The Second Job

Making Extra MoneyThis article is going to change often as I discover new ways to make extra money and list and describe them here. I felt compelled to write this as one of my adult students asked about how to make extra money. Your reasons and availability for extra work will vary from location to location and according to your needs and abilities. Write me about your ideas and they may get posted here. I personally like "extra" jobs that give me a new experience, a new perspective, new training, allow me to read, write, play the guitar, allow me to use my laptop, to split shifts with others, to exercise in some way, to work with a different group of people etc.

Original Post Date: Sept. 18, 2009
==========================
Associated Content: Provides a means to make some money or literally any amount depending on your ability to write and publish articles. Because this can be done at any time of the day or night it ranks very high on my list as a potential money maker. Because it has the ability to focus your thoughts and to bring those thoughs together in small concise units it also sets the groundwork for larger projects. The ability to see the number of page views also gives great feedback on the areas of interest.Lawn Mowing: I wrote another article on this topic and have had very few page views on the topic. The good part about this type of extra money is that you have a window of completion of most jobs. Usually you have to actually do the mowing within a framework of 3 to 10 days which gives you a lot of scheduling room to fit into your other work. This actually fits into my criteria of a good possibility because it is quick money that is usually paid in cash and has flexibility on when it must be done. It is important to consider limitations on this service at the very start. My son has limited his lawn service to only cutting the lawn. He does not edge, does not weed whack, not bush or hedge trim etc. Each thing you add to your service will require more equipment and maintenance and there will be the potential for more theft.Making Jewelery: One of my students told me that just before the holiday season she went to a large office where she previously worked and got permission to offer jewelery she made to the present employees to purchase for gifts. She said she sold over $500.00 worth of jewelery of which most was profit. It took skill and many hours to make the jewelery, but it was great to get the extra money before the holidays. My daughter made some jewelery which she sold while at college. The college had a "spring sale" where students set up tables that were rented by students right on campus and then the students sold things to other students. She made over $300.00 in a day. You might be able to find local stores that will carry your jewelery on a regular basis.Newspaper Route: The home delivery of newspapers has grown up with more adults doing the delivery. When I was a teen I delivered newspapers, but the safety issue has caused much of that type of delivery to be limited. The big problem for most people will be the high cost of fuel, but with a hybrid type of automobile or other economical types of cars this could still work for many people. Another problem is finding a route that is the proper size to fit you. In most cases the routes are already established and you will be required to do the entire route. This then becomes a real job and you must be able to work this job ever single day that is required.Selling Newspaper Subscriptions: Many people are hired to set up tables in front of stores and businesses to sell newspaper subscriptions. This also has some flexibility in scheduling. It may not always be very profitable, but I have known people who have made some nice extra money doing these subscriptions. Security Guard: I have also written an article on getting a job as a security guard. This actually has a lot more flexibility than you may think. Depending on the company you would work for it can be very regular extra work and has a wide range of activity or non-activity. On one of the sites that my son guards, there is absolutely nothing to do except drive around the building one time per hour and walk around once every two hours and check doors. He is in a locked area with locked doors. He loves it. He gets a chance to read, play hand held video games, and listen to the radio.Sell Things At The Market: You can go to an open market and sell things at a booth you rent (sometimes they are free). You can sell some of your own things of course, but you can also sell things for other people and make a percentage of profit from what you sell for them. This can be long hours for little profit, but sometimes with the right things to sell you can do quite well. Recently I saw a vendor as he purchased 4 tires from someone needing money for $40.00 and about 30 minutes later he sold the same tires to someone else for $80.00. Everyone was happy.Repair Computers: I repaired computer for a short while and although I did make some money at this I found it was not the kind of work I wanted to do for extra money. The big problem that I found was that many times it took a lot longer to repair things than you might have expected and there was no way you could charge enough to justify the time. Eventually I started to simply refer people to another person or would take things to him for repair. He worked out of his house and was pretty good at doing repairs. I would be paid a small fee in the referral process. Not a real money maker, but I was no longer doing any of the real work. I would usually charge a fee of $5.00 to $15.00 to take the equipment to him and then bring it back to the person. Any discussions between the people about the repair work was handled directly by phone. With the cost of gas today, it was reasonable to charge something for the delivery and pick up service.

Election Worker: Election workers are needed a few times a year in most places. This is a really long day of work. It is most often a full 12 hour day and you have to arrive early. The pay rate varies, but you could expect from $75.00 to about $140.00 per day. You must have a clean record (police) and a registered voter in most places. Sometimes they have a specific need for a person to be trained in computer operations (computerized voting machines) and this person may get extra pay and special training.

More will be added each week. I really hope this helps some people.