The Side Hustle is now More

Some people are happy clocking a 9-5 job, I'm not one of them. A few years back to generate extra income on the side from my other financial business I decided to put some of my money to work for me. Pretty much my entire life since middle school I've had some sort of side hustle.

So while working as a financial advisor running my own shop I decided that to keep me from going completely insane explaining the same basics of investing to people over and over that there needed to be a distraction. This distraction came in the way of a toy business.

Have had people laugh at me, they make cracks like "your little toy business", and other snide remarks because it isn't something they can wrap their little brains around. To them going to an office, logging hours, and getting a steady paycheck is the way life should be.

To me they are insane...how can anyone let other people tell you when to wake up, when to eat, and when you can go home to spend time with their family for 40+ years of their lives. That is not living in my book.

That said my distraction from my profitable financial business was meant to be something that was done a weekend here and a weekend there. This is how it all started. A couple simple small purchases of toys which were flipped on craigslist for quick profits. It went like this for a couple months, then something amazing happened.

Ran into the entire inventory of a failed comic book store. We are talking about a 24' box truck full of inventory at an amazing price. All of a sudden my small little distraction turned into a business that was paying for our vacations and spending money. Still nothing to really talk about...about it was enough that we felt the difference in our lifestyle.

Then fast forward a couple years of still being bored explaining the same basic concepts of investing to people over and over. My loving and supportive Wife allowed me to turn my distraction into our main income. Had to hit some sales numbers first and wind down the financial business as it's not something you just walk away from. There has been a transition that took the toy business and it grew beyond the financial business. For a couple years now the financial business has been more of a fall back or safety net then anything.

At some point you have to cut the cords and move on. As of Halloween the Financial business is closed. No more overhead for that business and no more government licenses. Oh how I hated holding all those licenses and giving thousands of dollars a year to keep them.

So it's official my toy business is in full swing and there is no going back. By letting my licenses expire and canceling my E&O insurance that chapter in my life is closed.

Now the only investing that needs to be done is for myself and that only involves explaining things to my Wife and 2 Daughters. Now teaching an 8 and 12 year old the principles of investing and explaining cryptocurrencies to them isn't easy, but it's more rewarding then the time spent teaching any of my past clients.

So as the holiday shopping season is upon us my crazy time of the year starts. It means lots of sourcing, scanning, pricing, labeling, and packing up items to be shipped into Amazon. But thanks to Amazon FBA once the prep work is done it gets shipped off to a warehouse for Amazon to then ship to customers once ordered. This service allows me to have a life even during the busiest time of year for someone selling toys.

Tomorrow is family only day. No work will be done. The Kids sing at church and then we are going out to spend time with my Wife's family. They will be keeping the kids for a couple nights which is a nice bonus. Love my kids, but having a couple days without them is always a nice break.

It's freeing to remove a layer of stress from your life. The effort needed to close down the financial business and the debating if the timing was correct and, and, and...lets just say a lot went into that process and decision to actually give up my licenses and make this official.

Not sure if sharing about earning an income selling on Amazon is something people would like to hear about. If there is interest leave a comment and I will write some posts about getting started.