what makes me happy.

I started hosting on AirBnB about three years ago. I immediately loved it and immediately knew this was my opportunity to create financial freedom for myself.

I took my savings from my first listing (in a third floor apartment where I made $12-$15 a night!) and used it as my down payment to buy my first home. This left my savings account basically empty-but in a good spot to start earning it back!

And I did, pretty easily-as I continued to book every night and one of those guests turned into an excellent full-time renter.

Using the same method, and when the time was right for my boyfriend and I to move in together, we bought a new house-with hosting in mind.

Savings accounts emptied, and a new zero-percent interest taken out. Not only did we sink about $5k into the house at closing, but we bought furniture and upgraded the bathrooms right away! The $5k turned into $15k pretty quickly.

We should have been easily able to make that $15k back the first year.

Then, as travel plans across the country came to a halt, our cancellations skyrocketed! AirBnB/landlording is how we pay the bills! For about two weeks, we had no guests in any of the five rooms we list on AirBnB.

This was heartbreaking and nerve-racking. Cash on hand was low because we had been putting our earnings back towards the credit card we used to start the AirBnB. And you can’t pay your mortgage with a credit card.

My plans of financial freedom quickly dissolved in front of me, as I knew this would be a month that would require me to pay in to make ends meet.

Luckily, it changed quickly, as travelers were not traveling, people began needing rooms longer term to encourage social distancing between high-risk family members and family members who still had to work. Now, all of my rooms are booked with people who needed one month+.

So, a couple of weeks where I thought my world was ending turned into just a couple of weeks that were a little tough. That’s probably most of the problems in our lives, isn’t it?