I’m sure this has been done before on the boards, but I’m curious about our current population.
Have you made decent side income at some point?
What kind of jobs have you done?
I’ve done a lot of odd side work over the last 10 years or so. For example:
[ul]
[li]Writing[/li][li]Web hosting/site design[/li][li]Graphic/logo design[/li][li]Content editing[/li][li]Tutoring[/li][li]Providing various music lessons (guitar, drums)[/li][li]Hanging drywall[/li][li]Handyman-type jobs (small things for random people in our community)[/li][li]Siding/Roofing houses[/li][li]Mowing yards[/li][/ul]
When I was first teaching, I made more money doing concrete or “honeydipping” during the summer than I did teaching.
I’ve also done car repair and motorcycle work on the side since High School to various degrees - I’m just real fussy who I work for and what on. Same with building guns (flintlocks mostly) and some other stuff now and then. How much work I take on or how fast I do it depends on what I want/need the money for. I treat it almost like a savings account I can “draw” on from time to time.
I’m an theater technician, so while most of my income comes from my regular 40-hours-a-week job, I can pick up one-off jobs as local overhire for touring gigs on days off or during my off-season. I usually don’t during the main season, but I did for a couple weeks last offseason. And I’m living well below my means right now, socking away savings; if I needed to pick up extra cash for some emergency, I could scale it up fairly quickly.
Selling stuff on eBay that I buy at auction and estate sales. Profit varies from a couple of hundred to as much as $1500 a month depending on what I find.
I’ve done Web sites in the past for a few hundred bucks here and there but it’s totally not worth it because it’s never a small, one-time thing. People who pay the least are the ones who need the most follow-up.
Now I sell baby clothes and toys online. My friends with kids give me their clothes and toys and I take pictures, store it in my guest room, and post the pictures on a Facebook group for buying and selling kids’ stuff. I get half the money. I MAYBE make $300/year doing this but it’s pizza money. And it helps my friends out.
I’m an academic in my day job but a textbook author on the side. Royalties from the textbooks is a good second income for me. If I weren’t splitting the royalties with a coauthor, it would come to more than my regular salary. (But, if I didn’t have a coauthor, I doubt I could do it alone.)
I used make and sell candles and body products and made anywhere from a few hundred bucks to $10K a year. I’d like to do a couple of writing projects to sell as ebooks but still researching how to do it. And my son and I are considering starting a food cart…again, in research mode.
I really need something that allows me to work from home for a while.
I did database consulting work on the side. I made over $25K for a couple of years, but more like $10K most years. Some of it was literally working in my underwear from home.
I also taught part time at a local college for 16 years. I made about $5K a year and even get $210 monthly retirement check from it.
I’m a retired HS teacher now, but I used to do all manner of summer and part-time jobs. They included selling fireworks, mowing yards, correcting insurance paperwork for a doctor, and teaching summer kids’ rocketry classes. The longest term part-time jobs I had were working the counter and grill in a bowling alley nights and weekends (4 years) and teaching DUI school (5+ years).
I’ve done contract needlepoint sewing (you tell me what you want, we agree on a pattern, I sew it). I used to do knife sharpening, too, but I no longer have my sharpening stones. Back in high school, I taught music lessons - that was my first job.
Starting when I was 13, I played guitar and sang, solo and in bands, and made money doing it. My peak years were in the 90s, when I was in a variety/wedding reception band. I averaged about $8K a year in the 90s. I retired from performing for money a few years ago when I was 55. Now I play in church and in prison.
Also in the 90s, I bred snakes and poison dart frogs for the pet trade and made a couple of thousand a year doing that.
I’ve done photography for extra money. My apartment complex asked me to take pictures of the grounds for some okay money. I wouldn’t normally go after photography jobs, but they asked and I accepted.
I know people who earn extra cash walking dogs. All there clients are twice a week on the same days, they take all the dogs for an hour of running and playing, and they make pretty good extra money for having fun with dogs.
I am a home sewer and have often undertaken projects for people who need special items made.
And that’s the problem with the English language. I had to read that twice.
I’ve started building little free libraries for people. So far the first one I made -$100 in “profit” and the last one I made $2. So I’m moving towards the black at least.
Not to sound ridiculously creepy - weren’t you associated with the Rose Lane Band at one point?
I believe we’ve talked about it before. I work on day a week in Chillicothe right now, but until about a year ago I was working there full time. Every time I drive up toward OU-C I saw the sign and thought about that band…hah
I love the little free libraries. I first encountered something like it in a restaurant that had a small lending library bookshelf that just sort of existed. Really cool stuff!
