How'd you do with side hustles/misc income in 2015?

[gliderpilot567]

About 4500 ebaying clutter
About 500 tutoring.

I should probably expand the tutoring, as I really enjoy teaching/instructing and have good proficiency in various math/science disciplines.

[Polish_Hammer]

$450 credit card rewards
$3000 selling Halloween masks & props on ebay
$200 reselling "Hot Toys" on ebay (lightsabers)

[tensile]

I started doing Amazon Mturk in February 2015 and made an extra $2600 (before taxes). Love Mturk as a little spare time, low impact side hustle.

Huh. That's significant. I'm surprised. What kind of time is involved to get to those levels? An hour a day?

[cschx]

I started doing Amazon Mturk in February 2015 and made an extra $2600 (before taxes). Love Mturk as a little spare time, low impact side hustle.

Huh. That's significant. I'm surprised. What kind of time is involved to get to those levels? An hour a day?

I'm really curious about this, too. I looked at MTurk recently but most everything seems to pay about $0.03. (Or you can make $20 on a transcription job that would probably take hours.)

Same experience with "mystery shopping"... I signed up recently, looking for another easy source of side income, but found that a typical run pays about $10-$15. For at least two hours' work.

I made about $3k in side income in 2015, mostly from independent research and bank bonuses. Looking to ramp things up significantly in 2016, but I'm having trouble finding things that pay enough to justify the time required (other than more bank bonuses).

[Manguy888]

Good job everybody!

I made ~$10,000 on freelance writing in 2015. I'm really happy with this because it happened organically. I wrote a few articles for fun and got them published on a well-trafficked website for no pay, and this led to being contacted for paid gigs.

This is before tax, of course. As I'm learning, paying both sides of the payroll taxes is no joke.

[Kaspian]

Good thread!

• $1226 in sales of old comic book collection (after expenses)
• $200 Cashback credit card rewards
• $158 offering intercity rides on Kijiji when I had to rent a car for travel

[SwordGuy]

- $96,000 purchasing and rehabbing 2 rental properties.
- $  4,000 operating costs
+$  4,500 rent - 1/2 year 1 property
=============
-$ 95,500 cash flow from side gig.

+$ 160,000 value of two rental properties
================
+$   64,500 net worth

This year, should be $9,600 rental profit on those 2 properties!

Plus, as a side benefit of searching for properties and good buys for the last two years, we got an instant $97,000 increase to our net worth based on the purchase price of our new home - the price we paid for it.  We would never have gotten such a good price if we hadn't been doing the side gig of our rental property business, would not have had a clue of how to do that!

+$  97,000
==============
+$161,500

[bittheory]

eBay: $325
Freelance: $9,000

This was by far my best freelance year on record, the extra income helped me max mine and my wife's IRAs, the remainder went directly into VTI.

Hoping 2016 is equally as strong, but I'm definitely not counting on it.

[startingsmall]

I didn't start my side gig until August... and it's actually more of a resume-building/career-change project than a side hustle, but I did decently well nonetheless.

In the last four months of 2015, I made an extra $5665.89 working about 10 hrs/wk in my free time - sweet!!


1) Signed up as a freelance academic editor with an online editing service. Basically, I edit academic papers written by non-native English speakers (mostly in Asia). The experience has been valuable for my own writing (training was all unpaid but very helpful), I figure it's good experience for my resume,  and I average about $25/hr (lower when I first started, but I'm getting more efficient).

2) Signed up for freelance writing work on Elance.com, which has since transitioned to Upwork.com. Initially, I did a few low-paying photo essay jobs that were non-medical... because I figured I needed a few decent reviews on the site to get a 'real' job. Then I lucked out and ended up getting hired by a veterinary CE company that had me write four courses for them (almost $5000). Fun to do, good experience, and good income. Win, win, win.

