End of the month report - November 2020

Total portfolio: £46881 (+4573)

Debt: £808 (+808)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £46073 (+3765)

Investments UK: £40521 (+4394)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £1803 (+179)
Pension: £15996 (+1268)

Total Income: £1552(main job)+0 (second job) + 289= 1841
Passive income: £289(15.68%)
Savings rate: 20%

Side hustle 2 profit (Royalties): £2.54
Side hustle 3 profit (Match betting): £ 0
Side hustle 4 value (Crypto): £20503 (Funds spent in crypto:11687)
Side hustle 5 profit (Focus groups): £0

Side hustle 6 profit (Internet):£289

First of all, i hade some big changes around my savings. First, even if it is a bit risky, i was using a cryptocurrency lender to lend the 7000 that i saved, for a return of approx. $100 via Celsius.network. I did my research and it is a solid company, with enough insured funds to cover an eventual bancrupcy or a similar event. If i would go the other way, and make a mortgage, after getting the rent paid, and substract the mortgage, taxes and bills, the result would be somewhere between 50-70£ per month, with additional stress. Now, if my move will prove succesful, and i manage to save enough via cryptocurrency and index funds, i am planning to buy a small rental paying in cash. This way there will be no mortgage. 

Everything is increased slightly (pensions, shares, crypto), even if the economy is not booming. There is still some black swan event incoming (BREXIT, COVID19 third wave, etc), so i can only speak about this year (2020). Except this, in November i had no focus groups, no big royalties, and just a small return in interest (deemed to decrease further in the next few months). My cash is sitting in the bank getting 0.60% interest (Santander 123). 

So, the plan is to use the cryptocurrency returns to invest in shares, and to add to this the other side hustles that i can do during this period. Until i reach the critical level. And the second rental for us, if it is the case, after the next year wedding (again, black swan event, i cannot even imagine how this will be). 

See you at the end of the year. Take care and be good with others!

G.

End of the month report - October 2020

Total portfolio: £42308 (+847)

Debt: 0 (0)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £42308 (+847)

Investments UK: £36127 (+461)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £1624 (+556)
Pension: £14728 (+92)

Total Income: £1485(main job)+0 (second job) + 110= 1595
Passive income: £110 (6.91%)
Savings rate: 20%

Side hustle 2 profit (Royalties): £2.60
Side hustle 3 profit (Match betting): £ 0
Side hustle 4 value (Crypto): £10350 (Funds spent in crypto:4687)
Side hustle 5 profit (Focus groups): £0

Side hustle 6 profit (Internet):£105

So, an interesting month. Total net worth was still going up, and the investments are recovering slowly, even the badly affected shares. Not much of a profit made this month, as i am working long shifts at the moment, and i will probably get the match betting out of the list next month, as i do not do it anymore. I am getting some small amounts from writing online on blog and i am trying to get trhough the property buying deal, but everything is so slow these months. Royalties are also down a lot, and interest in bank is almost inexistent. This is the reason of investing in a property, even with the estimate of 50-100 profit after paying the mortgage and bills. I cannot read the market, the financial instruments are awful right now, and my time is limited (i am exploring few other posibilities like blockchain gaming rewards, but nothing on sight). If you have a good idea, i am all ears. 

Yours truly,

George

End of the month report - September 2020

 Total portfolio: £41461(+2410)

Debt: 0 (0)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £41461(+2410)

Investments UK: £35666(+2240)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £1068 1238 (+170)
Pension: £13684 14636 (+952)

Total Income: £1647(main job)+0 (second job) + 1752= 3399
Passive income: £1752 (51.55%)
Savings rate: 34.12%

Side hustle 2 profit (Royalties): £2.3
Side hustle 3 profit (Match betting): £ 29.57 (Betting in September£310)
Side hustle 4 value (Crypto): £10137 (Funds spent in crypto:4687)
Side hustle 5 profit (Focus groups): £0

Side hustle 6 profit (Internet):£0.5

A very good month overall, with some bonus from work and a big profit from cryptocurrency (£1500). I am no more staying at home, going full time at work now, so my short 5 months early retirement test came to an end. Anyway, at least now i learn a lot about what i need to do when i have a lot of free time at hand, even if it was hard at the beginning. I reached the 40k mark, so i am pleased about it, as this year simulation was 36k at the end of the year. If i am managing to buy my first property by the end of the year, this 2020 will be a huge success for me, financially speaking. Due to work, i had no time for any focus group, and i cannot still do my secondary job due to Covid19. Match betting is close to zero, they are just tempting me from time to time with £5 or £10 free bet (which i do because is free money). I will start soon to work on a writing project, across 4 blogs and maybe a book, after i finish the research. 

Hope you have an even better summer than mine! Take care and keep going!

G.

Video ad aimed at FIRE movement

 Yes, apparently you can see something like this from time to time. I know, i know, it is not direct related, but the CEO of Elrond has a vision closely alligned with the FIRE movement. 

