Ever dream of leaving your job to pursue a project you’ve always been passionate about, like starting your own business? Or going back to school without taking out student loans? What about the option to retire at age 50 instead of 65 without having to worry about money?
Any of these opportunities could happen if you’re able to achieve financial freedom — having the money and resources to afford the lifestyle you want.
Intrigued by the idea of being financially free? Read on to find out what financial freedom means and how it works, plus 12 ways to help make it a reality.
What Is Financial Freedom?
Financial freedom is being in a financial position that allows you to afford the lifestyle you want. It’s typically achieved by having enough income, savings, or investments so you can live comfortably without the constant stress of having to earn a certain amount of money.
For instance, you might attain financial freedom by saving and investing in such a way that allows you to build wealth, or by growing your income so you’re able to save more for the future. Eventually, you may become financially independent and live off your savings and investments.
There are a number of different ways to work toward financial freedom so that you can stop living paycheck-to-paycheck, get out of debt, save and invest, and prepare for retirement. 💡 Quick Tip: Did you know that opening a brokerage account typically doesn’t come with any setup costs? Often, the only requirement to open a brokerage account — aside from providing personal details — is making an initial deposit.
12 Ways to Help You Reach Financial Freedom
The following strategies can help start you on the path to financial freedom.
1. Determine Your Needs
A good first step toward financial freedom is figuring out what kind of lifestyle you want to have once you reach financial independence, and how much it will cost you to sustain it. Think about what will make you happy in your post-work life and then create a budget to help you get there.
As a bonus, living on — and sticking to — a budget now will allow you to meet your current expenses, pay your bills, and save for the future.
2. Reduce Debt
Debt can make it very hard, if not impossible, to become financially free. Debt not only reduces your overall net worth by the amount you’ve got in loans or lines of outstanding credit, but it increases your monthly expenses.
To pay off debt, you may want to focus on the avalanche method, which prioritizes the payment of high-interest debt like credit cards.
You might also try to see if you can get a lower interest rate on some of your debts. For instance, with credit card debt, it may be possible to lower your interest rate by calling your credit card company and negotiating better terms.
And be sure to pay all your other bills on time, including loan payments, to avoid going into even more debt.
3. Set Up an Emergency Fund
Having an emergency fund in place to cover at least three to six months’ worth of expenses when something unexpected happens can help prevent you from taking on more debt.
With an emergency fund, if you lose your job, or your car breaks down and needs expensive repairs, you’ll have the funds on hand to cover it, rather than having to put it on your credit card. That emergency cushion is a type of financial freedom in itself.
4. Seek Higher Wages
If you’re not earning enough to cover your bills, you aren’t going to be able to save enough to retire early and pursue your passions. For many people, figuring out how to make more money in order to increase savings is another crucial step in the journey toward financial freedom.
There are different ways to increase your income. First, think about ways to get paid more for the job that you’re already doing.
For instance, ask for a raise at work, or have a conversation with your manager about establishing a path toward a higher salary. Earning more now can help you save more for your future needs.
5. Consider a Side Gig
Another way to increase your earnings is to take on a side hustle outside of your full-time job. For instance, you could do pet-sitting or tutoring on evenings and weekends to generate supplemental income. You could then save or invest the extra money.
6. Explore New Income Streams
You can get creative and brainstorm opportunities to create new sources of income. One idea: Any property you own, including real estate, cars, and tools, might potentially serve as money-making assets. You may sell these items, or explore opportunities to rent them out.
7. Open a High-Yield Savings Account
A savings account gives you a designated place to put your money so that it can grow as you keep adding to it. And a high-yield savings account typically allows you to earn a lot more in interest than a traditional savings account. As of February 2024, some high-yield savings accounts offered annual percentage yields (APYs) of 4.5% compared to the 0.46% APY of traditional savings accounts.
You can even automate your savings by having your paychecks directly deposited into your account. That makes it even easier to save.
8. Make Contributions to Your 401(k)
At work, contribute to your 401(k) if such a plan is offered. Contribute the maximum amount to this tax-deferred retirement account if you can — in 2024, that’s $23,000, or $30,500 if you’re age 50 or older — to help build a nest egg.
If you can’t max out your 401(k), contribute at least enough to get matching funds (if applicable) from your employer. This is essentially “free” or extra money that will go toward your retirement. 💡 Quick Tip: Want to lower your taxable income? Start saving for retirement with a traditional IRA. The money you save each year is tax deductible (and you don’t owe any taxes until you withdraw the funds, usually in retirement).
9. Consider Other Investments
After contributing to your workplace retirement plan, you may want to consider opening another retirement account, such as an IRA, or an investment account like a brokerage account. You might choose to explore different investment asset classes, such as mutual funds, stocks, bonds, or exchange-traded funds.
When you invest, the power of compounding returns may help you grow your money over time. But be aware that there is risk involved with investing.
Although the stock market has generally experienced a high historical rate of return, stocks are notoriously volatile. If you’re thinking about investing, be sure to learn about the stock market first, and do research to find what kind of investments might work best for you.
It’s also extremely important to determine your risk tolerance to help settle on an investment strategy and asset type you’re comfortable with. For instance, you may be more comfortable investing in mutual funds rather than individual stocks.
10. Stay Up to Date on Financial Issues
Practicing “financial literacy,” which means being knowledgeable about financial topics, can help you manage your money. Keep tabs on financial news and changes in the tax laws or requirements that might pertain to you. Reassess your investment portfolio at regular intervals to make sure it continues to be in line with your goals and priorities. And go over your budget and expenses frequently to check that they accurately reflect your current situation.
11. Reduce Your Expenses
Maximize your savings by minimizing your costs. Analyze what you spend monthly and look for things to trim or cut. Bring lunch from home instead of buying it out during the work week. Cancel the gym membership you’re not using. Eat out less frequently. These things won’t impact your quality of life, and they will help you save more.
12. Live Within Your Means
And finally, avoid lifestyle creep: Don’t buy expensive things you don’t need. A luxury car or fancy vacation may sound appealing, but these “wants” can set back your savings goals and lead to new debt if you have to finance them. Borrowing money makes sense when it advances your goals, but if it doesn’t, skip it and save your money instead.
The Takeaway
Financial freedom can allow you to live the kind of life you’ve always wanted without the stress of having to earn a certain amount of money. To help achieve financial freedom, follow strategies like making a budget, paying your bills on time, paying down debt, living within your means, and contributing to your 401(k).
Saving and investing your money are other ways to potentially help build wealth over time. Do your research to find the best types of accounts and investments for your current situation and future aspirations.
Ready to invest in your goals? It’s easy to get started when you open an investment account with SoFi Invest. You can invest in stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, alternative funds, and more. SoFi doesn’t charge commissions, but other fees apply (full fee disclosure here).
Invest with as little as $5 with a SoFi Active Investing account.
FAQ
How can I get financial freedom before 30?
Achieving financial freedom before age 30 is an ambitious goal that will require discipline and careful planning. To pursue it, you may want to follow strategies of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement. This approach entails setting a budget, living below your means in order to save a significant portion of your money, and establishing multiple streams of income, such as having a second job in addition to your primary job.
What is the most important first step towards achieving financial freedom?
The most important first step to achieving financial freedom is to figure out what kind of lifestyle you want to have and how much money you will need to sustain it. Once you know what your goals are, you can create a budget to help reach them.
What’s the difference between financial freedom and financial independence?
Financial freedom is being able to live the kind of lifestyle you want without financial strain or stress. Financial independence is having enough income, savings, or investments, to cover your needs without having to rely on a job or paycheck.
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Inside: Are you looking to achieve financial freedom? This guide teaches you the 12 habits you need along the journey. Learn how people changed their lives with simple steps of savings and minimized expenses.
Achieving financial freedom is often misconceived as simply accumulating great wealth.
However, as David Bach, a renowned financial expert and top-selling author emphasizes, “Financial Freedom is about a lot more than money, it’s about living a richer life.” Indeed, true financial freedom is not solely dictated by the figures in your bank account, but more by the ability to live life on your terms, unencumbered by financial restraints.
There are reasons financial freedom is a coveted goal for many. Having more than enough monetary resources to finance your desired lifestyle without being driven by the need to earn a certain amount every year can be liberating.
This post will explain financial freedom in-depth, its benefits, the keys, and simple strategies to attain it.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
What is Financial Freedom?
Financial freedom is understood in various ways depending on people’s personal goals and values. Essentially, it’s having ample savings, cash, and investments to live as desired, both presently and in the future.
Those who reach financial freedom find themselves in control of their money, not allowing it to control them. Imagine enjoying your favorite hobby, traveling, or simply relaxing without stressing about money.
That’s the essence of financial freedom.
Why is Financial Freedom Good?
Financial freedom is a game-changer. It gives you complete control over your finances, allowing you to make choices that align with your values and long-term plans.
Financial independence reduces anxiety tied to unforeseen expenses and offers a safety net during unexpected hardship. It also allows you to work on your terms, pursue passions, take risks, and ultimately, leads to a more fulfilling and happier life.
This is something I can attest to when my husband was able to leave a toxic work environment on his terms.
What is the key to financial freedom?
The key to financial freedom lies in attaining financial literacy, prioritizing your goals, and cultivating good financial habits.
This involves setting and being adamant about your life goals, living within your means, saving diligently, investing wisely, diversifying income streams, and regularly reviewing and adjusting your financial plan.
Control over your finances and informed decisions pave the way toward financial freedom.
12 Simple Strategies for Financial Freedom
Achieving financial freedom requires strategic planning and disciplined execution. It’s not just about earning more, but about saving wisely, spending judiciously, and investing intelligently.
This section introduces you to key strategies for securing financial independence, illustrating their importance and demonstrating their role in paving the way toward a stress-free financial future.
Remember, financial freedom is not just about an affluent lifestyle, but about taking control of your finances, making your money work for you, and living a life on your own terms.
Something we emphasize around here at Money Bliss.
1. Set Life Goals
Setting clear, tangible life goals — both big and small, financial and lifestyle — is the first step towards achieving financial freedom. These smart goals form the backbone of your financial plan.
For instance, you may aspire to own a house, increase your liquid net worth, or retire early. The more specific your goals, with concrete amounts and deadlines, the higher the likelihood of achieving them.
2. Create a Monthly Budget
Creating a monthly budget is an instrumental step towards financial freedom.
Start by taking account of all your income like your paycheck and expenses.
Identify non-essential items you can cut down, and set money aside for emergencies and savings.
Focus on mindful spending and curb the urge to splurge.
Following a monthly budget guarantees that all bills are paid, and savings are progressing at a solid pace. Get solid budgeting advice to help you get started.
3. Spend Less Than You Earn
To reach financial freedom, it’s fundamental to spend less than you earn. This tip may seem overly simple, but it lays the foundation for wealth accumulation.
I cannot stress this concept of spending less and saving more enough. By reducing discretionary expenses and embracing frugality where possible, you maximize savings.
This doesn’t mean an austere life but simply cutting back on unnecessary expenses to create more room for savings and investments.
4. Invest in Your Future
Investing is a path towards creating wealth for your future. Even small amounts invested wisely can have big results, thanks to the power of compound interest.
Whether it’s real estate, the stock market, or mutual funds, investing can generate an income stream and significant long-term growth. This also means increasing your financial literacy to bring direction and discipline to your investment journey.
Learn how to start investing 10K.
Trade & Travel
Learn to trade stocks with confidence.
Whether you want to:
Retire in peace without financial anxiety
Pay your bills without taking on a side hustle
Quit your 9-5 and do what you love
Or just make more than your current income….
Making $1,000 every.single.day is NOT a pie-in-the-sky goal.
It’s been done over and over again, and the 30,000 students that Teri has helped to be financially independent and fulfill their financial dreams are my witnesses…
5. Stay Educated on Financial Issues
Staying attentive to financial news and developments is crucial. Knowing current trends can aid in timely adjustments to your investment portfolio.
Staying educated on financial issues and increasing financial literacy is an effective step toward achieving financial freedom. This includes acquiring competencies in areas such as understanding debt, budgeting, keeping track of cash flow, and investing wisely.
From changes in tax law to swings in the stock market, keep informed to make well-rounded financial decisions. Remember, knowledge is your best protection against fraud or investing missteps.
6. Develop Passive Income Streams
In your hunt for financial freedom, developing passive income streams can be a great advantage.
Passive income refers to earnings derived from a rental property, selling printables, or other enterprises in which you’re not actively involved. This could be writing a book, starting a blog, or investing in stocks.
These income streams can dramatically boost your earnings and aid your journey to financial freedom.
7. Diversify Your Investments
Diversifying your investments is a key strategy to mitigate risk and potentially increase returns. Remember the statement of don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.
Portfolio diversification involves spreading investments across different asset classes – such as cash, stocks, bonds, and real estate. Diversification ensures downturns in a single area won’t devastate your finances.
The best tool to track your investments would be Empower and you can use it for free.
Empower
Empower offers powerful tools to help you plan your investment strategy along with basic budgeting features and a great net worth tool.
As a free app, Empower can help you to save money, save time, and even make more money.
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Empower Personal Wealth, LLC (“EPW”) compensates Money Bliss for new leads. Money Bliss is not an investment client of Personal Capital Advisors Corporation or Empower Advisory Group, LLC.
8. Maintain Your Property and Health
Maintaining your property and health is vital to your financial wellness. Regular care and maintenance for your properties, like homes and cars, help prevent expensive repair costs in the future.
Investing time and effort in your health, with regular doctor visits, a healthy diet, and exercise, prevents long-term costly health issues, securing your financial future. This is why I decided to share my spinal fusion journey to help others because your health is vital to your wealth.
This investment is integral to a life of financial freedom.
9. Build a Retirement Savings Plan
Building a robust retirement savings plan is a significant step towards financial freedom. Contributing to a 401(k) or an IRA can lead to tax advantages while saving for retirement.
Here is the key to success: don’t wait to start saving for retirement until you feel like you have extra money lying around. Because that will never happen.
Start simple by maxing out your Roth IRAs and contributing enough to your employer’s 401k to receive any matching. Initiate early and let the compounding interest work in your favor for a secure retirement fund.
10. Calculate Your Financial Independence Number
Your financial independence number is a benchmark for your financial freedom goals. I’ll be honest this is one of the hardest things to do is calculate how much you need to retire.
Recently, I had a conversation with someone who retired early and she said it is so hard to know how much you need and then also live off your savings.
However, calculating this FI number can provide a roadmap for your financial freedom journey.
11. Increase Your Income
Increasing your income can expedite your journey to financial freedom. Around here at Money Bliss, we stress the need for multiple streams of income.
Consider asking for a raise, taking on more responsibility at work, or learning new skills to command a higher salary.
Explore side hustles fitting your skills and interests. This may lead to a new career for you!
And don’t forget about passive income.
Generating more income not only enhances your lifestyle today but also boosts your savings and investments for a financially free tomorrow.
12. Regularly Review and Adjust Your Financial Plan
Your financial plan is not a static document but a living, changing guide. As your life and goals evolve, so should your financial strategy.
Regularly reviewing your plan helps assess your progress, make necessary adjustments, and keep you focused on your financial freedom journey.
This is something you need to prioritize on your calendar.
Dealing with Debt in the Path of Financial Freedom
Our journey of student loans was deeply intertwined with our pursuit of financial independence as we wanted more money in our budget. This systematic approach not only expedited our progress but also instilled a discipline that prepared us for a future of responsible financial decisions.
While not easy, it is best to pay off debt sooner than later.
Prioritize Paying Off Debts
Addressing debt is imperative on your financial freedom journey. Prioritize paying off debts, particularly high-interest ones. This could mean scaling back your lifestyle temporarily.
You might find strategies like the debt snowball method, paying off the smallest debts first, effective. Or the debt avalanche as we chose. Find out which way to debt payments is best for your situation.
Clearing debts reduces monthly bills and creates more room in your budget for saving and investing.
Minimize Reliance on Borrowings
If you are consistently relying on debt methods to make ends meet, that needs to stop. Instead of taking loans for significant purchases, it’s more beneficial to accumulate savings first and then purchase in cash. For instance, when looking at car loans, the interest rate is pretty high, so this is a great example to save first.
This is backward of what most people do. However, it provides wise decisions with your money like having an emergency fund to fall back on.
Just to note… for most people, a mortgage may be cheaper than renting in their area.
Commit to Debt Free Living
Committing to a debt-free lifestyle is not about sacrificing everything today for tomorrow, but about making smarter financial choices. These include fully paying off credit cards each month, preparing a budget and sticking to it, and systematically paying off any existing debts.
