A Path to Passive Income

My son wanted to start a podcast after listening to some podcasts with me in the car. So, in the name of being a good father and helping him pursue things he is interested in, I said yes. I wanted to use this as a place to document our journey into podcasting and any resources we use along the way.  The first place I went was to this site . I've listened, on and off, to the Smart Passive Income podcast by Pat Flynn for several years. Pat lays out step-by-step in this guide how to start a podcast and the tools he uses. This is the process that I will be following. The first step in the process is to "Choose a topic you can commit to", create a list of 25 episode ideas, and imagine what it will look like a year from now if the podcast is a success. Since the podcast is being hosted by a 7-year-old, there aren't a ton of very deep topics that he knows much about, but he is very curious, so we decided on a show where we have conversations. The conversations will vary wide...

This past week my mom celebrated her birthday. With my new reduced hours, I was able to take the kids down to see her and my sisters during the week. I really enjoyed being able to just take off and spend time with my family celebrating my mother. We had her favorite restaurant (take-out style), played out in the yard for hours, and ended up spending the night. 

Part of my plan spending more time at home is to take care of our wooded areas around our home. Clearing out the brush is a hobby that I have come to enjoy. I like the challenge of doing it all manually instead of using any power tools, meaning I use an ax or hatchet versus a chainsaw, and hedge clippers and hand pruners versus trimmers. I also have a burn barrel as well as a camp fire ring which makes disposing of the debris much more fun and satisfying. I spent 5 hours tackling my yard "debt" yesterday, felled trees and vines that I had piled up over the last year waiting for a good time to burn them. I made it through about 1/3 of the pile. I'm looking forward to spending more time outdoors working with my hands.

Today was a first. My wife and I recently decided that it was time for me to step back from full time employment. This was due to several things coming together all at once. First, COVID-19, need I say more. We have 3 young children, 7, 5, and 3 years old. Handling them day-to-day while trying to balance two full-time jobs was wearing on us all. Second, my wife is killing it at work. She is working on a large project for her employer, it was put on pause in March, but restarted today. So being unsure of our child care/public school situation heading into the fall and her project ramping back up with increased time commitments, we decided that I would work only 10 hours a week for the foreseeable future.  This will give me the time and flexibility to spend time with the children, strengthen important relationships, continue to expand my "side-hustles", knock out some honey-do items, spend more time planning for the future of our family, finances, travel, investments, and fitne...

This page is a link to all of the different resources that I use or products that I love. Financial Money Management Personal Capital -  I use Personal Capital to track my net worth over time. It lets me see a quick snapshot of all of my accounts, from cash to investing to credit cards to loans to my other assets like my house and cars. Banking Capital One - I use Capital One for all of my day to day banking needs, including checking and savings. They allow you to have multiple savings accounts to be able to have different goals for each account. Wealthfront - I use Wealthfront as a place to keep my emergency fund. They have a high yield savings account that tracks the Fed Funds rate. I compare that rate to the rate at Capital One and move my money to the one that has the highest rate. Investing Fundrise -  I use Fundrise to invest in a diversified portfolio of real estate projects. There is no need to be an accredited investor and the minimum investment ...