A middle-aged man of my acquaintance — early middle age, but still: no kid — recently lost his job. Canned for no great fault of his, but you may be sure the ex-employer will try to foist blame on him by way of minimizing post-employment payments.
{sigh} I think what would I do if I were in his work boots?
Well: obviously, my goal would be to move on in the most efficient and effective way: a) to get into a new job ASAP, and b) to land a salary that would be as much as I was earning in the former salt mine — and preferably more.
Whew! We don’t ask much, eh? /eyeroll/
First thing to do, IMHO, would be to give myself a couple weeks of vacation time, simply to decompress. And during that time, think about what I’d really like to do and how to pull it off. Continue in the same line of work? Change careers? Go back to school for a degree that might open new doors? Apply for a job as a dog-catcher? Or…what?
This would be the time to look carefully at what’s out there: what kinds of jobs are available in your area, what openings exist, and what qualifications do you need. Also it may be a good time to consider whether you want to get a new degree or course of vocational training that would aim you in a new direction.
Next would be to network…network…network. Let all your friends know you’re in the market for a new job. But also join trade and professional groups (if you’re not already in at least a couple of them), show up at their meetings, and let those folks know you’re looking for fresh work, too.
Neither of these strategies, of course, guarantees that you’ll get any new opportunities…but sitting on your hands certainly will guarantee that.
Another avenue might be to go back to school: get into a graduate program or sign up for a new vocational training course. Several obvious advantages here, above and beyond keeping yourself busy: strong potential for networking opportunities, easy way to spiff up the résumé, and something constructive to keep your mind off your troubles.
Then…just keep on keepin’ on!
If you’re wanting to get hired by a new employer, start applying for jobs and keep on applying.
If you think you might like to start your own business, join a couple of networking and business groups. Show up: make friends, tell them what you can do for them, follow any leads they give you.
If you want to change careers, figure out what you think you want to do next, learn how to establish your qualifications for it, and dive in!
As you might have guessed, none of the options will be easy. But all of them are better than sitting on your hands. So… Forward! Head on down that lonesome road…
Really: just exactly how lucky CAN some little old lady get?
The Cleaning Lady from Heaven just trotted out the front door — very likely en route to her next house. That woman works like a horse. Oh hell: make that like a Clydesdale. You’ve never seen anyone who does so much work at such high quality in such a short time. It’s 2:00 p.m. — and you can be sure she’s on her way to another house. That would be her third house of the day.
I do know she does the WonderAccountants’ house on the same day she does mine. So…no, I cannot be sure she goes to a third work site. But wouldn’t be surprised.
Finding this splendid woman was about the best thing that’s happened to me…at least in my adult life. She really is amazing, and what she charges is the going rate: the same amount other house-cleaners in North Central Phoenix charge.
Yesterday I spavined my back — don’t ask how. Today it hurts so much I can barely hobble around the house. NO WAY could I have cleaned this house — vacuumed, dusted, scoured, scrubbed, polished, changed sheets, and on and on. No matter how much ibuprofen I gulped down!
Wonder Cleaning Lady saves me from my self…and my decrepitude. Bless her!!
{sigh} Quarter to four in the afternoon, and NO WORD from the adorable Pool Dude.
This is decidedly not a good sign. It’s only 100 degrees in the shade of the back patio. But most humans — even the Arizonan variety — think of that as on the high side of cozy. So it’s real unlikely that our guy will be around this afternoon.
A fair amount of debris — mostly leaves and pieces of decrepit palm fronds — litters the pool just now. It needs to be vacuumed up, or it will stain the plaster and get into the machinery, causing all sorts of fun chaos.
I do hope our boy isn’t back in the slam.
Yeah: a fair number of pool dudes are criminals out on parole. One of the vocational programs the state prisons provide is training in pool cleaning and maintenance. So a lot of these guys are…questionable, one might say.
Welp. What to do now?
Hmmmm…
Give him another week to show up, and if he doesn’t appear by next weekend, lasso in another pool dude.
Should be able to find another of those over at the nearest Leslie’s Pool stores — the Funny Farm is equidistant between two of those. Most of the time you can just walk in and ask the clerk for a referral. but otherwise you can lurk around pretending to study some purchase, and when a guy surfaces, ask him if he wants a job.
A crisp 99 degrees at 7:30 this morning. But this balmy figure was besmirched by the humidity: almost 30%. Yeah: that’s thirty percent.
Ruby and I set out for the requisite doggy-walk around 5:30 or 6:00. Hoping the park would be free of its usual dog-and-human horde, we went in that direction, since she dearly loves to walk around in the park.
And yeah…there were fewer people. BUT the usual morons who ignore the law were there chasing their dogs around off-lead.
