Have you found the next online course you want to sign up for? Cool! Have you finished those you’ve start yet? No? Then this is for you.
When starting a new project you are passionate about, it’s very easy to overspend on the infamous shiny object.
This could be online courses, workshops, community fees, apps, and tools you think you need and/or will be helpful. You are at an even higher risk if you want/need to learn the skills to set you.
Whether it makes more sense to learn a skill to be able to do the necessary task at hand yourself or to outsource the task is debatable. It usually is a question of two things, time and budget. But that’s another subject.
There is a myriad of online courses you can sign up for, tools, apps, and books you can get which all promise to be the one thing you need. And most of them are very helpful……… if you make use of them that is.
It’s fair to say that I could have saved ¢ 500.00/$ 600.00
Yep, I could have. That is, had I resisted the temptation of all those beautiful shiny objects which. They would surely get me to where I was going SO much quicker.
Or so I thought…..
If you are a bit like me – did I mention I am working full time and have a commute of roughly an hour and 15 minutes – you will have the best of intentions to start studying/reading/using the new whatever it was this time until you find the next shiny object.
Now this one will really do the trick. For sure…… You get the idea.
After you have parted with a good chunk of your hard-earned money,
you realize that you have yet to complete any of those courses or finish any of the books you bought.
OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. You will definitely read one of the books. Or maybe even two of those which only consist of 80 pages. And you will learn bits and pieces here and there. But it will not be worth all the money that you will have spent until that point.
And even when you’ve done that – read all the books and completed all the courses – all the knowledge won’t do you any good unless you implement it. This will take practice. Which in turn means that it will take up more of that precious time of yours.
Next, there’s the guilt you feel about the fruitless spending.
It all looked like such a great idea at the time. With each new purchase, you think that this will make all the difference.
That’s until reality gives you a wake-up call to let you know you are still you. If you haven’t finished things before, why do you think this time would be any different? Just because you spent even more money this time? Seriously?
I’m no different
Sure, I’ve heard of those folks too who go to the gym only because they signed up for a year and don’t want the money to be wasted. Kudos to them. I wish I’d have some of that in me.
Me staying focused on one thing until I finish it and only then start something new is a work in progress. It’s usually not how I function.
Sure, even I have my moments. But usually, it takes a lot of effort for me to stay focused on one thing for longer than 20 minutes. So I totally get it.
And because I am a bit challenged in the stick-to-one-thing-till-it’s-done-department, I have fallen victim to many seductive offers of the aforementioned books, courses, tools, apps and what not.
Have look at my shiny objects list!
To give you a better idea, I have included a list of all the “things” I bought in order to help me to become location independent as quickly as possible.
This list also includes the price I paid for them and how I have used them so far.
Udemy
What: WordPress for Beginners course.
Price: € 19.00
Finished: No
Reason: Not sure. It has been a while. I think I remember it was very detailed (which is a good thing) but therefore it was moving forward rather slowly . It’s not like I made a conscious decision to stop, but more like I neglected it because it was very detailed and tried to wing it after not even half of the course.
Bluehost
What: Webhosting, domain name and WP theme
Price: € 238.00 part of it is for three years and was charged in one go. Other bits are charged yearly.
Purchase justified: Yes
Reason: Without it, I wouldn’t have a website. this was a must-have. There is a lower monthly rate. But since I want to own an online business one day, I wanted all the security etc. and so it was the best deal for me at that time.
MojoMarketplace
What: WordPress Theme
Price: € 173.00
Purchase justified: Not quite
Reason: For the beginning, one of the free Word Press Themes would have been fine. I liked the theme the way it was presented and didn’t realize that some of the features wouldn’t work for me. Not right at the beginning anyway. But I wanted to have the real deal from the get-go, after all, this will one day be my business. Generally, I am a patient person, just not in every category of life.
Ultimate Bundles
What: The Paradise Pack. This is a bundle of various online courses and e-books etc. to help people who want to become location independent.
Price: $ 97.00
Finished/Purchase justified: Part of it and I guess
Reason: This bundle contains a LOT of info and from that aspect is definitely worth the money. However, where there is a lot of information a lot of time is necessary to get through the info. But some of the stuff in there did help me to figure out what I wanted to do. At that point, all I knew was that I wanted to one day become location independent and preferably doing something I love.
Elite Blog Academy
What: The EBA Product Launch Playbook
Price: $ 297.00
Finished: No, not even started and I bought it in November of 2017!!!
Reason: I need to build my platform (website) first before it will make sense to go through it. Since I am still learning how to blog it will have to wait a little longer.
What: Elite Blog Academy – blogging course
Price: $ 897.00 – I know, it’s a lot. For this, I got life long access including all the updates and bonuses.
Finished/Purchase justified: No, but that’s OK as long as I will continue. I think it is therefore debatable if the purchase was justified.
Reason: I am a member since July 2018 and knew from the start that this can take a little longer. The assignments are really time intensive.
Location Indie
What: Membership – The L. I. community is a community of people who love travel, building online businesses, and connecting with others who ‘get it’.
Price: $ 49.00 – monthly until it is canceled
Purchase justified: Yes, for the most part.
Reason: When I first signed up I spent a lot of time going through all the info there is and attending all the workshops etc. For some reason I let it slide. But I definitely want to get back into it as I always felt really motivated coming out of it.
Kerns Web
What: Finishing the set up of my website I had already started on and got stuck.
Price: $ 500.00
Finished/Purchase justified: Yes
Reason: Without outsourcing the trickiest bits of setting up my website to Kate (Kate Kerns is the woman behind Kerns Web Development), I wouldn’t even be as far as I am now.
