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Transcription:
Rob: What’s up guys, today we are honored to have Jason Butler here withMy Money Chronicles, so excited to hear his amazing journey and some great tips that he has about paying down debt with his reselling side hustle. Jason, welcome!!
Jason: Thank you for having me. I’m looking to share my story.
Rob: Awesome.
Melissa: Awesome. Jason, we’re so glad you’re here. So tell everybody a little background about yourself.
Jason: My name is Jason Butler. [00:01:00] I run the website, My Money Chronicles, where I talk about side hustles, personal finance, and my personal debt story as well. I started out, graduated from college in 2008. I was excited, happy to get the degree ready to get into the real world and make that $50,000 with that first job.
Unfortunately, when I graduated in 2008, nobody told me that the great recession was going to happen. It took me a year and a half to find my first full-time job, and during that time, I had to make a decision. Was I going to pay my rent and my cell phone bill? Or was I going to pay student loan debt and credit card debt?
I had to have make the decision. And that decision was that I needed my phone for job interviews and for companies to call me back and I needed to pay rent because I needed a place to stay. Let’s just say, well, I made the right decision on one hand. The other hand, it allowed me to get into of debt. And this actually happened for, I want to say the debt accrued for about two to three years [00:02:00] before I started getting a, before I got a better high-impact higher paying job.
And literally I had years where I was going back and forth, doing good and doing bad. So around 2015, I decided to get serious. At that point I had $72,000 worth of debt, student loans, credit card debt, and like a couple of other small bills. And I had to figure out some different ways to pay it off because these jobs wasn’t going to help me just do it by myself.
So I started trying multiple side hustles and side hustle that I stuck with was flipping things online. I’m selling items on eBay and other platforms. And from here, from there every year, the income has been going up.
Rob: Awesome. And I know there are so many people out there that can relate to your story. You get out of college, it’s not everything that you expected. You have to pay off that college loan to do it. So there are so many people out here who are in that same exact boat. So kudos to you. We give you credit, you kept working with what you had and you kept going. You found a [00:03:00] sweet side hustle that we all love. We love flipping, so a little passionate about, great job on that, for sure.
So yeah, now let’s get a little deeper with it.
Melissa: So you’ve been selling since 2015. Is that what you said?
Jason: Yep. Since 2015, I got serious with it around 2017. In 2015, I probably was making anywhere between a hundred to $200 a month. Now I’m making atleast $1,200 per month selling on my multiple platforms. And that amount is going to get a lot higher than that.
Melissa: Awesome!! I love it. So what are your platforms that you use to sell?
Jason: I think we sell on at least six different platforms. Ebay, Mercari, Poshmark, Offer up, Facebook marketplace,Craigslist. And actually recently I started selling on Next door and it’s done does pretty well from time to time.
Melissa: Huh? I haven’t thought about selling on next door. They have a, so they have like a special place for marketplace?
Jason: Yep. They have a marketplace. This is actually called it’s on a tab called Finds. And [00:04:00] you can just upload your stuff right there. Cause I do a lot of cross posting on that site.
Melissa: I love it! Yeah, that’s really cool. I have the, the app, but I don’t put it on like it’s I just get an email notifications and I’m like, there’s a lot of drama on this app, so I don’t know
Jason: You are hundred percent, right. I stay clear from the drama. I go to the Find section. I either list my items. I actually find a lot of free stuff on there too. Like a whole lot of free items on there.
Melissa: I bet there would be. Yeah that’s pretty cool! That’s awesome.
Rob: That’s a great tip. So the Next Door app, that’s what it is that you’re, you’re able to sell on. So stay away from the drama and stick to the flipping and finding. So that’s cool for sure.
Melissa: What is one of your, maybe your most memorable or profitable items that you have sold over this whole time?
Jason: I have a couple items
Jason: that are memorable for me, the first, the reason why, one of the items that I sold at the beginning in 2015, it made me get serious with, it was a Dwayne Wade, Miami heat, basketball Jersey. I found the Jersey in a salvation army store for [00:05:00] $3. I was able to list the Jersey, sold it for $45 within three days.