What is it about a sign that reads
DOGS MUST BE ON LEASH
that’s hard to understand?
And do people who feel entitled to ignore that law (it’s a county-wide leash LAW, not a local park rule) seriously believe that other people and other people’s dogs just loooove to have their pooches come bounding up to them? Is it really possible that NONE of these ninnies has ever landed in the middle of a dog fight? Or are they just too stupid to imagine the scene in the ER when they’re carted in? Or the scene as their dog lays on the ground bleeding out, after someone’s German shepherd gets done with it?
Ruby is fairly harmless, as she weighs only 35 pounds.
But the late, great Anna the Ger-Shep most decidedly was NOT harmless. And…her life’s goal was to rid the earth of other dogs. To that end, she had developed a strategy:
When an idiot’s dog would come bouncing up to her, she would assume a goofy grin. This would cause the idiot to imagine she wanted to play with his dog. No amount of hollering at him to KEEP YOUR DOG BACK! would make a dent on the nitwit’s stupidity. Some of them would reply, “oohhh it’s all right! They just want to playyyyy!”
Yeah. If eviscerating your dog and scattering its guts across the park is “play,” I guess so.
This is why I tend to stay away from the park: it’s a magnet for the Dumb and the Feckless.
But today Ruby was determined to trot over there.Why not? thought I…
Well, we didn’t have any Dog Incidents (despite several nitwits’ off-leash dogs). But my gawd! The HEAT!
It was just too hot to make the full mile’s circuit around the park.
So we walked down to the southwest corner, where the house that the aging owners apparently lost is under construction…and under construction…and under…. They’ve been trying to restore that place for at least a year, and finally have given up. Saw an ad recently that they’re selling it as is.
And “as is” is one, unholy, deconstructed mess. Whoever buys it (if anyone is foolish enough to buy it) is gonna have to tear it down and start over. That will include rebuilding the swimming pool, too.
How you could possibly sell it for enough to cover the repair and reconstruction costs escapes me. It’s right on the corner of an east-west feeder street and a road that goes from the northernmost border of North Central all the way south to the state office building complex. So….commuters in the know who have jobs or business in that complex ride that street all the way south in the morning and all the way north in the evening. You’d be crazy to choose to live in a house on that road! Especially in that specific lot…
I met the son of the couple who own(ed) the place. And I suspect he was a guy with a prison record and so couldn’t get a decent job.
At one point I wanted to hire an arborist. I’d heard about this guy via the neighborhood Facebook page…and it appears that some of the glowing recommends offered there were, uhm…slightly exaggerated. He did an OK job, but — frankly — not great. Gerardo and his boys would’ve done a better job, and Luis certainly could have. But ohhhhh no! Nothing would do but what I had to hire an “expert.”
My suspicion is that the guy was an ex-con who couldn’t get a hired job, and so had to start his own little low-talent “business.” Friend of mine has a son who was (for ridiculous reasons IMHO) clapped in the slam, and he has had one bitch of a challenge getting paying work, now that he’s “paid his debt” to society.
Hey! How hard can it be to trim trees, right?
Well…hard enough to surpass that guy’s skills, that’s for sure.
Presumably, his business went nowhere, and I’d put money on it that the parents’ Social Security and savings weren’t enough to support all three of them, even with a paid-off house.
If it was paid off. They may have had to borrow against it, either to start the guy’s business or, if my speculation is right, to pay his lawyers’ fees and fines.
WhatEVER, they vacated the house, and the contractors who bought it for renovation labored for months and then just gave up. So it’s sad and yet kinda morbidly interesting to walk by there and watch the construction efforts.
My guess is, they’re trying to sell it to someone who will level the building and start over from scratch. Which probably should’ve happened in the first place.
If you want to improve your financial situation, you have two options. The first and easiest is to cut expenses. There are plenty of articles on our site and elsewhere with great advice on how to do that.
What’s rare is good advice about the other option: how to make more money. Adding more cash to your bottom line will improve your financial position. Below are our four favorite ways to do that.
Note: These Are Not Second Jobs
Some ways to earn extra income amount to getting a part-time job or starting a business that becomes a part-time job. These are great ideas for people with extra time and energy, but they’re not the only option.
This list has four solid models for you to bring in extra money without devoting significant time to it. You have a life to live, people you love to spend time with, and a career. These ideas will help ease financial stress without spreading yourself too thin.
Four Personal Income Generators You Can Start Using Today
1. Purge and Profit
This income generator combines the benefits of making your home tidier with bringing in extra cash, usually for a one-time or short-term money infusion. There are many variations, but they all follow the same basic framework:
Clean your house, using a box or bin to accumulate things you can live without. Move stuff too big to fit into the box to a special place in your house.
Identify which of these items has a monetary value.
