This past week, our 22 year old furnace started to show its age and quickly demonstrated that it is not much longer for this world. We have been diligently using snowflaking to pay off our debts, and this threw a wrench in those plans. At first, I thought to myself that we would have to go deeper into debt to replace the furnace, for we only have a $1000 emergency fund, and a furnace is minimum several thousand dollars. But then I stepped back and started using that snowflaking mentality to figure out what could be done in a short period of time to avoid new debt, and I was surprised to determine that I think this can be done, and done well.

What has worked in my favor is that through becoming a snowflaking aficiando, I have worked hard at establishing multiple streams of income to provide those snowflakes. I have multiple small sources of income that I have developed, through things as varied as referral bonuses, surveys, tutoring, teaching taekwondo, blog advertising, and more, and each of them, while small in themselves, add up to a significant amount together. And that is what the snowflake mentality is all about. I didn’t get to this point all at once. I started with one, and added another and another over time, so that now, almost a year later, I can count on 8 or 9 different sources of income in any given month. And this gives a lot more flexibility not only for paying down debt, but in addressing unexpected expenses. And in the future, I hope to use this same mentality to kickstart out savings goals and really make a difference in our financial security.

Little things add up to big changes. Don’t overlook a potential point of growth - let your income slowly build up to great things.