So far this year, I'm still editing and I've done a few other freelance projects through Upwork. Still working towards the end-goal of a permanent medical writing job but enjoying the extra income during this resume-building stage (even if balancing a full-time DVM job + freelance work + a  3 yr old is pretty hectic at times!!).

[Bergal]

$11700 freelance.  Helped build up my EF and max my Roth.

[francophile]

I started doing Amazon Mturk in February 2015 and made an extra $2600 (before taxes). Love Mturk as a little spare time, low impact side hustle.

Huh. That's significant. I'm surprised. What kind of time is involved to get to those levels? An hour a day?

I'm really curious about this, too. I looked at MTurk recently but most everything seems to pay about $0.03. (Or you can make $20 on a transcription job that would probably take hours.)

I've replied about this in another thread, but mturk does take time and the hourly wage isn't always great. But you get better at finding and qualifying for good hits as you do more, and even those 3 cent hits add up when you can do them really quickly and aren't spending time searching for them. The scripts like Turkmaster and Hitscraper make this possible.

[RequiemforEnnui]

About $12,500 net from reselling on Amazon FBA.
About $2,300 selling extra Authorized User slots on credit cards I'm not using.
LOTS on credit card cash back - at least $6,000 near the end of the year, more early on when the AMEX Blue Cash was still viable.

[washlawyer]

I didn't start my side gig until August... and it's actually more of a resume-building/career-change project than a side hustle, but I did decently well nonetheless.

In the last four months of 2015, I made an extra $5665.89 working about 10 hrs/wk in my free time - sweet!!


1) Signed up as a freelance academic editor with an online editing service. Basically, I edit academic papers written by non-native English speakers (mostly in Asia). The experience has been valuable for my own writing (training was all unpaid but very helpful), I figure it's good experience for my resume,  and I average about $25/hr (lower when I first started, but I'm getting more efficient).

2) Signed up for freelance writing work on Elance.com, which has since transitioned to Upwork.com. Initially, I did a few low-paying photo essay jobs that were non-medical... because I figured I needed a few decent reviews on the site to get a 'real' job. Then I lucked out and ended up getting hired by a veterinary CE company that had me write four courses for them (almost $5000). Fun to do, good experience, and good income. Win, win, win.

So far this year, I'm still editing and I've done a few other freelance projects through Upwork. Still working towards the end-goal of a permanent medical writing job but enjoying the extra income during this resume-building stage (even if balancing a full-time DVM job + freelance work + a  3 yr old is pretty hectic at times!!).

I've tried to find freelance editing work, and underbid on multiple projects on Upwork.com to try to get my foot in the door, but to no avail.  I was an undergrad English major at an Ivy League, worked at a magazine after college, graduated from law school and am now a practicing attorney, and can't even find freelance work for under $10 an hour!  Any suggestions on how to get started?

[startingsmall]

I work with Edanz for my editing work, but there are other similar companies out there. (I think Enago and Cactus are similar?)

As for Upwork,  I just kept applying until I finally got a low-paid photo essay assignment. (It was Elance at the time and I feel like there were fewer offshore/low-wage people on there.) Then once I had a completed job in my profile, I was able to get the CE writing job. I've had very little luck bidding for things on Upwork, but now I regularly get invited to interview for jobs. I have a full resume and writing samples on my Upwork profile... Maybe that helps?

[cschx]

I've replied about this in another thread, but mturk does take time and the hourly wage isn't always great. But you get better at finding and qualifying for good hits as you do more, and even those 3 cent hits add up when you can do them really quickly and aren't spending time searching for them. The scripts like Turkmaster and Hitscraper make this possible.

Thanks, francophile, this is helpful info. I found your other reply via your profile, but I'll link it here since it's such a useful thread: Simple ways to make a little extra money.

[Luckyvik]

Hi all, I'm in Australia and I made $2100 approx extra in 2015 from attending market research groups and online surveys, $1000 from credit card sign up bonuses that I'm using towards an upcoming trip and $110 in cashback offers from my bank.


