With 2019 just starting up, I thought it’d be a good time to look back at 2018 and review how my year went, both personally and on this blog.
What follows is a post that covers four things: (1) a brief financial year in review; (2) a travel year in review; (3) a blog year in review; and (4) my upcoming blog goals for 2019. I hope you enjoy.
2018 (Brief) Financial Year In Review
Barring something unexpected happening in the future, 2018 will likely go down as one of the lower income earning years in my household. This was because of two reasons:
- I took a pay cut in 2017, so this past year was the first year I worked an entire year at my lower salary; and
- My wife graduated residency in May, then bought her practice in August, and it was unclear what sort of income she would generate with her own practice (so far, things have been going very well with her practice).
On an individual level, 2018 was my lowest earning income year since graduating from law school. In the interest of transparency, my W-2 income in 2018 was $57,000. Of that, I put $12,000 into my employer’s 403(b) plan – about 21% of my pre-tax income. I also put $5,500 into my Roth IRA, which is still with Betterment, although I keep meaning to move it over directly to Vanguard (my laziness is why I haven’t done this yet).
Side hustle income for the year came out to a little over $26,000, which means that my side hustle income was equal to 45% of the income I earned from my day job. That’s pretty incredible to me – and proof that anyone can increase their income substantially if they take a look at the options around them. My plan for this side hustle income is to put as much of it as I can into my Solo 401k, in effect, “maxing out” my 401k by creating my own 401k. At a minimum, I should be able to put away $6,000 in my Solo 401k once I do my taxes and figure out my deductions.
Other income I earned in 2018 included $3,262 of bank signup bonuses that I earned from 17 different banks. This is a post that I need to write about (and I promise it will be done soon – there’s just a ton of value in bank account bonuses that I think people should take advantage of). The $3,200 I made from bank bonuses wasn’t insignificant, as it represented 5% of my day job income in 2018. I also had income from 5% interest savings accounts and other high-yield savings accounts, but I haven’t actually gone and added all of that up yet.
Finally, while not exactly income, my wife and I did earn over 1 million points and miles by signing up for credit cards and collecting credit card signup bonuses. The value of these points and miles can vary depending on how you use them, but it’s not unreasonable to generally value points and miles at an average of about 1 cent per point. Using that 1 cent per point average, that means we generated $10,000 worth of points and miles that we’ll be able to use for travel.
2018 Travel Year In Review
2018 was actually a pretty big travel year for me and my wife. I began the year with a goal of trying to travel 12 times in 12 months, and since my wife and I earned the Southwest Companion Pass at the beginning of the year, we focused a lot on domestic trips (which was actually fine since we both didn’t have a lot of vacation time to use anyway).
Unfortunately, I came up just one trip short of my 12 trip goal, but I’m still pretty happy with my attempt to get out there and explore the world a bit.
Here’s a recap of all of the places we traveled to in 2018.
February 2018 – Arizona: We rented out our house on Airbnb for the Super Bowl, then went to Arizona for a weekend to do some hiking in Saguaro National Park. During that trip, temperatures in Arizona were 80 degrees, and back in Minnesota, it was 0 degrees. It was a nice change of pace, and I can see why so many retired people go south for the winter.
April 2018 – Atlanta, Chicago, and Washington DC: In April, my wife and I went to Atlanta for a weekend to visit my best friend. As a bonus, while we were in the south enjoying warm weather, Minneapolis had a crazy April snowstorm that dumped a foot of snow on the city.
Later in the month, my wife and I went to Chicago to celebrate our anniversary. Since we used points to pay for our hotel and plane tickets, we splurged and got Hamilton tickets to celebrate.
We ended April by flying out to DC to visit family. That was my first introduction to Bird and Lime scooters, and it’s where I became obsessed with them.
May 2018 – Las Vegas and Iceland: My buddy graduated from law school in mid-May, so I went to Las Vegas for a quick weekend to celebrate with him.
Over Memorial Day weekend, my wife and I did a quick 4-day trip to Iceland. If you’re looking for an international destination that you can do pretty quickly, Iceland actually works out well depending on where in the US you’re located. From Minnesota, it’s only a 5-hour trip, so it’s pretty quick to get there.