Evernote
What: Note taking App
Price: $ 29.99 – on a yearly premium plan, I think mine is the least expensive one.
Finished/Purchase justified: No, not yet
Reason: I have signed up for the premium plan, but am only using it within the capabilities that the free plan offers. I keep saying I will watch a good tutorial to know how to use the app to its full potential, but then life and other priorities get in the way.
AppSumo
What: RelayThat Pro Plan
Price: $ 49.00
Finished/Purchase justified: no
Reason: I don’t even remember what this is
What: ShortPixel
Price: $ 29.00
Finished/Purchase justified: It’s a tool and I use it, so, yes / Yes
Reason: I use it on my website to compress the images I upload.
Jordan Malik
What: Check Permission – App to instantly know whether you’re approved to sell any Amazon item.
Price: $ 47.00
Finished/Purchase justified: I haven’t used it yet even though I had it for almost a year. So I cannot say.
Reason: I haven’t started to seriously look into selling on Amazon yet.
What: Intellizon Pro / App to easier decide what to sell on Amazon
Price: $ 47.00
Finished/Purchase justified: I haven’t used it yet even though I had it for almost a year. So I cannot say.
Reason: I haven’t started to seriously look into selling on Amazon yet.
eBay
What: Lenovo ThinkPad incl. shipping
Price: £ 190.00
Purchase justified: I want to say yes. But I guess it is debatable.
Reason: I bought this little 12.5″ laptop so I can work on my blog and the business I want to start while I am traveling. Unfortunately, I had to have it fixed shortly after I got it while I was traveling in Spain.
VA Classroom (now Freelance University)
What: Membership for one year – a platform offering training and workshops to learn a variety of skills which are useful when wanting to become a virtual assistant.
Price: $ 597.00
Finished/Purchase justified: This is a clear no and no. For me, that is.
Reason: At first I let it slide because I thought that I had SO much time. Then when I started looking into it one course was rather boring, the other one got stuck loading all the time that I just broke it off and the. I know that’s only three courses and I had a year. Well, the year is not quite up yet. I have until mid-May. But I don’t think it will make that much of a difference.
DailyOM
What: 8 Week Whole Body Makeover! Course
Price: € 25.00
Finished: No, only read day 1.
Reason: This is a bit of a mix. I did not by this course solely for MM. I thought I could go through it, apply what’s being taught and then write a review on it in a blog post. Well, as mentioned above I only read day 1. The nutritional changes recommended are huge (from where I currently am anyway) and I’d have to look a lot further into where I can get a lot of the ingredients and supplements as not all of them are available here in Ireland. That’s why I decided to put it on the back burner until I have some kind of routine blogging. Otherwise, It would only hold me back.
What: I’d like to know that myself.
Price: € 79.99
Finished: No idea.
Reason: My guess is as good as yours. Is it possible that I was scammed without noticing? Either way, just forgetting what I spent that money on or being scammed and only noticing now. Both goes to show how little I kept tabs on my spendings.
The Selling Family
What: Profitable Products Pages Course
Price: 10.00
Finished: No, I haven’t even started yet.
Reason: I bought this because it was sold at a “retirement price” and will look into it when I am ready to seriously start selling on Amazon. It was sold at this price because The Selling Family realized it was too time-consuming to keep it up to date and they wanted to retire it.
What: How To Merchant Fulfill On Amazon Course
Price: $ 9.50
Finished: No
Reason: Same as above.
What: ABCs Of Online Sourcing Video Course
Price: $ 10.00
Finished: No
Reason: Same as above.
Rude awakening
While I created the list I realized that things are much worse than I had thought.
Not only did I spend loads of money on things I haven’t used or at least most of them not to an extent that would justify the purchase.
Some of the items on my credit card or PayPal statement don’t even ring a bell anymore. In February 2018 I paid $ 33.21 (?) by Gumroad Inc. And, at the end of July, I was charged € 80.00 by Google. But for what, I don’t have the slightest clue.
How bad is that?
Well, bad enough that I actually do feel a bit ashamed.
Here I am thinking of myself as a business women in the making just to realize that I don’t even have the basics straight.
I just pledged to myself to diligently file all the expenses once I am done with this post and to continue doing so on a regular basis going forward.
I thought it would be easy enough to figure it out using the statements alone. And, I was so sure I would, of course, know what each and every item was. Hm, that didn’t really work so well.
Two lessons learned
Lesson No. 1:
Before you sign up for your next online course or make another purchase for an amount that puts a noticeable dent in your budget, sleep over it. For me, that would be somewhere around 30 – 50 Euro. This may not sound like much, but it adds up oh so quickly.
Your limit might be higher or lower depending on your financial situation.
Lesson No. 2:
Always, always be on top of your finances!!!! And make that a rule from day 1.
It should be a no brainer and yet I let it slide.
I’m just glad I decided to write about how much I had unnecessarily spent. Gathering all the numbers etc. really was an eye-opener.
The money I have invested which I haven’t gotten a return on could buy my a mini break/long weekend/sun holiday a new laptop. I better stop thinking about it ’cause it’s done and dusted and I will not get the money back.
And yet, it could be a lot worse.
Hopefully, this was helpful to you and maybe even a bit of an eye-opener if you are still at the very beginning of your new project.
Or, maybe you are one of those folks I admire. Those who can put their head down and will not be sidetracked until their mission is accomplished. In that case, you probably have a few tips or tricks on how to best do that. Especially if you’re not a natural, but had to learn how to stay focused too.
If you do, please share them in the comments. I am fairly sure I would not be the only one to benefit from it.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you around here soon.
Have a lovely day xx
