Author Topic: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income  (Read 2607 times)

Ready2Save27

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High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« on: February 17, 2020, 10:56:28 AM »
Apologies if this has been asked before, but I’m looking to see if the community has any other ideas than what I’ve seen scattered throughout the forums.

Do you know of any high paying, low hour/availability gigs to make extra money on the side? What I mean by this is things like tradelines, test driving cars, focus groups, credit card churning, bank account churning, etc. They offer a high hourly rate, but the work you can do is limited. Do you know of any other opportunities like that?

I’m just looking for a list of ideas that I can look into further on my own. Google/forum searches haven’t been very helpful.

I don’t need the money to get by, but I’m looking to accelerate my FIRE journey.

DeniseNJ

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2020, 12:19:08 PM »
You can get free stuff for reviews and keep to save money or sell. Savesoo and rebatest are what I've started using. I don't sell though. And there's free stock from robinhood   And there's missingmoney.com to at least see if you have money out there.

Also ratracerebellion may have stuff
« Last Edit: February 17, 2020, 12:22:49 PM by DeniseNJ »

Morning Glory

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2020, 01:34:49 PM »
You will probably be better off doing something related to your work experience or education. Consulting, adjunct, supplemental/ per diem,  etc.

Car Jack

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2020, 01:41:31 PM »
I tend to combine lots of these things.  Be organized, it makes you more money.

Churning.  Yah, get bonus for opening a credit card.  The downside after a few years is that the number of available options drops and then you're getting the card in line at Home Depot to save $35 on your purchase to open a card.  Cap One and Chase are well known for just saying "NO" but even BoA of late has been closing serial bonus takers.  Still worth it until it's not.

Tradelines.  Since you mentioned it, you know what it is.  I follow arebelspy's thread daily.  Paying attention helps.  I've added new/low limit cards both times the old company opened that option and they have been the most consistent, highest paying cards for me.

Low Balance Forgiveness:  This won't pay a ton, but if I have a card that qualifies and doesn't have a tradeline, I'll take $1 or $2 every month.  I either get gas or add to Amazon (arebelspy does that and it maximizes what you get more easily).  The way it works is the first you need to hunt down the thread...I think doctorofcredit has it with a listing of cards that forgive any monthly balance below a set amount.  Usually 99 cents or $1.99.  I keep this on the same spreadsheet as my tradelines so I can keep track.

Gas schemes:  Use them all.  I use EM rewards at Exxon Mobil plus Getupside (feel free to ask me to refer you to give me and you an incentive).  Both of these give me something back at selected stations.  I won't go out of my way for this, but if I don't have gas points otherwise, it's something.

Stop and Shop gas points.  There's a flyertalk thread on this.  They give gas points to get 10 cents a gallon off for every $100 spent, max 20 gallons a shot and max $1.50 per gallon.  Join Shell's program also and they'll give you another 5 cents.  Get the shell credit card and for 5 purchases, they give you another 30 cents per.  The bonus with S&S is when they have gift cards and a high number of multiplier.  So they'll do 10 times points on happy cards.  A happy guy card can be "traded" for other gift cards where you'll use them.  I'm not exposing more....you need to figure it out.  I do this often and pay under a dollar for gas pretty often.  Bonus points doing the math with my neighbor who drives a Tesla and showing him how he's spending twice as much as I am to fuel his car. 

Of course there are credit card bonuses.  Keep your eye out for them everywhere.  The last year has been a bonanza for me.  Citi Sears has had until last quarter ways to get 10% off as a statement credit, then for thank-you-points which can redeem for usable gift cards (I got over $400 in CVS cards off this).  I've got a Citizens Bank mastercard that gives 5% back, no limit on everything until March 31.  I've paid 2 kids college tuitions and have my property tax bill on my wall along with quarterly estimated federal and state taxes that'll get on this.  All of these have 2.7% convenience fees, but it's still quite profitable.  The downside is I have to send payments multiple times through the month as they only gave me $13k limit without hard pulling.  So I just do that.  Spending over $20k a month and getting the balance down to $87 at reporting time is pretty fun.  And yes, I pay in full.

I also escrap.  That's not high $/hr kind of work though.  I just find it easy and fun.

Ready2Save27

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2020, 02:25:07 PM »
Thanks for the suggestions so far. To respond to some of the suggestions:

I checked out ratracerebellion, and those seem like low paying work at home jobs, but I appreciate the new link.

I’m younger (graduated 0-3 years ago in Mechanical Engineering), so I do not have the expertise to consult. I’ve considered tutoring, but online tutoring pays poorly and local tutoring is difficult to find clients (though I may pursue this further).

My spending right now is extremely low, so although I know credit card churning exists, I often can’t meet the spend requirements.

For gas, I get 44 mpg average (have been tracking since January 1st), and have a local station that offers a credit card price that is the same as the lowest cash prices in my area, so it’s generally $50 or less for the month (commute is far, but saves me money since I can live at home).

Tradelines I want to do, but am waiting to build up my credit a bit more (I have a high score of 750+, but since I’m younger my credit history isn’t as long and I wouldn’t want any of my current cards to be closed. I’m gradually opening new credit cards so I can do tradelines in a year or two.).

The low balance forgiveness is interesting, but it seems like it is high risk, low reward. If I screw up (for example, the card’s policy changes and I didn’t check the statement because it’s always 0), it can hurt my credit score. And if I do everything right, maybe I’ll get $24 for the year, or even $100 if I have a ton of such cards.

So I like the idea of things like tradelines and churning (those are truly high pay for low hours), but I need to wait to do them and am looking for other high pay low hour ideas. I appreciate those suggested so far, but would love to hear more.

DeniseNJ

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2020, 03:30:19 PM »
Escrap? Do tell.

affordablehousing

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2020, 11:47:12 AM »
You can do SAT tutoring. It was a while ago but I believe I got around $150 an hour for tutoring in a large city where parents wanted personalized attention. It was a welcome addition and flexible with another job.

Ready2Save27

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2020, 07:49:07 PM »
Thanks for the suggestion. I don’t know if parents would want me for SAT tutoring since I took it when the format was different (took when out of 2400, now is out of 1600), but I’m sure I can do tutoring for higher level courses at $50+/hr if I’m able to find clients.

AMandM

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2020, 11:59:56 AM »
I took the SAT almost 40 years ago, but I still do SAT tutoring now. The format has changed (e.g. no more analogies), but the basic skills tested haven't changed much. Pick up an SAT prep workbook from the library to learn the new format. SAT tutoring is best if you can tutor both the math and the verbal sides. As an engineer you could probably also tutor AP calculus and statistics for a high hourly rate, especially if you are willing to travel to the ritzy suburbs inhabited by high-earning parents with high expectations for their kids.


Smokystache

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Re: High Pay, Low Hour/Availability Side Income
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2020, 08:36:44 AM »
I tutored the GRE (highest demand was for the Quantitative section) for about 10 years and not only did no student/client or their parent ask which version I took, but they also didn't ask what my score was when I took it. It was good, but not 95% percentile.

Money is easiest to get where there is the greatest range between ability and need ... which I saw as students from liberal arts-related majors who need the GRE. For example, a literature/history/psychology/music/foreign language/sociology/education major who wants to get into a PhD program and needs to take the GRE (with the quant section) who originally chose their major partly because they hated math. Guess what? You need that knowledge now and GRE programs are really competitive.   

Or you can take the opposite tack and focus on the Verbal section for international students.

If my current opportunities dried up, I'd jump back into this in a heartbeat. Craiglist ads, maybe some local university newspaper ads, and a table at Starbucks + a one page Wix/Squarespace website, and a way to accept CCs is all you need.