We'll today it has been 30 days since I started out on my first challenge to generate more income in my family's life then existed before. I set out on a goal to raise $500 and I'm proud to say I was successful in raising $635.



The biggest contributing factor to my success was without a doubt Craigslist. It accounted for 83% of my total extra income and at no cost. If anything by doing this challenge it has opened my eyes to the possibilities of what Craigslist can provide you and publicize.

Along with that is has gotten a lot of useless junk out of our house and provide more storage space for our family. Especially as we prepare to have a new baby!

Below is a list of my streams of income:
1) Craigslist - $525
2) Tax Lien interest - $8.90
3) Ebay - $51.52
4) Amazon books - $51
5) Online Survey - mysurvey.com

Now's it off to Chicago on Wednesday for a family vacation, which we'll spend the majority of my streams of income on! We are going to a Cubs game and hopefully hit a few museums! Hope you enjoyed my challenge.

Let me know if you enjoyed my challenge or having any other ideas!! Thanks for reading!

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Today my sister, son, and I went to garage sales. Brings back fond memories as a kid going with my as my mom instilled in me being frugal and getting good deal at garage sales. Sometimes my mom and her friends took garage sales to an extreme, but I got the jist of it! Thanks mom!

This morning we didn't pick anything up for more the 25 cents, but we did find some great deals. Bought a squirt gun and a nice puzzle map of the United States. My parents use to quiz me every night before I went to bed on the states and their capitals. I figure this will help my son learn his states too. Then probably the best deal I am proud of snatching is a vintage 7up glass cup. I remember these cups when I was a kid. I think they came from Pizza Hut, but I'm not sure. I couldn't believe the price tag said 25 cents and I knew it was worth more than that so I looked it up on ebay when I got home! Found a list of two of them for $20!!

7up ebay glasses

Also on Friday I sold my golf clubs for $60, so that is a little more to add to my Multiple Streams of Income challenge. I'm now up to $635 total!!

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Yesterday during some free time at work I thought for a second about my multiple streams of income challenge and thought...in all what avenues do I currently utilize to get to retirement early? Here is the list I came up with (in no particular order):

1. Craigslist
2. Ebay
3. Surveys
4. Blog Revenue
5. Amazon books sales
6. 40 hour/week job
7. 401k
8. Roth 401k
9. Wife’s 403b
10. My ROTH IRA
11. Wifes ROTH IRA
12. 529 plan for son
13. Ibonds (for son’s college)
14. Silver coins & coin collection
15. Company stock options
16. County tax lien certificate
17. Farming business
18. Home equity

Basically when I got to about 8 or 9 items I felt blown away. Then to come up with 18...wow! I realized we are already using a lot of different streams of income generation that are already generating $$’s or will be available someday (i.e. retirement funds, 529 plan).

You know the quote of Albert Einstein that says “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest”. I realize with 18 different streams of income, the power of compound interest, and being only 31 years old that these streams will eventually make ponds. Thus generating more income or retirement $$’s that I probably will ever be able to imagine.

I challenge you all to sit down and write out all the ways that you are creating avenues of income today or will be in the future. You might just be amazed at what you are already doing.

As always if anyone has any suggestions on other ways to create income streams, then let me know and I’ll investigate!! Thanks again for everyone’s encouragement as my family and I go on this challenge.

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Got some good news on the multiple streams of income! Listed a baby crib set last Sunday and this morning we only had 1 bid on it at $25. Just checked it and we have 3 3/4 hours left and we have two bids and it is up to $51.52!!!Awesome! We also have 9 watchers on our item so I'm hoping some people will jump in at the last minute and bid it above $60.

Also on Friday my wife and I listed three European pez dispensers sets on Friday, and we are hoping to start getting some bids on them. Currently no watchers, but we're hopeful.

Talked to a guy at work today and he said he was going to send me a referral signup for pinecone research so I can generate some more survey income that didn't exist before. I'm also going to re-read my book "Multiple Streams of Income" by Robert G Allen to try and get some more ideas.

On another note, yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble and read a few pages of Work Less, Live More: The Way to Semi-Retirement and it looked really good. I'm thinking about buying it used off amazon, but we'll see. Anyone else read this book by chance?

Lastly, this coming week I'll be starting my next challenge (overlapping with Multiple Streams of Income) called "30 day challenge - Go Green". My objective will be to move my family and house to living "more green". I'll give updates as to how we are living green and ways we are improving.


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Did it again!! Through yet another means of just putting my stuff out there I sold a book on Amazon.com. Total sale price was $55, and with fees and shipping I’ll net $40. So I’ve added $40 to the challenge, which pushed me over the $500 Mark! I made it past $500 in extra income (cold hard cash) in just 18 days. I’m going to really push to $1000 these last two weeks.

Also as another stream of income I invested $2033 in a county bond yesterday that pays 12% interest through my local county office. I figure that will earn me $0.685/day interest so with 13 days left in the challenge then I’ll add $8.91 to my total. In all I’m up to $513.91. Overall, I’m really pleased with my progress.

Ebay update: We have one watcher our our ebay listed item, but no bids yet.

Craigslist – Yesterday my wife and I discussed about listing all of her unopened Pez dispenser collection. We don’t want the hassle of listing each individual Pez, so we are thinking about listing the whole collection on craigslist for one set price…$200 or $250. We’ll see what bites we get on that.

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Yesterday I signed up for mysurvey.com as a part of my 30 day Multiple Streams of Income Challenge. This was based on one of the comments I received on the first day of starting this series. This morning I got my first survey which only took about 5 minutes. Wasn’t bad at all. This whole survey bit isn’t my most productive means for generating extra income that didn’t exist before, but the whole concept is that there are other ways for person to generate income by use of the internet, skills, or any means.

I got a comment just the other day from Nic saying the exact same thing, “I've been following your 'Multiple Streams of Income' series and must admit, you helped me kick it up a notch or two. I listed items on Craigslist and put out items for our yard sale that I would not have otherwise. The house and garage is about 1500 lbs lighter. Clothes have been cleared from our closets w/no intention of replacing them. We're living w/less and enjoying it more. Even our food pantry got an overhaul and food close to expiration went to the food bank.
Thanks Dicky, you da man! ”

For a lot of us its just a matter of getting off our behinds and doing something to get out of debt, get closer to retirement, or just provide some income for a vacation or holiday.

Multiple Streams of Income - Ebay update: currently on day 2 of 7 we still don’t have any bidders on our baby bedding. We’ve had quite a few viewers, but no bidders yet. I’m not worried yet.

Question for you all – has anyone else had some success in creating another stream of income? I welcome your inputs or comments! Also does anyone else have any other tips to generate some more income? If so, then send them my way and I’ll try them out! Again thanks for everyone's encouragement and help in pushing through this Series!!