Being in your twenties is hard. And as a millennial, you’ve found yourself in this quagmire, which is a period you had thought you would enjoy but has ended up being a financial headache. It’s as if a quarter-life crisis has hit you. I’ve been there. You’re not sure who your true friends are, you’re not sure if the job you’re already at is the career path you’d like to continue it, and you’re definitely not sure if you’ll ever get rid of all that debt you’ve collected as you graduated from college! As a fellow ‘educated and experienced’ Millennial, here are several ways to make extra money.
When it comes to financials, there are multiple methods of income generation to get you on the way to financial freedom. You can focus on your career and/or passive income to ensure financial success. You can be on a beach sipping margaritas in no time.
8 Proven Ways to Make Extra Money (Increase Your Income Now)
You can’t expect to increase your income from winning the lottery. There are plenty of free money giveaways, but you need to use your career and side hustles to increase your income. You can use these tips to increase your income, which will help you in both your career and permanent income.
In this post, we will cover ways to make extra money in two important aspects: your career and passive income. There are plenty of ways to make money online, which can help you increase your income instantly.
That is why I’m such a huge fan of side hustles. Your side hustle income can be a great way to boost your income that goes directly to your savings or debt repayment. Things like reselling products such as flipping phones or flipping sneakers can make you some extra money.
Those take some significant time, so let’s focus in on the low hanging fruit options for you to make extra money now.
Make sure to track your cash flow, income and net worth with Personal Capital for free. This is a great way to manage your finances smarter without costing you a single dime.
Ways to Make Extra Money in Your Career
Building a career is not restricted to your late teens or early twenties. It is an on-going process as you develop as a person. You might have studied to become a lawyer because your parents have been in that line. Or studied a particular subject under peer pressure.
Or chosen a college and taken admission there because that was the only option you had when you were a kid.
You can use a financial planner for millennials that will enable you to focus on your career. Or, you can use some of our favorite wealth management resources to ensure you are achieving financial freedom.
Use Your Career to Make Extra Money
But a career is much more than that. It is something in which you will spend the next forty years of your life, investing major time and energy into.
Here are a few pointers you can apply to make money in your chosen career:
Change Your Career Line
Yes, it is something you have invested most of your life into becoming. You’re a doctor, or a corporate executive, or a financial consultant. But as you grow older and discover yourself, you realize that the work you’re doing may not be the one meant for you. It doesn’t make you happy.
It does earn you a steady income, and that is important, but in the long run, not only your mood and your overall happiness but your career will suffer too. Instead, if you realize that you’d rather set up a farm than become a lawyer, go for it.
Pursue Promotions
You know what it is that you want. Be it your manager’s job, or an opportunity to work outside of the country. Work toward that goal. Take an online course, work on your skills, and display the knowledge you’re collecting.
Make sure your supervisors know what you’re working toward. When you excel at something, bring it to their notice, and get appreciated. That way, when you’re ready, you can approach them and get that deserved promotion.
Quit Your Job If You’re Stuck In a Rut
If no amount of work pays off at your current job, it may be time you started looking at alternate jobs. You don’t have to switch your career, but sometimes in a workplace, the going-up-the-ladder might be slow. Too slow.
Or you may have a mean old manager who refuses to acknowledge that you deserve that promotion.
With the amount of work experience and skills you’ve picked up at your current job, it shouldn’t be that difficult getting into another company. And when you switch jobs, it usually comes with a pay raise and a higher position. Of course, you have to build yourself up to that level of desirability in the corporate world first!
Ways to Make Extra Money Through Passive Income
In a smart world, it is good to depend on more income other than your typical day job. With our passive income ideas, you can earn substantial cash flow to be reinvested into your retirement portfolio or other income-producing assets.
What are you waiting for? Set up a passive income for yourself. Passive income isn’t hard when it comes to down to it. Here are a few pointers to guide you.
Use Passive Income to Make Extra Money
If you work hard enough and do it right, passive income can be a great way for you to make money into perpetuity. Here are ways that you can use passive income to make extra money now.
Keep Track of Your Spending
When you don’t know where your pay check’s disappearing, it is time for some self-introspection. If you have friends who bully you into parting every weekend, or if you have a shopping problem, or if you have a snobby partner who insists only on gourmet meals every night, it is time to make some life changes.
These expenses are not worth the hard efforts you put in at work every day. Take a look here to get an idea.
Turn Your Hobby Into an Income
If you love painting, or crafts, or writing, turn it into a freelance business on the side. Sell your crafts on eBay, write an eBook, sell your travel photography online or participate in an art exhibition.
Create an online class to teach others around the world. If you excel at what you do and make enough money to set up a proper business, you could even quit your job and turn your hobby into a full-time activity!
For me, I currently own a Kindle Direct Publishing Portfolio and I also enjoy selling my travel photography from my experiences around the world. I’ve been traveling around the world for virtually little-to-no cost as a result of credit card churning and credit card manufactured spending.
Here is a travel photo with quotes from my Instagram from a trip I took to Italy.
You can use a freelance website to start earning money from your hobby as well. You’ll likely be substituting your time for money in that scenario, so it’s not completely passive income.
Pay Off Your Debt
There is no doubt that the majority of your monthly payment goes into paying off your student loan. As a smart millennial, pay off your debt, the main bulk. Rather than wasting your money paying the interest month-on-month, save up and pay off the main debt.
I’m a big fan of paying off any debt over 4.5% before investing in anything. Stocks typically return 6% over the long-term and if you are investing after-tax this return is right around 4.5% after taxes.
Thus, leading to not much of a gain from debt. Here are several other creative ways to repay your student loans.
The old saying has always been you can double your (take home) income simply by cutting your expenses in half.
Invest in Stocks and Index Funds
If you have paid off high-interest debt and student loans. Please note that you should contribute as much as you possibly can into retirement assets as early as possible (401k, Roth IRA, IRA, etc.). This point excludes that consideration.
Learn some basics of investments – mutual funds, stocks, index funds. Learn the nitty-gritty of investing and it will pay off. Of course, don’t dabble in something you don’t know. Here are some of the best robo-advisors compared.
One component beyond this would include dividend growth investing. With dividend growth investing, there is substantial opportunity to get involved with compound interest and increase your income instantly.
Conclusion on Ways to Make Extra Money
Sometimes it appears to be a hard life. But that’s the important focus here; it only appears to be a hard life. Personal finance advice may seem to be a complex charade of numbers and figures, leaving you to spend your paycheck on bills, rent, and debt, but money doesn’t only come from your paycheck.
Having a good, steady job is an important part of life, yes. Additional residual income is just that much more important. The old saying is that the average millionaire has at least 7 different forms of income.
You can do small things too like filling out surveys (like Survey Junkie) or other online jobs. Here’s a SurveyJunkie review to help you.
But that needn’t be the only source of income for you to rely on. Income is, as income does. And it is only when you invest your time, energy and efforts into spending wisely, earning smartly, and building a steady career, you will find that making money is one of the smallest problems of your life! What are you waiting for?
Go out and increase your income before it’s too late! You can increase your income without working more. There are plenty of ways to increase your income without working more. Just think about the things you do with your everyday life and how you can monetize them.
Make sure you know the difference between passive income vs nonpassive income when you are trying to achieve your financial freedom goals.
What are your favorite ways to make extra money? Please let us know in the comments your question or comments. Escalate your life. Learn passive income ideas to travel the world for free and increase your income.
Related Resources
- If you have already increased your income and are looking for a home, we have our tips for millennials buying homes.
- Best Gig Economy Jobs
- Jobs that Pay Daily Cash
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