On the 1st of every month, I have a ritual that is worth sharing with you.

But before I do, it is important to get some context on WHY this ritual is so important...

Quick back story:

When I started working online, I was reading business books regularly such as Cashflow Quadrant, and Rich Dad Poor Dad (books by Robert Kiyosaki), The Millionnaire Booklet by Grant Cardone, and others.

I learned about the difference between active income and passive income.

Active meaning, you are putting in the work and the hours - trading time for money.

Passive meaning, you are getting paid money independent of your time based on work you have previously done.

One key insight that stuck with me is that wealth is measured in TIME, not money.

For example: if you have say $100,000 in the bank and want to live off it, but it costs $1K a month, you have quite a few years to survive off these savings...

Example: if you have $1,000,000 in the bank but your cost of living is $250K a year... you actually have LESS wealth in comparison to the 100K example above.

These are made-up examples...

But hopefully, you get the point I'm trying to illustrate.

More money, doesn't means more time - as there has to be context on where you live, the cost of living, currency, and host of other factors.

I'll be honest, the concept of passive/recurring income really didn't sink in for me mentally.

It took me losing my first online business back in June 2018.

When that business disappeared (story for another day), I was left in a 55K debt and no income, no business.

I got a sales job in a tech company in June 2018 and worked evenings and weekends on various side hustles to try and re-establish a legitimate and stable online business.

I started listening to business books again heavily, since I couldn't afford any courses (and every extra penny I made went to pay off my 55K debt).

Early on into the job, I recall the penny dropping for me about the concept of passive/recurring income.

I realized the FIRST goal of every aspiring online entrepreneur is the same for everyone!

It's not "make 6-figures" or "travel the world" or whatever marketing hype and dream we are being sold online.

The FIRST goal is so simple:

Cover your living and business expenses with passive/recurring income.

AKA, make a living to support your current lifestyle.

That's the FIRST goal.

Once you get there, of course you can have more goals.

Buy a family home.

Afford a full-time travel lifestyle.

Whatever that looks like to you.

But the first goal...

The "no marketing hype" goal is simple that:

Make a living online and cover your living and business expenses with passive/recurring income.

One evening after work, I sat down and crunched my numbers.

I wrote on an grid every subscription I'm currently paying.

I wrote down all my debts.

I wrote my income, bank account balances, etc.

Everything was organized on a spreadsheet.

My statistics spreadsheet.

Then I did something extra....

I cancelled any subscriptions that I didn't need and trimmed down on any unnecessary expenses.

Further, I came to the conclusion that I need $1600 per month to live on.

I was renting a bedroom at a friend place, I was living frugally, and I barely had any business expenses.

Just $15/month for email marketing software and a WordPress site.

No online courses, no membership, no funnels, etc.

It was really bare bones.

I calculated that if I need $1600 a month, I simply need 40 people to pay me $40/month, or 80 people to pay me $20/month.

Or something like that.

I didn't know what I will sell that will give me that, or where I will get these customers.

But these were the numbers.

I urge you to open up a google sheet and go through this process too.

Raising your awareness about your own finances alone, is a great exercise to gain control.

And doing this exercise is almost guaranteed to save you from a few subscriptions you don't really need...

I am going to give you a few more things I listed on that spreadsheet.

Balance of each of my bank accounts

Stripe, PayPal, bank.

Debts listed.

And an automated formula that calculates my net worth.

Needless to say, my net worth was a minus at the time... (this was around August 2018, while I was still working a 9 to 5 job and working on various side hustles - this was long before I had a business building websites or a membership business).

So I was tracking every month the reduction of that minus...

I was making $3,900 a month (after tax), I tried just paying 2K directly to the debt (not always possible...) and the rest I would stretch for the entire month to live off.

But it wasn't the only row and statistic I kept track and focused on.

I added another row which was Passive income

(later I added recurring income as well)

At the time I was just promoting one email software and making few bucks a month promoting it.

I was trying various side hustles but that particular column didn't grow much.

But I was at least eliminating my debt bit by bit.

It wasn't until a year later that I accidentally stumbled across the opportunity to build people's websites practically by accident (how that happened... is a story for another day....)

But I realized that I can incorporate affiliate marketing of great software products (website hosting companies) alongside my website building projects.

I could get paid between $500-5000 per website project upfront.

But also, each project would give me an average of $20/month in recurring monthly passive income for the hosting fee (either as a reseller or an affiliate).

Do the math on that (on the passive income row).

If I can get 2 clients every week for the year, that's 100 people earning me $20/month, which is $2000.

Stay consistent for 2 years, and you're earning $4K/month.

That's as much as I earned in my 9 to 5 job working 40 hours a week!

And so, every day, every week, I focused heavily on figuring out how to add just that little bit of extra monthly recurring passive income.

Sometimes I added as little as $1.5/month, sometimes I added $100's/month in passive income.

But I stayed consistent.

Later I added recurring income... which is my membership income (April 2021).

I differentiated between recurring and passive.

Affiliate income is passive (once I start earning, it's not passive to get the sale in the first place, but the continuation is passive).

Membership income is recurring (as there is action involved from me to serve these people in the membership, although very scalable).

The point is, tracking my numbers was a massive point of focus for me.

And I strongly recommend it is the same for you too!

Let's recap: How do you start with tracking your numbers?

Open up a google sheet, type in sheet.new into the browser

Create a row for every one of your expenses

Create a row for every one of your subscriptions

Create a formula that gives you the total in expenses and subscriptions

Then have another column for your revenue, bank accounts, etc.

Have a formula that shows you where you are at every month.

Figure out the 1, 2, or 3 key statistics to keep track of.

Maybe it's the debt payments row (if you have debts).

Then have one on the positive side also.

Maybe it's cash/net worth.

Maybe it's recurring or passive income if you are at that stage of the business (it may not be the case yet).

And then on the beginning of every month go through that grid and track your progress.

You might struggle with following these action steps I just told you...

This is one of the templates I plan on sharing in my upcoming Templates & Coaching Membership.

Because tracking your numbers is so important.

What you just read is just a segment from one of my digital guides and templates as part of my upcoming membership which you definitely want to make sure you join on my 7 days limited time only.

Regardless of whether you end up joining on not...

I urge you to go through this practical and really get clear about your FIRST goal.

Make a living online and cover your living and business expenses with passive/recurring income.

Hope you found this helpful and are going to take action.

And yes, stay tuned for my Templates & Coaching Membership launching on the 15th of February 2023, and it will open for 7 days ONLY.

Reminder that it will be $77/year, or $49/semi-annual.

So don't miss out, mark your calendars.

It will be epic and crazy value for money.

I'm off to do my monthly ritual of tracking all my numbers.

You should too!

Eran Bucai

PS - there are a few more educational emails coming up. In case you noticed a theme here...

I'm giving you a taste of what to expect in the templates and coaching membership.

Each email is just a snippet.

Upcoming emails and topics:

Affiliate Marketing

Launching a membership

Launching an online course

Hiring and managing virtual assistants

What other topics would you like me to cover?

Are you getting excited about the upcoming membership launch?

Reply and let me know - give me your feedback!