I would reckon that my most important priorities for 2012 would be on the financial and savings / investments side.
Broadly, I feel that I earn reasonably well but I neither save (and as a result) nor invest. And this is definitely a tendency or state of affairs which really has to change and change quickly.
If I am to realize my goal of trying my best to retire by 35 or latest by 40, I have to work towards ensuring that I put in my best now and build up the assets which would then allow me to retire early, which at the same time would also provide me with much needed passive income, which continues to be generated, irrespective of whether I "work" for it or not.
Accordingly, I feel I should work towards ensuring that my earnings on Elance (and other freelance platforms if any) PLUS other online marketing initiatives, touch desired levels where it is easier to sustain things in the long run.
In that spirit, I feel following are the specific financial goals which I should work towards this year in 2012:
1. Gross Combined Elance earnings till date should touch $100,000 or about 43 to 45 Lakh Rupees (post Elance commission and the poor exchange rate given by payment gateways) by the end of 2012. I am at $33,000 odd at the moment, which means I have another $66,000 odd to go by the end of the year, which in turn effectively means that I need to work at the rate of at least $5,000 to $6,000 a month.
Honestly, this is by no means impossible but at the same time, this is a target which I haven't really achieved ever for any month. This means that I need to work not only very hard, but more importantly, work very, very smartly.
So let's see how things go on this front.
At the same time, I do find some solace in the fact that I had considered $30,000 to be my target at the end of 2011 and I am happy as well as proud to say that I not only achieved that target but in fact exceeded it!!
But there are dampeners along the way as well, such as Elance's lowering of the "floor" for minimum bids - which in turn has intensified competition and bottom feeding on the site. Moreover, clients seem to be getting stingier and stingier with each passing day, with very tight budgets, often for a very high volume of work.
2. Alongside, I must ensure that my efforts from online marketing / Internet advertising pay dividends to the extent that I am able to earn at least another $3,000 to $5,000 each month from the same.
For this, I really need to expand my 'Web Empire' as I call it, really dramatically.
Very recently, I sort of tested the waters through my 2012 Auto Expo YouTube channel and I must say that I was mighty pleased, amused and surprised with the fantastic results. Even at this present moment - more than a week after the Auto Expo, my channel continues to receive major accolades in terms of YouTube Honors, where it continues to be among the foremost channels among 'Reporters', both this week as well as this month.
Essentially, what I need to do is that I combine my efforts towards online properties which have Google AdSense enabled on them, plus make suitable Affiliate Marketing efforts.
Eventually, I would like to get to a stage where I am able to make at least $30,000 a month from these efforts alone, or about $1,000 a day. Of course, this won't happen now or even in 2012, but even if that happens say by the time I am 35, I would be mighty pleased because if I can get to that stage, I feel that even if I do not put in too much additional work on developing fresh content (the only way to really continue to draw traffic in, which in turn will generate revenues for me), there would be some constant stream of income coming in anyhow.
So let's see how things go from hereon; my financial priorities for 2012 are somewhat set. I will get down to more specifics on the same in another post of mine.
Till we meet again!