Just watch this video and enjoy the feeling. 

The product is Maiar.com and to be honest, it is looking interesting. I will find more at the end of the year, when they will launch it. The idea of financial independence is getting some more traction lately. 

( P.S. The link got a refferal attacked, it is just helping me to get early access. )

Have a beautiful, sunny day!

G.

End of the month report - 1st of August

Total portfolio: £39051(+3626)
Debt: 0 (0)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £39051(+3626)

Investments UK: £33426(+2400)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £1068(-100)
Pension: £13684(+109)

Total Income: £1456(main job)+50 (second job) + 505= 2011
Passive income: £505(25.10%)
Savings rate: 11%

Side hustle 2 profit (Royalties): £2.3
Side hustle 3 profit (Match betting): £ 310 (Betting in June £61)
Side hustle 4 value (Crypto): £6899 (Funds spent in crypto:5067)
Side hustle 5 profit (Focus groups): £50

Side hustle 6 profit (Internet):£53.16

After some initial increase, all the shares, pensions and investments in UK decreased slightly, but not as much as in March. I can still see a crisis looming over in the near future. What i will do in these conditions? I will buy a property, for the first time, using the First buy Isa that i saved in the last few years, the lack of stamp duty fee and a generous 20% Government Scheme to help first time buyers. With a final sum of 97k for the mortgage, this seems to be a good deal at the moment, especially as there are a lot of sellers and not too much buyers. I was waiting long time for this opportunity. 

Anyway, the cash is close to last month, with few more money to come from the betting websites. I decided to stop actively betting, focusing on focus groups instead. This is a neat activity, where you stay on zoom and talk for one hour or two, with an average payment on £40-50 per hour. You can do only one every six months, but there are 13 focus groups that i know, so the posibility is for 26 of them per year, with a minimum extra income of £1040 paid for talking. Crypto decentrilised finance is another thing that i start to research, given the rates of interest on 10-12% for stablecoins (cryptocurrencies corellated to dollar, 1 stablecoin = $0.98-1.02). Loans are very cheap in crypto-verse, around 1%, but given the volatility is not a wise choice. Instead of this, providing liquidity for others (in a similar way with Ratesetter, but using crypto) is a good source of income. If you are fine with the risks attached to it. 

Now work, seems that the holiday will finish soon and i will be back to work, but now i am even more motivated to never work again (for money), if i do something that i like, that it is not work. 

Hope everyone is good and healthy!

G.

Match betting - the end of an era

Today was my last day allocated for match betting, as my future plans will make this activity obsolete. I decided to stop, taking in account the goods and the bads. I checked my notes, and i have few interesting statistics. 

I did match betting for a total of 32 months, and my total wins amounted to £12186.63 with an average of £380.83 per month. My best month was March 2020 with a total profit of 1508.42. My worst month was September 2019 with a total loss of 281.57. 

It was a nice experience, with all the nerves consuming events, and i learn my maths better because of it. 

My next side gig now is cryptocurrency, and i have some funny stories to tell about that also. But not right now. I managed to grow a portfolio of cryptocurrency from £600 in December 2018 up to $7748 today, aiming for the 100k in few years from now. 

Nice to write again, as i was busy with thousand other things lately. 

Take care everyone!

G.

Life in times of cholera (kidding, just COVID19)

I feel like i did not write in months. After an initial push-up to finish my book, i stopped writting for a while. I do not write, i do not do much virtually, as i had enough of it. I enjoy more going out for a walk, or doing stuff in the real world. I find happiness in working the garden, painting a door or buying a property. This later project is pushing me to the limit, even if I seems to be lucky from multiple points of view. I finally did something at the right time. If was hard doing the First buy ISA deposits every months, but I always did that first, as soon as I got my wages, and now I will finally use the deposit. I have also applied for the 20% of deposit Government scheme, and i do not pay any stamp tax on top of this. I saved some serious money, and i have very good terms of my mortgage. Basically for every 5000 extra that I pay, one year will be gone from my mortgage time. Come on crypto inspiration, do not let me down now. 

I have also decided to keep the betting to a minimum, as lately it is not as lucrative as before, and I can use that time doing some more lucrative initiatives. It was nice while it lasted, but now it is the time to stop investing too much time into it. I will probably still do it now and then, on major events. 

I decided to buy a property, and to marry, and have a wedding in the next 12 months. And a nice honey moon. How are all those aligning with FIRE? I am still thinking at it. 

That's it for today, time to run to the garrage to chase some domuments now!

Enjoy the day!

G.

