The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: Mon€yp€nny on July 03, 2018, 01:50:09 PM
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Hi everyone, I wanted to ask you for ideas and tips for my issue.
Husband works almost full-time, but has been adviced to cut down his hours because of his health issues. I would like him to be able to work less.
I do volunteerswork when I can, as a admin assistant and host (in a Repair Café). I wasn't able to go to work last Monday, again, cause I felt horrible and had a fever. Fever and throwing up means my body is angry with me and ready to go on a full strike.
But anyway, thank God I have a disability pension. However, I would like to work really bad, make my own money and keep my current level of disability pension.* I will be allowed to keep a bit.
I'm looking for a flexible stream of income. Something I can still do when I am not able to drive my car, walk, godawfully tired etc from my bed. Something that I can leave alone for a day of two days when things gets really bad.
I tried blogging I haven't found a money making blog scheme that feels good to me and still makes money. You can't write about personal finance and saving money and try to make people buy crap they don't need or bad financial products I feel. I have turned down businesses at the hight of my blog.
I just listened to podcasts for the first time today. Could be an idea but no clue yet how to do that. I was hired cause I had a pleasant phone voice a couple of times but that doesn't make my voice interesting to listen to necessarily.
I'm also interested in dropshipping. I have an idea for a webshop. Who has experience with dropshipping and could tell me more about that? Do's and don'ts and can you leave it running it's own with technology should you need to? How do you transfer orders to the dropshippers? Is that a couple of clicks or copy and paste when in haste or is far more involved?
Maybe I can write an e-book or publish a book, I'm worried something like that won't pay off though.
Renting out a part of our house isn't an option at this moment.
Who has other ideas of what I could do, or other input?
Maybe I could or should do something with my husband, that would have many advantages but he doesn't share all my interests.
*The government wants to reward those that do work and punish those that don't. Even when their rules and regulations are one of the causes of your unemployment. Unfortunately, I basically worked my ass of way too long before I couldn't do it anymore and I am.now in the wrong category of disabled. Not working will lead to a lower pension at some point (€1000 a month lower)
My friend that had some mental issues 3 years ago got two jobs in a row offered to her on a platter cause she is in one of the right categories. So when I apply, the healthy, the ones without a hole in their resume, work disabled cat I, II and III (regulations, compensation etc for employers) and the ones that are not a wheelchair sometimes are preferred over me. I filed a complaint at UN human rights cause I feel I'm being discriminated, tried other things, tried to get in the right category but finally put it to rest cause it was a waste of my time and energy. Governments are always allowed a bit more.
I have to put my energy in finding another stream of income.
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Ugh. I hate those policies coming in that attack the "weak" ones while they are giving the big corporations even more tax benefits. Oh well.. let's not talk politics but let's increase your income.
Considering you wrote a blog and were succesful enough to attract businesses you're probably a fairly good writer. Could you do some freelance writing? Or maybe start a blog with a different topic that's more marketable and makes you feel less bad about selling products (e.g. food blog in a certain niche).
Another option I could think of is tutoring, as it can be quite low-key and easy to get into if you have kids at an age where tutoring is popular (mostly later elementary school and high school I'd say). Now this sounds a bit risky with your health condition if you can feel bad suddenly, but if you're relatively stable/feel bad days coming you can maybe work around this.
Making a podcast sounds like a good option too indeed. I also have no clue how to get into that, but maybe some people around here will!
What's your educational and working history background? A bit more information could probably help fine-tune the advice given as more marketable skills are more likely to provide a higher income.
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Only my joints are weak, my muscles just get tired from keeping things together for me ;-).
I have an associates degree in economics/ administration, specialised in Management Assistance.
Went to work full time after that and didn't finish my bachelor in HRM (not the right choice for me), nor my bachelor Management, Economics and Law. It was a bit too much for me next to a full time job (I felt like a failure and didn't know I got tired more easily than others yet)
I did a bachelor level course in Quality and Process Management later.
I loved working as a Management Assistant for years but I have tried, unfortunately that's too much for me now (think I grieved over that more than over getting a wheelchair).
I'm also not allowed to do that kind of work anymore (disability pension decision) only light administrative work.
But anyway, virtual assistant won't work well, unless it's simple and structured data processing.
I'm slightly creative but it almost always looks so much better in my mind /s. . I have thought about upcycling waste to useful products and sell them on Etsy. I think that would be more monetizing a hobby. I wouldn't be able produce a lot on demand.
I have many ideas for businesses but just not the body for it basically, I need to find something that will fit me.