Zeona McIntyre

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Guest Post: From -$100K to a Half Million+ Net Worth in 4 years

Zeona McIntyre

Hi Everyone,

I am writing to you today from the bustling Island Vintage coffee shop in Waikiki! I’ve just arrived here this afternoon after a month of Surf, Snorkeling and adorable moments with my Nephew Maverick (you can follow along on Instagram @AdventurousZ) on Maui. I’m trying to sneak in some work in between delicious bites, before catching up with old friends this evening.

I’m excited to share this post with you today because it comes with some valuable freebies! I e-met Julie from Millennial Boss, a popular personal finance blog, when she and Gwen from Fiery Millennials, interviewed me for their joint podcast: Fire Drill.

*One thing I learned about myself in writing this paragraph is that I don’t know how to spell Millennial #thankgodforspellcheck


Be sure to read all the way to the end so that you can sign up for her free e-books. I definitely plan on reading the one on monetizing a blog…and maybe encouraging my team to do so as well. What I know for sure is that learning never stops and even one simple idea learned in passing, can pay in dividends!

Without further ado, I’ll let Julie tell her story:

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How I went from negative $100,000 to over half a million net worth in 4 years

My husband and I found ourselves in over $100,000 of debt in our late twenties. We both took out student loans for our education, had financed cars, and had zero percent interest credit cards for everything from clothes, to furniture, to hardware stores, to guitars.


At the time, we had no clue we weren’t doing well because we could “afford” the payments for the debt we carried. I just learned about the term HENRY (high earner not rich yet) and I think that perfectly describes how I felt about money in my twenties. I was making good money so what was the problem?


I discovered Mr Money Mustache and it blew my mind!

In 2015, I discovered Mr Money Mustache and went to the Chautauqua in Ecuador where I met him in person as well as many other inspiring financial bloggers. I realized, first, that I had no idea what I was doing with my finances and second, that I was lucky to have the income I had and could turn this ship around rather quickly.


We finished paying off our debt in 2016, started maxing out my retirement accounts, and were happily cruising along the path to financial independence that same year. As long as my husband could resist the urge to buy a new truck and I could avoid the mall, we were on the FI path to become a millionaire with a 401k by our mid thirties.



I wanted to speed up the path to financial independence through Side Hustles

In 2017 though I started to become a little restless. I had been listening to podcasts that opened my mind about ways to retire early faster through side hustles. I started a blog at this time and also opened an Etsy shop.

At first, I sold temporary tattoos to bachelorette parties in my Etsy shop. I had forked over way too much money in my late twenties for bachelorette party tank tops, drink koozies, and accessories that I’d never wear and use again. I knew they would sell on Etsy and would sell well!



I started selling Bachelorette Party items on Etsy

My “wolf pack” and “bride tribe” tattoos were hits! It cost only 20 cents per tattoo to manufacture and I could sell them for $2 each. Most women attend Bachelorette parties in groups of girls so I would always sell over a dozen with every sale.


I became sick of shipping the tattoos though and I hated checking Etsy every morning before work to see if a sale came in. It didn’t seem worth it when I had a demanding job and other things to focus on.


That’s when I started a podcast about financial independence and interviewed Laura of I Heart Planners for one of the early episodes. Laura is a 6-figure Etsy seller who left her engineering job to sell printables full time. 


Printables are digital files that you make on your computer and customers download them to print at home. Think things like printable planners, coloring pages, gift tags, labels, checklists, and recipe cards.


The best thing about printables is that you make them one time and then they can be downloaded an infinite number of times! I was intrigued by the passive nature of this product.


I quickly switched over my product line to focus on printable party games for bachelorettes instead of physical products.



My printable bachelorette scavenger hunts were a hit and became bestsellers on Etsy! One particular listing does exceptionally well and has earned me over $1,000 to this day. It only took two hours to make that one printable so the ROI on my time is insane!


Now the thing about printables is that you have to learn how to make them and the learning curve is slightly tricky but doable. I’m not a graphic designer and don’t actually think my printables are that attractive but they sell!