End of the month report - 1st of July

Total portfolio: £37113 (+1688)
Debt: 0 (0)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £37113 (+1688)

Investments UK: £31925 (+899)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £1168 (+327)
Pension: £13852 (+277)

Total Income: £1456(main job)+170 (second job) + 258 = 1884
Passive income: £258 (13.69%)
Savings rate: 11.67%

Side hustle 2 profit: £2.30
Side hustle 3 profit: £ 152.39 (Betting in May £61.47)
Side hustle 4 value: £6926 (Funds spent in crypto:5067)
Side hustle 5 profit: £109.40

This was an interesting month. The third month in the row with me staying at home with full pay (thanks to the wonderful job management), and i want to say that i had a dramatical learning curve, as i could see this being my mini-early-retirement test. Things that we see and think about are not really like we predict them. Staying at home, doing nothing, is very hard, and that approach goes down faster. You can only watch couple hundred movies before you had enough, and to play hundred hours of computer and phone games before you do not want to do it anymore. In my first three weeks i catch up with many of my TV  shows, but now i am barely see a movies or a TV show episode any other day. Computer wise, i was playing some games for a month, in order to 'relax', but the amount of pleasure and joy deriving from entertainment declined quickly in direct relation with the increased time allocated for it. So, too much will lead to less, but not as enjoyable. I will carefully organise my hobbies prior to my early retirement carefully, and i can see this as a change of views and i will probably continue to work, but doing something more rewarding emotionally and spiritually, i would say. 

Now the good parts. I started to learn guitar and Spanish, doing up to one hour at the beginning and it was a blast, but lately, after 3 months, i am not so excited with my lessons, even if i still like it, so guitar is down to 15 minutes daily on average and Spanish lessons 5-10 minutes.

I am cooking a lot more, healthy and from scratch, and i can be choosy and buy better ingredients to experiment with them. I cleaned the whole house, couple of times, and i did lot of gardening (my garden is 85% perfect at the moment). I am shopping, walking, training 3-4 times a week  (strenght and calysthenics at home). I even run from time to time, but not as often (home trainings are quite rough and i am at my soreness limit few times a week). I had my garage door painted (and this was on the 2017 To-do List). 

So, overall, staying at home for 3 months was an interesting experience making me to re-evaluate my plans for the future. 

Now, back to the money, i had some problems budgeting in the first two months, it seems that staying a lot more at home, you tend to spend more money that usual. But i adapted to the current situation and i am back to normal now. I really need to get my cash reserves back, as they are quite low now. But i used some of them money to buy some shares when they were super low, so i cannot complain about it, as they already gained 10-12% in value. Next on my list is Ratesetter, where I want to deposit some more money in the next few months. The portfolio is increasing, even the pensions are a bit up, after an initial decrease in March-April. I did a bit of match betting, but it is not the same as before, even if i made around £150 last month. I had a bit more takeaways than usual in the past month, as pizza shops and few others opened up to the public. And i learned a bit more about cryptocurrencies, and i started to use some of the investments platforms related to them, but it is quite complicated and risky, even if they offer some good interest rates (11.90% for stablecoins - crypto meant to be always $1 in value, like virtual cash, if you don't worry much about your funds being hacked - it is a low risk but it is there nevertheless). 

Wish you a perfect July! Stay safe and grow fast!

G.

The free cash from June - my month in cryptocurrency (Interest, profit and portfolio)

 First i will start with my portfolio. 

My main position is in BTC (26%) at the moment, used to bring interest of various DEFI platforms. Next are two DEFI tokens CEL (16%) & CRO (9%). They used to be much less, but I can't complain if they were increasing very fast. NEO (12%) is another one of my bets, especially with NEO 3.0 update on the table. Tezos (XTZ) is now down to 6%, used mainly for stacking on Kucoin (still on offer - 14.34% interest on Savings Staking). Ant the last major position goes to ETH with 5%, i am actively try to increase this in the next 6 months, before the PoS. 

My portfolio is up + £265 in relation with the aquisition cost. 

Ok, that was the boring part. 

Let's see the profits:

Celsius - £51.17 from interests and promo codes

Zen Masternode - £4.03 from rewards

Crypto.com - £3.60 from staking CRO/MCO

Publishox - 20.82 LRC. 7.91 BAT, 10.28 DAI transfered to my wallets.

Blockfi - £0.66 in BTC interest

I have also £33.84 made with different faucets (Coinpot, cryptofaucet), Coinbase Earn, Brave, XYO phone mining, GAS from NEO and Brave Browser BAT which i count all together because we are talking about lots of small amounts moved through the month. 

 

So, at the end of the month, i had £93.53 made from crypto (this is $116.18 for my American friends). These are amazing good news for me, as at the beginning of Coronavirus outbreak in March i would have only £7 monthly return from my cryptocurrencies. 

Now my focus in July is on buying up to 1 ETH, in multiple small steps. If you want to check any of my income sources, there is a list of links bellow for both platforms and websites (some may be referral, some may have bonuses explained in my other blog posts, ask me if you have any questions). 

