Paycheck: December 2016

I made a total net income of $5,975 for the month of December. I worked quite a bit for my ex-employer but I’m still dealing with balancing some overpays from the past few months – it’ll take a while to reconcile all that. In the meantime I’m not getting much of a paycheck from that job.

Remedy is my main source of income, though JustAnswer is fairly solid as well. I made $3,400 of my money from Remedy and around $1,600 from JustAnswer.

Miscellaneous Income

I am writing for BlogMutt, perhaps not as much as I normally do, but I still managed to get some income from this company. I am responsible for filing taxes on this income, going to figure all that out come tax-time.

I got $100 from a colleague for picking up her urgent care shift. Cheers, happy to do it. Actually, I’m planning on making this a more regular source of income. However, arbitrary it might seem, I have gotten paid anywhere from $50-200 to cover someone’s shift. Looking at how terrible this cold & flu season has been, I’m sure I’m going to make bank off of this method.

I countered one doctor’s $50 with $150 for a weekend shift she wanted covered, her reply was “I can’t afford that much”. I wanted to tell her “woman, you gotta read my blog if you’re a doctor and can’t afford $150!”, but perhaps she was just politely saying no to my counteroffer.

Where The Money Went

I was saving up my cash in order to invest in real estate but that probably won’t happen. I don’t think it’s the right time after all for me to enter the market. Fortunately, people are paying ridiculous dollars for homes that will need a ton of work. Meaning, in a couple of years when those adjustable rates bump and those renovation costs pile up, I’ll be finding steals by offering cash.

Since a good bit of my money is in cash right now, I will need to devise a strategy to dollar-cost-average back into the market. Starting January I’ll start rebalancing my portfolios based on my asset allocation, into my stocks and bonds.

Looking Towards January

I am still trying to cut back on work, seems like I’ve been saying that for the past 4 months – I’m realizing it’s much tougher than I thought to cut back. Habits are tough to break.

I am incredibly happy with my gig at Remedy, I haven’t worked with enthusiastic people like this in a long time. They are building something wonderful, it’s neat being a part of such a startup company. I expect another $3,500 of income from them.

Kaiser has been gracious, my bosses are extending some perks my way which most per diems don’t get, I’m grateful for that. I technically won’t be per diem until beginning of February 2017, so another month of working for KP, picking up as many shifts necessary to help the group out.

JustAnswer is a great income source, but I’m realizing how much work it is to make it work. The conversations with patients are taking longer and longer, it’s tougher getting good reviews and I get the sense that the more difficult patients, who are pushed out of clinics, are nesting at JA. I should be able to generate another $1k from this source.