Tentmaking Tips

1. Mortgage payment (principal + interest)

2. Property Taxes

3. Homeowners Insurance

#2 & #3 are often rolled into your mortgage payment and escrowed for you until they are due.

Chances are these 3 together are anywhere from $1,000-$2,000/mo, depending on where you live and how much of a loan you took out to buy your house.

Can you imagine if that $1k-2k/mo payment was reduced to nearly $0/mo? Life-changing, right? I’m sure you can think of some other things you’d like to do with that money each month.

The solution: House Hacking

In other words, use/hack your house to earn the extra income needed to pay for your primary housing expenses. Or move to a house that can generate the extra income.

There are many creative ways to do this. Here are a some examples:

• Convert the storage building in your backyard to habitable space and rent it on Airbnb.

• Build a tiny home in your backyard and use Zillow to lease it full-ti
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Usually it’s something along the lines of what you see on HGTV. A couple like Chip & Joanna:

• Find a house on the market

• Purchase it using financing

• Do a full remodel (which is expensive)

• Sell 6-9 months later for a profit (hopefully)

Let’s call this Fix & Flip.

#1 - Fix & Flip

This the most well-known way to flip. And also the most intimidating due to the amount of money/expertise needed to accomplish it. But it has the greatest profit potential.

Most people don’t realize there are other ways to flip houses too. Some that are much simpler than what I described above. And require far less money. Or no money at all.

#2 - Lipstick Flip (also called Cosmetic Flip)

With this type of flip, you do far less to the house. Basically you’re just putting a little “lipstick” on it. You’ll:

• Clean it up

• Touch up some paint

• Fix a few other cosmetic issues

• Then list it for sale

This approach res

You can pay off your mortgage fast, in as little as 6 years. Maybe even in 4 years if your mortgage is less than average.

I know because we paid off ours quickly! We paid off our mortgage in our early 30s. And we weren’t living in a super cheap house either.

A median priced home in our area is $135k. Ours was $250k. We’re in a part of the country where $250k buys you a really nice, above average home. I recognize that’s not the case everywhere.

Anyhow, you can pay off your mortgage quickly if you’ll do one simple thing.

Move.

Yep, you need to move. 2-3 times in those 6 years to be exact.

Huh?

You see, the IRS wants to give you a gift. I know it’s hard to believe. If you’ll buy a home, and live in it at least 2 years as your primary residence, you can sell it after 2 years and take up to $500k profit tax free for married couples. Did you hear the key words there? TAX FREE!

Are you kidding?!?!? Nope, it’s true (IRS Publication 523).

Here are the steps:

If you’re paying a lot to travel, you don’t have to anymore!

Our family has been traveling for several years now for nearly free. I took our family of 4 to NYC for Christmas free! Then the next year I took my wife to Charleston free! Then the following year we had trips to Chicago, London, Paris, and Seaside booked free (but COVID interfered). And we just booked a 2-week trip to Hawaii for our family of 4 free as well! We’ve done this over and over again. I know it seems too good to be true, but it really isn't - ha!

How do we do this? We use credit card rewards earned from welcome bonuses that we apply for in a strategic order.

Welcome bonuses are the key. An example of a welcome bonus is a card that advertises 50,000 free points if you spend $3,000 on the card in 3 months. Typically you'd have to put $50,000 in spend on that card to earn the 50,000 free points, but they are incentivizing you to apply for the card by giving you that many points with far less

Needed: ~$60k+

Ways to make an extra $60k+:

1. Social Media Management - work with clients to create social media accounts and post regular updates to them

2. Commission Sales - many sales jobs are flexible and allow you to get paid for results rather than for time

3. Online Courses/Coaching - online education has become a very large industry with great potential for full-time income

4. Realtor - this can provide a little extra money, part-time income or full-time income depending on the time you can spend

5. Moving Company - I have friends that are running a moving business to provide for themselves full-time for ministry purposes

6. Real Estate Acquisitions - real estate investors are often looking for people to help them find and purchase new properties

7. Freelance programming - learn to code and monetize your ability online

8. Network Admini...

Needed: ~$20,000

Ways to earn an extra $20k (for you or your spouse):

1. Uber/Lyft Driver - in your free time, drive people around, build new relationships and make extra money
2. Virtual Assistant - using a site like Upwork.com, you can work from home as someone’s assistant on your own time
3. Deliver pizzas - the classic Dave Ramsey way to earn extra money
4. Paint houses - you can make significant extra money doing just a few houses a year
5. Mow lawns each week - many of us did this as teenagers and if you scale it up a bit, you can easily make extra income
6. Hang Christmas lights - I have a friend who makes $200-300/house each year doing this for a total of around $20k/yr
7. Virtual Bookkeeper - learn this skill and help others online keep track of their income/expenses
8. Deliver packages for Amazon - can pursue this around your ministry schedule
9. Become a sub...

Needed: ~$5,000

Here are some ideas to earn an extra $5k:

1. Teach English Online - many opportunities to teach English online to people wanting to learn from and practice with native English speakers

2. Instacart/Door Dash/Uber Eats - food and grocery delivery has become even more popular with the pandemic

3. Tutoring (pick a subject) - online or in your city, there are opportunities to tutor hourly in subjects you are proficient in

4. Flip products on Facebook Marketplace/eBay/Craigslist - guitars, purses, couches, or other high value items that you can look for good deals on and sell for a bit more

5. Couponing - if you are diligent about finding and using coupons, you can save/make quite a bit of money

6. Referrals - connect with your friends in sales and offer to bring them leads for a referral fe
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At times, the Apostle Paul was a tentmaker to support his ministry. If that’s what you’re looking to do, you’re in good company!

All over the world pastors, missionaries, and Christian leaders are working outside their ministries to support themselves inside their ministries.

Some call it bi-vocational.

Others call it co-vocational.

Still others say they are “tentmaking” like the Apostle Paul.

Whatever you end up calling it, the first step is to decide what Level of Tentmaking you need.

One level isn’t superior to another level. They just indicate h