Hired myself out to a friend for $25/hr, made $200.

[bigalsmith101]

My buddy runs his own drywall business and meets a lot of people who need work. Occasionally he needs an extra hand on a weekend job and calls me up.

This time it was tearing up the back patio of a customers house and hauling it away. My buddy has a small tractor, and we bashed the shit out the concrete, and hauled it all away.

We spent 8hrs on the job. My buddy hires out his tractor/operator at $100/hr. He charges $25/hr cash for my help. My friend is super thrifty just like me. He's working these weekend gigs to pay for the tractor he bought to develop a piece of land he recently bought. He earned $800 for the day, and I earned $200. It seems lopsided until you think about the near $50k in equipment we used to get the job done ($15k truck, $7k dual axle dump trailer, and $27k tractor). I have no overhead, he's got plenty.


I make more than $25/hr at my full time job, by a large margin, but an extra $200 goes straight into my investment account each full day that I work for my buddy. I'll take it any free day that I have.

Probably going to have another weekend day in the future to finish the job we started. Boom.

[Dicey]

Love your attitude! In the words of the immortal T. Geisel, "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"

[Mr. Green]

These are the kind of gigs I would love to do now that I'm no longer working. Nothing like getting a little exercise and putting some cash in your pocket!

[JanetJackson]

I love this!  I do this too- catch up on quiet time while taking a neighbors dog for a $15 walk in the park, cleaning a friends house for $175 while I catch up on Podcasts and can end up skipping the gym that day.
It's great that you get to spend time with a like-minded friend too, those are hard to come by!

[bigalsmith101]

He knows I'm always game to make money, and we talk about the same like minded interests while we work. I'm also physically capable of doing any of the labor jobs he ends up, and can smash out 8hrs without complaining.

People laugh at my early retirement goals, or at least look at me funny. But every year they ask me how it's going, and when I tell them I'm a year closer, they start to get the idea.

[MasterStache]

Always nice to have little side gigs like this with flexibility. Although it made my back ache just thinking about it ( :

[falcondisruptor]

Sounds like an awesome weekend!

[ncornilsen]

Thats great!

(IANAL) Please be aware of the liability issues. I think your buddy is most at risk, but doing work for someone else and being paid entails alot of liability, licensing, and insurance issues that I'm hoping you guys have considered.

Also, taxes.

[bigalsmith101]

Thats great!

(IANAL) Please be aware of the liability issues. I think your buddy is most at risk, but doing work for someone else and being paid entails alot of liability, licensing, and insurance issues that I'm hoping you guys have considered.

Also, taxes.

Absolutely. My friend is a fully licensed and bonded general contractor who just happens to specialize in drywall, but owns a mini tractor. He bills accordingly such that he can pay me $25/hr, and it works out well.

[bigalsmith101]

Always nice to have little side gigs like this with flexibility. Although it made my back ache just thinking about it ( :

Lift with your knees... I'm tall, at 6'6" and quite fit for my size. However, even though I can lift heavy object and swing them around, I always make it a point to carry two small things before I carry one twice their size. Smack it with a sledge hammer, and carry two pieces. Saves your back!