Over time, these actions lead to a reduction or elimination of debt contributing significantly to your financial freedom.
Achieving Financial Freedom: Success Stories
There is no shortage of inspiring stories of people going from rags to riches or overcoming financial hardships to achieve financial freedom.
One notable example is the story of Grant Sabatier, who went from having only $2.26 in his bank account to reaching financial independence in just five years.
Similarly, Kristy Shen was an ordinary programmer who quit her job and, with calculated financial decisions, managed to retire as a millionaire.
Farnoosh Torabi, a celebrated financial correspondent, was once overwhelmed by $30,000 in student loan debt. Through disciplined budgeting and effective money management, she was able to shake off the chains of debt and now leads a financially free life.
Likewise, Robert Kiyosaki, the author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” started his journey with little and is now known for his financial education organization.
There are numerous success stories affirming the attainability of financial freedom. These success stories inspire and offer valuable insights into achieving financial freedom.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Financial freedom means having sufficient savings, investments, and cash at hand to afford the lifestyle you desire without being burdened by economic constraints.
In essence, it’s about more than just having money – it’s about having financial choices, control, and security to live life on your own terms, both now and in the future.
Achieving financial freedom isn’t about get-rich-quick schemes. Instead, it typically involves a combination of saving, investing, and increasing your income.
This can mean anything from asking for a promotion at work or starting a side business to investing in stocks or real estate. Building multiple income streams, particularly passive ones, and maintaining a disciplined budget can significantly speed up the journey.
The amount of money required to attain financial freedom varies from person to person, as it’s highly dependent on individual lifestyle aspirations and expected annual expenses.
A general rule is to multiply your expected annual income by 25. For example, if you need $50,000 a year for your dream lifestyle, your financial freedom amount would be $1.25 million. It’s crucial to reassess this number regularly and adjust for changes like inflation. Learn more on saving for retirement.
Create Financial Freedom Journey for Yourself
Achieving financial freedom is a journey, not a destination. It demands consistent effort, discipline, and wise decision-making.
Every step you take towards reducing debt, saving, investing, or earning more income brings you closer to a life self-directed rather than dictated by economic constraints.
You have the opportunity to change your family’s future for many generations to come.
Although challenges will arise, remember, as Arthur Ashe once said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” With determination, you can achieve financial freedom.
Start by learning to become financially independent and grow from there.
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The average American net worth varies due to many factors, with some people making far more than others. If you’re behind the national average, it may seem difficult to catch up, but whether you have bad credit or a lot of debt, you can still begin building your net worth by learning how to generate passive income.
Passive income is a great way to generate more income, pay down your debt, and start saving and investing for your future. Here you’ll learn what passive income is, as well as different ways to make passive income online and offline. With 25 passive income ideas, there is something for everyone.
25 Passive Income Ideas:
Write an E-Book
Start a YouTube Channel
Try Affiliate Marketing
Create a Blog
Sell Stock Photos and Videos
Create an Online Course
Make Sponsored Content
Invest in Dividend Stocks
Invest in REITs
Invest in Index Funds and ETFs
Try Peer-to-Peer Lending
Stake Cryptocurrency
Utilize High-Yield Savings Accounts
Buy Government Bonds
Invest in Art
Buy Property to Rent
Rent Out a Room in Your Home
Buy Domain Names
License Your Music
Design Custom Products
Rent Out Your Vehicle
Use Your Vehicle as Ad Space
Create an App
Flip Unique Items
Rent Out Your Parking Space
What Is Passive Income?
Passive income is a type of income that comes from sources other than your regular employment, and involves a more hands-off approach. Passive income isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme, though some companies make big claims about generating passive income without any work. Passive income does take work to set up, but the goal is that you can make money without managing it on a day-to-day basis.
You’ll generally do most of the work by setting up your source of passive income. While it may require some upkeep every now and then, like updating a product or maintaining a rental property, you’ll earn the majority of your income while pursuing other endeavors.
Like other sources of additional income, passive income is taxable, but when done correctly, you can make enough passive income to surpass your tax bill.
1. Write an E-Book
Whether you’re a writer or not, an e-book can be a fantastic way to generate passive income. We no longer live in a world where publishers are the gatekeepers of books, so you can self-publish a book that can generate passive income. Various websites let you self-publish books, like Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble. Some of these sites also offer print-on-demand services for customers who want physical copies.
You can write a nonfiction book if you’re knowledgeable about a certain subject, or you can write fiction if you have an interesting story idea. Although this can generate passive income, self-publishing can require a bit of an investment. You’ll need to pay for an editor and book cover designer, and you may also want to pay for advertisements. But if you can do the cover art and marketing on your own, you may be able to save some money.
2. Start a YouTube Channel
There are many ways to make money using social media, but YouTube is one of the best ways to make passive income. YouTube pays content creators to run ads on their videos. In order to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program, you’ll need at least 500 subscribers, three new videos within the last 90 days, and 3,000 watch hours within the last year. Previously, you needed 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, but the policy was updated in June 2023 with lower requirements.
Like other sources of passive income, making money from YouTube will require an up-front investment of time and money. You need a stable internet connection, camera, microphone, computer, and editing software. You also need to make consistent videos to qualify for the partner program. You can eventually generate passive income by making evergreen videos, because people will watch old videos that bring in revenue—and the more videos you have on your channel, the more money you can make.
3. Try Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is when you share a link to a product or service, and the company gives you a percentage of any sales made through that link. You can share these links on your social media pages, blog, newsletter, or anywhere else that allows you to post a link. Affiliate marketing is one of the best online passive income opportunities, and you can combine it with any other online method we mention in this article.
One of the most popular affiliate link programs is Amazon Associates. Let’s say you have a YouTube channel where you review electronics, and you make a video reviewing a new TV or laptop. If you link to that product on Amazon with your affiliate link, you’ll receive a percentage of the sale each time someone uses your link.
This isn’t only limited to Amazon, either. Many companies offer affiliate links, so it can be advantageous to reach out to companies for products and services you use regularly to see if they have an affiliate program.
4. Create a Blog
There are a variety of ways to make money from writing a blog. Like YouTube, old blog posts can generate passive income even if people read the post months or years after you wrote it. If you create your own website to host your blog, you can integrate Google Ads and use affiliate links to make money online.
Platforms like Substack combine blogs and newsletters, so every time you write a new post, subscribers receive an email. You can have paid subscriptions on Substack, so users pay a monthly fee to read your posts, and you can have free posts that go out to non-paying subscribers as well.
5. Sell Stock Photos and Videos
If you’re a photographer or videographer, you can earn money for your photos and videos. There are many different websites that buy stock photos and videos, like Shutterstock, iStock, and Getty Images. One thing to consider is that the website gets exclusive rights to your images or videos, but on some sites you can make between 15% and 45% in royalties.
6. Create an Online Course
Many people have expertise in a certain area, and utilizing your knowledge and skills to create an online course is a great way to make passive income online. For example, you can create a course for how to knit, how to take amazing photos, or how to program an app. Websites like Kajabi and Teachable allow you to host and sell your courses.
You may need to invest some time and possibly money in marketing your course to ensure you find the right audience. Some course-hosting platforms like Skillshare also categorize courses by topic for better discoverability.
If you start gaining a following on social media platforms or through a blog, you may get the opportunity to do sponsored content. Companies want to ensure they target the right audience, so if you have followers who may buy their product or service, they’re more likely to sponsor a piece of content. This typically means you discuss their product in a video or write about it in a caption.
In order to generate passive income from a sponsored opportunity, the company will give you an affiliate link. This allows you to make money up front for the sponsored content as well as passive income from anyone who uses your link to buy the product or service.
This route for passive income may take some time because companies typically want people to have a decent following before sponsoring content.
8. Invest in Dividend Stocks
Stocks can be a great way to make money while also investing in your future. When you buy a stock, you buy a small portion of a company. If the stock price rises and you sell it at a higher price, you make a profit, but the stock can also drop in price and lose you money. Some, but not all, stocks offer dividends, which pay investors a dividend per share if the company has a profitable quarter.
When the stock pays out dividends, you can receive the payment directly from your brokerage or reinvest the dividends by buying more of the stock. Like other investments, this can compound and turn into a lot of money over time if the company continues to profit. As you invest in dividend stocks, keep in mind the companies can raise or lower the dividend percentage at any time.
Use MarketBeat’s dividend calculator to look up specific stocks and estimate dividend returns.
9. Invest in REITs
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) are another investment opportunity. Rather than investing directly in a property, you can invest in a REIT, which is a company that owns and manages real estate.
Similar to other investments, there is risk that comes along with investing in REITs. For example, there’s a possibility your REIT investments will lose money if there’s a drop in the housing market.
10. Invest in Index Funds and ETFs
Index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are some of the safest investments because they offer diversification. Rather than investing in one company, index funds and ETFs allow you to invest in multiple companies simultaneously.
Legendary investor and founder of Vanguard John Bogle was a major advocate for index fund investing. More specifically, he advised people to invest in the S&P 500, an index of the 500 largest companies in the United States. ETFs are slightly different because there are higher fees, but they allow you to invest in a group of stocks for a specific industry. For example, ARKK is an ETF that holds shares for companies that work on innovative technology.
There is still a risk when investing in index funds and ETFs, but they are often lower risk than other forms of stock investing.
11. Try Peer-to-Peer Lending
Another way to make passive income is to become your own type of “bank” by doing peer-to-peer lending, sometimes called P2P lending. Banks make money on loans by charging interest to customers, and P2P lending allows you to do the same thing. Websites like Prosper and Funding Circle allow everyday people to lend and borrow money with various interest rates.
12. Stake Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency investing is a highly volatile form of investing, making it especially high risk. Some cryptocurrency platforms allow you to “stake” your crypto, which is when you allow the platform to hold your crypto and lend it to other people. Similar to P2P lending, you make money off the interest.
Cryptocurrency lending and trading is also high risk because there is little to no regulation. Crypto platforms like Voyager have been known to offer extremely high returns and then go bankrupt, preventing them from paying back their users. In extreme cases, there are stories of fraudulent activity from crypto platforms. But if you have a high risk tolerance, this form of investing can be incredibly lucrative.
13. Utilize High-Yield Savings Accounts
A safer way to make passive income is to open up a high-yield savings account, which allows you to make money simply by holding it in your account. Banks use customer funds to lend out money, but unlike crypto staking, bank funds are backed by the U.S. government via the FDIC. This means that if, for some reason the bank doesn’t have the money when you want your funds, the government would provide the bank with the money to pay you up to $250,000.
Many banks and financial institutions offer high-yield savings accounts, with some offering an annual percentage yield (APY) of over 4%. So if you opened an account with a 4.5% APY and deposited $1,000, you would have $1,045 after a year.
People maximize their passive income by not touching this money because it compounds each year. So using that same example, in the second year, you would then earn 4.5% of the $1,045 rather than the original $1,000. And if you add to the savings account each month, you can make quite a bit of money over time.
14. Buy Government Bonds
Perhaps the safest way to earn passive income from investing is to buy government bonds. A government bond is basically a loan to the federal government that pays you back the original amount with interest over a certain period. The reason government bonds are so safe is because the government backs them. When buying a stock, it’s possible to lose your money if the company goes out of business. Bonds are safer because as long as the government exists, you’ll make your money back.
Although government bonds are very low risk, they also offer low returns. Depending on various factors, government bonds may offer a 3–5% return over two to 30 years. To put that into perspective, S&P 500 index fund investing offers an average return rate of over 7.5%[1] .
15. Invest in Art
Similar to stocks, you can also invest in artwork. One way to do this is to buy works of art that you believe will increase in value later. If you’re knowledgeable about art and can find pieces selling for below their value that you can sell later for a profit, you can make a bit of money. Websites like Masterworks allow you to buy shares of artwork with other investors so you take on less risk.
16. Buy Property to Rent
Many people generate passive income by purchasing properties to rent. If you can afford the initial investment of buying a single-family home or condo, you can then rent them out to tenants for a profit. For example, if you buy a house and your mortgage is only $1,000, you can make a profit by charging any amount over your mortgage cost.
In order to take advantage of the passive income aspect of renting, you may benefit from hiring an individual or company to manage the property. Property managers collect the monthly rent and take care of maintenance issues for a fee. Should you decide to invest in rental properties, it’s helpful to factor in the cost of potential home repairs before, during, and after tenants live there.
17. Rent Out a Room in Your Home
If you don’t have the money for a down payment or don’t want to take on the risk of purchasing a rental home, you can always make some extra income by renting out a room. If you have a spare room in your home, you can rent it out for a monthly fee. This is a great option for families whose children recently moved out.
You can use websites like Airbnb and VRBO to connect you with renters. Although many people use Airbnb for short-term rentals during vacations, you can also offer long-term rentals through the website. These sites also let you vet renters before they move in, so you have control over who rents the room.
18. Buy Domain Names
Buying domain names is a sort of investing, so it does come with some risk. People and businesses buy domain names to host their websites, so you can purchase a variety of inexpensive domain names in hopes of people buying them from you later for more. You can typically buy domain names for less than $10 through websites like GoDaddy, but if they don’t sell, you’ll need to pay the annual cost to keep the name.
While this may be a risky investment, people have made a lot of money flipping domain names. It was a big money-maker during the “dot com boom” in the 1990s, Help.com sold for $3 million and NFTs.com sold for $15 million in 2023. Many domains don’t sell for millions, but you may still be able to make a decent profit off domain names in high demand.
19. License Your Music
If you’re a musician, you can license your music in a similar way to selling stock photos and videos. Some websites like Music Vine pay musicians 30% for nonexclusive deals or more for an exclusive license. There are also websites like Epidemic Sound that market to YouTubers and filmmakers by offering a subscription service for royalty-free music.
20. Design Custom Products
For those who are artistically inclined, you can make money creating designs and selling them on websites that sell custom products. Websites like Redbubble, Teespring, and Society6 offer print-on-demand services for your artwork. These websites sell a wide range of products like T-shirts, coffee mugs, phone cases, and more. You get a percentage of the sale every time a customer goes to the website and chooses your design for any of these products
If you have old artwork you created in the past or simply feel like creating in your spare time, you can generate passive income as long as your art is hosted on these types of websites.
21. Rent Out Your Vehicle
Services like Uber and Lyft are popular side hustles, but you can make passive income by renting out your vehicle instead. When people are traveling or have their car in the repair shop, they often need a vehicle to get around. Rather than going to a rental car company, they can rent a vehicle through other websites like Turo or Getaround.
22. Use Your Vehicle as Ad Space
In addition to renting out your vehicle, you can make passive income by using your vehicle as ad space.
Websites like Wrapify connect businesses and drivers, and depending on how much of your car you’re willing to cover with ads, Wrapify will pay you between $181 and $452 per month. There are also sites like FreeCarMedia.com that pay you for wrapping your vehicle or simply advertising on your rear window.
23. Create an App
If you’re a programmer who can create an app, this may be the best way for you to make passive income. Whether it’s a fun game or an app that provides value and convenience, use your creativity and skills to generate income. Apple and Google allow developers to submit their apps, giving you a percentage of the sale each time someone buys the app.
24. Flip Unique Items
One of the oldest ways to generate passive income is to buy unique items, hold them, and sell them at a later date for a profit. If you’re knowledgeable about a certain type of item or are willing to learn, you can make a decent amount of money by buying and holding items.
This is ideal for people who like shopping at thrift stores or going to garage sales. You may find antique toys, memorabilia, sports trading cards, comic books, or other items for a low price that are either worth a lot of money now or will be in the future.
To sell the items or see how much items are selling for, you can use websites like eBay, OfferUp, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace.
25. Rent Out Your Parking Space
Some people are willing to pay for a good parking spot. If you have a space you’re not using or don’t mind giving up, you can make money renting it out—especially if you live in an urban area. Websites like SpotHero allow you to list your space.
What’s the Best Source of Passive Income?
The best source of passive income is unique to each individual. There are many options on this list, and some allow you to capitalize on different skill sets. For example, if you have expertise in certain subjects, the best sources of passive income may be online courses and e-books. If you have knowledge about stocks or are willing to learn, investing may be the best option.
When deciding which passive income sources are right for you, it may be beneficial to weigh out the pros, cons, and risks of each one. Remember that many of these options require an initial investment of money and time to get started. Consider your own risk tolerance and financial situation before going all in on any of these methods.
