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One of the best ways to make life less stressful, lighter and easier is to learn a bit about how to make some extra money (and to start earning that money).
Diversifying my income from just one single income stream in the past has helped me to:
- Stop worrying so much about money.
- Much more easily handle a financial emergency or tight spot.
- Have more money over for fun things and exciting and fulfilling experiences.
Now, there are hundreds of ways to make extra money so in this article I’d like to focus on 10 of the simplest and most popular ones.
And mostly on ways to make some additional money from the comfort of your home.
These are tips that can help you no matter if you’re broke student that needs some extra cash – I wish some of these tips were around when I was at the university – or you need to pay off some debt or save up for an emergency fund or your vacation.
1. Take surveys.
One of the simplest ways to start making some extra money is to participate in market surveys.
Now, this won’t make you rich but it’s a quick, easy and totally free way to earn a bit extra by answering some questions.
The biggest and most well-known survey site is Survey Junkie. They have over 3 million members and the highest rating on TrustPilot among survey sites with a score of 8,6.
For every survey you complete on Survey Junkie you get points.
A completed survey gives you about 50-200 points. These points can be converted in into gift cards or money (1000 points equals $10).
2. Start a blog.
That’s what I did to first make some extra money on the side. But over time this side-hustle grew.
And it’s now (and has been for many years) my full-time business.
This is a larger time-investment than doing surveys and you also have to invest a little bit of money into for example web hosting.
But the payoff can also be bigger as you can turn you website or blog into a part-time hustle that brings in hundreds to several thousands of dollars each month.
To learn more about this have a look at my post with 46 tips about starting a successful blog. In this post I share everything I’ve learned in the past 10+ years.
3. Babysit, pet sit or walk dogs.
If you love kids or animals then this might be a great option to look into.
Just doing it for a couple of hours each week can earn you a nice side-income while you get to spend time with what makes you happy.
4. Rent out a spare room in your house.
If you have a spare room just collecting dust or you son or daughter has moved out recently then one thing you can do is to rent out that room.
This is a pretty popular thing here in Sweden as university students often have a hard time finding an apartment at first.
Or you can rent out the room for shorter periods – or maybe the whole house or apartment if you’re away – on Airbnb.
5. Get money back when you do your regular shopping.
We use the same grocery chain each week for our shopping and by using their membership card we get plenty of extra discounts and also collect points that we can convert into grocery money or other perks (like discounts on hotels and vacations).
So be on the lookout for different membership clubs were you live to both save and earn some extra money.
6. Invest a bit of your money (instead of just letting it sit in your bank account).
When you let you money sit in a bank account then you will most likely get a small return on that.
If you on the other hand invest a bit of that money into, for example, index funds then you’re likely to get a better return in the long run.
This can be extremely powerful – especially if you make it a regular habit to invest a bit of your money – and can make you huge amounts of extra income over the years and decades ahead of you.
If you want some sensible advice on this that avoids taking crazy risks then for example check out this post at Get Rich Slowly.
7. Use Trim to lower your bills.
A key to having more money to spend as you like or to save is to regularly review your expenses. To make sure you’re not paying more than you need to or to get rid of, for instance, memberships and subscriptions to magazines, a gym or streaming services you never or rarely use.
The free Trim app is one tool that can help you with that.
It can help you to see where your money is actually going, negotiate your bills and terminate subscriptions you don’t need anymore.
8. Negotiate for a pay raise.
Taking that one action can help you to earn quite a bit extra. Especially if you look at how much extra you’ll get over a whole year.
9. Sell stuff you don’t need anymore (or honestly don’t use).
We do this pretty often via for example Facebook-groups or our equivalent to Ebay.
Just a couple of weeks ago we sold off our old bed and got a nice amount of money for it. Plus the people who bought it came by and picked it up (and so we didn’t have to go the dump or anywhere else with that really heavy bed).
10. Take a look at what other things you can rent out.
I’ve already mentioned making some extra money by renting out a spare room to for instance a student or via Airbnb.
But what other things do you have in your life that you don’t always use or perhaps only use during certain periods throughout the year?
A handful of things you may want to rent out are your:
- Car.
- Parking space.
- Lawnmover, snowblower or similar tools.
- University text books.
- Bicycle or snowboard.
- Expertise to someone who needs to get started with for instance Excel, Photoshop or setting up a blog.