I’ve made almost $6,000 in 18 months and barely work on my Etsy shop at all. I put up one listing in 2019 which is amazing. I do focus a little bit on Etsy SEO and boosting my Etsy rankings but that probably takes about one hour of work per month. Etsy is definitely my favorite side hustle!


I got serious about blogging for profit

Throughout 2018 and 2019, I also focused on expanding my blog. I grew my blogging income to tens of thousands of dollars per year by focusing writing about topics I knew about but were focused on a product. I write many diary-entry style posts but the posts that make money review products.

For example, we had a $15,000 wedding budget and decided to do DIY wedding flowers through a company Fifty Flowers. I wrote a post that was a step by step tutorial of how we made our wedding bouquets and centerpieces for under $400. If a bride-to-be clicks my link to the flowers I bought and buys them too, I get a very small commission on the sale. 




I never write about anything I haven’t experienced personally and don’t review products very often. When I do though, I have the potential to make a small profit from people searching for this information on Google.






We started making $60,000 per year in Side Hustle income

All-in my side hustles made me $40,000 on top of my day job last year. My husband side hustles too and has made almost $20,000 with his side hustles too. He writes online programs for people wanting to get in shape - like the Mad Fientist that some of you may know - and also works as a consultant hosting in person strength training programs at army bases.





$60,000 per year in side hustles is pretty legit and has helped us accelerate our path to FI. More important though, it’s helped us become more generous towards family. 






We use the cash to help our families


We live on the opposite coast from our families so it’s always expensive for people to come visit us. When our first baby was born in August of this year, we hosted my husband’s parents and my parents in an Airbnb for a month. They got along super well and love coming out here at the same time. We’re lucky!

It was $5,000 for the Airbnb but a no-brainer for us because we knew our parents would want to be part of the experience. It was the first grandchild for my parents and my husband’s parents were thrilled for another grandchild!

Last year, we flew out my sister-in-law and nieces and hosted them in an Airbnb for a long weekend so they could explore Seattle and so that I could try to get them interested in tech! I hope that one of these days I can convince one of my young family members to go into this career path too. I flew my cousin out to California when I lived there for her high school graduation to get her interested in tech too but it didn’t work!

I’ve also been able to help my parents pay off their debt. I learned through some digging that they had $50,000 in Parent Plus loans for my sister and my education that they were really worried about. They only had $7,000 from my loans and the rest was for my sister’s education but I was able to give them $7,000 in 2017 and $20,000 in 2018 from my side hustle funds to help them pay down this debt. I’m so grateful I’m able to help them because they had kids older in life and haven’t been able to retire because of debt.




We don’t plan to ever retire

In the process of side hustling my husband I realized that we never want to retire by choice. It turns out that we love working and we both have multiple side hustles going on. We just want to be able to work by choice and have time to pursue our hobbies whether or not they make money.

My husband has been getting into guitar making and I want to dabble in crafting. We also both love traveling and want a bit more time off to do that!

We’re hoping to hit our financial independence number sometime over the next decade and then will make the decision if we want to stay in high cost of living Seattle or move elsewhere. In the meantime we’re having fun working and side hustling. We already crossed the half million point and look forward to hitting that big 1M number. Side hustling will definitely help us get there faster!




Giveaway to blog readers

If you’re interested in starting a blogging or Etsy side hustle, I’m giving away two ebooks I sell to readers of Zeona’s blog for free. 

One, The Seasonal Product Secret gives away 12 months of best-selling Etsy printable ideas. It’s perfect if you’re curious about selling on Etsy but have no idea what you should sell. 

The second is an ebook “The ABCs of Blog SEO” which will give you the A to Z of tips of how I drive over 100,000 readers to my blog each month through search engine optimization. 


About Julie: Julie is a 30-year-old tech professional, Etsy seller, and new Mom who blogs and podcasts about financial independence. She co-founded the company Gold City Ventures in July of 2019 to teach others how to sell on Etsy and blog. You can find her on instagram, @millennialboss.


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