June 2018 – South Dakota: We flew to the Black Hills for a friend’s wedding, visited Mt. Rushmore, then hiked to the top of Harney Peak, the highest point in South Dakota. My wife and I have this plan of trying to hike as many state high points as we can, so this trip knocked another high point off the list. Coming here was also nice because it allowed me to live out my National Treasure 2 adventures.
July 2018 – Washington DC: In July, we flew back to DC for another wedding. Nothing crazy here, but it was fun to be back home again.
September 2018 – Colorado and Orlando: We started the beginning of the month by flying to Colorado for Labor Day weekend. The main point of this trip was to hike to the top of Mt. Elbert, the highest point in Colorado.
At the end of the month, I went to FinCon in Orlando – always one of the highlights of my year. I didn’t get to explore a ton since FinCon was at a resort, but it was fun to be able to hang out at a pool and relax.
December 2018 – Paris: We flew to Paris for the holidays to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins. I hadn’t been to France in over a decade, so it was nice to get there and see the city as an adult. Flights were paid for with points, and my cousin hooked us up by giving us his apartment to stay at while we were there.
2018 Blog Year In Review
I’ve actually never shared much information about the performance of this blog but figured it might be good to share some of that information so you can get a little peek at what’s happening behind the scenes here.
At the outset, 2018 was a terrific year for the blog. I definitely had issues with work-life balance, however, and due to laziness and other things, I only managed to publish 45 posts in 2018 (out of a total of 180-lifetime posts). I’m planning to work on this in the upcoming year because I’d much rather have closer to 100 posts a year, rather than 50 posts a year.
In terms of traffic, the blog received nearly 1 million page views in 2018, with over 300,000 page views in the last three months of the year alone. This is just so awesome to me and I’m seriously beyond grateful for everyone that takes the time out of their day to read this blog. The pace continues to stay strong as well, and I’m expecting to have well over 1 million page views in 2019. Thank you again to everyone that visits this blog!
Gross revenue for the blog increased by 10x compared to 2017. Because I wasn’t relying on this money, I ended up reinvesting basically all of it back into the blog. A lot of this income was reinvested into Facebook ads using the strategies I learned from Mike Yanda and Bobby Hoyt’s Facebook Ads for Bloggers course (this course is definitely worth the purchase for anyone who wants to understand how to market their blog better and drive more traffic to their blog with Facebook ads). I also utilized a lot of the techniques in Michelle Schroeder-Gardner’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing course in order to help increase my gross revenue.
Blog Goals for 2019
The blog did very well in 2018 and I’m looking to continue that growth in 2019. Here are some of my primary blog goals in 2019:
Publish More Posts. Without a doubt, my biggest goal is to get more posts published and to do so on a more consistent basis. Anyone who blogs knows that consistency is key to blogging – you just have to keep pumping out content on a regular basis, because you never know when you’ll hit that turning point. I’m seriously in awe of guys like The Mastermind Within or Four Pillar Freedom, who consistently pump out 3 or 4 posts per week for years while also working full-time jobs. Big props to them (and to any others doing the same thing that I missed). I’d like to get back to what I did in 2017 and try to get at least 8 posts written per month or about 2 per week.
Create More Organized Stuff To Help People. Right now, I feel like I have a lot of information scattered around on this blog and in my head. With working full-time, plus doing all of these side hustles, it doesn’t leave me with much spare time to do anything beyond just writing blog posts. My hope is to get things more organized in 2019. I’d like to set up some sort of email course or an ebook type thing that lays things out in a more organized manner.
Update Old Posts. Since I’ve been blogging for over two years, I have at least a couple of posts out there that could use some updating. At some point, I’m going to go back over all of my posts and clean things up.
Quit My Job And Go All-In On The Blog. When I first started blogging, I thought it’d just be a fun thing I could do to share some of the weird things I was doing with the world. But, as I’ve started to get more involved in the world of online businesses, I cannot get it out of my head that I really think I could make a go of trying to do this blog full-time. This is a big goal of mine in 2019 – we’ll see what happens.
Thanks For Reading!
