Let’s start with the negative so we can finish with the good stuff.
Teaching on the side
I gave up teaching on DMM Eikaiwa. It was okay, but when so many people around me told me I could do better, I began to resent working for such a low wage. I decided to try Cafetalk, where I could set my own rates and… hardly any students have booked my classes. Insert “shaking my head” emoji.
An attempt at passive earning
I stopped mining Bitcoin. It took a couple of months to earn the $50 I needed for a payout, but that’s enough for me. I was using two computers for it, and I just didn’t like leaving them on all day with the graphics cards running at 100%.
Honeygain is a joke. I still haven’t made $20 and I’ve been using it every day for over six months! As soon as I hit $20, the minimum required to withdraw, I’m taking that money and deleting the app. :p
While I struggle to get my earnings back up after quitting the kindergarten, there are some positives:
No more debt
We paid off our mortgage! That’s one big expense we no longer need to worry about, although the value of houses in Japan depreciate over time, which means we are now the owners of a worthless, creaky old wooden house that’s in desperate need of rebuilding, lol.
Planting seeds for growth
Still, the money we have been giving to the bank is now going into the stock market. I’m committed to catching up on lost years by putting what money I can afford into index funds. I hope it pays dividends in the future (pun intended)!
Finally, Bitcoin. I still have very little in crypto, but what I do have is more than what I started with, so that’s good, right?
All eyes on YouTube
I’ve started teaching English on YouTube. If people won’t pay me for lessons, maybe Google will? I’ve amassed around 400 subscribers as I write this, and I need 1,000 before I can start monetizing my videos. If I can stick it out, I think this could become quite fruitful in the future.
Hiking!
For a long time, this blog was about my running and hiking adventures, and while I stopped going such long distances, I do still get out into the mountains. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to do the 52km course in my town for the first time in about four years. I only made it halfway, but got out again the following week to finish it. And that, my dear readers, is something I’m very proud of! 😀
If you like, you can find me on Twitter at @nick_ramsay. I'd love to hear from you!
I’m really glad to see you trying YouTube and it sounds like you are already off to an amazing start. I’ve seen a few of your videos and they are great! I’m so glad you are no longer working for those low-wage deals!
I’m not crazy about crypto at all. Again I think it’s great that you tried it, but honestly, it just seems so speculative and that the bottom could fall out at any moment. I think investing in real companies is a much more worthwhile and sustainable strategy towards planning for retirement. Of course I’ve been wrong many times before so…….
Glad you are getting back out to the mountains and enjoying the beautiful nature that surrounds you. Japan is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. People take care of the environment and the same can’t be said for many other places.