Do You Need Money to Make Passive Income?
While you’ll need money to get started with many passive income ideas, this isn’t the case for every method. For example, if you own a vehicle or have an extra room in your home, you can start renting them out. If you have a computer and internet connection, you have even more options.
Many people who make passive income succeed because they are willing to learn and can invest time into researching these topics. There’s a wealth of information online where you can learn how to excel at specific passive income opportunities like writing an e-book, succeeding as a YouTuber, or using affiliate links.
The Benefits of Multiple Streams of Income
Depending on your specific situation, you may want more than one source of passive income. Whether you’re already in a healthy financial situation or are trying to build your personal wealth and credit score, more income streams means more financial freedom.
The primary benefit of passive income is that you can make money with minimal effort. This means once you get one source of passive income rolling, you can begin adding others so you have multiple income streams that don’t require too much time or attention.
How Passive Income Can Help Improve Your Credit Score
A poor credit score can lead to many challenges—like making it difficult to get approved for new lines of credit, loans, and rental applications—and cost you a lot of money in interest in the long run. Passive income can help you fix your credit by allowing you to pay off your debts. Lenders also look at your total income, so making additional income can help with approvals for new lines of credit, which can also help improve your score. It’s important to know the current state of your credit health. You can get a free credit report card on Credit.com which breaks down your credit score factors and assigns a letter grade for each area, or sign up for our ExtraCredit® subscription for additional credit tools.
Inside: Are you looking for ways to make money while you’re still in college? This guide has a variety of ideas for side hustles for college students that can help you get started. From online businesses to odd jobs, there’s something for everyone.
Are you a college student searching for ways to increase your income and improve your financial situation while balancing your academic commitments? We’ve got your back!
In this student-friendly guide, we’ll share side hustles for college students, giving you many opportunities to earn extra cash.
You can even learn to get paid to go to school!
Whether you’re tech-savvy, creative, or inclined towards offline work, you’ll find something that suits your preferences.
Let’s jump in and explore how you can transform your free time into a valuable money-making asset!
What is a Side Hustle?
Simply put, a side hustle is like having a little extra adventure on the side while you’re busy with your main gig, which in this case might be college classes.
It’s your chance to boost your finances and gather valuable experience that could pave the way for future career opportunities. It’s like adding a dash of extra flavor to your college life along with extra cash!
What side hustles can I do as a college student?
As a college student, you possess a unique set of skills and resources that can be leveraged to generate income.
Whether you aspire to know how to make quick money in one day or debate what should I do for a living, opportunities await you.
Stay tuned for the second part of this article, where we’ll explore a treasure trove of side hustles perfectly tailored for college students.
What can I do to make extra money as a college student?
As a college student, there are various ways to earn extra money.
Most importantly, you need to find something that works well into your college schedule.
That is why many college students prefer to learn how to make money online for beginners. That gives them the chance to make money on their time from their campus or anywhere else they choose to move.
Now, let’s move on to the best online and offline side hustles for college students that may be of interest to you.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
Best Online Side Hustles for College Students
As the digital era continues to expand, opportunities for online side hustles are becoming more prevalent.
These side gigs leverage the power of the internet allowing flexibility, diversity, and potential profitability without sacrificing full-time commitments.
From millennials to retirees, are venturing into online side hustles to supplement their income, make use of their skills, or explore new career paths.
1. Write Articles for Websites
If you have a flair for writing, you can explore freelance opportunities as a content writer for websites and blogs. Numerous online platforms offer paid writing gigs.
Create a portfolio of your writing samples, sign up on freelancing websites like Upwork or Fiverr, and start bidding on writing projects.
Learn how to Earn Money Writing.
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2. Build Websites
If you’re tech-savvy and have web design skills, offer website design services to individuals or small businesses looking to establish an online presence.
Showcase your web design work through a portfolio website, network with potential clients, and consider joining platforms like WordPress or Wix for easy website creation. Just make sure to use Kadence WP for themes!
This is a great gig for college students because you can take on more clients during your school breaks and none during finals week.
3. Starting an Etsy Business Selling Printables
Creating printables on Etsy is a popular and potentially profitable endeavor. It involves designing digital products that users can download and print at home.
Find the most popular digital products to sell on Etsy.
Beyond imagination and design skills, it is essential to learn how to optimize product descriptions and pricing, for which you can turn to comprehensive online courses. By following this how to sell printables course, you can equip yourself with the right tools to excel in this Etsy niche.
4. Create Videos
As a college student, there are two possible avenues for this side gig.
You can start a YouTube channel or offer video creation/editing services.
If you choose to venture into your own YouTube challenge, then you are able to monetize your videos through ads and sponsorships. Most importantly, you need to choose a niche for your YouTube channel, then create engaging content, and build a loyal audience.
Don’t want to be in the limelight? You can also offer video editing services on freelancing platforms.
5. Start a Blog
Share your knowledge or passion through a blog and monetize it through affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, and ads.
Pick a niche you’re passionate about, set up a blog using platforms like WordPress and Kadence theme, and consistently publish high-quality content.
This is not for the faint of heart, but college students traditionally have better success because of promotion through social media and engaging with readers.
6. Start an E-commerce Business
Launch your online store selling products you’re passionate about. Platforms like Shopify make it easy.
Source or create your products, set up an e-commerce website, and market your products through social media, email marketing, and search engine optimization.
One of the main benefits is an e-commerce business with low start-up costs, low ongoing maintenance, and the ability to remain open and generate sales 24/7.
7. Become a Freelancer
Explore freelance platforms for various opportunities like graphic design, programming, or digital marketing.
As a freelancer, you can work remotely and at your own pace. Create a compelling freelancer profile, showcase your skills, and bid on projects that match your expertise on platforms like Upwork, Freelancer, or Guru.
This is a great way to start building your portfolio of experience.
8. Write Your Classmates’ Cover Letters and Resumés
Engaging in the preparation of your classmates’ cover letters and resumes can be a rewarding side hustle.
Many employers today express concern about the lack of well-written cover letters and resume submissions they receive. By capitalizing on your writing skills, you can provide a much-needed service for your peers while earning some income.
Hence, build your proficiency with practice resumes, then decide on your charge per each document created.
9. Sell Stock Photos
If you have photography skills, sell your photos on stock photography websites like Shutterstock.
This is a perfect side hustle for young adults because you are constantly capturing the moments.
To get started, create an account on stock photography platforms, upload high-quality images, add relevant keywords, and start earning royalties when your photos are downloaded.
10. Write eBooks
Capitalize on your expertise in a specific subject and create eBooks to sell on platforms like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. Design an eye-catching cover and promote your eBook through social media and book-related forums.
This is the first step to passive income before you even graduate!
11. Proofreading
Proofreading can be a fruitful side hustle for students looking to earn extra money.
By leveraging your writing skills, you can charge a fee to proofread and edit classmates’ assignments, theses, or essays. Also, many small businesses are always looking for help!
With platforms like Fiverror college bulletin boards, you can advertise your services and set your own rates, potentially making $25–$45/hour according to proofreading expert Caitlyn Pyle.
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12. Start a Podcast
Starting a podcast can be an excellent revenue stream, given the significant increase in podcast listenership, with 82 million Americans being weekly podcast listeners according to a 2021 study.1
Your revenue can come from sponsorships, donations, and offering premium content or services. It’s essential to plan your podcast content aligning with your targeted audience and consistently producing high-quality episodes to grow and maintain your listener base.
13. Work as a Virtual Assistant
If you’re looking to start as a virtual assistant without prior experience, don’t worry!
Many businesses look for virtual assistants for tasks like email management, data entry, or social media management. Find out exactly what is needed with this virtual assistant checklist.
Plus working as a virtual assistant offers the flexibility to work remotely, which is a benefit for a college student.
Learn how to jumpstart your side hustle with this free Virtual Savvy training.
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Best Offline Side Hustles for College Students
In this section, we delve into the world of in-person side hustles.
Ideal for those preferring tangible interactions and a more predictable income, these opportunities demand physical presence and often offer good remuneration for physical labor.
However, they come with their own set of challenges like fixed service hours and potential clashes with a busy schedule.
1. House Sitting
House sitting is an excellent side hustle for college students.
You can offer your house-sitting services to neighbors or anyone going on vacation. It’s all about providing peace of mind to homeowners by ensuring their property is secure and well-maintained.
Build trust in your community by offering reliable house-sitting services, and word-of-mouth recommendations will follow. Consider promoting your services through Trusted Housesitter.
2. Food Delivery Driver
This is an extremely easy way to make money.
Sign up as a food delivery driver for platforms like UberEats or DoorDash. After registering as a driver and meeting the platform’s requirements, you can start delivering food orders in your area.
This side hustle allows you to set your hours and earn extra cash while enjoying the freedom of the open road.
3. Offer Lawn and Gardening Services
For those with a green thumb or a passion for outdoor work, offering lawn and gardening services can be a lucrative side hustle.
All by helping homeowners in your area with lawn care and gardening tasks. Investing in basic gardening tools is essential, and you can advertise your services through flyers, local online groups, or by simply offering your services to friends and family.
In fact, this may turn into your full-time business like this high school student.2
4. Shovel Snow During the Winter
If you live in an area with snowy winters, don’t miss the opportunity to capitalize on it. Offer snow shoveling services to residents in your community.
Promote your snow shoveling services well in advance of the winter season to secure clients.
On a snowy day, you can easily make 200 dollars fast. Just by being prepared to respond promptly to snowfall, and ensuring that driveways and walkways are safe and clear.
5. Become a Tutor
Sharing your knowledge by becoming a tutor is not only a valuable service but also a great way to earn extra income.
You can tutor fellow students in subjects you excel in or offer your expertise to local school kids. You can also tutor your classmates who are struggling in class.
Advertise your tutoring services through college bulletin boards, social media, or tutoring websites.
6. Clean Houses and/or Offices
Cleaning services are in demand, and you can provide them to individuals or businesses in your area.
Invest in basic cleaning supplies and equipment, set competitive rates, and market your services through local ads, referrals, and social media.
A reputation for thorough and reliable cleaning can quickly build your clientele.
7. Edit Your Classmates’ Papers — For a Fee, Of Course
If you have strong writing and editing skills, consider offering your editing services to your fellow students.
Many students appreciate having their papers reviewed and improved by a peer.
Promote your editing services within your college network, showcase your skills, and offer reasonable pricing to attract clients. This can quickly spiral to making 300 dollars fast.
8. Become a Handyman or Handywoman
If you’re skilled in fixing household issues or performing basic maintenance tasks, this side hustle can be highly profitable.
Acquire a basic toolkit, and offer your handyman services locally. From minor repairs to assembling furniture, providing reliable and affordable solutions can earn you a good reputation and repeat business.
You can quickly get started on TaskRabbit today.
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9. Translator
This is a highly needed service! If you’re proficient in multiple languages, offering translation services can be a rewarding side hustle.
Create a portfolio that showcases your language proficiency and advertise your skills to businesses or individuals who require translation services.
Your ability to bridge language barriers can be a valuable asset to various clients.
10. Deliver Anything Else Someone Might Need
If you’re the proud owner of a vehicle or even a trusty bicycle, you can tap into the world of delivery services. While food delivery is a popular option, you can expand your offerings to deliver a wide range of items.
Consider offering delivery services for groceries, prescription medications, packages, and even care packages for college students.
People are always willing to pay for help.
11. Drive for Uber or Lyft
Becoming a rideshare driver with companies like Uber or Lyft is a popular side hustle that offers flexibility. Sign up as a driver, meet the platform’s requirements, and start offering rides to passengers.
The benefit is you can choose your working hours, making it convenient to fit around your class schedule.
12. Hauling Junk
Help people declutter their homes by offering junk hauling services. You’ll need access to a pickup truck or a vehicle with ample cargo space.
Advertise your services, establish rates based on the volume of items to be hauled, and provide efficient and responsible junk removal.
Seriously, I see three or more posts in my neighborhood with people asking for help to move their junk!
13. Turning Your Car into a Moving Advertisement
Ever wondered if you could make money while driving around town? Well, here’s an interesting side hustle idea – turning your car into a moving advertisement.
Some companies are willing to pay you to wrap your car with their branding, turning it into a rolling billboard.
As you cruise through town, you’ll not only earn money but also become a conversation starter. It’s a unique way to earn extra income while sparking interesting discussions about the products or services you’re promoting.
14. Offer Moving Services
Assisting with local moves can be physically demanding but financially rewarding. Advertise your moving services locally, and consider forming a team if necessary.
Ensure you have the necessary equipment, such as dollies and moving blankets, to facilitate the moving process. By providing a smooth and efficient moving experience can lead to positive reviews and referrals.
15. Entertaining Kids at Birthday Parties
Entertaining children at birthday parties is a profitable side hustle for college students, especially those who have a knack for acting or enjoy engaging with children.
This venture could earn you between $50 and $100 per hour.
Develop a repertoire of entertaining acts, start promoting your services through local event planners and social media, and offer packages for different party sizes.
16. Teach Music or Sports Lessons
Share your musical or athletic skills by offering lessons to aspiring learners.
Whether you’re skilled in playing an instrument, coaching a sport, or giving dance lessons, there’s likely a demand in your community. Advertise your lessons through flyers, social media, or local community centers.
Make sure you have the necessary equipment and expertise to provide quality instruction. This is what I did in high school and college.
17. Proctor Tests
If your college conducts exams, there may be opportunities for students to work as test proctors for a fee. Inquire about proctoring opportunities at your college’s testing center or academic department.
This can be a convenient way to earn extra income without straying far from your campus.
18. Become a Legal Street Performer
If you have a talent for street performing (e.g., playing music or juggling), consider performing in public spaces for tips.
Choose a suitable location, prepare your act, and follow local regulations for street performances.
Could you make $1000 in a day?
19. Be a Lifeguard
Lifeguarding is a responsible job that requires attentiveness and quick response in case of emergencies. If you’re a strong swimmer with the necessary certifications, consider working as a lifeguard at local pools or aquatic centers.
Unfortunately, this is a high-stress and low-paying job. So, you are better off considering one of these low stress jobs that pay well.
20. Offer a Painting Service
Offering painting services can be a rewarding side hustle, especially for those who find the task peaceful and enjoy bringing a fresh new look to rooms or entire homes.
Most homeowners dread the prospect of painting their own homes and are often willing to hire a handyman to do the job. You can easily make 500 dollars fast.
With minimal initial investment in quality brushes and rollers, you can unleash your creativity and transform spaces with color and design, choosing your own hours and clients in the process.
21. Sign Up as a Substitute Teacher
Working as a substitute teacher is an excellent opportunity for individuals who do not necessarily have a teaching certificate but possess a high school diploma and a clean background check.
My husband, having served as a substitute teacher, found the experience to be rewarding when he was in college.
Not only did it pay well, averaging about $131 per day, but it also allowed him the chance to engage in student activities and provide value to the local school district.
22. Babysitting
Babysitting is a viable side gig, particularly suitable for early childhood education degree seekers, offering flexibility and a rewarding experience while caring for others’ children.
It involves variable commitments mostly during evenings, weekends, and some weekdays, with an average earning potential of $17 per hour.
Securing babysitting roles can be accomplished through personal connections, local community outlets, and digital platforms likeCare.com and Sittercity.
Why is college the best time to start a side hustle?
Before we bid adieu for now, let’s ponder why college is the perfect breeding ground for side hustles:
Flexibility: College schedules often come with pockets of free time, making it easier to juggle academic responsibilities and a side gig.
Learning and Growth: Side hustles offer valuable lessons in time management, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship that complement your academic knowledge.
Networking: Your college is a hub of potential clients, collaborators, and mentors, providing a fertile ground for your side hustle to thrive.
Financial Independence: Earning your own money allows you to alleviate the burden of student loans and gain financial independence.
Employing multiple streams of income is the savviest thing you could do for your finances and your long-term wealth.
Tips to be Successful with Your Side Jobs for Students
One of the best things about side hustles, is you are able to get real-life experiences and knowledge. This side hustle may or may not become your full-time job, but the skills are transferable.
The goal is to find success, so let’s explore some essential tips to succeed in your side hustles as a college student:
Time Management: Prioritize your college commitments and allocate dedicated time for your side hustle.
Skill Utilization: Leverage your skills, whether it’s writing, design, or a particular subject you excel in.
Online Presence: Create a portfolio or profile to showcase your skills and attract potential clients or customers.
Networking: Connect with fellow students, professors, and professionals who might offer opportunities or guidance.