That was a 40… $42 profit right there. So once I did that, it was on the top 10. So I was, I had pretty much been enrolled in. And since then, another sell that was pretty good for me, where it was, it was a great sale, but I realized that I might’ve undercut myself just a little bit and well under undercharged myself a little bit.
I had a Bryant Reeves, Vancouver Grizzlies throwback Jersey found it in the thrift store for like $7. I sold it within two minutes for a hundred dollars. And if you guys know what things say are that fast, probably I probably should have raised the price. And to be honest, I could have got about $300 for that Jersey.
So it was a lesson, but at the end of the day, I still made around a $94 profit. So I wasn’t too mad, too mad about the situation. And I haven’t made that mistake since then either.
Rob: Awesome. That’s the best part about making mistakes in the business you learn [00:06:00] and you course correct. And you go along with it the next, the next time you actually have something similar to it and you do it.
So, rewind a little bit though. What, what is your passion or what exactly is your, your main items that you sell? I see a pattern here, so, just let us know what you like to sell and kind of the majority of what you sell.
Jason: Definitely like, I’m in Atlanta, Georgia. I’m a huge sports fan. Now our sports teams are not always the best, but I love sports items.
I sell a lot of jerseys, whether it’s football, basketball, baseball, either hockey or soccer jerseys. I also sell tennis shoes, like a lot of Air Jordan, tennis shoes, running shoes. And then I will say like my third big meat niche games (like) boardgames like Monopoly, the cashflow board games, hero quest, just different types of games that you can make a decent amount of money on.
Rob: I love it. I love it. And we’re not big sports people, so I can’t relate to that, but I know there is a lot of money in the sports and that’s the thing. It takes me a lot to learn. I don’t know a lot of players and I [00:07:00] don’t know a lot of jersey and stuff like that. So it’s harder for me to do that, but you do and you’ve capitalized on it.
So kudos. That’s awesome that you’ve been able to do that. And you find something that you. We love flipping and that’s what we do. So you, you love the sports and this really, really works well into what you love, so that’s awesome.
Melissa: I think it’s awesome that there are so many niches out there that you can get into and you can find something that you do enjoy, and that helps you stick to it even more like it, because of course there’s work involved in cleaning, taking pictures, you know, listing an item. But when you like enjoy the stuff that you’re finding and listing, then it makes it even that much better. So, and there’s so many things that you could sell.
Rob: And that’s no joke, you know, a thousand bucks extra a month for being able to sell memorabilia and stuff that you like to look for and find and sell.
That’s no joke. That’s life changing money. That’s awesome. So that’s sweet for sure. Yeah.
Melissa: So tell us how you’ve used your reselling side hustle to help you pay down debt.
Jason: Okay. You use it in a couple of ways. The first way, when I first got serious about this journey in 2015, started making the extra money. I was able to get current [00:08:00] on everything.
My student loan bills were about 60 to 90 days behind, but I actually able to use this extra money to get me current with that. The same thing with the credit cards. And also now I make extra payments on everything. I currently only have student loan debt left. My regular payment for my student loan is about $162 per month.
But right now, because I’m making this extra money, I’m throwing at least seven to $800 on this student loan per month. And this is where the magic is happening. I’m starting to see it go down by nearly a thousand dollars each month. So I’m halfway to the finish line, but I should be there sooner than later, because as I stated earlier, the flipping income is continuing.
It’s continuing to increase each year because I’m learning more. And I’m actually stepping out of my comfort zone and trying to sell other types of items as well.
Rob: Awesome. I love it. Yeah, for sure. And that is, that is a game changer. When you started to see that debt, that mountain started to come down and it gives you more energy. It gives you more passionate about, okay, I’m throwing the money at this. I’m going to get rid of [00:09:00] this.
Melissa: You see that big fat zero. That’s exciting.
Jason: I cannot wait to see that ZERO.
Melissa: We have to celebrate with you, right. So what would you say are some tips? Cause people dealing like when you’re dealing with debt, it’s like is over your head, you know, it’s really, it’s something, it kind of eats away at you.
Rob: And be depressing. It can depress you because of it.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. So what are some tips that you give people to maybe stay motivated to use their side hustle and how can they use their side hustle to pay down debt?
