It’s Nice to Meet You, Internet

Hello, World! I’m Anon. I might choose to reveal my identity later on, but for now, let’s just be friends.

The objective of this blog is accountability. I’m not all that great at sticking with a plan, or mapping out my goals. I get excited about things for a couple of weeks and then slip back into the same old bad habits. I listen to different podcasts about money, personal finance, financial independence, and yet I still struggle to follow the principles taught by them. I tell myself: “It’s just that you don’t make enough to pay off your debt.” And: “If only I had a little more breathing room, then I would be financially responsible.” Well that’s a load of BS. I can fool myself, but I can’t fool the Internet. I won’t want to admit to wasting money on a blog about personal finance, but I’m committed to being honest.

Whether I’ll have any visitors to this blog, who knows. But it will act as a journal of sorts. Hopefully I can look back and be proud of my progress. I hope I’ll make it to my goal of being a millionaire by 40.

My first few goals are to establish a written budget with my wife, cut out expenses any unnecessary expenses, and work as much as possible to generate income to pay off my $8,000 in credit card debt.

I’m currently looking to break into the IT career field, hoping to eventually be in CyberSecurity. Meanwhile, my wife works part-time and is in college studying to become a RadTech. We live in the South-Eastern US, and our big goal right now is to save up enough money to live comfortably in New York City within 3-5 years. We’re both extremely busy and we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we both know it will all have been worth it when we look back on these days.

What to Expect From “My Financial Adventure”

• Regular blog posts about financial progress (or mistakes)
• Suggestions on reading material, podcasts, and YouTube videos
• Photography from my wife, Mrs. Anon (Which will replace all these stock photos)
• Opinion pieces on FI, leveraging debt, and credit cards as I try to figure out where I stand on these topics

I hope you’ll enjoy this blog. Thanks for viewing.

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How Delivering Pizza Will Change Your Life

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Frederick Douglass

The man comes to your door in his company uniform, carrying a heatbag full of your pizzas and a 2-liter Coke. He asks you to sign a receipt, you probably write down somewhere between $2-$7 for him on the tip line. He hands over the goods, and you shut the door and never even think about him again. Little do you know that that guy has probably made $40 in tips that day before he came to your door, and he’ll probably make another $20 or $30 before the night is over.

Do you desperately want to get out of debt? Are you looking to pick up overtime hours but they’re just not available? Are you in college and looking for something with extremely flexible hours? Are you wanting some side income to fund a hobby or buy a luxury item without dipping into your main income? What can you do?

Speaking from personal experience, pizza delivery drivers tend to make around $25-$50 in tips alone each night working only 4 or 5 hours. That doesn’t even count hourly wages, plus they get to take tip money home that night even if the customer paid with a credit card.

Averaging at $2 a tip and taking at least 3 deliveries an hour, you’re looking at an extra $6 dollars an hour that comes home with you that evening. Most companies will also offer mileage-based gas reimbursement as well. My company offers $.29 a mile. Being in a somewhat rural area the average delivery’s round-trip mileage here is about 10 miles. So that’s $2.90 a delivery, plus the average $2 tip. $4.90 a delivery, 3 deliveries an hour, now you’re looking at $73.50 after just working 5 hours. That’s not even counting hourly wages, which will be at least minimum wage in-store and a little less when on the road.

So as you may have guessed, pizza delivery is a large part of my plan for getting out of debt. My wife and I only make around $30,000 a year with our combined incomes. For two people, that’s enough to live off of, but doesn’t leave much for paying down credit card debt. So I’ve taken on delivering pizza, and working an extra 20 hours a week during the evening adds about $850 to our monthly income.

For the past few months my main income has been quite low. I have worked on commission for a year now, and to be honest, I hate it. I hated it enough that I turned in my two week notice and April 27th will be my last day working for the company. I worked there for 6 years. It took me that long to realize that painting cars is not what I want to do the for the rest of my life. I spent a lot of time researching and reflecting and realized that I actually want to be in the Information Technology field. You’ll notice I follow a lot of tech accounts on Twitter. This week I have some interviews lined up with some great companies, and I’m hoping something works out. Until then, I can work as many hours as I need to at my pizza job. It’s a great back up.

For those past few months where my full-time job wasn’t making a whole lot of money, the pizza delivering was just to make ends meet. But soon, when I get a stable job with a stable check, the pizza money will go straight to combating debt. That is something I’m really excited about. I heard Dave Ramsey tell people to get out there at night and deliver pizza if they needed to, and I didn’t do it for years. Now, I’m glad I am. I hope you’ll consider doing it if you’re in a situation where you need some extra cash. It’s a sorely overlooked way to make some decent money with decent work. This leads me back to the opening quote. It may be embarrassing. It might feel degrading. But “without struggle, there is no progress.” Swallow your pride and you’ll be glad you did.