Also, don’t give up if your first side justle doesn’t work out the way you hoped. Keep going until you find something you love to do!
Are You Ready To Start Hustling?
As you set off on your side hustle journey, keep in mind that consistency, dedication, and adaptability will be your trusted companions.
Whether you choose to dive into online opportunities, embrace offline endeavors, or strike a balance between the two, every experience will play a part in your personal and entrepreneurial growth.
If you are going to be in various locations during your college years, it is best to look for remote jobs for college students.
Your path towards financial empowerment is only just beginning, and we’re thrilled to be with you every step of the journey.
Between each college exam and class, you can make money to pay for your schooling. I think that is a win-win to pay for college without loans.
Start your side hustle today and get on the path to financial freedom with Money Bliss.
Source
Statistica. “U.S. Podcasting Industry – statistics & facts.” https://www.statista.com/topics/3170/podcasting/#topicOverview. Accessed on October 4, 2023.SSt
10 News. “A CEO at 17: How this Colorado teen transformed his side hustle into a legitimate business.” https://www.10news.com/news/green-worx-landscaping-golden-colorado. Accessed on October 4, 2023.
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We discuss some of the unique money challenges that millennials face, and how they can feel empowered to take charge of their financial wellness during tough times.
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What makes millennials and their financial challenges unique? There are many misconceptions about millennials as a generation — but like the generations before them, their financial wellness (or lack thereof) has been shaped by major events beyond their control.
As millennials grew up and navigated early adulthood, they faced recessions, the COVID-19 pandemic, rising student loan debt and a soaring cost of living. The result for many is discontent and a strained relationship with money.
In the first episode of our nerdy deep dive into millennials and their money, Nerdwallet personal finance writer Tiffany Curtis and host Sean Pyles discuss a recent announcement from the Pew Research Center about changes to how it will study and report on generations. They also chat about the role of social media in our financial lives and if they still believe in the American dream.
Tiffany also talks with Angela Moore, certified financial planner and founder of Modern Money Education, a financial education firm. Angela considers herself an “honorary millennial” and works with a variety of people to help them build a strong financial foundation. They discuss historic and present-day factors that have created millennials’ shaky relationship with money and ways that they can take ownership of their finances. That includes working with a professional to address financial trauma and finances, getting clear on financial goals and establishing what happiness looks like for them individually.
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Episode transcript
Sean Pyles: If you are of a certain age, anywhere from your late 20s to your early 40s, you have no doubt found yourself at some point reduced to your generational status. You are a millennial. And while every generation has its benefits and burdens, some also bring a specific, shall we say, attitude to the table.
Angela Moore: I think that a lot of millennials are getting to the point where they do not care what their parents think, or anyone else for that matter, they want to focus on happiness. A big theme now is my job has to be fulfilling. My job has to make me happy. I have to enjoy what I’m doing to a certain extent, right? There has to be that balance to life and a lifestyle element to it.
Sean Pyles: Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast. I’m Sean Pyles.
Tiffany Curtis: And I’m Tiffany Curtis.
Sean Pyles: This episode kicks off our Nerdy deep dive into millennials and money. We’re going to explore what makes millennials unique in how they make money, manage money and talk about money.
Tiffany Curtis: We’re also going to explore how millennials have opened the door to wider conversations about generational financial trauma, and how they’ve gone about defying expectations about what their financial lives are supposed to look like.
Sean Pyles: OK. So, Tiffany, I am going to ask you the question that I ask all of our guest Nerds for these special series. Why are we doing this exactly? You and I are both millennials, so I’m guessing that is part of it.
Tiffany Curtis: Yes, that’s definitely a part of it. I just turned 30.
Sean Pyles: Congrats.
Tiffany Curtis: Thank you. I wanted to do a special series on how we relate to money because there are a lot of myths about millennials and money. There’s a misconception that we’re simply bad with money, not working hard enough. It also feels like general financial advice and ideas about what financial wellness should look like don’t take into account all of the significant events that we’ve lived through, and how those events and generational trauma impact our relationship with money.
Sean Pyles: Yeah, absolutely. And one thing that’s really interesting to me is how the experiences we have at really formative times in our lives shape the way that we think about our own finances and the economy for years to come. Folks in Gen X and boomers also lived through things like the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, but by virtue of being in different places in their lives, they may have been shaped by these events in different ways than we millennials were.
Well, speaking of millennials, Tiffany, let’s talk about this generation that we are a part of and also the whole idea of generations. First of all, can you please give our dear listener a refresher on how millennials are defined?
Tiffany Curtis: Yes. So, they’re generally defined, as you mentioned at the top of the show, as people who are between 27 and 42 years old. So, they were born between 1981 and 1996, so their formative years happened during and around the millennium. Although if you were born in the early ’90s, you probably don’t remember how wild Y2K was.
Sean Pyles: Y2K is such a throwback. I was 9 when Y2K happened, or I guess didn’t happen. I spent New Year’s Eve at my grandmother’s house in small town Minnesota, and I remember being very bored, but also feeling like I was in a relatively safe spot in the event that every nuke in the world was detonated at once or something like that. We all thought that was maybe going to happen.
Well, I think we also do want to acknowledge some of the problems that arise when we divide people up into generations. Millennials are not really one monolith nor are boomers or people in Gen Z. And speaking of Gen Z, the boundaries between one generation and the next can feel a little bit arbitrary, and a lot of issues around money have nothing to do with whichever generation you’re in. Having a tense or strained relationship with money isn’t inherently unique to millennials.
Tiffany Curtis: That’s true, but I think you can make a case that there’s a collective discontentment in the millennial generation. And you can definitely argue that’s the first generation to grow up with the internet ingrained in our lives. That makes us different from say, Generation X. We’ve also witnessed growing economic disparity and insecurity, and we’re the first to stare down a life deeply affected by climate change. And I also think it’s fair to say this generation is disillusioned with the American dream. I think we more openly question who that dream is for and whether it’s something to still strive for.
Sean Pyles: Yeah, amen to that. When I talk about money and the future with many of my friends, who are predominantly millennials, many of them express a sense of despondence or that they feel like they’ll never get ahead financially. But I don’t want this to be too much of a bummer conversation.
So, Tiffany, let’s talk about what is good. You mentioned the influence of the internet, and I would argue that has been a force for both good and bad. On the good side, it has allowed us to have really important conversations openly, publicly about all of those factors that you mentioned.
Tiffany Curtis: Agree.
Sean Pyles: And technology itself has brought changes to our financial lives. For example, do you ever even go inside banks anymore or even like a real old-fashioned brick and mortar store? We do have the world at our literal fingertips from the comfort of our couches.
Tiffany Curtis: Agree. I do still go into banks too, though.
Sean Pyles: Well, that is your own prerogative and good for you because I have not set foot in a bank in a long time.
Tiffany Curtis: But I remember when we were first talking about this series, we ran across some interesting perspectives on this whole “call me by my generation” question, didn’t we?
Sean Pyles: We did, and I particularly want to cite the Pew Research Center, which issued an explainer this year that said it was going to change its approach to studying and reporting on generations. The biggest takeaway, I think, is that they’re going to analyze generations when they have historical data that allows that comparison at similar stages of life. So, for example, they would look at people in their 30s and 40s across time instead of by arbitrary generational designations, and that makes sense to me.
Tiffany Curtis: Me too. But for now, we’re kind of stuck with millennials as a generation, so let’s talk about them.
Sean Pyles: Yeah, might as well, right?
OK, well, listener. we want to hear what you think. To share your ideas, concerns, solutions around millennials and money, leave us a voicemail or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD, or email a voice memo to [email protected].
So, Tiffany, who are we going to hear from today?
Tiffany Curtis: Well, we’re going to start today with Angela Moore. She’s a certified financial planner and founder of Modern Money Education, a financial education firm. She’s based in Florida and calls herself an honorary millennial.
Welcome, Angela. So, glad you could join us on Smart Money today.
Angela Moore: Thank you. I’m excited to be here.
Tiffany Curtis: So, let’s start with an overview of where millennials are in their financial lives right now. What stands out to you as someone who does financial planning with millennials?
Angela Moore: I think what stands out the most is that there’s just so many competing priorities because we’re kind of like a sandwich generation. Many of us have parents that are getting up there in age, close to retirement age, so there’s the need to potentially help them financially or help them plan for retirement, supplement their financial situation. And then, many of us are beginning or have children at this point, so there’s the need to plan for our children and their education and their everyday expenses and needs.
And then, we still have all these competing personal financial priorities, whether it’s our everyday bills or our student loans, purchasing a home or other goals, and there’s so much more to add in there. We don’t have the same type of retirement benefits that previous generations had, and housing prices and the cost of living in general has just skyrocketed.
Tiffany Curtis: What do you think are some specific events that have shaped this generation in terms of how we view the role of money and the attainment of it? I’m thinking about things like the 2008 financial crisis and of course the COVID pandemic. Can you talk about some of the ways that those events affected millennials’ finances?
Angela Moore: Absolutely. The pandemic hit millennials very hard. The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College said that millennials were more likely to be laid off during the pandemic. The Pew Research Center said millennials were hit harder by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And so, I think that’s just part of the story. The other part of it is that there was a study done by the National Institute on Retirement a while back that found that 66% of working millennials have nothing saved for retirement. I think one of the things that really hit home for a lot of millennials is that there’s no stability here and that this system is not really working for us. And I didn’t even mention the student loan situation. I mean, I’ve routinely seen clients that have $200, $300,000 of student loan debt. And so, I think that forces you to have to think outside the box and be creative.
If you’re a millennial and you’re seeing what’s stacked against you, it’s almost like, “OK. Well, how can I now separate myself from this situation and elevate? How can I transcend this situation?” It’s not necessarily because millennials want to be creative and want to do everything differently. And then, it’s almost like you’re getting judged for wanting to be different, you’re getting judged for not taking a traditional route.
One of the historic things that happened was our country did away with traditional retirement plans. Back in the day, a lot of U.S. workers had pension plans. And it became very expensive to maintain these types of traditional retirement accounts or pensions, and so a lot of companies began to move to 401(k)s and 403(b)s and kind of what we call contribution-type plans. And so what that did, it shifted the burden of saving for retirement from the employer to the employees. The traditional advice that older people got when they were younger, it doesn’t work for our generation. It’s not going to work.
Tiffany Curtis: So, what do you think is some of that traditional advice that isn’t working for millennials anymore?
Angela Moore: I think the traditional advice is, “Go to college. Get a job. Save your money. Balance your checkbook.” The standards hold true, but it’s not enough anymore.
For someone who’s just working an average job trying to save and trying to penny pinch and budget their way through their financial situation is not going to have enough money saved to live on all throughout retirement. If you do the math, if you look at, “Hey, let’s say I start working when I’m 20 and I retire when I’m 65. OK, that’s 45 years that I’ve worked.” But let’s say that I live to be 100 or 95, let’s say. That means that in the 40 years that I’ve worked, I need to have saved enough to live on another 30 years. And I’m supposed to be saving this money even with the high cost of living, the high cost of purchasing a house, the high cost of paying for education, the high cost of inflation. And on top of that, I’m also supposed to be navigating this tumultuous financial market, right? The investment market. It just doesn’t add up.
Tiffany Curtis: So, I’m wondering if you can talk about some of the misconceptions that other generations might have about millennials, especially our relationship with money and how we manage it. How do you think millennials are seen by the rest of society?
Angela Moore: I think a lot of society, in the past especially, has looked at millennials as lazy, they don’t want a job. I think those are the most common misconceptions I’ve heard.
But in working with mostly millennial clients, I have to differ with that. I think that millennials are some of the smartest clients I’ve ever had. They’re extremely resourceful. They’re extremely mature. It’s not all about money for millennials, a lot of it is about health and wellness and balance, and I think that that’s key.
I think a lot of millennials do have a sound mind and they are aware of the financial situation and concerned with it. I just think that it’s hard. It’s extremely complex. From a financial standpoint, I think that millennials have actually done an excellent job of being aware of their financial situation and taking steps to try to do the best that they can.
Tiffany Curtis: Where do you think they’re coming from, the misconceptions?
Angela Moore: A lot of older people are not aware of how much it costs to go to college now. You can easily spend $80,000 a year on college now. And there’s a lot of things that the older generations just were not exposed to.
Even finding a job. I mean, even me, when I graduated college, I graduated college in 2002, it was easy to find a job, but things are different now. Things are completely different. And even finding a livable wage, especially in some of these major cities — let’s say you’re earning $100,000, that’s not a lot of money in a lot of these urban cities, in these environments. It doesn’t go very far nowadays.
Tiffany Curtis: So, we talked about things that older generations may not have been exposed to. So, that makes me think of millennials and the internet and how we’re kind of the first generation to really grow up in the age of the internet, and this big boom with social media especially. Can you walk us through the effect that you think that’s had on how we view our finances? Do you think it’s helped or hindered us?
Angela Moore: I think both. I think on the one hand, it’s exposed us to so many different options, so many different career paths, so many opportunities that we wouldn’t have had if we didn’t have access to information.
But then on the other hand, there’s the whole social media aspect and the comparing ourselves, and everyone’s out here living their best life on a yacht in some tropical paradise or whatever. And it just makes you feel like you’re broke compared to everyone else. There’s a lot of influencer type of content out there. And it’s hard when you are putting your head down and you’re working and trying to earn income and trying to save and trying to just create something, and it just looks like everyone else is doing so much better than you.
It’s both helped us in a lot of ways by giving us opportunities and exposure to things, but then at the same time, it can be devastating in a lot of ways as well and overwhelming. And so, subconsciously, you’re holding yourself to that standard. It’s almost impossible for us to separate the two internally in our brains.
Tiffany Curtis: I feel like when it comes to social media and millennials and finances, it very much feels like it just kind of amplifies that feeling of the haves and the have-nots, which makes me think of wealth inequality. There’s a lot of research coming out about the wealth gap among millennials, especially racially, and the major difference in net worth between white millennials and black millennials and other millennials of color. And wealth inequality is a source of generational financial trauma. So, I’m wondering, what does generational financial trauma look like to you?
Angela Moore: I’ll tell you a quick story. When I first got in the industry as a financial advisor, I was working at a huge brokerage firm and we had cubicles. And there was a young woman sitting across from me, and she was on the phone with her attorney discussing her prenuptial agreement like it was nothing. Just casually discussing what she would like to have in the prenup and all these different things. And I thought to myself, “Wow, I’ve never heard anyone talk about this.”
And as I grew in this career, that’s something I saw, is that there are certain families that talk about wealth, they talk about estate planning, they talk about business, they talk about investments, they talk about all these things at the dinner table on a routine basis. And in a lot of black and brown communities especially, you could go your whole life and you’ve never had a conversation about those things.
We’re just not typically exposed. We’re not at the table. We’re not in the room. And obviously, I mean, we all know the history of this country, there are certain families that have had generational wealth that came all the way from slavery times. The same goes for poverty. There is poverty that has been passed down from generation to generation. It’s a poverty mindset. It’s lack of knowledge, even. It’s behavioral patterns and habits that have been passed down. You saw your parents doing it, so you’re doing it.
And it’s not just that, then there’s also obviously what kind of access to advice that you have. One of the things that really bothered me about my industry when I stepped back and thought about it later in my career was that most financial planning firms and brokerage firms, they cater to high-net-worth clients. And what that means is that they are looking for individuals that have at least a million dollars to invest with them. A lot of these companies don’t even have any services that will cater to you at all. And so it’s like, where do the rest of us go for financial advice?
But I do think that a lot of millennials, what’s great about this is that because of the resources that we have, like the internet for example, people are beginning to take these matters into their own hands and they’re educating themselves. They’re reading books. They’re finding people like me to help them. They’re listening to things like this. They are really trying to empower themselves, which we’ve always done, but there’s now this access to information that wasn’t really available before.
Tiffany Curtis: And speaking of empowerment, what kind of advice do you give to your clients about how to deal with generational financial trauma?
Angela Moore: I think that seeking professional help in terms of therapy is not talked about. There’s trauma, there’s mindset and hindering beliefs a lot of times. So, seeking therapy.
The other thing is associating yourself with like-minded people who are also trying to empower themselves. So, find a Facebook group or whatever it is of people who are trying to financially empower themselves.
And then lastly, find a professional to help you get your finances in order, whether that’s a financial coach, financial advisor, financial planner, an investment advisor, whatever. There’s a lot of different types of financial professionals out there that can help you. There’s even student loan specialists out there. So, there’s just a lot of help nowadays and resources.