Jason: First tip that I would give people when it comes to paying off debt and figuring out the side hustle. Number one, do not compare your journey with anybody else’s journey.
This I am I’m on year six of this journey. I didn’t see any magic until around late 2018 and 2019. That’s what, that was three years in, right there. Don’t get mad. If you look on Instagram, you look on YouTube and you see that somebody has paid all their debt off within one year everybody’s journey and everybody’s story is different.
So that’s the first thing. [00:10:00] The next thing I would tell somebody is to just figure, just to just start, start with what, you know, like I stated earlier, I’m a big sports fan. So I ran to the sports items and from there just started branching out and trying to sell other stuff. Number three, when you have debt, make sure, you know, the numbers like don’t, don’t go blindly into it. Like I, I, when I first started, I knew some of the numbers, but I was kind of afraid to like get a hundred percent focus on it because it was so high. But once you get those numbers down, you can get a plan together and just start going from there.
And it just started snowballing that day.
Rob: I love it. We are writing and, taking some notes on this. So, yeah, and I definitely, I don’t compare yourself to other people. You guys, that is a key, you can’t do that. That will put you in further depression because it will, like Jason said, you, you can’t look at somebody else’s journey and see what they’re doing and expect you to be at the same place.
Everybody is different. So I [00:11:00] love that advice. That’s an amazing key takeaway from this, this interview with Jason, for sure. So, and then start with what, you know, we, we teach people how to flip. That’s one of the things that we love doing, I love coaching, and that’s the thing that we tell people as well. What you’re good at, what your hobbies are, what your passions are, try to find that resell niche in that area, and it’ll make it so much better in your life where, I mean, it just makes everything so much easier to do so.
Definitely. That’s a great number two. And then number three, know your numbers. I’m horrible at this. Melissa is better than me, but I a hundred percent, I, a hundred percent agree with it. You have to know what you’re doing. You have to know what your numbers are and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah.
Great, great advice. Three tips, amazing tips.
Melissa: If you don’t know your numbers, then you would be surprised how much there’s little profit sometimes, because you’re going like, oh, this would be great. I can sell it for this, but then you’ve got your fees, your shipping costs and all that. And if you don’t think about it, you don’t write those down and see them like, oh, well, is that much really worth the time that. I just put into that for sure.
Rob: And knowing what your mountain, what your [00:12:00] mountain is, you gotta know what the debt is that you’re paying off you. I mean, it’s a hundred percent. Yeah, that’s a that’s that’s for sure. That’s an awesome tip for sure.
Melissa: Have you had had any, I just thought of this, have you had any like, flops the, of your flips that made that you learned a good lesson on?
Jason: Yeah, I’ve had a few flops. Let me think of one. I haven’t had any in a while, but I would say around two years ago before I purchased my scale. I used to just guess and estimate when it comes to printing and usually the jerseys I can sell those for anywhere between I ship those from between $6 to $9 with no problem.
I per I forget what it was. It was either a big board game. It was kind of a large box and I guesstimated the shipment was going to be $18, got to the post office. The shipping was $32. Like I might’ve profited about two bucks off that item. Like I was hurt, but again, it’s the lessons that I learned. And after learning that lesson, [00:13:00] I went and bought a scale and I haven’t looked back since then.
So that’s one thing. Number two, when I first started off, I didn’t have the eBay app and I wasn’t, I basically wasn’t like doing my research. So I would find I would purchase a couple of things, and just think I was going to be able to flip it for $30 or $40 because it was something old school. I purchased some Kentucky Derby glasses for like 50 cents a piece.
And I thought that I was going to be able to sell those like this (finger snaps)I had those glasses in my store for about three years. And I ended up having to stay on them for regular price.
Rob: Wow. And that is a great tip. When we started eBay, you didn’t have the option of a cell phone. I mean, a smartphone that you could look up and a lot of people look at what we do and they come from the old style of, Hey, I’m not a gambler.
I don’t want to go and buy something hoping that I can sell it. That’s the cool thing about what we do now. You can look up every single thing before you buy it. Do the extra minute or two research on it before you buy it. So you have a good idea [00:14:00] of what it’s selling for, what it’s listed for.