Sell those items on Craigslist, eBay, or similar websites or have a garage sale to sell lots of items at once.
Bundle up items that didn’t sell the first time and re-list them together. Often, people will see the value and buy them during this second round.
Donate what’s left to Goodwill, and get a receipt for tax season (you can deduct charitable contributions if you itemize).
Whether you do this with a single collection you once loved but now don’t interact with, or by pulling stuff out of every room in your house, it’s not hard to make several hundred dollars from this method. It’s even easier if you follow a few of these best practices:
Clean the items first, so they look as attractive as possible
Take high-quality photos to include in your listings
Write detailed, compelling descriptions for each entry
Answer potential buyers’ questions quickly and professionally
Set prices according to what similar items sell for
Don’t hesitate to haggle and bargain to sell as much as you can in as little time as possible
Publicize your sale on social media and other venues
2. Monetize Your Hobby
You likely have a hobby or interest, something you enjoy and you do well. There are ways to make money off the skills and expertise you’ve accumulated from it. Examples include:
Creating an Etsy account to sell the product of your crafting hobby
Writing articles for magazines associated with your hobbies and interests
Pet-sitting or dog walking if you’re an animal lover
Offering personal services, such as cleaning if you’re an organization junkie
Coaching or teaching people who want to learn more about your hobby or interest
Creating online content, like an e-book or video course
Putting your photographs on image clearinghouses like Getty Images or Flickr
Selling your artwork in local galleries and cafes
These are just some of the ways people turn their passions and interests into cold, hard cash. For some, it’s a way of helping the hobby fund itself. For others, it’s a route to a better financial situation.
Start by considering your hobbies. What do you love doing so much you’ve become an expert at it? How might you turn that skill and expertise into something other people want or need? From there, put together a plan.
3. Find Part-Time Work Online
You don’t want the demands of a traditional part-time job, but you can make money in small sessions of flexible work using a number of different online sources. As with monetizing your hobby, there are dozens of ways to do this. Here are nine you can get started on right away:
Log in to Mechanical Turk to do small jobs that add up to big money.
Get paid to fill out market research questionnaires on sites like Focus Pointe Global and Delve.
Google “Get paid to _______”, filling the blank with tasks you might find fun to perform, like “write,” “watch TV,” or “play games.” Log in to the sites that best match your needs. Read the fine print carefully.
Become a mystery shopper through any number of sources. (Just Google “mystery shopper” plus your location.)
You can choose one of these options and pursue it heavily, or work on several options over the course of a month to generate a substantial income stream. Either way, the opportunities are real, as is the difference they can make for your finances.
4. Flip Products
This is the riskiest item on this list, but if you have the expertise and a little cash available, it can become a reliable and easy way to make extra money.
Find items for sale at well below market rate. Books, furniture, power tools, yard equipment, and watches are good candidates for flipping.
Clean them up and research their potential full value.
List and sell them on eBay or Craigslist.
Use some of the profit to scale up the project by buying more items to list.
The key to success is finding reliable sources of goods at well below the price people will pay for them. Research how much certain items are selling for on eBay and Craigslist, then look for them in locations such as:
Estate sales
Garage sales
The clearance rack at stores you frequent
Lots and bundles sold on eBay
Thrift shops
Craigslist giveaways
Flea markets
Also, let friends, family, and acquaintances know you’ll take their items to the dump or Goodwill when they clean out their homes. Make it clear you plan to sell things you think you can flip. Most people won’t mind if you’re upfront about it.
Final Thought: The Real Question
When deciding which income generators are right for you, ask yourself how you want to earn your extra money and what you want to use it for.
Do you want to earn a one-time lump sum to pay off credit cards, afford something you need, or make a single change to improve your life moving forward?
Or do you want to earn a little extra money on a regular basis, so your monthly financial life is a little easier?
There’s no right or wrong answer, but knowing your goals will help you pick the strategies that will make the biggest difference in your financial life.
John Garber lives on the West Coast, where he works in technology and currently has a few side hustles in play.
Summer is tentatively turning its golden-locked head toward fall. Nights are growing longer, days shorter, and the other day’s violent storm knocked the temps down a few degrees. As I scribble, it’s only 98 out here on the side deck, just fine for breakfast, coffee, and computerized time-wasting.
You think I jest? Yes, it is “only” 98, by comparison balmy with recent days whose mornings have started out at 102. It’s a little drier than it was the other day, too: Wunderground pegs the humidity at a mere 38%, as nothing compared to yesterday’s 64%.
The endless doggy walk…
Ruby-Doo and I got a late start on the morning’s trek — didn’t leave the house till 6 a.m. But to my surprise, we hardly ran into any other dog walkers: only three dogs in a good two-mile perambulation. Which is like…the Twilight Zone, where you wake up one day and discover you’re the only person in the whole town.
