It’s the New Year, and it’s gonna be a great one too! To make sure of that, I’ve set myself a whole new bunch of goals and challenges, because the more the better, right? Exactly.

Number one is to be “better at blogging” (definitely a SMART goal, don’t you think? 😉 ) so from now on I will always post my last months’ income report in the first week of the new month.

Today I present you my December Digital Nomad Income Report (in festive design!).

After my first 4-digit income (even if just barely) in November I was very keen to keep the momentum going. However, December isn’t exactly known to be the most productive month of the year, so I had to work hard to make sure I would reach my goal.

Did I make it?

Find out in the infographic and the details below!

Breakdown of my December Digital Nomad Income

Digital Nomad Job #1: Ghost Writer

I’ve been busy ghost writing about WordPress again and I’m actually really enjoying it. It’s pretty hard as I am no WordPress expert (yet!) but I learn so much during my research for these posts, which is definitely an extra bonus.

This month was cut short a bit by the holidays so I only wrote one post, but there are more lined up for next year already.

Number of posts written: 1

Total: $138

Hours it took me to write them: approximately 15 (including research, editing, linking, and finding pictures)

Average hourly rate: $9.20

Digital Nomad Job #2: German-English translator

I’m still surprised about how much I don’t hate translating! December was jam-packed with medical translations (who doesn’t want to know the German term for putrid sputum?) and drinking game translations that required me to use the Urban Dictionary more frequently than I’m used to.

Translation was my biggest source of income last month:

Number of words translated: no idea, let’s say approximately 30.000 (it was a pretty comprehensive drinking game)

Total income: $580

Hours it took me to translate: approximately 50 (next month will be more accurate as I’m now tracking my time)

Average hourly rate: $11.60

Digital Nomad Job #3: Web designer

Although I didn’t design a whole new website for a new client this month, I am totally chuffed as I’ve managed to score myself a long-term client! Yay!

We found each other through Upwork (see, it has its good sides, too!) and she is a lovely lady from New Zealand who runs her own branding, design and web design business in which she helps other female entrepreneurs! How awesome is that?

She is now doing so well that she is outsourcing some of the web design work and I am extremely happy she picked me to help her out!

I won’t be rich but I am learning an incredible amount about WordPress, working with clients and my favourite theme: Divi!

I will be working with her for 5 hours a week, for now. 🙂

Total websites worked on: 2

Hours spent: again, not sure as I worked quite hard during the trial (and messed up quite a bit too) so it’s not very accurate. But in the future, it’ll be 5 hours per week, so let’s go with that!

Total Pay: $130

Average hourly rate: $13

Digital Nomad Job #4: Travel Guide Writer

December saw the return of my travel guide writing, mainly because I was quite behind on it and needed to get s**t done. I’m still chipping away at these guides and it’s quite repetitive work, but it also reminds me of all the awesome places I visited which is a nice side effect.

Total guides written: 2

Hours it took me: approximately 12

Total Pay: $120

Average Hourly rate: $10

Digital Nomad Job #5: Affiliate Income

My absolute favourite type of income! I was lucky enough to make one sale of Bluehost hosting through my blog this month. I’ve been raving about them to all my friends and family and maybe one of them clicked on my link, who knows!

Total sales made: 1

Hours it took me: 0

Total Pay $65

Total December Digital Nomad Income: $1033

After Paypal fees: $ 1000 (ok maybe a few $ less, but this sounds better 🙂 )

If you follow my reports you’ll notice that I earned quite a bit less than in November. I took over a week off over Christmas and New Year (and my birthday because nobody should work on their birthday. Ever.), which obviously meant a loss of income, that’s the downside of a freelancing career.

I was actually a bit annoyed because Simon made exactly $1 more than me last month. But hey, I’ll catch him up again next month, I’m sure!

So, what was my spending this month? Well, the holidays are never cheap, we had to spend a lot of money on comfort food, visits to the cat cafe and boozy karaoke with our friends in Chiang Mai, to forget about being home sick. Simon and I also went to Hong Kong for New Years, which included a trip to Disneyland Hong Kong, basically a money sucker!

My total spending for December was $1009, but that doesn’t include the flight to Hong Kong because flights don’t count right? Just kidding, I wish.

So, I covered 99% of my basic costs. Including the flight I covered 90% of my December income. This means I’ll have to work super hard this month, and thankfully I already have some work lined up!

How did you all do this month? Did the holidays take a chunk of your income? Or did you work like a trooper to make up for it?

Please share in the comments below!