Earning some extra income even if it is only temporary is a great way to boost your savings. There are many ways to increase your monthly take home pay packet and here are some that I have tried and some that I haven’t.
1. Rent out a room in your house. If you have a spare room in your house get an extra flatmate. If you own the house this is ideal as you can charge board rather than rent to avoid paying tax. If you are a renter, then you can still get an extra flatmate but will obviously need to go through your landlord.
2. Start a Blog- There is still money to be made online. You might think that will the billions of websites out there, there could not possibly be anything left but I can assure you there is. However, it does take consistent time, dedication, and content. It is very easy to give up on the blog especially when your first blog posts get about 5 site views each. (don’t ask me how I know this, I just do….) But my understanding is that once you reach about 100 good quality articles on your blog and it is about 12 months old, that is when you will start to reach the point of monetisation. I am working hard on my blogs to try and get to that point over the next 12 months.
3. Join the Army reserves. This is one I have done. I joined the army reserves last year and it has positives and negatives. The positive is that it is tax-free money, usually a minimum $90 extra per week for your 3 hour Tuesday parade night. Obviously, you have to attend the Tuesday night to receive this money. You will earn more if you have the option to work weekends & attend weekend courses. The downside is the five weeks of basic army training you have to attend. You do get paid but you will need to take time away from your real job to attend so depending on your work, it may not be possible. Also, another downside is the treatment you get at the army training. If you can handle this it is worth it.
3. Tutoring- Not just tutoring in school-based subjects. If you have any sort of skill there is no doubt that someone out there will pay you to learn it. Can you speak another language? Can you do DIY maintenance courses for women? Can you teach people to cook? (I know so many women who would pay for this myself included) Can you tutor school kids or uni students? Whatever skill you have, you may be able to monetise it with a little bit of effort in creating resources and some time in your week.
4. Do a market stall. Market stalls tend to be quite cheap depending on the location and how large the market is.
5. Invest in Dividend paying stock. You should be investing already but if passive income is your goal more so than growth then good quality dividend-paying stocks/ETFs are a good option. I just received my quarterly dividend from VDHG and VAS and they payout every three months. Just remember that dividends are not guaranteed the amount will fluctuate and depending on the market they can be cut altogether.
6. Uber & Ubereats- This is not one that I have tried and I have heard it is harder to make money doing this these days but there are still opportunities. The benefit is being able to manage your own availability and work when you want to around your current commitments.
7. Airtasker- I have tried this and it is a bit hit and miss. If you are spending 3 hours to mow a lawn for $50 then potentially it is not worth it. But if you have a good set of skills when it comes to DIY or you have a cleaning business then Airtasker can be a great asset for finding clients and getting paid work.
8. Photography- if you have an SLR and some skills you can easily market yourself as a photographer. You may need to start at discount prices but if you are good at it eventually you will build up a portfolio of clients.
9. Get a weekend or night job- temporarily. The reason I say temporarily is because burn out is the real deal. It is extremely hard to work all week and then back that up with a Saturday or Sunday shift or additional night shifts. However, a second job is a means to an end to achieve some sort of goal then it is totally worth it.
10. Last but not least- increase your full-time employment income if you can before focusing on side hustles. Can you ask for a raise? Can you apply for an internal promotion? Can you move to a different company to get an increased salary? The reason we all go to work is to get paid. Is being loyal to a company worth it if you can get a 5k increase at a competitor? It might be depending on the working environment and management but I tend to think that we all need to focus on our earning capacity through our full time 9-5 first and then branch out into the other hustles.