Tiffany Curtis: You’ve touched on some resources already, but given everything that we’ve talked about that millennials are navigating when it comes to their financial lives, what are some steps that they can take toward financial wellness right now? Immediately, as soon as they’re done listening to this, what sort of things can they do?
Angela Moore: Yes. So, the first thing you can do is take ownership and get organized. You want to have clarity around your current financial situation.
So, the first step is write out a budget, write down all of your monthly expenses and also any debt that you owe, anything like that. List it all on a piece of paper or a spreadsheet or whatever, just so you can have clarity around that. And then, also, list out how much income are you bringing home every month, and then compare. How much is coming in versus how much is going out? That’s the very first step.
Once you’ve done that, you want to focus in on your goals. So, many people have no clue what they’re trying to accomplish when it comes to financial situations. You could maybe have some short-term goals, maybe some long-term goals.
But then the next step is aligning your budget with those goals, right? Every month money’s coming in. Are you allocating that money in a way that aligns with what you are trying to accomplish in your life? That is the key. If your money’s just coming in and going out to all these random places and it’s not intentional, you’re not being intentional about how you’re spending or where you’re putting your money, then that’s where chaos sinks in.
After that, I would say focusing in on eliminating debt, making sure you have an emergency fund saved, then reviewing your insurance, car insurance, really important, all the different types of insurance. Disability insurance, you should know what disability insurance is, and you need to make sure you have it because disability insurance is insuring your income. If something happens and you are disabled and can no longer work, how are you going to save for retirement? How are you going to buy a house? How are you going to do anything? So, you need to make sure that you’re insuring your income with disability insurance.
And then, another thing is estate planning. Everyone thinks that estate planning is only for wealthy people, but that’s not the case. All of us should do an estate plan because an estate plan says, “Hey, if I’m ever in the hospital, who do I want making medical decisions for me? Who do I want to have access to my finances to be able to pay my bills and make sure my business keeps flowing and all these different things?”
Tiffany Curtis: It makes me think about how millennials are or aren’t redefining what financial wellness feels and looks like for them. So, I’m wondering if you could talk through, what do you think that looks like? Do you think that we’re redefining financial wellness? If we are, how?
Angela Moore: Absolutely. I think that a lot of millennials are getting to the point where they do not care what their parents think, or anyone else for that matter, they want to focus on happiness. And so, a big theme now is, my job has to be fulfilling. My job has to make me happy. I have to enjoy what I’m doing to a certain extent, right? There has to be, like I mentioned earlier, that balance to life and a lifestyle element to it.
I think the other thing is that a lot of millennials are doing what I call thinking outside the box. They are creating their own realities. A lot of millennials are starting to create their own businesses. They are leaving corporate America. They are creating new, innovative ways to make money and create multiple streams of income.
And they’re realizing that they need to increase their income in order to achieve financial stability. And I also think, you know, challenging societal norms. A lot of millennials are not trying to buy a house, some are not trying to get married. People are really looking at, “What makes me happy and what can I do to live the life I want to live in the most authentic way possible, instead of what society expects of me?” And so, that’s something I see that is unique to millennials.
Tiffany Curtis: So, it sounds like the onus is on millennials a lot to come up with these creative solutions and figure out how to do things in a nontraditional way, because like you said, the system isn’t working for us. But if you could, how would you like to see the system better support millennials?
Angela Moore: Well, I think a lot of it is political, and I think we’re seeing that some leaders are trying to address issues. Obviously, there’s a whole lot of issues to be addressed, and so sometimes our particular issues don’t take precedence, but I think that they should. Because the baby boomer generation, which is our parents’ generation, they are aging. They’re retiring, going into Social Security. So, the onus falls on the current working class to fund Social Security for them and fund retirement for them. And because there’s not as many of us, there’s a strain on the system.
These are all major, major concerns. When you add it up and do the math, it’s not going to work out unless something changes. So, I think that hopefully as we become leaders and get into leadership, that we can help push forward change.
Tiffany Curtis: Angela Moore, thank you so much for helping us out today, and helping us kick off the series.
Angela Moore: The pleasure is all mine. Thank you.
Sean Pyles: I love how Angela talked about the importance of empowerment and community. You two discussed a number of big challenges that the millennial generation is facing: wealth inequality, generational trauma, a difficult housing market. And these issues are real and hard to navigate. But at the end of the day, we still do have agency, right? We can decide what to do with our finances and can work to better our situations, even if the broader economic and societal context is difficult.
Tiffany Curtis: We do have agency. We get to decide what our financial priorities are. And I think with open and honest conversations like these, we move a little bit closer to improving our relationship with money, while we continue to hope that systemic change is on the way.
Sean Pyles: Exactly. Hoping that systemic change is on the way and taking action to make that happen. So, Tiffany, Angela touched on this a bit, but I know in our next episode we’re going to dive even further into the idea of generational financial trauma.
Tiffany Curtis: Yeah, we’re going to talk with two guests who have spent a lot of time counseling and educating millennials on how generational trauma intersects with our finances and how we may not even realize that said trauma is at the root of our relationship with money.
Aja Evans: When we start talking about financial trauma, in general, I think that there is a conversation that assumes people were coming from a place of poverty. And yes, that is very, very true for a lot of people, but there are also people who were raised in middle class, upper middle class wealthy families who are dealing with generational traumas of their own with money.
Tiffany Curtis: For now, that’s all we have for this episode. Do you have a money question of your own? Turn to the Nerds and call or text us your questions at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. You can also email us [email protected]. Also visit nerdwallet.com/podcast for more info on this episode. And remember to follow, rate and review us wherever you’re getting this podcast.
Sean Pyles: This episode was produced by Tess Vigeland and Tiffany Curtis. I helped with editing. Liz Weston helped with fact-checking. Kaely Monahan mixed our audio. And a big thank you to the folks on the NerdWallet copy desk for all their help. Also, a special shout out to Kathy Hinson for all of her help on the series.
Tiffany Curtis: And here’s our brief disclaimer, we are not financial or investment advisors. This Nerdy info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.
Sean Pyles: And with that said, until next time, turn to the Nerds.
In a remarkable feat of financial prowess, a 28-year-old individual has shattered traditional notions of wealth accumulation. By strategically harnessing the power of multiple income streams, this trailblazer has managed to generate an astounding $189,000 a year while working fewer than 4 days a week.
As the rest of us marvel at their achievements, it’s time to unravel the secrets behind their incredible success and explore the seven streams of income that have become the cornerstone of their financial empire.
In today’s dynamic world, traditional employment is no longer the sole means to financial prosperity. Creating multiple streams of income allows you to diversify your earnings, reduce risk, and unlock the potential for wealth accumulation.
By understanding and leveraging these seven streams of income, you can take significant steps towards achieving financial freedom.
Understanding Multiple Streams of Income
Multiple streams of income refer to having multiple sources from which money flows into your life. These streams can vary in terms of their origin, nature, and the effort required to maintain them.
By creating multiple streams of income, you can enjoy a more stable financial situation and gain the freedom to pursue your passions without worrying about money.
Diversifying your income through multiple streams is not only about mitigating risk, but it also allows you to tap into different income opportunities and maximize your earning potential.
Stream 1: Earned Income
Earned income is the most common and widely known stream of income. It refers to the money you earn by providing your skills, knowledge, or expertise in exchange for a salary or wages. This can come from your primary job, freelancing, or running a business. While earned income is essential, relying solely on it limits your earning potential and leaves little room for growth.
Financial expert Sarah Johnson advises, “While earned income provides a stable foundation, it’s important to consider expanding your earning potential by exploring other income streams. This can help you achieve your financial goals faster.”
Stream 2: Profit Income
Profit income involves making money by buying and selling goods or services at a higher price than the cost of production. It includes businesses, entrepreneurship, and investments where you can generate profits through successful ventures. Profit income allows you to leverage your skills, creativity, and market knowledge to create additional wealth.
Profit Income Examples:
E-commerce business: Starting an online store and selling products or services can be a profitable venture. You can source products at a wholesale price, set your own retail prices, and reach a wide customer base through online platforms. Profit is generated by selling products at a higher price than the cost of acquisition and fulfillment.
Investing in stocks: Buying stocks of promising companies at a lower price and selling them when their value appreciates can generate profit income. Successful stock investments rely on careful research, analysis, and timing to capitalize on market opportunities.
Flipping real estate properties: Buying properties below market value, renovating or improving them, and selling them at a higher price can be a profitable venture. Real estate investors aim to create value through property upgrades or by capitalizing on favorable market conditions.
Dropshipping business: Running a dropshipping business involves selling products online without holding inventory. You partner with suppliers who fulfill orders directly to customers. The difference between the price at which you sell the product and the cost of the product from the supplier generates profit income.
Profit income offers the potential for financial independence and wealth creation. However, it requires careful planning, market knowledge, and risk management to succeed in various profit-generating ventures. By evaluating market trends, identifying profitable niches, and delivering value to customers, you can maximize your profit potential in this income stream.
Certified Financial Planner Mark Davis suggests, “For those with an entrepreneurial spirit, starting a business or investing in profitable ventures can be a great way to generate substantial income. It’s important to conduct thorough market research and develop a solid business plan to maximize your chances of success.”
Stream 3: Rental Income
Rental income involves owning and leasing out assets such as real estate properties, apartments, or vehicles. By collecting rent from tenants, you can generate a steady cash flow that can supplement your primary income. Rental income offers the advantage of passive earning, as the properties can appreciate in value while providing you with regular income.
According to Susan Thompson, a real estate expert, “Investing in rental properties can provide a reliable source of income over time. However, it’s important to carefully consider location, property management, and tenant screening to ensure a positive rental experience and maximize your returns.”
To learn more about the tax implications of rental income, you can refer to the IRS publication IRS Publication 925: Passive Activity and At-Risk Rules.
Stream 4: Dividend Income
Dividend income is earned by investing in stocks or mutual funds that pay regular dividends to their shareholders. Companies distribute a portion of their profits to shareholders as dividends, providing you with a passive income stream.
Dividend income can be a valuable source of long-term wealth accumulation, especially when reinvested over time.
Certified Financial Planner Emily Carter highlights the benefits of dividend income, stating, “Dividend-paying stocks can provide a steady income stream and potential capital appreciation. It’s important to diversify your portfolio and carefully evaluate the dividend history and financial health of the companies you invest in.”
Stream 5: Interest Income
Interest income is derived from lending money to individuals, businesses, or financial institutions, who repay the borrowed amount with interest. This can be in the form of savings accounts, certificates of deposit, bonds, or other fixed-income investments. Interest income allows you to earn a passive return on your capital while preserving the principal amount.
Interest Income Examples:
Savings accounts: Banks and credit unions offer savings accounts where you can deposit your money and earn interest on the balance. These accounts provide liquidity and are suitable for short-term financial goals or emergency funds. The interest rates offered can vary depending on the institution and prevailing market conditions.
Certificates of deposit (CDs): CDs are time deposits that offer a fixed interest rate for a specific period. They often provide higher interest rates compared to regular savings accounts. CDs are suitable for individuals who have a specific savings goal and are willing to lock their money for a predetermined time.
Government bonds: Governments issue bonds as a way to borrow money from investors. These bonds pay periodic interest to bondholders until the bond matures. Government bonds are considered low-risk investments, and their interest rates are influenced by market factors and the creditworthiness of the issuing government.
Corporate bonds: Companies issue bonds to raise capital. Investors who purchase these bonds receive periodic interest payments and the return of principal upon maturity. Corporate bonds carry varying levels of risk depending on the financial health of the issuing company and prevailing market conditions.
Interest income plays a vital role in a diversified investment portfolio by providing stability and preserving the principal amount. While it may not offer high growth potential, it serves as a reliable income source, particularly for conservative investors seeking steady earnings and capital preservation. It’s important to consider your financial goals, risk tolerance, and market conditions when incorporating interest-based investments into your overall financial strategy.
Stream 6: Royalty Income
Royalty income is earned by granting the rights to use intellectual property, such as patents, copyrights, trademarks, or creative works. Authors, musicians, inventors, and artists can earn royalties from their creations. Once established, royalty income can provide a steady stream of passive income for years to come.
John Stevens, a successful author, emphasizes the significance of royalty income, stating, “For creators, leveraging intellectual property can be a powerful income stream. By protecting your work and exploring licensing and royalty agreements, you can generate ongoing income from your creations.”
Stream 7: Capital Gains
Capital gains occur when you sell an asset, such as stocks, real estate, or collectibles, at a higher price than its purchase price. The difference between the buying and selling price represents the capital gain. By investing in appreciating assets and selling them at the right time, you can earn substantial profits and increase your overall wealth.
Certified Financial Planner Jennifer Adams advises, “Capital gains can significantly boost your wealth if you invest strategically and take advantage of market opportunities. It’s important to develop an investment strategy aligned with your risk tolerance and long-term financial goals.”
For a comprehensive understanding of capital gains taxation, you can refer to the IRS publication Over the Top for the Bournes and the Merkels.
The Bottom Line – 7 Income Streams
Diversifying your income through multiple streams of income is a powerful strategy for achieving financial prosperity. By incorporating various income sources, such as earned income, profit income, rental income, dividend income, interest income, royalty income, and capital gains, you can create a robust and resilient financial foundation.
Remember, building multiple streams of income requires time, effort, and a strategic approach. Stay committed, invest wisely, and continually explore new opportunities to secure your financial future.
When I worked in management consulting, one of my responsibilities was to help my company figure out ways to make money while we slept. As a consulting business, our revenue stream came from selling the hours of the people who worked at our company. But to grow our margins, we knew we had to scale our time. This is where I first learned about passive income — the Holy Grail of the business world.
Now that I’m in my 30s, I think a lot about how to direct my active streams of income into passive income opportunities. Here are some things I’ve learned about active and passive income in my wealth-building journey.
What’s Ahead:
What Is Active Income?
Active income is earned by trading your time for money. Most people at the beginning of their careers are focused solely on earning active income to make a living.
What Is Passive Income?
Passive income is earned from income-producing assets. Someone who has passive income is not trading their time for money. Instead, the assets they own produce income without much involvement from the owner of the asset.
With the rise of financial influencers and the FIRE movement, finding ways to earn passive income has become a popular topic in the personal finance community.
Is Any Income Truly ‘Passive’?
The idea of earning truly passive income sounds amazing, right? But what’s often not discussed about passive income is that unless you inherit passive income-producing assets, creating passive income streams actually requires a substantial amount of active work.
Famous American entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has gone as far as to say that truly passive income doesn’t exist outside of passive public market investing and rental income.
I tend to agree with Gary that the term ‘passive’ income is something of a misnomer. Creating passive income is never truly passive; there is no free lunch when it comes to financial mobility!
But thinking of income in active and passive terms might nonetheless have some benefits for those who are assessing their current financial status and crafting their wealth-building strategy. For that reason, I’ll break down the broad differences between active and passive income streams, as well as the most prominent ways to generate active or passive income.
Pros & Cons of Active Income
Pros
Allows you to develop a specific skill or expertise consistently
May provide social interaction and camaraderie associated with a traditional worksite
Cons
Trades time for money
Takes time away from doing other things
Cannot scale income potential beyond time constraints
Can be taxed at high rates
Pros & Cons of Passive Income
Pros
Generates money while sleeping, vacationing, etc.
Frees up more time for recreational activities
Subject to potential tax deductions
Scales income potential beyond time constraints
Does not require physical presence at a work site
Cons
Often requires you to create active income first
Usually harder to create than active income
Types of Active Income
Salary and Wages
The most basic and obvious form of active income is the salary that you earn from a typical job. A salary is a fixed amount received for working a regular schedule like 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. While a salary is a consistent form of active income, it can be taken away at a moment’s notice due to layoffs or downsizing. Most people earn their living from this type of income.
Bonuses and Commissions
Bonuses and commissions are other forms of active income. This type of income is not fixed and can vary dramatically based on the type of work performed. Many jobs can have a bonus or commission element added to a base salary, while other jobs can be 100% commission based.
Real estate agents, commercial real estate sales professionals, and other types of salespeople tend to fall into this income category. 100% commission-based jobs tend to have higher earning potential compared to salaried positions. However, they are also highly competitive, and their profitability is subject to ups and downs based on the economy, seasonality, and other factors.
