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Kicking debt to the curb, speedy-like

April 25th, 2011 at 06:31 pm

Funny thing about having a game plan for paying down debt: the closer I come to approximating the final payoff date, the slower time seems to pass. In other words, the better my wife and I become at finessing the budget and avoiding the days of "please God, let our paychecks clear before the next check bounces", the more the process has become ... well, boring.

Since boredom breeds all sorts of bad behavior, I've committed my spare time to generating extra income. My long-term plan is to head back to college to obtain a B.S. in accounting (I currently hold a B.S. in business management). Until the consumer debt is gone and my kids are old enough to be in school, however, my education will have to wait.

This leaves me with two immediate options. First, I can obtain a part-time job. Since my wife and I both work full-time, this would mean tilting the childcare balance her way. Thankfully, she is on board with the idea. The second option, to my knowledge, would be to create some passive income streams.

The part-time job challenge is an easy one to solve. With the accounting career in mind, I plan on becoming a tax preparer for H&R Block next year. The way I see it, the hours aren't bad, the pay is decent, and the whole experience wouldn't look too embarrassing on my resume. Plus, training starts in the fall and shouldn't cost me anything (supposedly they waive the fee if you commit to doing some work for them).

On the other hand, the passive income stream option is a bit of a mystery to me. I understand that the basic concept is to implement programs and/or investments that don't require a ton of maintenance while slowing feeding you much-needed cashola. The common example would be that of the affiliate, where you are compensated for generating traffic for a vendor. Having absolutely zero experience with doing this, I'm hoping y'all have some suggestions.

P.S. Hope everyone had a happy Easter.

P.S.S. I think I've appeased this website's appetite today after feeding it three freshly-typed variations of this post