nearly $120k and I don’t have a mortgage, no spouse, and no kids.
And it doesn’t mean that you can’t go back to full-time medicine – that door should always hopefully be open to you. Dunno if you’re a dude or a lady but depending on which it’s that much more important that you’re taking the steps you’re taking. If you’re a dude then it’s awesome to have time with your kids because it’s that early bond with pops which develops into a great friendship in the future with your kids. If you’re of the XX type then piecing together an income around your own schedule is amazing because it offers you income diversification and allows you to dedicate the time needed which most moms put into family.
Read up on the solo 401k stuff I wrote. Read up on short-term health insurance if that ever becomes necessary. Stay with the sole proprietor designation because everything else like LLC or S-corp is for the most part bullshit unless your family is rich as fuck.
Anyway, thank you for commenting – great to hear there are other weirdos like myself out there. Be sure to subscribe to the website so you can get my posts sent to you regularly and have more curse words to enjoy.