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A History of Blood – Vol. 1, Chapter 3

It takes money to make money.

As we covered in the last chapter of our blog, it costs about $400-$500 to get your initial insurance license. Depending upon the way you prospect, there are also fees associated with operating your insurance business; you can’t exactly show up empty handed.

It’s also important to understand that in addition to the monetary cost, there is also a cost in time and effort. It requires genuine brainpower to study and grasp the material contained in the average pre-licensing course. Some people downplay the difficulty of it but I am a huge fan of recognizing the challenge of studying for and passing the state exam.

Before we go into business expenses however, we are going to talk about living expenses in detail. The better you manage your personal finances the better you will manage your business finances; in general, you cannot successfully manage one without managing the other.

The biggest living expenses [for a married couple] are typically as follows:

Expense	Entry Level Cost	Weekly Cost
Rent/Mortgage	$1,200	$300
Food	$400	$100
Car/Note	$400	$100
Gas	$400	$100
Auto Insurance	$350	$90
Phones	$130	$33
Utilities	$120	$30
Total	$3,000	$750

The above assumes generally entry level or otherwise conservative spending patterns. It doesn’t factor in anything like special discounts, social programs, emergencies, or retirement. It’s just a more bare bones example of a household budget that would allow a couple able to live together, own a car, and generally be productive, financially responsible members of society.

In addition to the finances, there are also household chores to worry, so it’s not just about managing you (or your spouses) money, but also managing your time. Some of the most popular (or unpopular) chores are the following:

• Making the Bed
• Meal & Grocery Planning
• Cooking
• Doing the Dishes
• Fresh Air and Exercise
• Grooming and Personal Hygiene
• Proper Sleep and Rest
• Air Freshening
• Tidying up (Field Day)
• Wash & Folding
• Taking out the Trash
• Childcare

As discussed in a previous chapter, a part of [Islamic] marriage is the actual marriage written or verbal agreement, or the marriage document that precedes the marriage license and ceremony. It’s important to outline all of the above in it. It is super duper important that if both parties are working, than both parties are splitting the chores. Generally, I prefer to do everything in a relationship, from paying the bills to taking care of the house, as the military has taught me to keep my living space extremely neat and organized, but I sometimes get caught up in the clutter of family.

From 2024-2025 I lived alone (normally I live with roommates, relatives, or a significant other) and I learned that outside of childcare, household chores aren’t really a big deal. I lived in the city and didn’t have a car (nor did I need one) so I only had to pay about $1,600 in living expenses, which after getting my insurance license, my salary was more than enough to cover that.

I am originally from Manhattan, so the idea of living (and working) in the city was like a dream to me. If my dating life was a bit better, or if it was closer to my family, I probably would have stayed in Baltimore long term, but my age, the lack of real dating prospects, and the sheer distance from my family made staying in Charm City unrealistic long term.

All that being said, now that I’ve reverted to Islam, I’m open to revisiting the city in new light, either for business or just for personal reasons. It’s actually a really fun place to live outside of the violence (more on that later).

So the secret to a happy life is asking yourself this: How do I make $3,000 a month?

Making $3,000 a month requires earning about $20 an hour and working full time (aka 40+ hours each week) or getting an insurance license and actually using it. You can use your insurance license to make a few higher-ticket sales or a bunch of lower-ticket sales, earning the $3,000 either through direct commission or residual. If you had 250 clients that each paid a $12 residual you wouldn’t have to do anything else. If the average commission on a sale is $300~ then you would only need need 10 customers per month, which would then break down into just 2-3 customers per week.

Fun fact: 2-3 customers per week would be 2-3 years to get to 250 customers and never have to worry about living expenses again.

Another really easy way to earn $3,000 a month is to simply purchase an annuity.