Read more: How to Become a Real Estate Agent
Consulting and Freelancing
Freelancing and consulting fees are other types of active income that can either make up 100% of one’s income or serve as a side hustle. Those with valuable skills in high demand are often able to build side businesses, selling their time for specific short-term projects or long-term contracts. As of August 2021, there are 57 million freelancers working in the U.S., with 10 million more considering freelancing.
Looking ahead, more and more businesses are noting they’re willing to hire freelancers to support their mission, growth, and revenue.
Being a freelancer or consultant requires an entrepreneurial spirit, as this type of work can be very inconsistent and requires building a strong brand/reputation. Some of the most popular types of freelance work include graphic design, software development, copywriting, and photography.
Read more: 35+ Side Hustle Ideas
Equity Compensation
Equity compensation is a type of bonus that is given out at public or private companies to senior individuals or particularly valuable employees. Different types of equity compensation include straight shares, stock options, and Restricted Stock Units (RSUs).
It’s not uncommon for equity compensation to make up most of an individual’s income. For example, in 2020, 85% of an average CEO’s income was stock-related compensation.
Capital Gains
Buying and selling certain types of assets, like stocks and real estate, can generate capital gains if the asset’s sale price was higher than its original purchase price. For example, you might buy shares in a company while its stock price is low and then sell those shares later after the stock’s price has increased. The difference between the price you paid and the price you sold at is a capital gain.
Generating capital gains as a means of consistent income requires a significant amount of work, expertise, and risk-taking. Capital gains also have different tax treatments depending on how and when they are generated.
Read more: Claiming Capital Gains and Losses
Renting Out Property
Listing your property on sites like Airbnb can help you earn active income. While listing your property for rent may not require a significant investment of time and energy upfront, it’s not a set-it-and-forget-it income source.
Actively managing your listings, communicating with renters, and maintaining your property certainly requires active effort (unless you have a property manager).
Old Goods and Furniture Flipping
I’ve seen lots of people recently on TikTok and Instagram building side businesses by taking old or broken furniture, refurbishing it, and selling it for a profit. If you are handy and have an eye for design, this can be a great way of making active income given the low startup costs.
In addition to making money from selling the furniture, after you’ve built an audience you can sign brand partners and feature their products on your social media pages to generate even more income. Lastly, this type of business is a great way to help recycle old products that would have otherwise been thrown out.
Types of Passive Income
Interest and Dividends
Interest from your savings can be generated from high-yield savings accounts or by investing in CDs or bonds.
Dividends are paid to the shareholders of public companies. Not all companies pay dividends and the amount of dividends paid varies significantly. While earning dividends is passive income, choosing the right investments that generate dividends is a very active and time-consuming process.
In my experience, those looking to earn dividends can typically expect returns of 1–5%.
Rental Income
You can earn passive income from real estate by investing in rental properties, commercial real estate, public real estate investment trusts, or real estate crowdfunding platforms. Income-generating real estate can also provide landlords with tax benefits by deducting depreciation costs, property management expenses, insurance, and other expenses.
But there’s always an active element of real estate investing, no matter what type of real estate you invest in. This includes property management, dealing with tenants, managing relationships with lenders or investors, ensuring upkeep, or simply picking the right real estate projects to invest in. Some forms of real estate investing can become so time consuming that many personal finance experts question if real estate investing can be considered passive at all.
Read more: How to Invest in Real Estate
Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Lending
Peer-to-peer lending has attracted investors looking for an alternative to persistently low interest rates on savings accounts and bond yields. With P2P loans, investors make unsecured personal loans to others and can earn high returns.
While P2P lending has exploded in popularity (check out Lending Club and Prosper), these investments are very risky. The loans are often not secured against collateral, are not FDIC insured, and money invested in P2P lending can be difficult to access in times of economic stress.
Digital Product, Online Course, or Community Development
Creating digital products, courses, or online communities can be one of the best ways to earn passive income if you can package your skills and knowledge and sell it to a group of customers. In today’s digital age, the costs of creating a course, digital product, or community have never been lower, and all you really need is a computer and some creativity.
While there are lots of instances of everyday people earning millions on their digital products, don’t forget that getting to that point likely required a lot of work. Keeping these types of products relevant and up to date after launch also requires time, effort, and attention, not to mention having to market your product and keep up community engagement.
If you are interested in starting something like this up, platforms like Thinkific, Teachable, and Patreon are all options to explore.
YouTube/TikTok Ad Revenue
I became fascinated by the prospect of earning money on YouTube after coming across financial influencer Graham Stephan. Earning money on YouTube or Tik Tok generally comes down to building your channel’s audience and monetizing content through ads or affiliate marketing links. Once your presence meets a critical mass, every video you create has the potential to become an income-generating asset.
On the surface, making money on YouTube seems amazing, but again, it takes a lot of work and dedication to get there. For example, Graham has mentioned having to post videos at least three times a week for several years to get traction. And it often takes audiences of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers to earn any money.
But there’s lots of potential to earn sizable passive income from YouTube after you build an audience. The average YouTuber can make $3 to $5 per 1,000 video views and the top YouTubers can make millions annually.
Final Thoughts
Passive income can be a great way to earn more while working a regular 9 to 5, or it could fully replace your current stream(s) of active income entirely.
When it comes to building real wealth, however, the discussion around active vs. passive income is more nuanced.
According to a five-year study of 233 wealthy individuals, a common thread between them was that self-made millionaires generated income from multiple sources. 65% of them had three streams of income, 45% had four streams of income, and 29% had five or more streams of income.
These figures suggest that when it comes to building wealth, it’s not just a question of prioritizing passive vs. active income. Rather, it’s about generating multiple streams of income and scaling your time.
Personally, I have four streams of income:
The income I make from my 9 to 5
Investment capital gains
Dividends
Freelancing work
You can leave it to your own creativity and aspirations to find what constellation of passive and active income streams works best for you. But remember, whether you are looking to create passive or active income, there is no free lunch, and any source of income that ultimately becomes passive will likely start as a highly active pursuit.
This post may contain affiliate links, which helps us to continue providing relevant content and we receive a small commission at no cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the full disclosure here.
Do you want to make your money work for you?
I know what you’re thinking—money doesn’t grow on trees.
It takes money to make money.
That is a true case, but it doesn’t mean you have to be a millionaire to start. You can invest $100 to make $1000.
But there are a few things that will help any of us start seeing some green: time, patience, and perseverance.
We all know that money is a powerful tool. It helps us get what we want, live the way we want to, and achieve our goals. But how do you make your money work for you?
If you’re new to financial success or are looking for some fresh ideas on increasing your wealth, then you are in the right place!
That’s where this post comes in! In it, we delve into the five best ways to grow your wealth and show you how they work.
How can you make your money work for you?
There are many ways to grow your wealth. You can invest in stocks, bonds, and other securities. You can also start your own business or invest in real estate. Whatever you choose to do, make sure you are diversified and have a plan.
Making your money work for you is all about creating passive income streams.
This means finding ways to make money without having to actively work for it. Some examples include investing in stocks, real estate, and businesses.
How to Make Your Money Work for You: The [Best Ways] to Grow Your Wealth.
Your money is a powerful tool that can help you save, invest and grow your wealth, but only when you know the ways to make it work for you.
This is something that many people don’t learn and don’t invest the time to understand.
The best way to grow wealth is by taking your time and doing the research necessary for you to understand what it takes. You have to know how much money you need, where it will come from, and how you will invest it.
#1 – Create Financial Goals
It’s important to have specific financial goals because they give you something to work towards and help keep you motivated. Having specific goals also makes it easier to measure your progress and see how far you’ve come.
To create specific financial goals, start by thinking about what you want to achieve.
Do you want to save for a down payment on a house?
Are you looking to pay off debt?
Looking to increase your saving percentage?
Or do you want to retire early?
Once you know what your goal is, break it down into smaller steps that you can take to get there. For example, if your goal is to save for a down payment on a house, your first step might be saving $2000 for a down payment fund. Then, once you have that saved up, your next step might be saving $1,000 for the down payment fund.
Keep breaking your goal down into smaller and smaller steps until it feels achievable.
When setting financial goals, avoid setting goals that are too vague or unrealistic. For example, don’t set a goal of “saving money” without specifying an amount or timeline. Also, avoid setting goals that are so small they’re not worth achieving (like saving $5 over the course of a year).
#2 – Develop Passive Income Streams
Passive income is a type of earnings that does not require active work to generate. This can include earnings from investments, rental properties, and other business ventures in which you are not actively involved.
There are several different types of passive income:
Interest and dividends from investments: This can include earnings from stocks, bonds, and other investment vehicles.
Rental income: This can come from renting out a property you own, such as an apartment or vacation home.
Business income: This can come from owning a business in which you are not actively involved in the day-to-day operations. For example, you could own a franchise or be a money-only investor.
Royalty payments: These are payments made to you for the use of your intellectual property, such as patents, copyrights, or trademarks, a book, or a song.
Other types of passive income include blog or affiliate revenue. For example, if you have a blog and it generates ad revenue or affiliate income from referrals to third-party products, that would be considered passive income.
Passive income is money you earn without having to work directly for it. It can come from any number of sources. Remember, passive income is different than active income, which is money you earn through a job or business ownership.
In fact, most millionaires have at least 3 passive income streams (source).
Passive income is the Holy Grail for online marketers. It’s automatic. Effortless. But, not at first. In the beginning, it’s grueling. I liken this to doing the most amount of work for the least initial return. However, over time as your passive income begins to increase, your reliance on an active income plummets.
That’s when the real magic starts to happen.
#3 – Plan for Each Dollar
The first step to making your money work for you is creating a budget. This will help you track your income and expenses so you can see where your money is going. You can use a budgeting app or spreadsheet to do this.
When it comes to managing your finances, it’s important to have a plan for each dollar that comes in. You should make conscious choices about where to spend your money and what type of accounts to use.
Your highest priorities should be determined by what is most important to you.
It is also important to remember that every penny counts- so use your money wisely!
#4 Pay Yourself First
One of the best ways to grow your wealth is to save first. This means putting away money into savings or investments before you spend it. This will help you reach your financial goals more quickly.
When you get paid, make sure to put some money into savings or investments before spending it. This way, you are prioritizing your own financial well-being.
Automating your finances is a great way to make sure your bills first are always paid on time and that you are saving regularly. You can set up automatic transfers from your checking account to savings or investment accounts
#5 – Get Out of Debt
Debt can be a major financial burden, preventing you from achieving your financial goals. It’s important to get out of debt as soon as possible so that you can free up your money to save and invest for the future.
In fact, this is one of the first steps we stress here at Money Bliss – pay off debt!
There are a few different ways to get out of debt. You can try negotiating with your creditors, consolidating your debts, or making more money to pay off your debts faster. Whatever method you choose, make sure you have a plan and stick to it.
There are a few things you should avoid when trying to get out of debt.
First, don’t miss any payments or make late payments, as this will damage your credit score.
Second, don’t use credit cards while you’re trying to pay off debt, as this will only add to your balance.
Finally, don’t take on any new debts while you’re trying to get out of debt – focus on paying off the debts you already have first.
#6 – Start an online business
This can be a great way to create passive income and build wealth over time. There are many different types of online businesses that you can start, so do your research and find the one that is best suited for you.
Starting an online business is a great way to make some extra money on the side. It can be done relatively easily and doesn’t require much upfront work. Once you have the foundation in place, it’s easy to start generating income without any additional effort.
In fact, learning how to make money online for beginners is a hot topic!
The internet provides a unique opportunity to start and grow an online business. With the right tools, you can use the internet to your advantage and build a successful business.
#7 – Invest in the stock market
There are many ways to invest in the stock market, but the most common is through buying and selling shares on a stock exchange. You can also invest in mutual funds, which pool money from many different investors and then invests it in a portfolio of stocks or other securities. Another way to invest is through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which are similar to mutual funds but trade like stocks on an exchange.
Before you start investing in the stock market, there are a few things you should consider.
First, you need to decide what your investment goals are. Are you looking to grow your wealth over time, or do you need access to your money quickly?
Second, you need to understand the risks involved with investing in the stock market. While there’s always the potential for making money, there’s also the potential for losing money.
Finally, you need to research different investments and choose one that fits your goals and risk tolerance.
Investing in the stock market comes with a number of risks, including the potential for losing money. While there’s always the potential for making money, there’s also the potential for losing money. Before you invest, you should understand the risks involved and make sure you’re comfortable with them.
#8 – Automate your finances
Automating your finances means setting up automatic payments for your bills and other regular expenses. This can help you to stay on top of your finances and avoid late payments or overdraft fees.
There are a few different ways that you can automate your finances. You can set up automatic payments through your bank or credit card company. Alternatively, you can use a service like Quicken to track your spending and create a budget.
Automating your finances can save you time and money. It can help you to stay on top of your bills and avoid late fees or overdraft charges. Additionally, it can free up more of your time so that you can focus on other aspects of life.
#9 – Habit of Automatic Savings
Automatic savings works similarly to automating your finances, but instead of paying bills, money is automatically transferred into a savings account each month. This can help you build up your savings without having to think about it.
With automatic savings, you can grow your savings without extra work; however, if you need access to the money in your savings account quickly, it may take a few days for the funds to transfer back into your checking account.
Challenge yourself to save more than the average 5% personal saving rate.
Overall, automating your finances can be a great way to stay on top of your bills and save money. Just be sure to consider the pros and cons of each method before you decide which one is right for you.
#10 – Use a Rewards Credit Card and Pay It Off Each Month
When you use a rewards credit card, you earn points for every purchase you make. These points can be redeemed for cash back, merchandise, travel, or other perks. Some cards also offer bonus points for spending in certain categories, such as gas or groceries.
To get the most value from your rewards card, it’s important to pay off your balance in full each month. This way, you’ll avoid paying interest on your purchases and will actually save money by earning rewards.
This is something we do on a regular basis and helps us to pay for our travel.
There are both pros and cons to using a rewards credit card. On the plus side, you can earn valuable rewards just by making everyday purchases. And if you pay off your balance in full each month, you’ll avoid paying interest and will actually save money.
On the downside, if you carry a balance on your card from month to month, the interest charges will outweigh any benefits you earn from the rewards program. Additionally, some cards have annual fees that can offset any savings you might accrue from using the card.
#11 – Learning How to Budget
A budget is an estimation of revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time. A budget is often created annually, but may also be created more or less frequently like biweekly or by paycheck.
Budgeting is important because it allows you to track your income and expenses so that you can make informed financial decisions. It also enables you to save money by identifying areas where you can cut back on spending.
Simple Budgeting tips:
Make sure your income and expenses are realistic
Track your progress over time
Don’t be afraid to adjust your budget as needed
Keep your long-term financial goals in mind
Budgeting shouldn’t feel constricting – just that you are able to do what you want to do.
#12 – Save Your Money
Saving money is a key component of building wealth. You need to have money saved in order to invest, and you need to be investing in order to grow your wealth. There are a few different ways that you can save money.
One way to save money is to create a budget and stick to it. This will help you track your spending and make sure that you are not spending more than you can afford.
Another way to save money is to make sure that you are taking advantage of all of the tax breaks that are available to you. This can help you keep more of your hard-earned money in your pocket.
Finally, another way to save money is by automating your savings so that you do not have to think about it every month.
Try to save your money wherever you can, even if it is a small amount. Every little bit counts in the long run!
#13 – Now, Invest Your Money
Investing your money is one of the best ways to grow your wealth over time.
When you invest, you are essentially putting your money into something that has the potential to grow over time. This can be done through stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate, and other investments.
The key is finding an investment that has the potential for growth and then holding onto it for the long haul.
Especially learn how to flip money!
#14 – Put Money away for retirement
How much you need to save for retirement depends on a number of factors, including how long you expect to live and what kind of lifestyle you want in retirement.
A general rule of thumb is that you’ll need 70% to 80% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living in retirement.
There are a number of different options for where to save for retirement, including 401(k)s, IRAs, and annuities. Each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to do your research before choosing one.
The main benefit of saving for retirement is that it gives you a nest egg to help cover expenses for retirement. Additionally, many employer-sponsored retirement plans offer matching contributions, which can help boost your savings.
#15 – Invest in yourself
The most important thing you can do with your money is to invest in yourself by getting higher education or learning new skills. By investing in yourself, you are ensuring that you will be able to earn a higher income and grow your wealth over time.
There are a few different ways you can invest in yourself.
One way is to invest in your education by taking courses or attending seminars that will help you learn new skills.
Another way is to invest in your health by eating healthy foods and exercising regularly.
Finally, you can also invest in your relationships by spending time with positive people who will support and encourage you.
