It’s been a long time since I’ve written a proper post for this site which wasn’t just the monthly breakdown of income/expenses.  Infact it’s been pretty much the exact same length of time that I’ve been heavily investing money and time capital into my main side incomes of matched-betting and kindle publishing.

While both of these have so far been achieving returns far beyond my initial expectations, it has lead to an awkward situation whereby I’ve begun calculating time not spent directed towards these activities as potential profit lost. You see, previously I’d come home from the 9-5 day job and lounge around the house. My time had no real other value because there wasn’t anything immediately obvious that I could be doing with it which would return any noticeable financial return. Because of this, I had much more free time in which I could guiltless waste on browsing web forums or playing video games.

All of this came to an abrupt halt when I started working on the side incomes and I quickly realised that every hour spent working on them had a direct positive correlation on the profit being returned. For instance with matched-betting I know almost to the penny what my return from every bet placed will be. This then means that I also know to the penny exactly how much money I’m effectively losing should I not place that bet. I once joked to my partner that going out to the pub on a Sunday afternoon would cost me over £40… not because we’re both raging alcoholics (well, maybe slightly) but because in doing so I’d be missing out on placing 4x £10 return bets.

Quickly my free time has become far more valuable and quantifiable in financial terms:

Evening: £30-£50 profit

Weekday at home: £30-£50 profit

Sunday: £40-£60 profit

Saturday: £50-£100+ profit

I wonder how many people would go out for a day in the park if the entrance fee were £100? And yet I can’t help but consider that the cost of being away on a Saturday, It’s just how my mind works. These arn’t costs for things I buy.. but the cost of losing that income in order to do the activity:

Watching an hour of TV: £5 cost

Going shopping: £20 cost

Evening down the pub: £40 cost

Day out at the beach: £80 cost

When you work from home, your home is work

I’ve heard that many people who work permanently from home often have a struggle with separating out their work from home lives. They’re more likely to work later, check emails on evenings/weekends and interrupt personal activities for work interruptions. How do they manage to keep that separation, especially if self employed and knowing that they could potentially be earning money at any time of the day/night? It was easy to do back when I worked and office 9-5 and had no side incomes, but now the lines are so heavily blurred that for the past 3 months I’ve effectively been working 8am-10pm for 7 days a week.

Don’t get me wrong; I enjoy the kindle publishing and I love the matched betting. It’s like playing the video games I used to waste hours on but instead of gathering magical golden stars I’m gathering real spendable cash. I’m so very fortunate to have had the opportunities to take part in both of these and because of that I feel the need to work sweat them both as much as possible until perhaps limited by a change in gambling legislation or other uncontrollable external factor.

I know some brave folk have quit their day jobs in order to free up more time for both the side incomes and general personal time. I think this might be a solution and it would seem to be the ideal situation most of us want to be in however I’m not ready to give up the security and safety that having a 9-5 gives. Equally I’m not sure how sustainable either of the side incomes will be over the next months/years/decades, and so I’ll continue to hammer away at both for the time being, at least until the Wedding arrives in April 2017 ;)