He Ho it’s back to work we go said Dopey, or was it Grumpy? I bet it wasn’t Happy!!
The Recession/Credit Crunch is having an ‘interesting’ effect on Sands and I. When we moved to live in Almerimar the plan was not to work much, if at all, spend more time together, be less materialistic and keep things simple.
We had invested in properties and had no debt, or mortgage on our property here. One thought was that if we needed to or had the opportunity to, then I would take contracts abroad to enable us to travel. In fact we did this and spent a year splitting our time between Almerimar and Florida.
Our main funds were always going to come from the yields on the UK properties topped up with planned and scheduled equity releases on the properties.
‘Top up’ funds would be provided by combing the various interests of blogging, photography, riding the Harleys etc.
So how have we done?
Not bad so far. When we decided to get cats we effectively gave up on the option to travel and take contracts abroad. This was a very conscious decision and not one that we regret for one minute!!
We also built up a nice little income from the blogs, hosting, affiliate programs, content for other blogs, photograhy and video production for a couple of businesses here.
How has the recession hit us?
As far as the properties go then they have obviously gone down in value, but as we have no plans to sell or re mortgage in the short term it is hard to say if this has had any effect at all. We had probably thought we may take some equity out of one of them later this year or next year and that probably wont now happen ALTHOUGH it is a pretty good time to borrow it has to be said. The yields on the other hand are much improved BUT as the funds are in the UK and the exchange rate is so poor at the moment, it isn’t a realistic option to transfer those funds at the moment, so cash flow wise we are a lot worse off in the short term.
The majority of the affiliate and blogging income is related to the travel industry, so the bottom has pretty much dropped out of that at the moment in terms of people coming to Spain. Additionally less people are taking holidays with a number of our clients, so the demand for content has reduced significantly.
We have set up a online property and rental business with a view to post the recession so that is actually ticking over pretty well already, but is very much a long term project.
SO the main effect on us is a reduction in cash flow here in Spain. As such I have decided to take on a few small projects to keep things ticking over, one of which is to manage the Ad Words campaign for a US Software company. This is something I have done a fair amount of in recent years, and although it isn’t rocket science, there is a skill and discipline to it that in my experience very few companies have in house. Having done the initial review for a month I have set up new campaigns, with totally new keywords, ads and Ad Groups and the initial results are pretty impressive!!
This sort of contract is ideal for me. I can do it from Almerimar, and because our cost of living is so low I can do it at rates that to be honest most people would laugh at, but for me it is all about the quality of life.
These contracts are purely a means to an end. They keep the brain cell ticking over, keep me communicating with interesting people, and alleviate the unavoidable and hopefully short term cash flow issues brought on by the recession.
I stil consider that we are extremely lucky, and remarkably content with our life!