 

 

My crypto-related links  (check ratings - 1 to 5 stars based on my personal experience)

 

Games to gain crypto

***** League of Kingdoms - link here: similar with Heroes of Might and Magic (worldwide - paying in DAI)

**** DogeWars - link here (paying in Doge, 10-100 Doge initial investment, fight bosses and 1vs1 arena)

 

Exchanges

***** Binance( good for staking/savings ) - link here

***** Kucoin( good for staking/savings ) - link here

***** Coinbase( ideal for beginners )- link here  

 

Investments

**** BlockFi (decent interest rates, but less choices than Celsius) - link here

***** Celsius.network (good rates of interests and monthly codes for free crypto, 1235256530 => my referral for $10 bonus  ) - link here

**** Coinbundle (investing in crypto bundles) - link here  

**** Stakecube (staking, masternodes and very easy to claim faucets for 28 coins/tokens) - link here

 

Wallets for multiple cryptocurrencies

***** Coinpot - link here (microwallet for all Moon faucets, Bitfun and Bonusbitcoin)

***** Atomic wallet - link here (microwallet for Publish0x DAI, BAT and Loopring)

***** Sphere wallet (for Horizen, combined with the faucet for extra bonus) - link here  

**** Crypto.com wallet (good interest staking and 50$ bonus in MCO) - link here

 

Free crypto (faucets and more)

****Lbry.tv (free crypto for watching or making videos) - link here

**** Bitfun( 3 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

*** Bonusbitcoin( 15 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

**** Moon Bitcoin ( 5 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

***** Horizen faucet ( 20 hours countdown - automatically deposit to Sphere wallet ) - link here

*** Tezos faucet ( 7 days countdown - automatically deposit to Coinbase or Binance wallet ) - link here

** Tron and other crypto faucet (24 hours countdown) - link here  

 

Others

***** Publish0x blog (Free BAT, DAI and Loopring for reading/writing - can combine with Atomic wallet) - link here

***** Brave browser (Free BAT for using it, based on paid ads, very good AdBlocker and high speed) - link here    

 

 

Disclaimer: This text also can be re-published on my personal blogs, such as this one.

 

End of the month report - 1st of June

Total portfolio: £35425 (+2045)
Debt: 0 (0)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £35425 (+2045)

Investments UK: £31026 (+4185)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £841 (-1590)
Pension: £13575 (+579)

Total Income: £1440(main job)+0 (second job) + 315= 1755
Passive income: £315 (17.93%)
Savings rate: 12.94%

Side hustle 2 profit: £1.58
Side hustle 3 profit: £ 61.47 (Betting in April £10)
Side hustle 4 value: £6255 (Funds spent in crypto:5067)
Side hustle 5 profit: £109.40

This month was quite uneventless. Yes, that is a word. I had even few bets once the German Bundesliga started. All is good now, Coronavirus pandemic seems to be pushed back slowly, the shares are recovering, the pensions are recovering, even the cryptocurrencies are recovering. Crypto-markets are booming in fact after the halving event, and i was testing few more revenue streams. Most trustworty two that i found are Celsius.network and Block.fi, both of them offering quite good return (interests between 3-11%) if it happen to have some crypto staying in the wallet without any interest (there is some risk like every investment, but they are paying weekly or monthly and those two mentioned are backed up by serious bussinesses, there are many others offering more or less, but i did not like them).

I had some nice return from internet related stuff, and in June i started a new lockdown-themed side hustle - focus groups and research - see the article here with all of them websites doing this. Basically you stay on Zoom or similar programs for 40-60 minutes chatting about stuff (coffee, banks, internet etc) and get paid for it. I did 3 focus researches until now, and i got paid £90, 45 and 60 for it. Easy work, all that you need is a good laptop with microphone and camera and free time. 

Enjoy this beautiful summer!

G.

My month in crypto ( How i made £109.40 in May)

Motto: ''I lost some battles, but i won the war.'' (Me trying to aquire financial independence)

 

This was a good month (£109.40 compared with £6.78 in April). I cannot imagine how i was just keeping my crypto in Coinbase, instead of using some decentralised finance (DEFI apps or accounts). So, slowly slowly i start to learn about them, and i went to use Binance, until they lowered the interest rates, then i moved to Kucoin exchange, as they still have a decent offer thanks to the X-pool initiative, providing you POL token on top of the interest for the main coins. 

After this experience, i made an account with Celsius.network and BlockFi, and having enough ZEN (42 Horizen coin) i made a Secure Masternode, in order to provide some extra ZEN on top of the daily faucet (which is maximised with all the boosts, this giving me 1026% bonus, so 10 times more than the basic amount). I just made an account on MyCointainer, but i am still learning about this one (just got some BeanCash there which i got for free from cryptofaucet). I am also receiving Neo staking bonus in form of Gas tokens. 

I have also received small amounts of crypto from PublishOx, using Brave browser, various good paying faucets (all the links in my signature) and using EarnCrypto.com website (some high paying surveys when i am bored, travelling with train/bus/car or in a waiting room).

