Tentmaking Tips

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice. I’m just explaining an additional way that people can generate extra monthly income. If you were to become interested in options, I would encourage you to only execute trades like this under the oversight of a experienced conservative trader.

One of the most conservative options trades is commonly referred to as the “covered call.”

You’re committing to sell 100 shares of your stock for an agreed upon price during a certain length of time and you’re paid a premium for that agreement.

The mechanics are fairly easy to understand using an example:

• You own 100 shares of a stock, let’s call it XYZ

• You bought XYZ for $100/share

• You sell a $110 call option which expires a month from now for $250 in premium

• If XYZ is trading at or above $110 in a month, you’ve earned the $250 in premium p
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Others read it and have no idea what stock options are.

Since this is a way that I’ve been producing recurring income for many months now, I wanted to share it with you.

Now, before I begin, I need to give a big disclaimer.

I am not a financial advisor. I’m not recommending you trade options. There is always a risk when you invest money in stocks or trade various derivatives.

I’m simply sharing with you a story of a way I’ve been making an extra $1,000-$2,000/mo with minimal time and effort.

Me and Simon share a variety of ways in this newsletter to generate extra income in your spare time. Not everything we share is something everyone should do. We’re just trying to help you see all the various ways to earn income on the side. We trust that through prayer and wise counsel you’ll determine which ways make the most sense to you.

Ok, having said that, I want to share what I’ve been doing.

A few ye

That’s 4x more.

This is a great reminder that over the long-term, equities (stocks & funds) do better than holding your money in cash-equivalents.

Are you benefiting from this year’s 4x increase over treasuries? I hope you are!

I’m not suggesting that all of your money should be invested in equities, of course. The percentage you invest will have to do with life stage, risk tolerance, and how soon you might need the money. You could consult with a fee-based financial advisor to sort out a plan for you or study up on your own.

But, suffice it to say, investing some percentage is likely a wise idea.

When you’re early in your career, it will likely be a much higher percentage than later in your career. And the percentage will likely go down even more significantly

It could be transferring your savings to a High Yield Savings Account to earn extra interest.

It could be eating out or grocery shopping at a significant discount.

Or it could be maxing out your retirement accounts.

Over the last 6 months, we’ve continued to do as much “Life Hacking” as we can.

Here are some of the things we’ve done:

• We maxed out our HSA and both IRAs at the beginning of the year

• We’ve continued to use our weekly Chipotle Hack

• We paid our IRS tax bill with credit cards & got enough in bonuses to cover the cost of our CPA for the year

• We’ve significantly hacked my daughter’s upcoming college tuition costs, hopefully saving over $50k in the process (CLEP tests, community college class transfers, optimizing the block tuition, etc)

• We’ve kept our cash in treasuries or money market accounts so most of our ca
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I invited newsletter subscribers to share any additional “hacks” they’ve used.

One of my good friends and fellow pastor at our church, John Bradshaw, responded back with some other great “hacks” that his family used to put their kids through college.

He shared 3 additional “hacks” and I’m going to quote him here:

1. Stay at home - Don’t go to UT Austin (in the case of someone whose family lives in Lubbock). Stay in Lubbock, go to Tech, and live at home (one of my kids did this). And your community college point from the last newsletter makes this even better. Go to South Plains Community College (again using Lubbock as the example) for two years and then go to Tech.

2. Apply for every scholarship available (there are a ton) - When one of my daughters said she wanted to go to Hardin Simmons (a private school) we said, “That’s great but we can’t pay for it and we don’t...

I had heard of these before but wasn’t quite sure how they worked.

I started doing more research and quickly became convinced that I needed to add this tool to my financial life. I just set mine up this past week.

Let me share with you a high-level overview of what these are and how they might benefit you.

What is a Donor Advised Fund?

Let me quote Fidelity Charitable:

A donor-advised fund, or DAF, is like a charitable investment account for the sole purpose of supporting charitable organizations you care about. When you contribute cash, securities, or other assets to a donor-advised fund at a public charity… you are generally eligible to take an immediate tax deduction. Then those funds can be invested for tax-free growth, and you can recommend grants to any eligible IRS-qualified public charity.

This definition gives at least two of t

Tuition prices are sky rocketing.

Add the cost of room and board if your child chooses to leave for college.

Books aren’t cheap either.

My oldest daughter is a Senior in High School & my youngest is a Freshman.

You can imagine that were talking a lot about college these days.

My girls are asking questions like, “Should we even go to college? If so, where should we go? And, if we go, what should we major in?”

If they end up choosing to go to college, it raises the question, is it hackable?

Turns out, it is.

I’ll share some of the hacks we’ve discovered & then I welcome you to email me any additional hacks you’ve used. I’d love to do more emails on this subject because it’s such a big financial commitment for families. Especially if you’re trying to keep your children far from student loans, which I certainly am.

Ok, let’s begin.

1. Dual Credit Classes - my oldest daughter is taking as many of these as she can. Me and my wife did
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This is especially concerning if their tentmaking activities don’t involve having a job at a church or company that offers a group health insurance plan.

This is a great question & certainly something many who have thought about tentmaking have had to consider.

Ever since I came off the payroll at our church, I had to find alternative ways to get health insurance for our family.

And it’s not as hard as you might think.

In fact, there are some “hacks” that could allow you to get health insurance even cheaper than if you were buying into a group plan. More on that below.

My hope is that this newsletter might begin to alleviate any fear you’ve had of finding health insurance apart from a group plan at your church/company.

Once I came off the payroll, I was able to work with an insurance agent to apply for my own group coverage with my real estate company. Since I had at least one employee, we were ab

We like that everyone can choose what they want & that you have healthy options as well.

The main problem is the cost.

As you know, if everyone gets a burrito or a bowl, for a family of 4, it can really add up.

4 chicken burritos = $8.90 x 4 = $35.60 + $2.94 tax = $38.54 x ~4 weeks/mo = $154.16/mo

Ouch!

It can add up, but it doesn’t have to.

We’ve come up with multiple hacks.

1. Kids Meals

   My 17-year old daughter often eats there with her friends & she recently told us that the kids meals have plenty of food and there’s not an age restriction.

   One night our family of 4 all tried the build-your-own kids meal & we loved it.

   It was only $5.50 each and it came with protein, two sides, chips & a drink.

   Plenty of food for us!

   That’s $23.82 including tax to eat out as a family of 4.

   $23.82 x ~4 weeks/mo = $95.28 per month for our family to eat weekly at Chipotle.

   Not bad,

   ...

My Dad used to say it tastes better when it’s free! 😂

I’ve recently entered the world of online meal kits.

Not so much because we didn’t like cooking, but just because it seems like they’re trying to give you great meals for almost nothing.

It saves on groceries & eating out.

Now you may be thinking, “Whoa! I thought those online meal kits were really expensive?”

They can be.

If you just subscribe to a single kit & get a delivery week after week, it really adds up.

But I don’t do that.

I’ve gotten two meal kits now.

The first kit was 3 meals for 2 people for free (retail at nearly $70). I only had to pay $11 in shipping. This was from Marley Spoon.

The second was 3 meals for 4 people for free (retail at nearly $120). I only had to pay $5 in shipping. This was from HelloFresh.

Lest you think they were just sending us cheap food, the first one had multiple steak dinners and the second box had high quality dishes as well.

Ok, so what’s the