What explains this Great Absence? I figure it’s Labor Day: this is the last big three-day weekend of the summer, and anyone who has the means flees the city for one last fling in the cool(er) high country. If you can take off Friday — which lots of people can — you wangle a four-day weekend. And if you work for a government office? Well!
At Arizona Highways — which is run by the Arizona Department of Transportation, making everyone there a state employee — we used to store up our vacation days so they would straddle a three-day weekend. So, for example, my boss would take four days off right after Labor Day, giving himself a week, and two weekends away from the office: (saturday.sunday.monday.tuesday.wednesday.thursday.friday.saturday.sunday) nine days off for the price of four vacation days.
Ultimately, this was remunerative, because the State of Arizona was required to pay you for unused vacation time when you retired. There was a (very generous) limit to the number of days you were allowed to stash for this purpose, but you can be sure that by the end of any given fiscal year my boss was always maxed in that department. 🙂
Didn’t do me much good, because my husband was in private practice and was expected to…oh, you know…show up to work? That kind of unreasonable demand. However, I still got enough vacation days to take off on the junkets he liked to indulge himself in: Hawaii and waypoints.
At any rate, whatever the reason, it was mighty quiet out there between 6 and 7 this a.m.
In the lengthening shadows of (financial) winter department, I discussed the current budgetary horror show with WonderAccountant. She pointed out that because I never owe any taxes and I get a large refund every year, it’s unnecessary for me to have the feds withhold income tax from Social Security. Cancel that! said she.
Well. Easier said than done.
After some fiddling around on the Internet, though, I finally found a form online. ONE LINE in an entire page of bureaucratic fill-in-the-blanks allows for a “Do not withhold” request. Checking the box and signing at the bottom requires fiddling around with downloading and then printing the form: duly done. then the page suggests you can either mail the form to a Social Security office or drive to an office near you and submit it in person.
So I figured I’d drive up to the SS office in Paradise Valley today and drop this thing off.
But on second thought: There’s no “dropping off” at that place. Dollars to donuts, I can’t just hand this thing across the counter to someone. I would surely end up having to take a seat and wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. Depending on the time of day, wait times range from 45 minutes to three hours.
To turn in ONE FUCKING LINE??????????
Barf.
Now the plan is to drive this over to the post office, stand in line there (almost as interminably, but surely not for one to three hours), and send it Return Receipt Requested. What a nuisance!
Well. The $300 a month that SS is now extracting from my paycheck will re-fund the empty Emergency Savings account, thereby taking up some of the slack.
That will still leave an $8870 shortfall, per annum.
But, noted WonderAccountant, now that we’ve converted The Copyeditor’s Desk from an S-corp to a sole proprietorship (and paid last year’s taxes!), I can take money out of that without tax consequences.
This year.
But then what?
It looks like the choices are…
To get a paying job. (Right! Know anyone in the market for a 74-year-old female employee? Har har!)
To cut every expense possible. (Done. Now what?)
To hustle up at least net $10,000 worth of business in the coming few months.
Ten grand is an awful lot of amateur novels and Chinese scientific treatises.
Truth to tell, the amateur novelists are paying one helluva lot more than the Chinese scientists. This is because a budding author’s draft magnum opus typically runs upwards of 30,000 words. At 4 cents a word, that’s $1,200. Or more. Usually more. The last two authors who hired me paid over $3,000 apiece. But even at only $1,200, that’s…what? Three amateur novels would yield $3600, leaving a mere $6,400 in the shortfall. This would require about 20 Chinese scholarly articles to cover.
And that ain’t a-gonna happen. It might be workable if I could extract $3,000+ from every wannabe novelist. That is the going rate – 4 cents a word – if you look it up on the Net and you believe what other editors publish on their websites. To make enough to generate at least 10 grand a year, then, I’d need to land three or four budding Herman Melvilles. Or Isaac Asimovs…most of them dream of writing science fiction.
The only way I could make that happen would be to really hustle the editing bidness. This would mean showing up at every local club of wannabe writers in the Valley — and showing up regularly. And handing out professionally written and laid-out marketing junk at every meeting. It has to be said that the last two novels I picked up came from members of the West Valley writer’s group.
That outfit meets in Tolleson, almost an hour’s jaunt from my house. It’s a horrible drive, and then you have to sit through three hours of palaver. The members are very nice and a delight to socialize with. But because nothing very useful — for my purposes — is said, it feels like an aching waste of my time. Especially if I have paying work in-house.
If I’m having to go to four or five such groups’ meetings, we could be talking about 12 to 15 hours a month of achingly boring time suck…plus drive time. I cringe! Surely there must be a better way??????