In May, on Celsius.network i got $8.16 in interest and $60 in promo codes bonus.

On BlockFi i only deposited a small amount (it was a promotion in May with more than $200 deposit and you will receive $100 on 1st of August if you Hodl the crypto until then. I received $0.71 in interest and a bonus/compensation of $25 in GUSD because i asked for it after their website had a data breach (see the articles about hacking and compensation in here and here).

On Kucoin Exchange soft staking i received $8.92 (most of it as POL tokens due to me staking on their exchange).

 

On Binance staking (i use the savings account for this) i received $1.31 in interest.

On my ZEN Masternode i received a massive $1 for staking, but i just started the masternode on the 17.05, so i will give you a more accurate reading after one full month. By the way, you only need 42 ZEN to do a masternode, and the cost for the needed coins is around $224. The return is said to be in the range of $45 per year ( check the rates in here).

I had also received $20.76 combined from using Brave, writting on Publish0x, using few faucets and websites paying in crypto for surveys. 

So, my total amount of crypto, that i got for free in May, in form of interest, staking or doing few easy tasks is:

$135.03

 

 

My crypto-related links  

 

Exchanges

Binance( good for staking/savings ) - link here

Kucoin( good for staking/savings ) - link here

Coinbase( ideal for beginners )- link here  

 

Investments

BlockFi (decent interest rates, but less choices than Celsius) - link here

Eobot (mining/wallet )- link here 

Celsius.network (good rates of interests and monthly promo codes for free cryptocurrencies, 1235256530 => my referral for $10 bonus  )- link here

Coinbundle (investing in crypto bundles) - link here  

MyCointainer (staking and masternodes for some new emerging coins) - link here

 

Wallets for multiple cryptocurrencies

Coinpot - link here (microwallet for all Moon faucets, Bitfun and Bonusbitcoin)

Atomic wallet - link here (microwallet for Publish0x DAI, BAT and Loopring)

Sphere  wallet (for Horizen, combined with the faucet for extra bonus) - link here  

 

Free crypto (faucets and more)

Bitfun( 3 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

Bonusbitcoin( 15 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

Moon Bitcoin ( 5 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

Moon Bitcoin Cash ( 5 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

Moon Litecoin ( 5 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

Moon Dogecoin ( 5 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

Moon Dash ( 5 min countdown - automatically deposit to Coinpot wallet ) - link here

Horizen faucet ( 20 hours countdown - automatically deposit to Sphere wallet ) - link here

Tezos  faucet ( 7 days countdown - automatically deposit to Coinbase or Binance wallet ) - link here

Tron and other crypto faucet (24 hours countdown) - link here  

EarnCrypto.com - paid for survey, videos and typing - link here

 

Others

Publish0x  blog (Free BAT, DAI and Loopring for reading/writing - can combine with Atomic wallet) - link here

Brave  browser (Free BAT for using it, based on paid ads, very good AdBlocker and high speed) - link here    

 

 

 

Alzheimer and Financial independence

As you made enough money to enjoy and early retirement, you will probably want to be mentally and cognitively safe until some advanced age. 

If the answer is yes, read this series of articles - How to (not) lose your mind - a (not so) original approach on Alzheimer's disease (1)

The top 12 market research agencies to join or how to make your £1000 per month in UK

 

 

Now without further ado, here are the top market research companies to sign up to. We've chosen these based on feedback from users, as well as our own experiences when we signed up.

1) Saros – a big, well-established agency

Established agency Saros typically pays £40 to £100 cash for two hours' work. We've also seen projects that involve taking part in WhatsApp groups for a few weeks pay over £200. 'Like' its Facebook page to get first dibs on the latest opportunities.

Typical payment per project: £40-£100
Where does it run groups (normally)? Most face-to-face research takes place in the major cities such as London, Manchester and Birmingham, but it runs telephone, online and in-home research too.
How is it currently running projects? People can take part remotely, including by telephone, chat forum and Zoom video call.

 

I have done a couple of things for Saros in the past, got paid on the day in cash. Whoop-peee, £40 or £50 straightaway.
- Forumite Danielle1977

2) Angelfish Opinions – good for fun online projects

With plenty of online projects (even before lockdown), Angelfish Opinions has great Trustpilot feedback. Tasks are often on fun subjects – we saw it offer £50 for an online fantasy sports task and £70 for an online forum about travel. Its Facebook page is full of current opportunities.

Typical payment per project: £40-£200
Where does it run groups (normally)? Face-to-face groups are UK-wide.
How is it currently running projects? Methods include telephone, Google Hangouts and Zoom.

3) Research Opinions – one of the higher payers

Based in Manchester, Research Opinions runs focus groups across the country – often for tasty sums. We saw £200 offered for a two-hour luxury car focus group and £120 for an online forum about chocolate spread on pancakes (sign me up...). Join its busy Facebook and Instagram pages for a heads-up on new projects.