Again, thank you to each and every person that comes to this blog. However you find yourself here, I really appreciate it. Even if you disagree with what I write, that’s totally cool – my writing is obviously based on my perspective of the world, and it’s learning from each other that we make ourselves better.
If you have your own story to share, don’t be shy about starting a blog. We all have stories to share, and the internet is such a big place – you just never know when you might have an impact on someone.
That’s all I have for now. Have a great 2019 everyone!
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More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- SoFi Money ($325) – SoFi Money is a free checking account from SoFi. They’re currently offering a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi account with a referral link and deposit $10. You can also make an additional $300 as well if you complete a direct deposit. This is a good bank that is also 100% free, so you won’t have to worry about managing this account. Here’s a post I wrote with instructions on how to earn your SoFi Money bonus: SoFi Money Referral Bonus: Step By Step Guide.
- Upgrade ($300) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $300 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $300 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($800) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- Fifth Third Bank ($200) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
- GO2Bank ($50) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $50 referral bonus.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($25) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $25 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $800 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
Congrats on the great year in 2018! A million page views are others don’t have that the entire lifetime, like you, did. You’re really killing it. The growth of the blog, your impressive side income, and thoughtful review are all very impressive. I have also thought of doing blogging full, time, let’s see what happens. Keep up the good work, I wish you all the best for this year. Thank you for sharing this to us. Keep Posting.
2019 is going to seriously be a massive year for you and your blog 🙂 I have no doubt you’ll hit 2 million page views with the hustle you’ve been putting in 😉
Man. I hope so. I got the hustle to do dumb things, but if we want to talk about real hustle, man, that’s all you!
congrats –
Thanks!
Congrats on your success! That’s awesome how much blog traffic you’ve been able to get. I hope I get half that much by the time I’m 2 years in.
Good luck with your efforts in 2019! I will certainly be coming back to follow your journey.
Thank you Nathan! Appreciate the support. You’ll be surprised at how many people will find you as you keep putting out content into the world. Consistency and just sticking with it are key.
FP, congrats on all of 2018. I am one of your newer readers. As you consider next steps, be sure to also stay true to what brought the 1M blog views to start with – your fun, insightful and interesting on easy to do side hustle things. Add new things but make sure you don’t lose sight of “true north”. I do wonder as your wife builds her practice, perhaps you consider children and life moves you further down the road family-wise, in what ways your interests will change. You are very adaptable and I totally expect more interesting things in 2019 and beyond.
For sure, these next few years will definitely be interesting as my wife gets more settled in her career and business, and yes, children are planned for the horizon. For sure, we all adapt and change, but that’s what’s great about this world – so many opportunities! 2 years ago, all I cared about was paying off my debt. After that, I thought for sure my career path was to work at a job for 10 to 15 years and save enough to hit FI (the traditional view of FIRE). Now, I think I’m more about maximizing happiness and believing in my own ability to be happy and generate an income on my own.
Congrats on an awesome 2018, Kevin! Thanks for the shout out as well.
Your blog growth has certainly been impressive over the past two years. I’m rooting for you to go full time with it at some point, I think that would be awesome. I’d like to go full time with Four Pillar Freedom as well. Cheers to a great 2019!
I know we both talked about this back at FinCon. Hopefully I’ll see you at the next FinCon and we’ll both be a year closer to our goals!
You’re killing it! The growth of the blog, your impressive side hustle income, and thoughtful review are all very impressive. Keep up the good work, I’m excited to read about your adventures into solopreneurship!
Thanks! 2019 will be an interesting year as I try to believe in myself more and maximize my happiness, rather than my income. We’ll see!
Congrats on the great year in 2018! A million page views is nothing to sneeze at – most don’t have that the entire lifetime of their blog. Here’s to an even better 2019 – and possibly going full time!
I’ve thought of going full time with the blog, but every time I think of doing that, I realize that I like having two full time incomes from the day job and from the blog. The company I work for has been a bit shaky the past year or two, and I’m getting the feeling that I may be forced to go full time sometime this year. Thankfully my site has been having it’s best traffic in the past few months, and my best income year ever last year.
Here’s to millions of page views for all!
Thanks Pete! Was great to see you over the weekend – I’m trying to follow in the footsteps of the OG bloggers like you!