How to Create $7k in Passive Income Quarterly – Q3 2024 Recap

Tracking TNFG’s QTR 3 2024 Passive Income Progress

The third quarter numbers are in, a run-of-the-mill $7k month. The glory days of $20,000 quarters from 2020 are long gone. Relatively, I’m grateful for our +$6,000 average. My goal is to bring that up to an average of $10,000 monthly by 2027. Unfortunately, prices are up on our business expenses, and dividend yields are down. In positive news, Federal interest rates are easing to 2 percent.

Times are harder.

Reflected in the election results, the average American household lives check to check. As the new federal administration takes shape, the future is 50/50. There are fears that tariffs will drive up prices and trigger the tenuous recession. With consumer spending high and credit card debt spiraling, this will present a challenge for 2025. My household’s primary mission for the 4th quarter is to close the year on a high note. Time to focus on our health, and all of the moving renovations.

Rebrand and Refocus post Student Loan Forgiveness.

As always, no matter the challenge, I lean toward Gratitude. Our personal and household growth is not centered on one number. Instead, it’s about the journey and documenting the process for the future. By sharing our challenge, we hope to equip you with experience and solutions.

Final total: $6,928.07 (Down 0.66% from Q2)

Almost non-existent consulting in QTR 3 – $242.50

Wow. We went from two consultation side hustles to zero. Now, we rely on crumbs. I did a three-hour financial breakdown early in the month for $250. However, Square takes the taxes upfront.

At this stage, I’m shutting down financial consultations for 2025. I’m all about the family, our dog, and travel. However, we will innovate once I get to Florida. I intend to be out more and in the community.

For everyone else, if the election taught you anything, podcasting can be lucrative with the right topic and/or viewpoint. Get creative, hit record, and share. You might have an audience.

That lifestyle might not be great for everyone. Consider how to bring in more money. I’ll favor working simpler jobs for extra pay. Until those paychecks, we will stick to traveling and our net/max financial plan.

See how the Business Cycle is Tracking based on Fidelity’s Q3 estimations:

Passive Income Producing Side Hustles: $5,600.00

Unfortunately, I haven’t created any e-books. We’ve been traveling. I’m being lazy and distracted (especially with politics). Time to ramp my priorities back up.

Writing a book is all the rage now. I think I have a style. It will be an intro vivo biography with a lot of financial stories. The book revenues could be as low as $500 per month, but it would still be nice. An investment of $500 per month at 8% can turn into $1M in 34 years.

That’s easy money.

Additionally, I think it gives creatives like me more credibility if I became an author even though I’ve written over 600 blog posts.

This passive income is proving to not be that passive at all.

Rental Income: $5,600.00

Our Rental RE income brings in $1,400 per month, with an early payment of $700 in late September. However, I didn’t talk about the expenses which totaled $4,150. This includes $775 on the mortgage; $290 for the homeowners’ association fee; and, $110 for Xfinity. Plus about $2,500/yr to ready the unit for the new semester (prorated $625 per quarter).

Net result about +$750 for the 3rd QTR.

Better than nothing, or about $3,000 per year. All this to say, it’s not that sexy to be a real estate investor. Nor are your efforts that passive, however over time this should improve. Once the rental mortgage ($50k remaining) is paid off, it would add nearly $10,000 annually.

Read, “How To Build Wealth by Investing in Rental Properties.”

Real Passive Income through Investing for Dividends: $1,085.57 (-25% from Q3 2023)

We brought in nearly $1,085.57 worth of dividends in the third quarter through our five investment vehicles.

These vehicles include two M1 accounts for our after-tax investments, two ROTH IRAs, one HSA, one traditional IRA, and one Health Savings Account (HSA). Well, that part that’s invested. See the link to our real-time investment tracking on Google Sheets.

This represents a 24.90% decrease from the third quarter of 2023.

This included companies like $XOM, $NVDA, $HD, $SBUX, $VTI etc. Our biggest payout was $443.92 in August. While the last month of the QTR tends to be bigger, we have since shifted toward a growth model. We are on track toward our retirement goal of at least $30,000 per year in dividends. That’s a nice chunk of change to augment my pension of $40,000 per year.

Read “How to Make Money from Dividends: 7 Ways to Profit.”

Blog Promotion, Growth, and Passive Income Potential?

For the quarter, there was over 3.4k in organic search traffic based on my keywords with over 292.8k in total impressions. Authority Score is 30 but the audience is growing (Up 56.77% YTD). The visibility increased by 11% as well. Post-traveling, I’ll have to carve out a better schedule for weekly blog post releases that I can keep up with.

I like the element of being consistent no matter who’s looking or not. Wildly, I received inquiries from people who think we are making money off the blog. If only they understood that this is a losing proposition. My wife calls it my expensive man hobby. At least, it’s not a big-ticket item purchase.

It’s all about putting out quality and meaningful content for the time being. However, I’m not sure how I will feel now that we reached millennial millionaire status. The next phase is to grow our investments to $1M (currently sitting around $625k).

To close out the year, we are headed to Argentina and Brazil.

Blog Statistics to Build on Passive Income Weaknesses

The website’s organic Google searches were 5,670 with 496,471 impressions. Turns out wealth or specifically average Black wealth is not trendy. People who spend a lot of money are way more popular than those who teach how to have a lot of wealth. Or, they simply don’t like me. That part is way more plausible.

My website position is holding at 15.72 (an improvement).

People buy into people they like. With that said, I have a lot of work to do regarding ranking keywords. This is among the things that I needed to learn in my 20s as well as better branding. Building a following isn’t what it used to be. High-quality photos and engagement are how some people get clicks and likes.

I’ll keep trying but I’m honestly happier with our focus on Early Retirement.

3^rd QTR 2024 Progress Report – Final Thoughts

Blogging is very difficult and it’s ultimately not very passive. I put in way too much work for little to no payout. And the wifey doesn’t like it either. Turns out, she doesn’t like the podcast too. She just wants me to hang out with her all the time.

However, I have a feeling that years from now; it will be a treasure trove. However, every bit helps. Read how that went here:

• How We Made $5k+ in Passive Income for Q2 2024

In regards to increasing our passive income streams, I’m strongly leaning toward just making more money in my day job and focusing on owning more Real Estate for rental revenue and investing for more dividends.

I favor consistency which RE and dividends dish out in spades. For 2025-2026, I’ll pour into a Certified Financial Planner certification and instruction. In the end, there are multiple ways to build wealth and some ways might not be a great fit for you.

Check out the Financial Griot Podcast where we chat all things Financial Literacy and Life. Or link with me on Instagram.

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