Author Topic: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?  (Read 12767 times)

theSchmett

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40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« on: November 12, 2014, 02:30:24 PM »
I'm super tired of the commuting grind. My job is a good one with great people, its frustrating but that's work... right? But I want to spend time at home with the kids, I wouldn't mind working some night hours... and I want time to work on personal and potentially profitable projects (my PPPPs).

I would trade the very steady job for a $45k, work from home situation.

I've got a masters degree (City and Regional Planning), I'm good with people, and I'm good with computers. I'm not a programmer or engineer like half of the crowd here seems to be (wish I was.

What can I do for a stable income? I was just on an Amazon chat and I'm all like - I can do that! Although I doubt they are making $45k/year in a stable situation.




waltworks

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #1 on: November 12, 2014, 02:41:07 PM »
Is your job telecommute friendly? Could you only go in 2, 3, 4 days a week? Alternately, can you move closer to work?

True stay-at-home jobs that pay well are pretty rare unless you've got your own gig or have enough seniority/importance that you can make demands about telecommuting. So making yourself indispensable and then creating the situation you want is another approach.

-W

Bob W

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2014, 03:01:17 PM »
Not much details in the post?   

With a degree like that you would be in demand in many a Midwestern city for more that 50K.   50K here = 100K there.  (New Jersey)

 To give you an example, in my idyllic,  virtually crime free,  lake community here are some general prices.   Full time daycare --$85  week,  Gas $2.65 today,  2,000 sq ft home - $140K.   $240 on the lake.    Commute times?  You choose  -- walk to work or live in the woods or at the lake.   I drive a very relaxing 12 minute drive home on a beautiful 4 lane highway with virtually no traffic.   

There are probably 3000 cities in the Midwest that need planners and city administrators.  For some reason they think people from the east coast are smarter.  Go figure.  lol

CALL 911

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #3 on: November 12, 2014, 06:10:02 PM »
The people I know who make $40k from home are: consultants or doctors.

Radiologists can work from anywhere with a great internet connection these days - frequently their basements with a T-1 connection and $50k worth of monitors.

Or

Self employed consultants. The "work from home" but are actually on the road a good bit. And to be really in demand, have amazing credentials. I know one who managed an entire plant for one of America's largest companies, was executive VP of such and such, and got there based on a Masters in computer science from MIT. Are you looking to leave that gig, with those credentials?

Otherwise, the money won't be stable, the work won't be stable or the hours won't be stable (most likely all three). So if you need stable, move, or find a different job, or cut $40k from your spending so you don't need the money.

secondcor521

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2014, 08:13:37 PM »
I think there are two avenues I would suggest:

1.  Figure out if there are any parts of your kind of job can be done from home or if there are jobs related to yours that you could do from home.  Look at the people you work with, work around, work for, and see if any of the stuff that y'all do can be done from home.  Then try to craft a WFH situation where you do those kinds of things / those parts of your job.  If 20% of your current job could be done from home, maybe you find 5 different customers/clients/cities and offer to do that 20% of the job for them from home.

2.  Figure out if there are related jobs that are maybe a promotional opportunity that may require additional schooling.  Go get that schooling at night and then get one of those jobs.

hodedofome

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40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2014, 05:57:39 PM »
Plenty of phone sales jobs are out of the house, no travel. So are customer service and some training jobs.

My wife is a stay at home mom and got into a direct sales business (Jamberry). She'll probably make $70k+ this year. So you never know.

EastCoastMike

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2014, 06:14:41 PM »
Not much details in the post?   

With a degree like that you would be in demand in many a Midwestern city for more that 50K.   50K here = 100K there.  (New Jersey)

 To give you an example, in my idyllic,  virtually crime free,  lake community here are some general prices.   Full time daycare --$85  week,  Gas $2.65 today,  2,000 sq ft home - $140K.   $240 on the lake.    Commute times?  You choose  -- walk to work or live in the woods or at the lake.   I drive a very relaxing 12 minute drive home on a beautiful 4 lane highway with virtually no traffic.   

