Interesting ways that you make extra money?

[Cap_Scarlet]

As I approach the great abyss that is early retirement I want to start to collect interesting and low maintenance ways to make extra money and I would like to know what you do to make a bit extra on the side.

I have lots of ideas around freelancing and also we will have a self-contained apartment in our new house which we will rent out for vacations.  I suppose I would like to make around $20,000 a year which i beleive will be sufficient such that we will not have to each into our capital and perhaps provide for a few things we might otherwise economise on.

I know some won't approve of this but over the last 10 years I have regularly made a few thousand dollars a year playing online poker.  I only play low stakes and onoly play tournaments (so my loss is limited to about $10 max per time).  I play five different sites and put $50 dollars into each when i started playing.  I always said that if I lost the $50 I would never pay in again and over the years I have not had to.  I use the money for buying small luxuries like a new bike, a new TV etc.  I am not a great player but I am a decent mathematician ;-) so whilst it sounds a little decadent Its relatively easy money.

So what's your secret route to the extra cash?

[diesel15]

Hey Cap_Scarlet...I don't mean to derail this thread from your intended pupose.  I'm just curious where you are able to play online (assuming you are US based) and how you are able to withdraw funds.  I used to make a killing playing online poker ($42,000+ in a little over 2 years in 2003-2004) until they cracked down on the financial institutions and prevented them from tranferring money to US based players.  Please PM me if you can direct me to any sites.

[boarder42]

Its not hard to play online poker.  But since you're a poker player. 

I may not get destroyed for this (but probably will again). Scalp tickets. Its easy to start to understand and learn ticket markets. Beer festivals are big now I make about 10-11 a year buying and reselling tickets. It's super easy AND will piss a ton of people here off. Haha

[Richie Poor]

That is a pretty cool trick, Cap_Scarlet, if you can manage it. I too thought it was near impossible to do from the US these days.

I occasionally get paid for surveys. I made $200 from reviewing some IT software last month. It only took 1 hour.

My friend's side hustle is walking dogs. Believe it or not there are actually people without disabilities who will pay for that. You can use that website NextDoor to ask your neighbors if they need anyone.

[Richie Poor]

Its not hard to play online poker.  But since you're a poker player. 

I may not get destroyed for this (but probably will again). Scalp tickets. Its easy to start to understand and learn ticket markets. Beer festivals are big now I make about 10-11 a year buying and reselling tickets. It's super easy AND will piss a ton of people here off. Haha

Great idea, boarder. Don't beer festivals usually have an unlimited amount of tickets? Unlike a very limited number of seats at a concert. Seems like it would be harder to scalp a ticket that can be purchased online so easily.

I don't think I've ever met a scalper.

[Eric]

Have you seen this thread?  It's like 6 pages of side hustles.

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/who-has-a-side-gigjob-that-brings-in-extra-cash-share-with-us!/

[Eric]

Scalp tickets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74GdZs2Ilk4

[boarder42]

most beer festivals are limited number of tickets.  event spaces are only rated to hold so many people... the GABF has 30k tickets available per session and sells out in under 2 minutes online. 

You can hate on people all you want for capitalizing but buying tickets and selling above face is no longer an illegal in many states as it used to be...

My main focuses are:
1. Opening day baseball tickets (get in with a ticket dealer for a team and get on the list for "group" tickets this is an easy double up scalp)
2. I happen to have a buddy in the sports industry so he found out about Jeter's retirement minutes before ESPN shouted it out and we bought buckets of tickets on stub hub for his last regular season game at yankee stadium -  Guess what we paid OVER FACE for these too... but they have quickly gone up ten fold. 
3. Beer festivals. 

I basically add more events to this as i buy tickets for an event intending to attend and it sells out and i find out what tickets are going for.. sometimes you get hit for a loss but more often than not you come out on top ....

I real estate investment groups who buy foreclosed houses cheap and then do nothing to them and put them back on the market for more money... same philosophy larger risk... think before you hate...

its touchy b/c people get pissed when they cant buy tickets for an event before they sell out... that why people here frown on it. 

[sheepstache]

I real estate investment groups who buy foreclosed houses cheap and then do nothing to them and put them back on the market for more money... same philosophy larger risk... think before you hate...

its touchy b/c people get pissed when they cant buy tickets for an event before they sell out... that why people here frown on it.

I think people get touchy when the reason they can't buy tickets before they sell out is because there are so many scalpers.  That's an issue I hear about in my city.  LCD Soundsystem is a well-known recent example, though there are also theories that the 'scalpers at fault' meme is constructed by PR folks.

It's like, if I'm super busy or for some other reason can't buy tickets myself, I appreciate being able to pay more and get them, just like I might appreciate that I don't know what's involved in the process of buying a foreclosed home and buying it from the RE investment group is a lot easier.  But I see articles about people worrying that RE investment groups are buying up a ton of single family homes and shouldering out individual investors, and it causes people anxiety.

I never buy tickets to anything though, so I don't really care.  I guess I'm just saying to those who would take up the sidehustle to look at the ratio of non-scalpers buying tickets at the source to make sure you don't get facepunched for real.