Investing in yourself has many benefits that are normally overlooked.
First, it will help you earn a higher income which means you will be able to save more money and grow your wealth faster. Second, it will improve your health so that you can live a longer and happier life. Third, it will help improve your relationships so that you can have more supportive and positive people in your life.
This can help you earn more money over time and set you up for success.
Bonus Tip = Be Generous
When you give to others, you are actually helping yourself. Numerous studies have shown that giving makes us happier and can even improve our health.
There are many ways to be generous. You can give your time, your money, or your talents. You can also simply be kind and helpful to others. Whatever way you choose to give, make sure it is something that feels good for you.
Many people ask what to give and there is no one answer to this question. It depends on what you have to offer and what would be most helpful to the person or cause you are supporting.
Things to consider when putting money to work
When it comes to making money, there are a lot of different ways you can go about your little endeavor. But before we get into the specifics of how and when you should put your change to work, we have some general tips to help you along the way.
Where are you today?
First, start by looking at your current spending and saving habits. If you’re not saving anything right now, start small by setting aside $50 from each paycheck into a savings account. Once you have a cushion built up, you can start thinking about investing your money.
Also, think about your long-term financial goals and how much money you’ll need to save to reach them. Automate your savings so that it’s easier to stay on track.
How Much are You Spending?
You should also be mindful of your spending habits as they can have a big impact on your ability to grow wealth over time. Try to live below your means and avoid unnecessary purchases so that more of your money can go towards savings and investments.
It can also be helpful to create a budget so that you have a better idea of where your money is going each month. This will allow you to make adjustments as needed in order to free up more money for savings and investing.
Are you Investing?
Investing is one of the best ways to grow your wealth over time. When you invest, you’re essentially putting your money into something that has the potential to earn more money in the future. This can be done through stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other investment vehicles.
It’s important to do some research before investing so that you understand the risks involved and don’t end up losing all of your hard-earned money.
Is Debt Holding You Back?
Last but not least, debt can also impact your ability to grow wealth over time. High-interest debt, such as credit card debt, can eat away at your savings and make it difficult to invest.
If you have high-interest debt, it’s important to focus on paying it off as quickly as possible. You may need to make some sacrifices in other areas of your life in order to do this, but it will be worth it in the long run.
How to Make Your Money Work for You FAQs
1. Invest in stocks: This is one of the most popular methods of growing wealth. When you invest in stocks, you are buying a piece of a company that will be worth more in the future. The key to making money with stocks is to buy low and sell high.
2. Invest in real estate: Another popular way to grow your wealth is to invest in real estate. When you invest in real estate, you are buying a property that will increase in value over time. The key to making money with real estate is to make sure your portfolio is set up for high probability of success.
3. Invest in bonds: Bonds are another way to grow your wealth. When you invest in bonds, you are lending money to a company or government that will pay you back over time with interest.
Saving money is one of the best ways to use your money. It allows you to have a cushion in case of an emergency, and it also allows you to save for future goals. There are many different ways to save money, but some of the best include setting up a budget and sticking to it, setting up a savings account, and investing in yourself.
Investing your money is another great way to use it. When you invest, you are essentially putting your money into something that has the potential to grow over time. This can be a great way to build your wealth over time and secure your financial future. Some of the best things to invest in include stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.
Of course, you can also use your money by spending it on things that you need or want. While this may not seem like the most productive use of your money, it is important to remember that spending is necessary in order to live a comfortable life. Therefore, it is important to find a balance between saving and spending so that you can enjoy both now and in the future.
Keep your money in a safe place.
Invest in a good financial institution.
Diversify your investments.
Review your insurance coverage regularly.
Have an emergency fund.
Money Works for You
In this article, we covered a few different ways to grow your wealth.
Making your money work for you is a great way to grow your wealth without having to put in a lot of extra effort. By following the tips and tricks in this guide, you can easily make your money work for you and watch your wealth grow over time.
If you are looking for where to put your money to make it work for you, we uncovered the 15 best ways to make your money work for you.
Whichever method you chose is up to you.
The best answer is to diversify your portfolio and create multiple streams of income.
So what are you waiting for? Get started today and see the results for yourself!
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!
Something amazing has happened in the past eighteen months. While I’ve been learning about personal finance — and sharing my knowledge with you — Get Rich Slowly has grown from a small site with a couple hundred readers into a real-life business. GRS currently has 35,000 subscribers and generates $5,000 in monthly revenue. It also takes most of my time. This is a blessing and a curse.
The Blessing
As my income from this site has grown, I’ve been able to achieve my financial goals more quickly. In two weeks, I’ll be debt-free except for the mortgage. I have an emergency fund. I’m maxing out my Roth IRA every year. Get Rich Slowly has also put me in touch with a lot of great people: readers, colleagues, and media contacts. Most of all, I’ve learned tons about personal finance. I’m still a novice when it comes to investing and retirement planning, but I’m a novice who knows how to find the information he needs, and who is willing to share it with others.
The Curse
As wonderful as this site has been to me, it’s not without its drawbacks. Chief among these is that it takes time. Kris and I used to do more things together. I used to have spare time to read books and to play games and to hang out with my friends. Though I still do these things whenever possible, more of my time is devoted to providing quality content. Writing Get Rich Slowly is literally like having a second full-time job.
The Decision
After months of deliberation, I’ve decided to quit my job at the family business.
Yes, having two sources of income provides a tremendous sense of security, but I cannot continue at this pace. Lately I’ve struggled to squeeze Get Rich Slowly into the cracks of life: evenings, weekends, down-time at the box factory. As the site has grown, so has the workload. In order to make Get Rich Slowly everything I want it to be, in order to provide the best personal finance information, this site must be my top priority.
Quitting the day job scares me. My web income can support my lifestyle, especially if I’m frugal. But I had developed grand plans of accelerated savings, of paying off my mortgage in just a few years, of traveling around the world. When I quit the day job, I’ll be sacrificing:
The second income.
An additional retirement plan (about $5,000/year).
Daily contact with co-workers and colleagues.
I’ll be trading these sure things for an uncertain future. What guarantee do I have that Get Rich Slowly can continue to produce enough income to support me? What guarantee do I have that I’ll still want to do this three years from now? There are no guarantees.
The Plan
And so I am making a leap of faith. Or, more precisely, several “hops of faith”. In order to provide myself and the business a smooth transition, I’m going to reduce my hours gradually over the coming year.
Beginning 01 January 2008, my Tuesdays will be spent working on Get Rich Slowly.
Beginning April 1st, I’ll drop Thursdays at the box factory.
On July 1st, Mondays will be spent writing.
Next October, I’ll be down to only Wednesdays at the day job.
Finally, on 01 January 2009, I will be an official real-life full-time blogger.
I’ve always wanted to be a professional writer. I just thought I’d write science fiction novels. Or the sorts of short stories you find in Harper’s and The New Yorker. I never imagined I would one day make my living by writing about personal finance.
The Preparation
Now that I’ve committed to taking this leap, I’m scared. I’ve become a master of the worst-case scenario. Yes, Get Rich Slowly has generated enough revenue to support me during the past few months, but what if something goes wrong? What if I run out of things to write? What if Google or FeedBurner cancel their ad programs? What if I lose my thumbs in a blogging accident? What if all these things happen at once?
I’ve had people ask me how to prepare for a potential job loss, or how to make the transition to self-employment. My answers have always been theoretical. Now that I’m facing this situation myself, however, I can tell you the sorts of preparations I made. I think all of these are important:
Crunch the numbers. There are many good reasons to track every penny you spend — potential job loss is one of them. Sit down and go over your records. How much do you spend on food every month? What do you spend on utilities? What could you sacrifice if needed? Run the numbers for a variety of “what if?” scenarios. I’m fortunate to have health insurance through Kris’ job — if I didn’t, the numbers tell me I couldn’t make this leap yet.
Manage your money. You should always be smart with your finances. But when you’ve lost your job, or are about to make a career change, this becomes even more important. I can’t imagine making the move to full-time writer if I wasn’t debt-free (except for the mortgage). If I still had spending problems, this transition would be even more frightening.
Embrace frugality. I’ve done a great job of developing frugal habits over the past two years. I need to maintain these. I need to make use of the library. I need to walk and bike on my errands instead of driving. I need to follow the tips I share with you.
Kill the lifestyle inflation. As my debt-free date approaches, I’ve begun to loosen the grip I’ve had on my spending. We’ve been dining out more often. I’ve been buying toys and gadgets. I had even begun planning to purchase expensive furniture for the living room. All of this needs to stop now.
Bolster the emergency fund. I’m generally an advocate of smaller emergency funds — $500, $1000, $5000. But as I consider my upcoming transition to full-time blogging, I’ve realized I want to have more in savings. Much more. Though it seems like an impossible goal, I’m going to strive to save $20,000 by the end of 2008. (My mind boggles just to type that number.)
Seek professional advice. Consult with an accountant, and maybe even an attorney. There are tax and legal implications that come with starting your own business. Take the time to speak with somebody who knows the rules. Get things right from the start.
Pursue multiple streams of income. Most people have a single stream of income — their job. The more income streams you have, though, the more secure you are. My current situation is a perfect example. When I leave my job at the box factory, I need to pursue other income sources as well. I might consider a part-time job. I might pursue computer consulting work. More likely, however, I’ll start additional web sites (such as Get Fit Slowly, which I hope to have ready for launch by the first of the year). The more sources of income I have, the safer I’ll feel.
Define goals. It’s always good to know which direction you’re headed. In the face of an uncertain future, this becomes even more important. I’ve thought a lot about this lately. Where will I be in five years? In ten? In twenty? I need to decide what my objectives are, and be sure that my other choices align with these.
Focus on what’s important. Because I’m placing all of my faith behind this web site, I need to work to make it the best it can be. I need to provide more useful information, offer more tips, help readers find more answers.
The moment I decided to quit my day job, my entire mindset about money changed. It was as if somebody had thrown a switch in my brain. It’s more important than ever to practice what I preach. I’ve entered Ultra-Frugality Mode. I sat down the other day and crafted a new spending plan. I listed exactly what my monthly obligations are, and what my expected income is. The surplus is earmarked to boost my emergency fund as high as it can go.
It feels good to know that I’ve made some smart money decisions over the past eighteen months. These now serve as a sort of safety net. I don’t have a lot of fixed monthly expenses. I’ve eliminated my debt. I’ve developed the saving habit. These things will help me as I make the transition to working on my own.
The Dream
This decision has been difficult. The box factory is a safe, comfortable environment. It’s a sure thing. By leaving the business, I’m sacrificing stability.
On the other hand, I have to consider what I’m gaining: time. I’m going to gain time to exercise, time to actually respond to e-mail, time to research more extensive articles, time to begin writing the book I’ve had in mind for the past year. I’m going to have a chance to live the pastoral lifestyle I’ve always dreamed of.
I’m finally following some of my own advice: I’ve gathered the guts to pursue my dream. I’m glad to have you along for the ride.
Edit: In the comments, I answer the question, “How much time does running this blog really take?“
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You are here because you want to vent, so you searched “I hate my job.”
We all have that one job we hate. We might work at a place where the boss is mean, the workloads are too heavy, or maybe there’s been an issue with company culture for some time now and no amount of persuasion has worked to fix it.
If you’re reading this article right now, then you likely know exactly what I’m talking about; something just doesn’t feel as if it’s clicking anymore. The hours and days drag on trying to find your spark again and you’re just not getting anywhere.
You hate your job.
This is why it’s important to ask yourself if a career change might be the answer, or at least offer some insight into whether or not your job is worth keeping.
You hate answering the question, “what do you do for a living?”
While this may seem like an easy or daunting task, there are a few things that should help you figure out if the time has come for a change.
Are you at that moment that marked the end of any hope you may have to continue to work the job you have?
Is it normal to absolutely hate your job?
No, it’s not normal to absolutely hate your job.
Most people experience some level of dissatisfaction or unhappiness at some point in their careers.
What do you do when you hate your job but can’t quit?
You need to find a way to make this job work for you.
While it may be difficult to focus on anything other than how much you dislike your job, there are ways to make the job work for you and improve your situation.
Most importantly, you may need to adjust your expectations or find a way to deal with the negative aspects of the job.
If this is not possible or if it is not feasible, then it might be best to look for another job or transfer to a new boss.
How do you deal if you hate your job?
If you hate your job, it can be difficult to deal with. You may feel like you can’t escape or that your situation is hopeless.
However, there are things that you can do to cope and make the best of the situation:
You may find it helpful to talk to friends or family about what’s going on and see if they have any advice.
You can also try looking for other jobs or exploring options for transferring or quitting your job.
If all else fails, consider seeking professional help.
There are many ways to cope when you hate your job, and each person will react differently depending on their individual circumstances and personalities. However, most people find some way to get through tough times by proactively taking steps to find joy in their job.
How long should I stay in a job I hate?
Well, the answer depends on what your situation is and your personal options.
Staying in a job you hate pays the bills, but probably doesn’t help in the work-happiness balance.
You have probably run through all of the good excuses to miss work.
Below, you will find tips on how to cope, but more importantly, steps to change your situation for the better.
I Hate My Job – How You are Feeling in That Place
This is a difficult situation to be in.
You feel like you should love your career! You spent money on a college education, maybe this job is a transition for you, or possibly you took the job everyone expected from you.
Regardless of how you got here, you need to look for the right role and work environment for you going forward. Life stratification means something, right?
1. You’re Suffering from Workplace Burnout & It is a Problem
Workplace burnout is a condition in which an individual has reached the end of their rope. They’re no longer able to take the stress and demands of their job and are overwhelmed.
How You Feel: Workplace burnout can happen to anyone, but it’s particularly common among employees who are stressed out by demanding deadlines or unrealistic expectations from their boss. When you reach this point where you are no longer able to cope with the stress at work, you may experience symptoms such as mood swings, fatigue, and decreased productivity.
What to Do: If you feel like you’re struggling to keep up with your job and you’re starting to suffer from workplace burnout, there are some steps that you can take to get back on track. First, talk to your boss about what’s going on – explain that you feel overwhelmed by the demands of your position and ask for help adjusting your workload. If that doesn’t work, consider looking for another job – even if it means taking a pay cut in the short term.
Workplace burnout is a condition that can be debilitating, so don’t wait until it’s too late before trying anything else!
2. Your Work Is Overlooked and Undervalued
When people feel like their work is overlooked or undervalued, it can lead to a number of negative emotions. These emotions can include frustration, anger, and sadness. You want to hear “I appreciate you or get a letter.”
How You Feel: You feel like your work isn’t given the credit it deserves. This might be because the job is boring or mundane, or because you feel the work isn’t appreciated by others in the workplace. When this happens, it’s easy for these feelings to simmer down and fester.
What to Do: If you’re feeling frustrated at your job and don’t know what to do about it, consider talking to your boss. Discussing your concerns might help them see how important your work is and spark some ideas for how you could improve it. Additionally, contacting professional organizations that focus on career development can give you advice on where to go from here.
3. You’ve Been Stagnant for Some Time & Not Given Growth Opportunities
When you’ve been stagnant, you’re not moving forward or improving in any way – especially if you haven’t been offered a promotion. This could mean you’re stuck in a job you don’t like, haven’t taken any steps to improve your skills, or just aren’t making any real progress climbing the corporate ladder.
How You Feel: Stagnation can be frustrating and discouraging especially if you have been a loyal employee for a while. You are tired of being looked over for that promotion by a work colleague. You are wondering if you should dust off that resume and start drafting cover letters for a new job.
What to Do: There are many proactive things to do on your own when you feel stuck.
Take stock of where you are right now. Sit down and make a list of all the accomplishments and successes that are linked to your current job. What does this say about how satisfied you are with your position?
Evaluate what kind of skills you need to advance in your career. Do some research online or attend relevant training courses offered by your company or industry association.
Think about what kinds of changes would make the biggest impact on both you and your company/organization that employs you. Are there new technologies available that could help streamline operations? Could new policies be put into place that would benefit the organization as a whole?
Be proactive. Start reaching out to other professionals within your field and see if there’s anything you can learn from them. Networking is one of the best ways to grow your career, and it won’t take much effort on your part.
Be patient. Things may not change overnight, but over time they will improve. Don’t get discouraged; stay positive and continue working hard towards your goals.
4. Your Workplace Is Toxic or Hostile
A workplace is considered toxic or hostile when employees feel uncomfortable, unsupported, or threatened. This can lead to decreased productivity and morale, which in turn can result in negative impacts on the business.