Typical payment per project: £50-£200
Where does it run groups (normally)? UK-wide, with many online sessions.
How is it currently running projects? It's interviewing people by phone or by Zoom and Skype video calls.

 

I attended a focus group with Research Opinions for two hours (drinks and snacks provided) and was given £50 cash. All I had to do was sit in a room with five other people and give my opinion on a certain well-known brand.
- Forumite Needeasymoney

4) Market Research 4 U – good for people in the South East

When we checked, Market Research 4 U had heaps of opportunities on offer, from £50 for a one-hour chat on joining the Royal Navy, to £70 for a two-hour chat about nappies.

Typical payment per project: £50-£150
Where does it run groups (normally)? The vast majority take place in London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey.
How is it currently running projects? You can take part by telephone or video call (often Google Hangouts).

5) QMR – good for heaps of opportunities

QMR is a well-established agency that had tons of opportunities when we checked. Shout-outs included £85 for a three-hour focus group on snacks and £135 for an online project on beer.

Typical payment per project: £50-£200
Where does it run groups (normally)? UK-wide, with lots of online projects.
How is it currently running projects? Methods include phone or Zoom video calls.

6) Trend Market Research – high payer with lots of projects

Trend Market Research is another good bet, with reams of well-paying projects. We saw £230 for a three-hour discussion on cars (car discussions are often one of the top payers if you fit the bill) and £50 to taste a meal and give feedback. Join its Facebook group for alerts.

Typical payment per project: £40-£200
Where does it run groups (normally)? UK-wide, but mainly London and the Home Counties.
How is it currently running projects? It depends on the project but methods include chat forums, over the phone and by Zoom video call.

7) Focus Force – good for Londoners (plus has online projects)

Holding most of its groups in London, Focus Force typically pays £50-£100 a survey. When we signed up to test it, there were a host of projects, from £50 to test cooking a meal to £60 for a two-hour chat on 'your perceptions of Africa'.

Typical payment per project: £50-£100
Where does it run groups (normally)? Mainly in London venues, but it also offers online and telephone projects.
How is it currently running projects? It depends on the project, but often via Skype.

8) Talking Point Research – high payer with lots of projects

Another established agency, Talking Point Research is well worth a join. When we checked, projects included £60 for a one-hour group on fitness and £40 for a telephone interview if your child has a skin condition.

Typical payment per project: £40-£100
Where does it run groups (normally)? UK-wide, but mainly London and the Home Counties.
How is it currently running projects? You can take part via Whatsapp, telephone and chat forum, depending on the project.

9) Bunnyfield – good for research on fun topics

With decent feedback from MoneySavers, Bunnyfield runs focus groups, as well as many online and telephone projects. Topics are often fun – we saw £50 offered to talk about days out and £50 for an online forum about football kit.

Typical payment per project: £50-£150
Where does it run groups (normally)? London, Oxfordshire and Sheffield, but it also has online and telephone projects.
How is it currently running projects? Methods include Zoom and Google Hangouts.

 

I've done focus groups for £50-£100. Better still are the telephone/live web ones where you don't have to leave the house. Bunnyfield's good for this.
- Forumite MollyDolly

10) Focus4People – runs groups in the South East (and online)

It's possible to earn £30 to £150 per session with Focus4People. Recent projects included £40 for a one-hour video call on news and £50 for an hour's in-person chat about holidays. Like its Facebook page to see the latest projects.

Typical payment per project: £30-£150
Where does it run groups (normally)? UK-wide, though most projects are in south east England. It also runs telephone and online sessions, so it's worth everyone joining.
How is it currently running projects? Most are taking place over telephone and Zoom video call.

11) Fresh Thinkers – worth joining for belt and braces

While it had fewer projects than some of the other agencies we signed up to, Fresh Thinkers is worth signing up to for belt and braces.

Typical payment per project: £40-£100
Where does it run groups (normally)? UK-wide
How is it currently running projects? We have not seen Fresh Thinkers offer many projects recently.

12) Research Helper – join if you're keen

Another site worth joining if you're really committed is Research Helper. When we joined though there were only a couple of opportunities currently available, including £20 for a telephone interview on groceries.

Typical payment per project: £20-£50
Where does it run groups (normally)? UK-wide
How is it currently running projects? Video call and telephone.

 

(inspired by MoneyMakingExpert.com)

 

Learning about cryptocurrency

Motto:  '' I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.'' 

(Leonardo da Vinci)

I don't know about you, but i have plenty of time at the moment, and i use it to learn. As the cryptocurrency is the latest trend, i will put some interesting links for you.

ZEN coin website - very interesting courses based on your level: begginer, average and expert. 

Binace exchange - quite an expensive range - interesting bits of knowledge related to main subjects in the crypto world.

EDX.org - this is my favourite website to learn, and you can find enough computer knowledge here to keep you busy for years to come. 

