In January 2021 I decided to set myself the challenge of making an additional £500 per month from sources outside of my 9-5 job.

As the end of the year nears, I thought it would be interesting to see how this has gone for the first 10.5 months of the year.

So without further ado, this is how I have got on;

This website - £1,895.56 Profit

I launched this website back in November 2020 and ran it at a loss out of a passion for financial education. It took around 3 months for this to turn around as I explored ways to monetise the page. This is important as I aim to turn it into a full-time business in the next few years.

Matched betting - £1,572.73 Profit

If you follow us on Instagram, you will know that I am constantly going on about matched betting. I began my journey with this side hustle in January and have found a passion for it ever since.

So much so, that I decided to write a beginners’ guide on matched betting which you can find here, completely for free.

LISA bonuses - £1,125

If you live in the UK and are a first-time buyer, you can take advantage of a Lifetime ISA. This is a tax-advantaged account that allows you to receive a 25% Government bonus of up to £1,000 every tax year when you lock away cash for your first home.

Due to how the tax years fall, you will see that I have received a nice amount of income so far for this.

Personal online earnings - £687.65

I often go on about how it is possible to make money online using easy methods. "Put your money where your mouth is" is a quote that I would apply to this income.

I have used ‘free money’ offers such as crypto sign-ups, app downloads, cashback, and many other avenues. In fact, if you want to earn money online like this, you may want to join our ‘free money’ mailing list here.

Stock trading - £352.22 Profit

Towards the beginning of the year, I fancied myself a bit of a stock trader so started giving it a go using charts, tips, and various other methods. As the stock market has been choppy recently I have stuck to long-term investing only. However, I was pleased with my initial results.

Please note that most people who trade stocks do lose money. I made a lot of calculated risks that paid off.

Unrealised crypto gains - £249.77

As well as being a long-term investor in stocks, I am also very bullish on cryptocurrencies and hold around 10% of my overall portfolio in crypto. I am looking at this as a long-term investment so am very pleased with my current unrealised gains.

Interest received - £95.94

This is interest on my savings accounts which I hold part of my house deposit in, my emergency fund, and various other savings pots.

Dividends received - £57.27

I mostly invest in growth stocks however, I do have around ~£6,000 invested into ETFs which naturally return dividends from these holdings. Therefore, these are the dividends received so far this year. Of course, they all get re-invested.

Unrealised stock losses - -£1,106.97

This is the one that is the real stinger! Unfortunately, the stock market has not been kind to me this year and has seen a heavy fluctuation between large gains and losses month by month so far.

However, I am a long-term investor and am continuing to invest monthly, and am hopeful for the future.

Conclusion

So for the year to date, I am looking at £4,929.17 over 10.5 months which works out at around £469 per month when including unrealised gains and losses.

Remove these from the equation and I have a much healthier income of £5,786.37 (£551 per month).

I still have a couple of months left of 2021, but so far I am really pleased with how much I have achieved with this goal. More importantly, I am more excited about the fact that I have inspired many of you to boost your income with very little work.

Let’s have another look at the end of the year!