Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

4 Side Hustles for Teachers

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If you’re currently a teacher, you likely know that while this occupation can be rewarding, it doesn’t pay very well.  You may be looking to supplement your income in the evenings or the weekend.

If you’re a former teacher who is now staying home with your kids, you may be looking for a way to bring in money utilizing your teaching skills.  However, you’ll need flexibility so that you can do your work when your children are sleeping at night or napping.

Luckily, there are plenty of ways to earn a side gig with your skills as a teacher.

Private Tutor

Teacher Hustles
Make Money as a Teacher

One of my friends worked at Nielsen, became a high school math teacher, and then stayed home when she had children.  For the last 10 years, she has been a private math tutor.  She gets her clients from referrals from her former colleagues and through word of mouth thanks to satisfied customers.  She makes several hundred dollars a month and enjoys being able to still teach even though she is no longer working full-time.

VIPKID Tutor

If you have a bachelor’s degree, you can get apply for a job at VIPKID teaching children in China how to speak English.  Most of the available tutoring hours are very early in the morning or late in the evening when your kids are likely already in bed.  You can set your own schedule and decide how many hours you want to work each week.

Depending on your experience, VIPKID may pay up to $22 per hour.

Curriculum Developer

Many former teachers make a nice income developing curriculum and selling it on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Other teachers are always looking for quality curriculum material and homeschoolers also take advantage of the site.

Online Teacher for Gifted Students

A number of prestigious colleges such as Johns Hopkins, Duke, and Northwestern offer online classes for gifted children.  You can teach here, and the schedule offers flexibility as you can decide what semesters to teach and what classes to teach.  You’ll be able to challenge gifted students, and you’ll have students who will likely challenge you, too.

If you don’t want to work with gifted students, you can also look at the many online schools available for K-12 students.  You can teach from home, and you may have to have a live course or tutoring once a week.  My kids were enrolled in an online school this year, and every time they had a tutoring session or interacted with their teachers, the teachers always worked from home, which provides a great deal of flexibility.

If you’re a teacher looking for extra income, you can see that there are a variety of ways to do that, and this list isn’t exhaustive. Here’s another list of ways to make extra money that’s not focused on teachers, but could certainly apply to teachers.  If you’re a teacher who opted to stay home with kids, there are many ways you can work from home using your skills and keeping current so you’ll be able to reenter the teaching workforce should you decide to in the future.

If you’re a teacher or were a teacher, have you found ways to turn your skills into a side gig or part-time income stream?  If so, what do you do?

Can You Earn a Stable Income by Only Freelancing?

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Many ambitious professionals are turning to freelancing in order to advance their career and make extra cash. In fact, studies suggest that freelancers will soon comprise a majority of the US workforce. What’s more, there are lots of well-known benefits to freelancing. After all, freelancers get to be their own boss, set their own schedule, and follow their passion. However, it’s understandable for prospective freelancers to wonder about the financial viability of such a job. At the end of the day, can you really make a good living just by freelancing?

How Much do Freelancers Make?

Unfortunately, the answer to this question depends on a number of factors including your experience level, skills, personal connections, and industry. However, it’s not unreasonable for freelance writers, for example, to make anywhere from $40,000-$60,000 per year. And while that’s hardly an opulent salary, it’s certainly enough to keep the creditors at bay. It’s important to remember though that these figures are just estimates. Certain freelancers with highly sophisticated knowledge of an industry or web-design practice should be able to attract high paying jobs. Indeed, B2B companies will pay top dollar for freelancers who are familiar with an esoteric product like a chamber slide or a high pressure homogenizer. Alternatively, new freelancers without much experience and with few connections could find it difficult just to make ends meet.

Financial Drawbacks of Freelancing

While on paper freelancers may seem to make more money than their traditional, nine-to-five counterparts, the reality is that there are certain financial considerations that only freelancers have to deal with. For one, most freelancers operate as independent contractors. As such, freelancers have to cover all costs associated with their business, such as office equipment and startup expenses. Furthermore, freelancers are unable to access certain benefits like group health insurance, which are usually provided by an employer. Instead, they typically have to pay a premium for such services.

Do Industry Trends Affect Freelancers?

The short answer is that the fluctuations of the stock market and changes within a given industry inordinately affect freelancers. Harsh though it may sound, business owners will typically cut ties with a freelancer before they think about laying off any full-time personnel. On the other hand, freelancers can make a killing in a market that’s riding high while large corporations have plenty of capital available.

Is Freelancing a Good Idea?

In the end, each professional is different. They have different goals, dreams, and preferences. So while it is possible to carve out a career working solely as a freelancer, it’s probably a wise idea to take on a few side projects first before you commit yourself fully to this path.