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[Prairie Gal]

 - About $8000 bookkeeping from home (before taxes)
 - $350 for opening an ATB bank account.
 - Approximately $150 in credit card rewards.
 - $18 for not getting a paper statement on a bank account with about $5 in it
 - $18 for using automatic monthly top up on my prepaid cell phone plan

Planning to turn my hobby of furniture restoration into a (hopefully) paying side gig this year. So far it has just been for fun.

[Alba]

I am new in this forum and  reading every single post and I must say is very informative.
I was reading your post and i must ask , if you do not mind , how you find the extra bookeeping job to do it from home.
My profession is also accountant and i live in Whitby , ON .
I have every day job but i will like to start working from home.

thanks in advance.

[TheBeardedIrishman]

buying and selling things off craigslist... the income is unlimited its just a matter of how hard you want to hustle and grind. MOST IMPORTANTLY RESEARCH!!!! and beware its ADDICTING AS HELL

[Derrian]

$1,600 teaching leadership skills to international high school students ($200 per hour)
$11,000 doing curriculum design work ($25 per hour but I can do it without leaving the house #worthit)
$3,000 tutoring SAT/ACT (would you believe some people spend $200+ for private tutoring at some centers? I do it at the library for half of that and it is a steal)

[oscarJ]

I didn't start my side gig until August... and it's actually more of a resume-building/career-change project than a side hustle, but I did decently well nonetheless.

In the last four months of 2015, I made an extra $5665.89 working about 10 hrs/wk in my free time - sweet!!


1) Signed up as a freelance academic editor with an online editing service. Basically, I edit academic papers written by non-native English speakers (mostly in Asia). The experience has been valuable for my own writing (training was all unpaid but very helpful), I figure it's good experience for my resume,  and I average about $25/hr (lower when I first started, but I'm getting more efficient).

2) Signed up for freelance writing work on Elance.com, which has since transitioned to Upwork.com. Initially, I did a few low-paying photo essay jobs that were non-medical... because I figured I needed a few decent reviews on the site to get a 'real' job. Then I lucked out and ended up getting hired by a veterinary CE company that had me write four courses for them (almost $5000). Fun to do, good experience, and good income. Win, win, win.

So far this year, I'm still editing and I've done a few other freelance projects through Upwork. Still working towards the end-goal of a permanent medical writing job but enjoying the extra income during this resume-building stage (even if balancing a full-time DVM job + freelance work + a  3 yr old is pretty hectic at times!!).

I've tried to find freelance editing work, and underbid on multiple projects on Upwork.com to try to get my foot in the door, but to no avail.  I was an undergrad English major at an Ivy League, worked at a magazine after college, graduated from law school and am now a practicing attorney, and can't even find freelance work for under $10 an hour!  Any suggestions on how to get started?

I was similar - well qualified but couldn't find freelance work. So I started taking classes to teach math from home..... I earned about $300pm working from home, just teaching in the evenings. Now my wife is doing it too - she teaches dressmaking & gets $200pm. I just put up postcards on the noticeboards and also joined skilledlocal.com

I never realized I knew stuff that others would pay me to teach them and it has cost me nothing to get set up except my time.

[SwordGuy]

Our income will be $9,600 higher due to our new rental property business.  We bought 3 rentals and got 2 on the market last year.

Our net worth also increased by $65,000 due to the after-repair valuation jump on 2 of the rental properties.

I'm pleased with that progress!

Also, the same skills we learned on how to buy rental properties at a good price got us $97,000 in instant equity on our new "for us" house.

[NunyaBidness]

I earned the following from side hustles.

Coaching - $3,600
CC Travel Hacking - $2,500
Misc Side Gigs - $1,200

Total - $7,300

This helped get me to a 75% after tax savings rate and proved to me that I could easily FIRE @ 4% SWR and not have to stress about pulling in some $$ on the side.

Coaching what? I just started coaching hockey in NYC.