Written by Jacob Cassidy

Operation Treasure Monthly Report – January 2010

Topic: Business & Wealth, Operation Treasure

Discuss: 4 Comments

Every month on the 3rd, I’ll be writing a report on my past month’s adventures in business and finances as part of the Poor to Wealthy theme to break free from the poverty in my life and become wealthy.

My hope is by being completely transparent and revealing all the information of how I’m doing it, you’ll be able to see, as it’s happening, a successful Internet business being built from scratch all the way to generating a sizeable full-time income online. You’ll then have the knowledge to build your own successful online business too, if you so desire…

Designing and Launching Successful Transformation

I spent most of January getting the blog and graphics designed and background software code finished and ready to launch. Being able to launch this blog 9 days ago brought me a lot of joy after working on it for months.

When I decided a few months ago to restart this blog and create a new design, I wanted to make sure I had full control over it so I could upgrade and change it at will, anytime I wanted. This meant I had to understand the code WordPress themes are based on. (WordPress is the background software that runs this blog, along with millions of others.)

I already knew basic HTML from my old web designing days, but much has chanced since then and WordPress is based on a whole new way of dynamically designing websites through CSS & PHP.

I learned how to design this entire site using CSS & PHP the same way I did with old sites using HTML back in the late 90’s & early 2000’s – by looking at the source code of other professionally designed sites and hacking the code together with mine repeatedly until it worked.

I don’t understand either code well enough to design a WordPress theme from scratch without any outside resources. Nor do I want to put in the time to learn the code this in-depth because that time is better spent creating content and marketing. However, I do understand it well enough that whenever I want to make a change I don’t currently know how to do, I can do a quick search online, find a site that already doing it, and look at their source code by right clicking on the mouse and choosing “view page source” to figure out what I need to do. It’s an amazing resource that allows me to make almost any customization I want.

Unfortunately, sometimes this “hacking” together of different codes creates incompatibilities that throw everything off and takes me days to figure out what the issue is. It took me two weeks, for example, to figure out how to code the template for my comments to work with the background software. Then a friend discovered my site looked all messed up when viewed in Internet Explorer 6 (an obsolete, buggy, 8 year old browser, which around 12% of internet users still use today). I spent another week correcting this and learning about the differences between browsers.

Fortunately, every time I run into these types of problems it leads me to learning more about code so I can solve the problem and I come out more knowledgeable about designing. It’s a “learn as you go” method that will lead to continuous upgrades to this site over time.

To test the new codes and make sure they’re up to speed before adding them to this site, I have an exact duplicate blog setup on another domain. I can safely test everything on there without worrying about losing important data. If anything goes wrong, I just reset the site by re-downloading the last copy of the theme I made.

I could, of course, had skipped all this work and just downloaded one of the thousands of free themes already available and ready to work out of the box, but then I’d have a cookie cutter site like the other 99.99% of the 200 million blogs floating around out there that I didn’t have full control of. That doesn’t sound very appealing to me.

My Current Income and Expenses

I already mention how I moved back into my parent’s house to save money and to allow me to focus all my attention on building a successful business in 2010 Goals – Developing Freedom. I also broke down the 6 items of debt totaling $34,000 I’m currently paying off there too. Now, I’m going to break down exactly how much money I have coming in and where it’s going each month in these Operation Treasure Monthly Reports.

Currently, I have just one source of income, government checks, which I mention in the above post I want to wean off of as fast as possible. I receive $743 from this each month.

Of that $743, $653 is currently going toward paying off debt, $30 for business expenses, $47 for my iPhone service, and the extra $13 is saved.

Current Monthly Expenses:

$500 – Mom repayment
$100 – Friend’s credit card repayment
$53 – AK Student Loan repayment
$47 – iPhone service
$10 – Hosting for all my websites
$20 – Internet upgrade to parent’s line
Total expenses: $730 per month.

When I moved back into my parent’s house, I offered to pay back the loans I have from them at $500 a month as sort of a rental agreement. They also cover my food expenses and I help out around the house – getting firewood, keeping the house warm (it’s 13 below zero outside as I type this), doing the dishes, etc. I also give my mom a 90-minute massage every week to help her relax from a long workweek.

Getting support from my parents is a tremendous help in getting a hand up in life. Of course, once I become wealthy, the tables will turn and it will be me helping them enjoy life to the fullest by allowing them access to money and the freedom of time needed to travel, explore, learn, and go on adventures.

Business Expenses

I currently have just two business expenses. Web hosting at $10 a month and upgrading my parent’s internet line at $20 a month. Running an internet business is incredibly cheap. I know of no other business model one can run an entire business off of for just $30 a month.

If you’re wondering what web host I’m using, I use HostGator (That’s an affiliate link, so if you decide you want hosting, and order through that link, I get paid). I used to use ThirdSphereHosting, but they’re way overpriced now, and HostGator allows me to have as much data and add as many domains as I want on one account for no extra fees. TSH, on the other hand, charged me $10 every time I wanted to add another domain, and was 150% more expensive to start, while offering very little data space. HostGator also offers a first month for 1 cent deal using the coupon code hgc25, so you can try it before deciding. That’s was the final piece that got me to transfer.

The only other business expense I currently have is registering domain names. I’ve used the popular GoDaddy service for years, but don’t recommend using them anymore because I’ve heard of many accounts of others losing control of their domain from GoDaddy getting a random piece of negative feedback. Meaning a competitor or some stranger who got insulted about something you wrote can email GoDaddy saying you’re using some unethical practice on your domain name, no proof needed, and GoDaddy steals your domain right from under you. If you want it back you’ll have to go through a bunch of back and forth emails, phone calls, and pay hundreds of dollars to get back what should have been rightfully yours in the first place.