Earning Extra Income vs. Cutting Expenses: What’s More Important?

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When it comes to saving money, there are two ways to skin the proverbial cat: Earn more income or cut expenses.

The option you choose depends on whether you’d rather reduce spending or work harder to pay for that spending. Both approaches will put you further ahead financially, and – if you’re serious about piling up some cash – you could buckle down and do both.

However, if you had to pick one, which is the better way to get ahead? Let’s look at the pros and cons of each to find out.

Pros of Earning Extra Income

Many people prefer the idea of earning more money as opposed to cutting they’re spending. After all, the idea of cutting back one’s lifestyle doesn’t appeal to most people. Plus, when asked if they spend money wisely, many people would agree that they already do.

  1. Most people want to earn more money – Who wouldn’t want to increase their income? Duh! Making more income means a person has more money to spend or save. Although getting a second job is always an option, you might want to consider trying one of the best work from home jobs instead.
  2. Plan B in case of a job loss – Taking on a side gig to earn extra income can also be a good fallback plan in case you lose your job. One never knows when they may be blindsided by a job loss, and having another way of bringing home some income is a great way to survive until you get back on your feet.
  3. Discover a better way to earn an income – Sometimes a side gig can turn into full-time gig. That’s what happened to us. The income that we make from our blog is far more than we ever made working a full-time job. Plus, we get to be our own boss and work on our own terms.
  4. Control over how much money you earn – Want to make an extra $100 a week? No problem! With a side gig, you get to decide how much extra income you want to make and when you want to earn it.
  5. Chance to try out a side hustle idea – Have you always wondered if you would like freelance writing or being a dog walker to earn extra income? Rather than quit your regular job, why not try the side gig you’ve always wondered about and see if it’s a good fit? You might find something you love doing without risking your day job to try it out. Who knows? It could even take your life in a whole other direction like it did for us.
  6. Wipe out some debt – Wouldn’t it be great to kill some debt with the extra money you earn? Or, maybe you need some extra cash for the home renovations or trip you’ve been dreaming of? Starting a side job could help you save enough money for those things before you know it!

Cons of Earning Extra Income

  1. Too burned out from your regular job – The idea of working more in addition to a full-time job can be overwhelming for some people. If you are already burned out from your day job, a side gig may be out of the question.
  2. No spare time – Let’s be honest: Working a side gig requires time which you may be unable (or unwilling) to give up. If you have children or other family commitments, such as caregiving for an ill family member, a side gig may not be feasible.

Pros of Cutting Expenses

One of the easiest ways to start saving money is to spend less of it.

  1. Control over consumption – If you’d like to gain some control over the consumption monster in your household and have more money left over at the end of the month, cutting expenses is definitely the way to go. Most people want to make more money because there’s always more “things” they want to buy. However, when is enough enough? People are often surprised to find that they are just as content spending less money rather than more.
  2. Less money wasted – Regardless of how much money you make, you work hard for it. So, letting it go to waste shouldn’t be acceptable. By taking a hard look at your expenses, it quickly becomes obvious where you’re spending well and where you’re basically flushing it down the drain on things that don’t really matter to you.
    Some of the most common spending traps are gym memberships you don’t use, cable TV, landline phones, huge cell phone bills and data plans, and eating out rather than cooking at home.
  3. More control and more time – The most important benefit of cutting expenses is that you need less money to live. Having fewer expenses may allow you to cut back to part time work, stay home with your children, or free up time to pursue a hobby. When you live on less, it frees up more time to do things other than work. You might even find that your time is much more valuable than making a few extra bucks to spend on junk you don’t really want anyway.

Cons of Cutting Expenses

  1. Nothing left to cut back on – If you’re already living on a bare-bones budget, cutting expenses even further may not be possible. Everyone needs a certain amount of money to live, and – if there’s no fat left to trim – you may have to look for ways to make more money instead.
  2. Unnecessary suffering – If you are already extremely diligent about spending your money wisely, cutting expenses even further may cause unnecessary discomfort. However, this is rarely the case. You must be honest with yourself. Are you struggling to meet legitimate expenses or are you simply spending too much? If you’re couch-surfing because you truly can’t afford a place of your own, cutting expenses may not help much. If you struggle to make the rent because you eat out 10 times a week, it’s time to change your habits.

So, is it better to earn more or spend less? Honestly, a combination of both is typically the most effective attack.

By spending less and making more, you’ll be able to quickly beef up your monthly savings. Your long-term savings will also improve because you’ll be able to live on less.

How do you prefer to save money? Which of these options do you think is best?