I use AutoCAD a lot for my career and I'm very good at it. I recently saw an ad on craiglist where someone wanted to be trained in AutoCAD. I responded and told the guy I'd do it for $20/hr. I did the first lesson and it went really well, but only lasted 2 hours for the first day.
Here's the dilema..
The good:
- He's eager to learn and wants to get lots of lessons in
- I somewhat enjoy the teaching
- Pays $20/hr which isn't huge money (I make more at my day job) but it's cash untaxed. (3) 2-hour lessons weekly is $120/weeek or $480/month - pretty good!
The bad:
- I drive to him. This requires 25 minutes each way. I get ~65 MPG so it ends up being about 3/4 gallon of gas, or $2.60 round-trip per lesson.
- Time is an issue - I value the time I have with my family, so being away for an extra 3 hours, 3 times per week does cut into our time together.
So what would you do? I make ~$50k before deductions at my day job, and the wife makes about $100k before deductions.
If I dont continue these lessons I KNOW I'll start looking for other means of extra income because I'm always searching for that.. for that reason I'm leaning towards continuing the lessons.
Thoughts?