In fact, the toxic culture is driving the Great Resignation we are seeing right now (source).
How You Feel: When you don’t feel like you can open up about your concerns, it creates an environment of mistrust, tension, and poor communication between all of the employees and your managers. This type of environment is difficult to overcome, and will eventually lead to burnout.
What to Do: The best way to avoid a toxic workplace is by creating a culture of transparency and trust. By airing out any problems early on, you give yourself the opportunity to work together harmoniously towards common goals instead of against each other.
5. Be Careful About What You Say and to Whom
Be careful what you say to whomever you talk to online and in-person, as your words could potentially be taken out of context and used against you.
How You Feel: It can be tempting to share your frustrations with your job with friends or family. But before you do, make sure that they’re comfortable talking about work too. If they’re not comfortable discussing their jobs openly, it may not be the best idea to bring up yours either. And if someone does overhear you speaking negatively about your job, don’t worry – they probably won’t repeat what you said!
What to Do: When you talk to people, be careful about what you say and to whom. It’s important not to offend anyone, especially not your boss. You never know who might be listening in on your conversation – or recording it!
6. Take a break
Sometimes it’s tough to keep going when you’re feeling down about your job. But sometimes it’s important to take a break and focus on other things in life.
How You Feel: You feel like you are grinding and going in a million different directions. As soon as you feel like you get ahead, something knocks you down and you feel like you need to start over.
What to Do: Taking a break can be helpful in many ways. It can help you clear your head, refocus on your goals and come back with a new perspective.
Sometimes all we need is some time away from our job to get back on track.
If taking time off isn’t an option or you don’t think it will help, there are other things you can do to improve your situation once you feel a little more refreshed. Thus, why adult coloring books have become so popular.
7. Miserable in the Work Building
You want to feel happier and more productive at work, but that may happen by taking steps at home and with your family.
How You Feel: When you’re feeling miserable at work, it’s harder to focus on your job and perform at your best. You are counting down the seconds until your shift is over.
What to Do: Taking steps to improve your well-being outside of work can help you feel happier and more productive. This includes things like exercising, eating a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, etc. By improving one aspect of your life, you’ll be better equipped to handle stress in the workplace and achieve success.
8. Your Projects are Underappreciated
Many people believe that their work is just a necessary evil, something that they have to do in order to get by. But the truth is, your work is incredibly important – it’s what allows us to live our lives. Without a job, we would be unable to pay our bills or afford food.
How You Feel: According to a recent study, almost three-fourths of employees feel their job isn’t very important and receives little recognition from their employers. This is difficult when you pour your heart and soul into an assigned project at work.
What to Do: If you’re unhappy with your current situation and don’t think your work is receiving the recognition it deserves, there are probably some things you can do about it. Start by talking to your boss about what you’d like to see change – maybe there’s room for improvement in how your department is managed or prioritized. And finally, make sure you’re giving your best effort every day – if you’re putting in the extra effort but still aren’t satisfied with your career path, it might be time for a change.
9. Your Talents are Wasted and the Effects are Feeling Undervalued
When you feel like your skills and talents are not being appreciated or utilized to their fullest potential, this can lead to feelings of depression, stress, and burnout. Oftentimes, these negative emotions are compounded when we don’t have a clear idea of what we want in life.
How You Feel: Chronic undervaluedness can have serious consequences on our mental health. It can lead to feelings of low self-esteem and insecurity, which in turn can lead to problems such as depression and anxiety. Furthermore, undervalued employees are less likely to pursue career opportunities that may be better suited for them. This leaves businesses struggling to find qualified candidates and increases the chances that they’ll need to recruit externally in the future.
What to Do: The good news is that it’s possible to overcome feeling undervalued by focusing on celebrating yourself. In fact, I recently finished this book and realized I contribute to putting myself down more than others around me. Start by taking awareness of negative thoughts and make a swift change to change them to the positive.
10. There Has Been an Uncomfortable Change in Leadership
This tends to lead to the most job-hopping because of an uncomfortable change in leadership, which can lead to a number of different emotions.
How You Feel: More likely, you feel one of the most common reactions of sadness, confusion, and anger. When a leader is replaced or leaves a position of power, it can be confusing for the people who work under them. This can lead to feelings of sadness and loss, as well as confusion about what’s going on. You may also become angry because they feel like your position is threatened.
What to Do: It’s important for leaders to communicate with their employees about the changes so that everyone understands what’s happening and feels comfortable using the new leadership structure. This will help reduce the amount of confusion and chaos at work, which will ultimately improve morale. If this doesn’t happen, then try to sit down with your new and old boss for a discussion.
11. Your Values No Longer Align
This can happen when new management comes into the work environment or a personal shift in life notification for you. When your values no longer align with those of the job, it can be difficult to stay motivated.
How You Feel: When you first accepted the job offer, everything felt right. You were excited about the challenge and the new opportunities that this new position would bring. However, after a few months, you start to notice some discrepancies between your values and what is required of you in your current role.
For example, you may not feel comfortable using profanity at work or participating in unethical behavior. In fact, you may even feel morally opposed to these behaviors.
What to Do: If your values are no longer aligned with those of the job, it can be hard to stay at the job because you no longer see any value in what you’re doing. This can lead to feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction.
Additionally, consider job-hopping and start scheduling interviews for another job that better aligns with who you are as a person and what matters most to you. When you find a job that you love and feel passionate about, it will be much easier to stay motivated and happy in your work environment.
12. Your Confidence Is Dwindling
It is deflating when work is off sync and nothing seems to be working out how your hopes. You know their adjustments to be made, but you aren’t sure where to start
How You Feel: When you’re feeling down about your job, it can be hard to believe that anything could make things better. But the truth is, there are plenty of ways to get through a tough time.
What to Do: Here are four ways to boost your confidence and start thinking positively again:
Talk to someone you trust. Talking out your problems with someone who will listen without judgment can help you feel more relieved and less stressed.
Take some time for yourself. Whether that means taking a walk outside or indulging in a favorite hobby, spending time alone can help relax your mind and body and clear your head.
Set goals for yourself and work towards them one step at a time. When you have something concrete to aim for, it becomes much easier to stay motivated during challenging times.
Believe in yourself! Even if the world seems like it’s against you right now, remember that everything will eventually work out as long as you keep fighting for what’s important to you.”
13. I Really Hate My Job & Think It Is Time for a Job Search
There are a few different ways to quit your job and make the switch to a new career. You can search for job openings online, contact your local employment agency, or speak with an advisor at a career center.
How You Feel: Quitting your job is not always easy, but it’s worth it if you’re unhappy with the situation. There are many benefits to quitting your job, including increased income (yes, a raise!) and more time for yourself.
What to Do: Searching online is the fastest way to find jobs that match your skills and interests, but be sure to read all of the applicable links before applying. If you’re looking for advice on how to quit your job without ruining relationships or getting fired, speak with an advisor at a career center. They can provide guidance on how best to proceed and minimize potential damage.
15. When you Hate Workplace – Don’t Burn Bridges
Burning bridges can have serious consequences, both for yourself and your career. By staying neutral in confrontations, you may be able to salvage your reputation and future relationships.
How You Feel: When disagreements arise at work, it’s important not to take the bait and lash out. Doing so could lead to long-term damage that could complicate your job situation and future career prospects.
What to Do: Instead, try to remain calm and diplomatic – this will show that you have good judgment and aren’t easily provoked. If you need to speak up, do it constructively and with the goal of resolving the issue rather than hurting someone’s feelings or damaging their relationship.
16. Your interests & skillsets have changed
If you’ve been working at your job for a while and it’s not fulfilling you anymore, it might be time to consider a change. Maybe you have been learning a new skill set that you find more interesting.
How You Feel: Your interests may have changed since you first started working, or you may have outgrown your current position. It’s important to remember that there are plenty of other opportunities out there – even if they don’t involve a nine-to-five schedule.
What to Do: When we’re unhappy with our work, it can be tough to discuss the situation with our boss or coworkers. But if we’re not happy, they’ll eventually notice and it’ll create an uncomfortable work environment. Change can be difficult at first, but it can lead to greater satisfaction in the long run.
17. Know It’s Not Just You
There’s a lot of talk about the recession and how it’s affecting everyone, but what about the people who are just trying to survive? This is a common struggle people are facing at work.
How You Feel: Work can be challenging, especially during tough economic times. Many people are feeling stressed out and depressed at their jobs, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
What to Do: However, there are ways to cope with the stress and difficulties of work. You need to learn strategies to balance the work-life situation. Talking to friends or a trusted professional will help you get back on track.
I hate my Career – Ways to Cope
Everyone hates their jobs sometimes.
This is especially true when you are stuck in a career that doesn’t serve your values and goals, or one with very high-stress levels. If this sounds like the case for you, then it is time to evaluate your next move.
However, many people are reluctant to make such changes because of the risk involved and uncertainty about what comes next.
It is important to be aware of what is driving your internal hatred about your job, your boss, or your situation.
1. Assess Your Situation & the Industry
If you’re feeling depressed or lost in your career, it’s important to take some time to assess where you are and where you want to be. This is a process of looking at your current situation and making a plan for how to get there.
Are you unhappy with your current job because it is not fulfilling, or are you just bored?
Perhaps the work environment is too stressful for you to handle?
Do you believe you should be making more money?
The first step in coping with a negative career outlook is taking the time to reflect on where you are right now. You can use this assessment to figure out what needs to change in order to improve your situation. Once you have a good idea of what needs improvement, it’s easier to make the changes that will get you closer to your goals.
Also, look at the overall industry trends to you see industry-wide trends affecting job quality and life satisfaction. More often than not, it might be others in your field feeling the same.
2. Have the Tough Conversations
Tough conversations can be difficult, but they’re essential if you want to improve yourself and your career. Every time you have a tough conversation with yourself or someone else in your work life, you’ll learn something new and make progress.
There are three types of tough conversations you need to have:
The “What If” Conversation – This is the conversation where you ask yourself what would happen if X happened. This helps you prepare for possible challenges and makes sure that everything is in order before taking action.
The “Doing Better” Conversation – This is the conversation where you commit to doing better next time, regardless of the results so far.
The “I’m Sorry” Conversation – This is the conversation where you apologize for how things turned out and vow to do better next time.
Tough conversations are not easy, but they are essential if you want to achieve your career goals. Be brave enough to have them and take advantage of all that they can offer!
3. Switch Your Perspective
If you’re feeling down about your career, take a step back and think about how you can see it from a different perspective.
When we’re upset or unhappy with something in our life, it’s easy to focus on the negative aspects. However, by switching our perspective, we can start to see the situation in a new light.
For example, if you hate your job but don’t want to change careers, try thinking about how you could see it as an opportunity for growth. Instead of focusing on what you don’t like about your job, consider all the ways you’ve learned and grown since starting work there.
We all have moments when things don’t go our way – by changing our perspective, we can start to feel better even when things are tough. In fact, this is why we stress mindset is everything.
4. Vent About It
When people feel frustrated or overwhelmed with their job, they may want to share their feelings with others. This behavior is often referred to as “venting.”
Venting can be helpful in relieving stress and tension. It can also help people process their thoughts and emotions, which can lead to positive changes in their lives.
Many people use social media to vent about their career frustrations. This is especially common among millennials, who are more likely than any other generation to use social media platforms for self-expression. One of the benefits of using social media for venting is that it allows you to connect with like-minded individuals who understand your situation. This network of support can be incredibly helpful in overcoming challenges in your career path.
5. Get Your Finances in Order
When you’re feeling down about your career, it can be tempting to think that you have no other choice but to continue to work at a job you hate. However, by getting your finances in order you can start to feel more optimistic about your future.
Especially for those in the, I don’t want to work anymore boat, this is the time to start saving money to invest for your future self.
Setting money aside will provide a cushion if you choose to leave your job unexpectedly or breathing room when changing jobs.
This is something we personally did when my husband wanted to change jobs due to being overlooked for promotion after promotion.
6. Do Your Best Work
Doing your best work means putting your all into whatever you’re doing. It means giving it your all, no matter what the task or situation. This may be hard, but it is essential!
When you do your best work, you put in the effort and energy that’s necessary to be successful.
You don’t half-ass things because you’re worried about how people will think of you. You go all out and give it 110%, no matter what. And that goes for everything in life – from your career to relationships to anything else that matters to you.
There are a lot of times when we don’t feel like doing our best work because we’re doubtful or scared. But if we keep pushing through those tough times, eventually we’ll reach a point where doing our best work becomes second nature. And then success will follow naturally as a result!
So don’t wait – start doing your best work today and see the amazing results for yourself!
7. Brainstorm Your Dream Job
Brainstorming your dream job is a great way to get inspired and motivated. It can also help you identify skills and interests that you may not have known you had.
When brainstorming your dream job, it’s important to be open-minded and think about any career possibilities that interest you. This could include fields that are completely new to you or areas of your current job that you don’t enjoy as much.
Once you’ve come up with a few ideas, it’s time to start thinking about what qualifications would be necessary for the job. Do some research into the specific requirements of the position and see if any of your skills or interests align with those requirements.
By brainstorming your dream job and taking these steps, you’ll be on your way to finding the perfect career fit and a happy you!
8. Start Making Connections & Build Relationships
Making connections is a key part of coping with a negative career situation. It can help you find comfort in the fact that you’re not alone and connect with people who have gone through similar experiences.
When things are tough, it’s often easy to feel like you’re all alone in your struggles. But by making connections with other people who are going through the same thing, you can start to feel less isolated and more supported. You’ll also be able to share your experiences and learn from others, which can help you overcome obstacles faster.
There are many ways to make connections online – through social media platforms, online communities like Reddit, or even just talking to friends or family members face-to-face. The important thing is to find an outlet that feels comfortable for you and allows you to express yourself freely.
Also, this avenue may lead to a new job opportunity for you.
9. Develop Other Sources of Income
Around here at Money Bliss, we stress the importance of having multiple streams of income.
While your 9-5 may pay your bills, you need to investigate other types of income to really improve your financial situation.
This can be done in a few ways:
Finding new (or returning) employment or 2nd job.
Starting a business.
Freelancing.
Make money with a gig economy job.
Each option has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to weigh them all carefully before making a decision.
When considering other forms of income, it’s important to keep in mind the following factors: how much time you have available, what you’re willing to sacrifice (including your free time), your skills and experience, and the marketability of your skill set.
I Hate my Boss – Resign With More Class
If you’re unhappy with your job, there’s no need to stay in a situation that is causing you distress. You can resign with class and maintain the respect of your coworkers and boss. Here are some tips on how to do it:
1. Address Your Issues Clearly
When you decide to leave, be clear about why you’re leaving and what your plans are for the future. It’ll help everyone involved understand the reasons behind your decision and avoid any misunderstandings or hurt feelings.
2. Be Polite When You Resign
Don’t make a scene or give anyone the impression that they were wronged in any way. Simply express your appreciation for all they’ve done for you over the past few months or years, thank them for their time, and let them know that you wish them all the best in future endeavors.
3. Most Importantly – Keep Your Work Adjustment Quiet
Your personal life doesn’t have to intersect with work-related decisions until after everything has been finalized – don’t announce your resignation at work or start bargaining terms before actually deciding if it’s what you want to do!
4. Make Sure You Have The Right Legal Documents At Hand
You’ll need documentation confirming your employment status, your dates of employment, and the terms of your separation. Make copies for yourself and store them in a safe place – you may need to refer to them during the negotiating process.
5. Give Yourself Time To Adjust to a Happier Well-Being
Don’t expect everything to fall into place overnight; give yourself plenty of time (perhaps several weeks or even months) to adjust before getting back into the workforce. During this time, it can be helpful to take some time away from work altogether, focus on relaxation techniques like yoga or meditation, or read about career options that interest you.
Which Step Are You Going to Focus on When you Hate Working?
In this article, we discussed some common struggles that people face at work and offer some advice on how to cope. We hope that by sharing our knowledge and experience, you’ll find relief or guidance in dealing with your own job problems.
There are many reasons for workplace unhappiness and changing careers may or may not be the solution to your issues.
When looking for another position, keep in mind that employers are always searching for talented individuals who will fit into their team and contribute positively.
Finally, don’t forget… Talking about your struggles openly can help ease them and give you some ideas for solutions.
Just keep moving forward and don’t give up on your dreams!
Do Your Job With Less Stress Job Ideas:
Maybe it is time for a shift change and moves to one of these careers.
Know someone else that needs this, too? Then, please share!!