ODEM website - they got many courses, and quite few of them are free. 

The strategy that i use is to look around, find something that interests me and just put the video on, usually when i do my strength training, or put some interesting music and start reading the text. I had enough of TV now, and i am not proud to say that i've seen most of Netflix by now. So this is a nice change. 

I hope i will give you some ideas on how to keep busy. Have a good week!

G.

End of the month report - 1st of May

Total portfolio: £33830 (+2582)
Debt: 0 (-800)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £33830 (+3382)

Investments UK: £26841 (+2435)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £2432 (-357)
Pension: £12996(+904)

Total Income: £1510 (main job)+0 (second job) + 93= 1603
Passive income: £94 (5.87%)
Savings rate: 49.37%

Side hustle 2 profit: £0.25
Side hustle 3 profit: £ 10 (Betting in March £1508)
Side hustle 4 value: £3720 (Funds spent in crypto:5067)
Side hustle 5 profit: £6.78

This was a good month, but only on the paper. Anyway, i paid my short term loan, and i have no debts, once again. The net worth had an £3382 increase, mainly due to the market recovering and the  crypto increasing as the third halving is approaching. Cash is slightly lower than the previous month, but not with much. My side hustles and side gigs are almost inexistent, no extra work, no match betting or anything like that. Crypto is on an ascendent trend at least, but still nowhere near the 2018 levels (£3720 in May 2020 versus £5067 value in 2018). But staying at home has some benefits, as i am training 4 days a week in stregth and endurance, and i just published another book, about our gut intestinal flora and the inteligence of our beneficial microbes. I try my best, but i still spend quite a bit in front on the computer and sometimes Netflix. But, in my defence, i am learning Spanish and guitar.

Hope you are all good! Stay safe and live brightly!
G.

End of the month report - April 2020

Total portfolio: £31248 (-1985)
Debt: 800 (-82)
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £30448 (-1863)

Investments UK: £24406(-2257)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £2789(+337)
Pension: £12092(-2283)

Total Income: £1534 (main job)+0 (second job) + 1519 = 3053
Passive income: £1519 (49.75%)
Savings rate: 6.55%

Side hustle 2 profit: £3.38
Side hustle 3 profit: £ 1508 (Betting in March)
Side hustle 4 value: £2451 (Funds spent in crypto:5067)
Side hustle 5 profit: £7.37

March was a very eventful month, with a full blown financial crisis on the top. I got almost 2k wiped out from my net worth, mainly due to the £2283 decrease on my pensions. The shares also got a hit, so overall most of the investments slightly decreased, even the cryptocurrencies lost around 4% of their value.

But, and happily by pure chance there is a but, i was very lucky with my betting on Cheltenham, right before everything (football, racing etc) got cancelled, having a nice 1500 made on the horses. Now everything else seems to stop, even the timeline. I am working to get the money i paid on the July holiday back, as i do not think that this will happen anytime soon.

And i was stuck in the home most of the time, with not much to do. I did a deep clean of the house, i did everything that i was supposed to do in the garden.

Hope everybody is well!

G.

March 2020

What a month!

So many changes to my actual lifestyle, and so many unknown factors added to the equation. I will do my monthly report very soon.

See you. Take care.
G.

Coronavirus self-isolation journal

I have always wondered how retirement early could feel, in terms of doing different things and having all the time in the world. Apparently, my wish was granted, under stranger than life circumstances. I was sent home for 12 weeks, and i am being paid, so this can be like a test for my future early retirement plans.

The conditions are not optimal, the market seems to sink faster than Titanic, but i have 3 months to fill up. We will see what is next.

The link for my journal is here.

And if you, like me, hate the fact that the gym is closed, this is my alternative for training at home (link). The website is quite good, and they also got phone apps for weight training, training at home, running and nutrition. I started 64 months ago to train with them, and they keep improving.

See you soon.
G.

Monthly report - February 2020

Total portfolio: £33233 (+2085)
Debt: 882
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £32351 (+1203)

Investments UK: £26663 (+1549)
Investments overseas : £3934 (same)
Cash: £2452 (+352)
Pension: £14375 (+226)

Total Income: £1556.38 (main job)+0 (second job) + 404 = 1960.38
Passive income: £404 (20.61%)
Savings rate: 10.20%

Side hustle 2 profit: £0.43
Side hustle 3 profit: £ 385 (Betting in January-February)
Side hustle 4 value: £2557 (Funds spent in crypto:5067)
Side hustle 5 profit: £18.84 

This is looking a bit better, but i am still far from what i want to do. The debt is a holiday that i need to pay before 3rd of June 2020. I had few expenses related to Valentine's Day (wink-wink), but otherwise last month was quite uneventful. Slightly increasing on every mark (even if everything took a fall lately in relation with the Coronavirus scare).