There are probably 3000 cities in the Midwest that need planners and city administrators.  For some reason they think people from the east coast are smarter.  Go figure.  lol

Hey Bob, way off topic here but I just noticed the Lake tag on your location.  Reminded me of home.  I grew up near Butler, off 71.  We used to go to the Lake almost every summer and spend a week setting trot lines for the blue cat.... and collecting strings of fish heads each morning.  Damn turtles.

NCGal

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #7 on: November 13, 2014, 09:15:57 PM »
With your background and education you would probably be good at grant proposal writing. It may take time to learn, and to find and and build up clientele but there are many ways to go about it that cost little or nothing. Start with the library, online resources and the Foundation Center in NYC. I think the site is fdncenter.org but it`s easy to find. You can also look for some local nonprofits, i.e animal rescue if you have interest - any 501-c-3 that does not have sufficient staff to do fundraising. You can offer your services for free in an area that you are interested in.
Disclaimer: I work from home for a nonprofit. I`m not a grant writer. I relocated less than 1 year into a new job and they kept me. I can take a little credit for being a good worker but it was mostly timing. The culture is very difficult to explain and it`s hard to train a new person in it. I`ve been extremely lucky.

nawhite

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #8 on: November 13, 2014, 09:23:00 PM »
My company is currently hiring customer service reps who work from home all the time. Many of the current reps are mom's who wanted more time with their kids. I'm not 100% on the salary but I think it's in the 30s. Work involves some phone support some email support. If you (or anyone else on here) are interested, PM me and I'll get you more info.

Thedudeabides

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #9 on: November 15, 2014, 07:22:24 AM »
There is a company called Fancy Hands which is a pay by task service (do research, make calls, etc.). They are hiring admins. They say they pay between $2.50-7.00 per task.

okane ga nai

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2014, 05:22:14 AM »
Keep an eye out on Escape the City - I saw the below opportunity recently (it has just expired), and there may be others like it. Not sure on the money or how stable the position is (and this one seems more geared to someone who moves around a bit):

Want the freedom to live and work from anywhere in the world? Were you born to hustle for an underdog startup with big goals? Do you have impeccable communication skills, a passion for helping people, and borderline-obsessive attention to detail?

We build travel gear for people who live ‘the mobile lifestyle’. The thing we care about most is getting those people to their destination – faster, happier and more productive.

We’re growing fast, and we need help: taming the multi-headed beast of daily operations, building meaningful (but not too meaningful!) relationships with our users, and identifying opportunities to improve our products.

That’s where you come in.

If the above sounds like a pretty sweet deal to you: head to the link below, read the role description carefully, and get in touch!

Cheers,

J, D & the Minaal team.

Sent from somewhere out there.


Another Reader

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2014, 06:27:30 AM »
I assume with your degrees you work in some type of planning function.  What planners usually do is move from the government side to the developer side.  They form consulting businesses and make their living getting projects through the planning process at the agency they just left and other nearby agencies.  The knowledge of local standards and issues plus the people involved generally puts them in the best position to shepherd the projects through the maze.

aussiesaver

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #12 on: November 17, 2014, 03:56:20 PM »
Have a look at the www.smartpassiveincome.com blog for ideas.

Ricky

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2014, 04:45:41 PM »
Most work from home gigs come from negotiations in a traditional job format. A major component to that is trust and a track record to build trust.

Companies that actually hire for online positions usually don't pay that well, generally customer service or monotonous admin tasks.

The only real way to make a lot of money online is to do it yourself. I recommend the "4 hour workweek" if you haven't read it already.

C. K.

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2014, 06:55:33 PM »
Here's a list of income streams that you can do without a traditional job, some of them are from home: http://changingcourse.com/cooljobs.htm

You might consider making 2 at-home income streams at $20K each if 1 at $40K is more difficult to make at the moment.

And you might start with asking yourself what you would like your life to look like. You want to be with your children more and you do not want the commute. Good. Go further. At what time would you like to get up during the day? What are you doing? Would you like summers off? Get as detailed as you can about what you like so that you're less likely to suffer this same burn out down the road with your at-home income.

If you need further coaching, Valerie Young at Changing Course has helped me a bit. She offers a one-time consultation where she brainstorms income ideas with you and encourages follow-up.