It’s an unwarranted risk I’m not willing to take, so I’ve been transferring all my domains to NameCheap. It costs $9.69 to register a domain name for a year, or $7.99 to transfer one (which also adds a year to the registration). NameCheap also offers coupons for a greater discount. I paid $6.99 each to transfer my domains over to them in December. The current coupon for February 2010 is ILUVNC. This changes each month, but you can do a quick Google search for “NameCheap coupon” to find the latest code, or even email NameCheap directly and ask for it.

Extra Expenses In January

I’ve been watching the market of Wolverine comic books on eBay (a goal I made in 2010 Goals – Developing Freedom) and discovered I can get them incredibly cheap in incomplete lots. While a full set of volume 2 comics (with 189 issues) will sell for around $300 including shipping, a price of $1.59 an issue, I can get incomplete lots for between $0.35 and $0.75 an issue.

I’ve spent $237.58 so far collecting two sets. The first has been completed, and I have just 15 issues left to complete the second. The idea is to pay off the first set by selling the second. This way I’ll basically get a free set of Wolverine comics, minus the time put into collecting them, which provided fun breaks from work for me anyway. I had a little extra money left over from Xmas and got an unexpected check from ATT paying my $150 iPhone service deposit back that allowed me to buy these.

I also picked up a Wii game to play with my nephew on Sundays after family dinner. He’s always bugging me to play with him, but I wasn’t a fan of any of his off brand, poorly developed games. I always enjoyed fighting games when I was younger so I picked up the newly released Tatsunoko vs Capcom. It’s a pretty fun little game. He likes being the giant robot and shooting missiles at me.

Other Items I Want to Buy in 2010

While minimizing materialization and getting rid of 90% of my belongings is one of my goals in 2010, there are still a few essential material items I want to pick up this year.

Vibram Five Fingers

I really dislike wearing shoes. In fact, I go everywhere barefooted or in flip flops when possible. But, in the modern world, and in the cold harsh Alaskan weather, it’s pretty hard to go far without shoes. Vibram five fingers is the next closest thing to going barefooted, which, interesting enough, has become increasingly popular over the last few years. There is even a society for barefoot living.

More and more science is beginning to come out that show shoes greatly inhibits the development and health of the feet (did you know the foot and ankle contain 26 bones (1/4 of all bones in your body are found in the feet), 33 joints, more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments, and a network of various blood vessels, nerves, and other soft tissue?). This has further spurred me to want to remain barefoot as much as possible.

The problem with going barefoot over just baring the weather is many establishments won’t allow you to enter without footwear. Most gyms, for instance, require shoes to use. The other problem is dangers of stepping on sharp objects. A few months ago, my friend, Tom, took off one of his sandal to adjust while we were in one of the huge Vegas casinos, and stepped on a piece of glass that split his big toe wide open. This resulted in a trip to the ER and a night spent getting stitched up. Five finger shoes solve both these problems.

Ironmaster Dumbbells

This is a pair of adjustable dumbbells that replaces the need for buying multiple pairs at different weights. Currently, I’m setup at home with a squat rack, bench, barbell, and a bunch of free weights, but I’m lacking proper equipment in dumbbells. I’m not 100% certain I want to get a pair of these because I don’t know how long I’ll be in Alaska to use them and they’re quite expensive (around $800 for a set shipped to Alaska with the 120 lbs add-on kit). This might be an item I get when I settle down in one place long enough to justify the cost.

Repairs for Old Hearing Aid

I generally get a new pair of hearing aids every 3-4 years as technology updates, but once in awhile those new hearing aids short out and need to be sent in for repair, so I always keep my pervious generation’s hearing aids on hand. Unfortunately, when I last had to send in one of my new hearing aid to be fixed a couple months ago, my old hearing aid shorted out as well. Price to fix? $250 with a 1 year warranty.

Ebook Reader

I’m a big reader, and as such, have a large collection of books on hand. However, as part of my minimizing materialization goal, I want to get rid of the vast majority of them. 250 books or 1 ebook reader? Not a hard decision for someone consistently moving thousands of miles every few months and lugging around 9 big boxes of book.

The great thing is 2010 is gearing up to be an ultra completive year for ebook readers. With the iPad coming out in April, Kindle own touchscreen version in the works, and dozens of other companies coming out with their own readers, the choices will soon be appealing.

Passport

I definitely need to pickup a passport this year if I’m going to start traveling around the world next year. Cost – $75.

Plane tickets

This year, I wanted to visit Las Vegas at least once during the winter to take a break from the cold and isolation in Alaska, and visit Hawaii sometime in the fall if I decide not to move there by the end of the year. I just got my ticket to Vegas, thanks to my mom letting me skip February’s repayment (it just means it’ll take me a month longer to repay my debt), and I’ll be flying down there soon.

Plane tickets from Alaska are expensive! The current cheapest round-trip flight I could find to Vegas was around $732 after taxes and fees. This was after checking all the dates on every major booking site, along with the airlines websites directly. However, I manage to get it for another 15% off by using the “Name Your Own Price” feature on PriceLine.com. I’ve tried using this service several times in the past and it never could beat the lowest price I found. This time, however, it managed to beat the price by more than $100. There’s a first time for everything.

The only drawback was I’d have to order the tickets not knowing what airlines I would be flying on, what times they would be departing and arriving, or what my connection flights and layover times would be. An inconvenience for sure, but to save $100 it was worth it.

Turns out, the layovers, connections, and times were better than anything I could have gotten at the cost of $100 more. Sometimes things work out perfectly. Now I’ll be in Vegas for 3 weeks of February visiting a sweetheart for an extended Valentines Day and will be writing from there in less than a week. Love it.

Posted on February 3, 2010

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