Healthwise, i am a bit cranky, as i try to eliminate all the sugar and the caffeine from my diet. I started slowly with only one week at the time. I will see how it will go. My focus this year is on saving enough for a deposit to get a studio or a flat for rent before next year wedding. If i manage to do this by the end of the year, i will be pleased.

See you all next time!
G.

How to get cryptocurrency using your old blog posts

I just found something interesting, if you know what cryptocurrencies are and you already have a blog with plenty of posts. Quite easy in fact, the only thing that you need to know is that you can copy/paste your old articles from your blog, if they are original and made by you. They are checking that, but if you own them, then there is no problem.

The website is called Publish0x, a blogging platform, and the easiest way to get crypto is to select BAT (Basic Attention Coin) to be paid and to  send them at the end of every month to a Coinbase account. You will need to select the specific BAT wallet address from your Coinbase account and to sent them manually at the end of every month. You can publish up to 5 blog posts every 24 hours.

As a side hustle, using Brave Browser you can also gain free BAT, via little adds. I found this browser alright, working quite fine, and i often use it in conjunction with DuckDuckgo search engine to find some results that are different than Google (unbiased, i mean).

In a month you can make anything between 30 and 300 BAT (BAT value today 28/2/2020 is 0.21USD, so it is like £5-50). I have the maximum ads setting on Brave Browser and i got around 60 ads in the last month. You will not get instantly rich, but you will learn about cryptocurrency alternatives to Bitcoin and there are few interesting trends at the moment. Publish0x is at the moment the second rated blog platform at the profit value after Medium, and they will keep your posts in the game forever (at least this is what they claim), so if you have very interesting articles, they will potentially get you paid for years to come.  The thing is that once you uploaded 100-200 blog posts, the payments go up quite nicely. So it is like 30 days = 150 posts and then you can forget about it. Real passive investment. Just check monthly to transfer the coins from Uphold wallet to Coinbase.

If you don't understand any detail, ask me, I will gladly help.

Disclaimer, some links are referral (so we will both get a small bonus, like £5-6 each for Coinbase, for example).

2019 - end of the year report

                                       January 2019               January 2020

Total portfolio:                 £24643                           £31148
Debt:                                £806                                  No
External funds:                 ZERO                            ZERO
Car:                                     No                                  No
Net Worth:                       £23839                           £31148

Investments UK:             £19152                           £25114
Investments overseas :    £3606                             £3996
Cash:                               £1267                             £2100
Pension                          :£10465                           £14149

Total Income: £15260 (main job) + 783 (agency) + 1724 (match betting) + 600 (miscellaneouss) = 18367 (total gained)
Passive income: £2324 (12.69%)
Savings rate: 39%

I was feeling that it was not an excellent year, but the numbers seems to contradict my opinion. I got a net worth increase of more than 7 thousand, so must be good, and surprisingly my savings rate was almost 40% (i know, 39% but nevertheless...). If i am too be pedantic, out of seven thousands increase, almost four thousands were on the pension (mandatory and optional) and just 3000 added to my investments. The cash overseas changed slightly, only because the pound is losing value. If I am to add that i had 3 nice holidays abroad this year, if was a good one. Next year i try to see if i can manage only with 2 holidays, and i am try to pay most of the wedding stuff for the incoming year.

Until then, best of luck and keep working towards your financial independence!

G.

December - end of the month report

Total portfolio: £31148(+1752)
Debt: No
External funds: ZERO
Car: No
Net Worth: £31148(-1802)

Investments UK: £25114(+775)
Investments overseas : £3934 (-457)
Cash: £2100 (+1100)
Pension: £14149(+582)

Total Income: £1281.12 (main job)+0 (second job) + 300.09(probably) = 1581
Passive income: £300.09 (19.87%)
Savings rate: 12.65%

Side hustle 2 value: £0.23
Side hustle 3 value: £ 288.86 (December)
Side hustle 4 value: £1693 (Funds spent:5067)
Side hustle 5 value: £11

2020 started with a Bang. I was reaching my initial target and went over 30k. Again. Next year should be at least 35k, hopefully. But lately i lost focus, and i did neglect almost all of the side hustles, which seems to not work without any input from me. No passive income there, i would say. This year i have big plans. A bit more training, i want to achieve 15% body fat. At the moment is 30%. I know, i know that it is quite high. That's the reason that made me to start train again. We need to aim for health span, not for life span to increase, right? So, out of all my side hustles, i was just doing some match betting now and then. I prepare myself for a big move. At the end of this year, i want to make a mortgage for a rental property. I am thinking to buy a flat, semms to provide better income that a house in my area. My first buy ISA is set from more than 2 years ago, and ready to provide. I did got a promotion and a better hourly rate, but the work increased. I am a bit more tired now after work. I have also a wedding to prepare for May 2021. It will be interesting. And this year i will go in holiday twice only, as opposed to my usual 4 times a year. We need to save more.

I will compare soon my numbers with the end of 2019 and see how it was then and now.

Have a nice day!
G.