You might even find that the solution isn't in changing jobs but in changing where you live to be closer to the job.
« Last Edit: November 17, 2014, 07:04:34 PM by C. K. »

dragoncar

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2014, 07:05:17 PM »
What do you make now?

jrhampt

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #16 on: November 18, 2014, 07:07:54 AM »
Companies that actually hire for online positions usually don't pay that well, generally customer service or monotonous admin tasks.

The only real way to make a lot of money online is to do it yourself. I recommend the "4 hour workweek" if you haven't read it already.

This is incorrect.  I make well over 100k working from home on an all-remote team in a full-time position for a mega-corp (not doing either customer service or monotonous admin tasks).  Corporate real estate is expensive and becoming in short supply if you are in a growing industry, and if you have an in-demand skill set that allows you to work remotely, you should be able to find a job like this.  The secret is to look through job postings in your area of expertise and identify companies with a lot of postings for remote employees.  I'm in insurance, and I know which companies use a lot of tele-workers and which don't.  The larger the company is, the more spaced out their work force is likely to be anyway.  At my last company, I used to have to come into the office occasionally only to spend a good bit of my day on the phone in meetings with people across the U.S. or in different countries.  I can certainly do that from home.  Beef up your linked in profile and start answering recruiters who work for your previously identified target companies.

theSchmett

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #17 on: November 18, 2014, 11:39:55 AM »
Wow everyone, I was a little occupied for a few days, just checked back, and I feel like I have a lot of good leads here!

Really, this is a lot of QQ on my part. I have a good job, with great people, in my chosen field, with great hours and decent pay - with insane benefits. Its just A) frustrating and B) I just started paternity leave (great benefit) and I'm not looking forward to having the kids back to rushing around in the AM so I can make my train and my wife can get to work on time. Its not the kind of lifestyle I'm after.

My career frustration lies in the fact that I'm a career switcher, and not as high up on the decision making tree as I would have liked to be (or I think, would have been!) at this stage in my life. I also have a lot of interesting entrepreneurial ideas that take time and focus to accomplish. Not impossible, but difficult for an involved dad who also works full time - and has a 2 hour/day travel time.

A few more details if anyone wants to keep discussing this:

I'm in Metro NYC, commute appx an hour each way. Married, wife and I make under $150k.

4yo and 6mo. The daycare starts in January, full time daycare for the little guy, before and after care on top of (free) preschool for the big man. $appx 1700/month.

Mortgage is (no facepunches please...) about $2700 with ever rising taxes.

Utilities are under control. Efficient lights, high efficiency gas appliances, newer fridge.

2 cars, one payment, $240/month for 9 more months.

I REALLY love the ideas here. I'm going to look into some, at least for the future if not now. Thanks again.

TheSchmett

waltworks

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #18 on: November 18, 2014, 01:09:15 PM »
You should post a full case study. It sounds a lower-paying job might be an option for you if you could eliminate a car, a commute, and maybe some/all daycare. But without knowing a full expense/income breakdown, it's impossible to give good advice. What is your savings rate now? Could/would you move to a lower COL area? What are your financial goals in the short/medium/long term?

-W

arebelspy

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #19 on: December 03, 2014, 11:38:47 AM »
Can you write decently?

If so, there's a lot of ways to get paid from that.

If not, make your own job.

Here's a good one:
Buy things and resell them on the Internet.
I am a former teacher who accumulated a bunch of real estate, retired at 29, spent some time traveling the world full time and am now settled with three kids.
If you want to know more about me, this Business Insider profile tells the story pretty well.
I (rarely) blog at AdventuringAlong.com. Check out the Now page to see what I'm up to currently.

Bob W

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #20 on: December 03, 2014, 11:59:47 AM »
Not work at home per se --

Have you looked into Final Expense Insurance sales?

I'm guessing you could work out of the home (residential sales calls) and make over 50K per year one day per week.

You don't have to be the world's greatest salesperson.  My friend is pretty lazy and on track to make 125K.

So you set your own schedule and drive where you want to go.   Way more potential (like over 300K) if you decide to go full time.

PM me if you want some more info.  I'm not currently in this field but may transition myself

TerriM

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Re: 40k from home? Please? Somebody?
« Reply #21 on: December 03, 2014, 12:11:14 PM »

Mortgage is (no facepunches please...) about $2700 with ever rising taxes.


Isn't that cheap for your area? :)