Once you’ve changed your spending habits to increase your income and have mastered the art of reducing your existing expenses, you should be ready to look for more ways to increase your income.
In The Wealth Number, I suggest several ways to increase your income so you may accelerate savings.
Of course, the more you increase your income and save, the sooner you’ll be able to walk away from your mind-numbing day job.
One of the ways that I attempt to increase my current income is through real estate, entrepreneurship, book sales, and this blog.
Earlier year this year I flipped a house for a $40,000 gross profit, I’m working on a Software as a Service (SaaS) application, and I’m still trying to promote my book and this blog until they generate extra income.
The later two didn’t succeed as of yet, but they are projects that I choose to spend time building with the extra time that I have. These are projects that I work on with my “other eight hours.”
What Do You Do With Your Other “Eight Hours?”
Like you, I work about eight hours per day and sleep for another eight hours. In between those times there exists another eight hours, which can be used to work on projects, or side hustles, so you can increase your income to accelerate your savings.
Here are 15 ways that you can use your other eight hours to increase your income:
1. Dominate Your Existing Salary by asking for a raise – If you are a top performer, you may be able to make a successful case. The key to getting a raise is documenting everything, so you can make your case with specifics. Keep a log detailing your accomplishments both at and away from your job, including new degrees or certifications and ways you’ve saved the company money or have enhanced revenues. Be sure to research the going salary for someone with your education, skills, and experience. Use sites such as Salary.com and SalaryExpert, When you meet with your supervisor, don’t say you are asking for extra money because you need it; instead, make the case for how you’ve strengthened the company’s bottom line.
2. Search for Better Paying Jobs – Using he same research that you use in the tactic above, see what other jobs would be willing to pay you for your increased skills and organization contributions. As long as you are growing your wealth number, you should have to worry about how you’re going to get by during a job transition. You’ll already be prepared.
3. Take a Second Job in the Evening or on the Weekend – Some 3.6 million Americans took on a second job part-time in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Aside from providing extra money, an extra job can help you explore a potential career or learn skills that may apply to your primary employment, says Hansen, of Quintessential Careers.
4. Become an Uber or Lyft Driver – If these driving services are in your city, they may be looking for new drivers. If you’re a people person and don’t mind driving strangers around in the evenings or the weekends, this side hustle may be just for you.
5. Start a Website (or a Blog) – If you have a lot to say and are passionate about writing and sharing this content, consider starting your own blog. Once blogs begin receiving a decent amount of traffic, they can earn money by way of indirect and direct advertisements, selling affiliate products, or selling sponsored posts, among other things. Don’t know how to get started, check out our free guide to start a blog.
6. Start working on a side business – Is your wealth number not large enough yet? That’s ok. Use crowd funding and let your friends, family, or strangers invest in your project. Crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo allow anyone to raise money from friends and strangers who want little more than to help bring an idea to life. Of the more than 30,000 projects successfully funded on Kickstarter since its 2009 launch, the vast majority have been the work of individuals, not companies, says a Kickstarter representative.
7. Rent Out Your Extra Home Space – One way to lower monthly housing costs is to take a renter into your home. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 6.2 million adults lived with someone who wasn’t a relative in 2010 (the most recent figures), up from 5.3 million in 2007. City dwellers who don’t want to take on a long-term tenant can consider hosting tourists passing through town. Mikey Rox and Everett Morrow regularly rent the guest bedroom in their New York City condo to visitors who pay nearly $90 a night. In three years, they’ve made more than $75,000 by advertising on Craigslist, as well as on Airbnb and Roomorama, which take a percentage of the total booking fee paid by the guest.
8. Become A House, Child, or Pet-Sitter – If you don’t mind pet-sitting, check out sites such as Rover.com or Care.com and sign-up to become a sitter.
9. Become a Virtual Assistant – If you have lots of time on your hand and don’t mind working administrative tasks, consider listing your services as a virtual assistant on sites like Elance or Odesk.
10. Freelance Your Skills – There are many freelance jobs. You can work in graphic design, in video production, as a consultant or as a writer. Look at the skills that you currently have and then consider how you can offer those skills as a service to small businesses or families. Then begin marketing yourself and making contacts.
11. Sell What You’re Good At – You may have great skills as a stylist or barber. Or perhaps you enjoy cutting grass or painting. Find a way to get the word out to your family and friends and then begin selling this service.
12. Look for a Tutoring Gig – You can also teach what you know to others as a tutor. In addition to spreading the word locally, would-be tutors can post their offerings on websites like Tutorspree and WyzAnt. And people who are strong in math, science or other sought-after school subjects can teach individual students online through websites like Tutor.com.
See how Ryan made extra income as a tutor.
13. Build it, Then Sell It – Craft sites like Etsy and ArtFire aren’t just for artists selling their work; people make money selling a wide range of products, including handmade furniture and purses.
14. Self-publish a book or create an eBook – The explosive popularity of e-books has made it easier to turn prose into extra income. In 2010, Web strategist Scott McIntosh dashed off a 61-page e-book based on his knowledge of search engine optimization, then uploaded it onto the websites of Amazon for the Kindle and Barnes & Noble for the Nook. With your skills and combinations of services from sites such as Fiverr.com and Createspace, you can have your own book listed on Amazon or your own personal site for less than $100.
15. Create an App – Yep. If you have an idea for an App, it can become a reality by using sites such as Elance or Odesk. Benny Hsu knew nothing about programming when the 35-year-old manager of his family’s Jacksonville, Fla., restaurant seized on an idea last year that he thought would make a perfect iPhone app. Hsu’s total cost was just $1,900, much of that the fee he had to pay the programmer. The 99-cent app, Photo 365, proved so user-friendly it was featured by Apple, and it has so far earned Hsu $55,000.
Summary
You can get as creative as you want when it comes to earning extra money. Me, I like to focus on just a few things, which is why I’m only focusing on this blog and my app. I think both can become big wins as long as I’m consistently working to achieve my end goal.
Figure out how you’re going to use your other eight hours and make a goal to bring in an extra $100 monthly. You can do it.
Remember, the quicker you increase your income, the more you can save. And the more you save, the quicker you’ll be able to “walk away” from a job you don’t really like.