You can do all that comparison before you pay the person for that item. So that’s a huge point. It’s a great point to think about.
Melissa: So if somebody they’re taking their, flipping money and they’re going to put it towards debt. So for you, do you take all your like, because the money can be a little inconsistent.
Like it’s going to be, you’re going to have high months and lower months. It just depends. But so do you take a percentage of that towards your debt? Or do you have like a set number hard or all of it? Or how do you do that?
Jason: But right now I have a set number. I was, I want to make sure that I make seven, make a $700 payment on the loan right now.
So that’s like the loan payment, that loan payment is about $160. So that extra $540 is applied to the loan. So I try to do that at least each month. And then everything else is either. I probably save a little bit. I reinvest the whole lot into the business because at the end of the day, i want to keep items in the store and the way, supply…the way the supply chain management system is right now.[00:15:00]
I’m trying to get as many items as possible because things are going great. Like people are purchasing and I need to make sure I have enough stuff in there. I need to make sure I have enough items in the store. So I’m reinvesting majority of the money
Melissa: I’ve see that going around right now, a lot too, like a lot of thrifted items are still, you know, not stuck cause you can still get them.
Rob: That’s a huge point right now is what we’re doing is a resell hobby or resale side hustle, full time, whatever it is. We are seeing great sales right now, because what’s going on in our economy and all around us. So, yeah, I second that to throw the money back into your inventory, get some more inventory in there and that’s going to be the bigger payday for next month.
You know what I mean? So that’s awesome. That’s a good point as well.
Melissa: Did you have any thing else you wanted to add to share with everybody?
Jason: Um, yeah. One more, couple of more things. I forgot to say earlier with the tips, your mindset, your mindset is very important. If you believe that you’ll be able to make this money.
By researching and finding the items you will, if you don’t believe that you [00:16:00] can do it, you won’t do it. So you definitely have the correct mindset because looking at $72,000 worth of debt, in the beginning…Ooh, it was tough. Like, by the time you guys see this, my, my numbers would probably be at 43,000. They should be under 40,000 by the end of the year.
So that’s, that’s the journey. But the thing is I believed that I could pay it off. And of course I had bumps in the road. But I’ve been able to make habit. And then also when you start selling, don’t look at it like you’re going to be making $500 a day, a thousand dollars a day instantly because it doesn’t happen like that.
In the beginning, you have to work, you have to research and you have to basically just make sure that you get items that people are going to purchase.
Rob: Awesome. Yeah, that’s, that’s good. It having proper expectations. There’s a learning curve to every single business. I don’t care what business you’re in.
If you jump into it, expecting that you’re going to do like somebody else, a thousand dollars a month that that’s not, that’s not logical or that’s not a realistically going to happen. You have to learn, the key, the fundamentals of the [00:17:00] business, and you have to learn this stuff that Jason’s talking about before you can get to that next level.
So having great expectations of, Hey, I might start off here, but I know what my potential is to get up to here and to get to that income that I really want to do. But it’s going to take me a little bit of time to get there for sure
Melissa: Yeah, there’s always a learning curve involved. And it’s alot just getting experience doing it and doing it, for sure.
Rob: For sure. Awesome. Awesome. Jason, thank you so much. Thanks for jumping on here. I’ve learned some amazing stuff. I’m so excited for everybody to see this presentation. I’m so excited for people to take what you, what you’ve taught us here in and put it into play for. You can, you can definitely do it so.
Jason: You can definitely do it. Just, just to get started. Like that’s what I told a lot of people. Asking me about flipping items just to get started and you’ll have some bumps along the way, some speed bumps along the way. The longer, the longer you stick with it, the more, the better you’ll get at selling and the more money that you awake you’ll make.
So just get started.
Melissa: Awesome.
Jason: Awesome. Couldn’t have said it better ourselves, Jason. Thank you so much for jumping on here. Cannot [00:18:00] wait to see your journey. Cannot wait to see that $40,000 go. So we’ll be celebrating with you. So thank you so much. Thank you for your time.
Definitely. Thank you guys for having me as well, and let’s make this money by flipping y’all.
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