How can I make a supplemental income?
1. Craigslist. One out of every 100 posts in the “Gigs” section is solid under-the-table cash. 2. If you’re at all handy, the Entertainment Biz. This is where I make my money in the city, and it’s ridiculously easy to break into. Theater one-offs, industrials, commercials, and music videos all require semi-skilled bodies, and many of them load-in/ shoot overnight or on weekends. If that at all piques your interest, I can elaborate. 3. eBay. Whenever I needed just a little extra scratch in the city, I’d put aside $75 and hit the thrifts, looking for silly vintage t-shirts. That $75 could turn into $250 if I was lucky. ‘Course, eBay is a harsh mistress, what with all the packaging, shipping, photography, and dealing with scammers and morons. And I haven’t done it on a couple years, but it did work. 4. And of course, least appealingly: graveyard shift job. You can make good money during the holiday season doing warehouse night shifts.
I can’t help but keep coming back to this question, because I sense that there’s something off here. While the primary issue everyone seems to be dealing with appears to be how to make money on the side, I think the more significant question is how to climb out of the financial hole Postergeist seems to feel he’s in. First: Yeah, buying an apartment is a really bad idea. There’s plenty of time for that, like when you’ve got two incomes. And besides, considering that you’ve got debt, then that means you probably don’t have thirty or forty grand for a downpayment. Second: When you say you want to make money, but you don’t want a second job, you’re only fooling yourself. It’s *always* a second job. Whether it’s ebaying or dumpster diving or Kaplaning, it’s a second job. Third: You say you and your wife are sticking really tightly to your budget and you still can’t make a dent in your debt. I don’t believe you.
Postergiest, you essentially answered your own question. You have a good job that pays crap (tell me about it — I spent years in the trenches in the entertainment industry until I finally made my way up and started pulling in some dough), you have debt, you have guilt about the debt. If you’re in publishing, every last ounce of focus should be on networking, putting in every ounce you can into your job, going to parties, making connections, widening your circle, so that you’ll start to move up. A second job will make a dent in your debt, but I think the better choice is patience and more work at your first job and the knowledge that you’re investing sweat equity into your career now that will pay off later. If you were in a career that had a clear path of advancement, I’d say otherwise — use your free time for whatever you want. But you’re in an industry that demands a lot of its younger people and the only way to break through is to expend twice as much energy as the next person.
Don’t know if this is the kind of answer you are looking for, but if you are a smart guy you can make some decent money tutoring for a company like Kaplan/Princeton Review. I did that all through college (in NYC) and made a good bit of money. They usually pay starting at $15 an hour, which can add up.
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