Finding legit ways to make extra money can be tricky, but it’s important if you’re on a mission to get out of debt. That’s why today we’re going to go over the extra income ideas I used to pay down $10,000 in two months!
How to Find Extra Income Ideas
Disclosure: The links in this post contain referral links and I may receive a small bonus at no cost to you if you sign up through my link. My affiliations in no way affect my suggestions or recommendations.
Develop Additional Income Streams
Or rather, that should say: “Develop Additional Income Streams And ONLY Use The Money To Pay Off Debt” but that’s a bit of a mouth…err…eye-full?
Anyway, as it sounds, developing additional income streams is key to getting your debt paid down faster, but it bears repeating.
I hope by now you’ve developed your own budget and I hope you’ve done so based only on your primary income. Please don’t ever use possible or imaginary money when it comes to planning out your financial future!
With that said, including only your primary income in your budget means that any extra money that comes your way can (and should) go directly towards your debt.
Consider this: for most people, one extra mortgage payment per year will pay their house off seven years sooner. That’s one extra payment for seven years of debt freedom. What are those seven years worth to you?
There are a lot of ways to earn some extra money (that don’t involve the removal of clothing or the selling of body parts). A part time job, though not necessarily glamorous, will generate reliable extra income that you can have direct deposited into an account that automatically makes a payment to a bill each month. It’s a great way to not even be tempted to spend that extra money.
Don’t have the time to work an additional job outside the home? That’s okay, neither do I!
Making Money Over the Lunch Hour
If you can write, Textbroker.com should be your go-to site to generate extra money quickly and easily. You provide a short writing sample, then they’ll evaluate it and rate it. From there, you’ll earn based on the rating.
I’m at 4 stars and I earn about 1.4 cents/word. It doesn’t seem like much, but if you enjoy writing and can do so quickly, it adds up fast. I’ve made close to $800 since the beginning of the year. That’s a tremendous amount of money for something I do over my lunch hour a couple days a week.
It’s not going to make you rich, but once the articles are written, they become totally passive income. I’ve made about $50 from the seven articles I’ve written and I haven’t even had a chance to write or promote anything since December. That means for the three-ish hours I spent on those few articles, I’ve made $50+. There are people on there making thousands through constant writing and promotion, and you can easily do that, too.
Get Paid to Lose Weight
Are you planning to lose a few pounds any time soon? Check out DietBet! DietBet provides amazing motivation by holding you accountable for your weight loss. There are three different ways to play, depending on where you’re at with your weight loss goals. Thus far I’ve completed “lose 4% in 4 weeks”. I also plan to try for a bigger goal (10% in 6 months) very soon!
I’ve only won $34 from the two games I’ve played but still – $34 for something I wanted/needed to do anyway! Not too shabby!
I’ve also heard good things about HealthyWage.com but I have not yet personally tried it out.
*Update* – I’ve since tried out HealthyWage and I won $1,600 in December after losing 70lbs, and I’ve already got a guest post up from someone who won nearly $700 after dropping 50lbs!! Check out this HealthyWage review!
Freelance
UserTesting.com has recently become one of my favorite ways to earn extra income. I keep the site open and if I hear the “ping”, I jump on it! 15 minutes later and I’m $10 richer!
Upwork.com is another site where you can apply for freelance jobs online. Writing, design, coding, virtual assistant work – all of these and so much more! You can pick up a variety of jobs fairly easily, with little hassle plus you are in charge of the price. The better you are, the higher you can charge, and there’s thousands of offers on the site all the time. I’ve made $150 from them so far this year and the majority of that is actually from companies approaching ME. It’s great!
As I mentioned, I’ve gone over a few of these and then some in a post on building additional income streams, but these are a few of my favorites. Just from working online, I’ve managed to make nearly $3,000 this year.
Now I’d like to know – do you rely on side income to make ends meet?
If you don’t yet work to develop any side income, why not? What’s stopping you?
Hi Amber,
I love your ambition – and it seems to me that with your attitude you will make far more than that 10 thousand.
Thanks for sharing some of the resources that you use to make extra money on the side.
Stopping in from Blogging Boost.
Thanks, Neena! As I’m sure you already know, attitude truly can make all the difference in EVERY aspect of your life 🙂
I appreciate you stopping by, I hope you’ll continue as a regular reader. Have a great day!
Okay, first of all–THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS. I have never heard of the sites you mentioned, but as a freelancer I’ll take any opportunity to get my name out there and I appreciate these resources!
It’s incredibly inspirational to hear about how you’ve managed to pay off all of that debt. I don’t mind the hustle one bit–but I know it can be daunting when you feel like you’re at the bottom of the rabbit hole. Thanks for this 🙂
You are quite welcome, Charlotte! Do be sure to let me know how these pay off for you. Debt of any kind can be quite daunting, but if you keep a positive attitude and continue chipping away, you will one day reach financial freedom (and probably a lot sooner than you think!)
I love this post! You have such an amazing attitude towards paying off debts, and I’m working towards paying off almost 20K in debt myself. If I make anything off my blog (which isn’t too much honestly), it all goes right into paying bills.
Thanks, Katy, I’m glad you liked it! Every little bit can make such a HUGE difference in the long run so good for you for using your blog income towards that debt. I bet you’ll have that 20k gone a lot sooner than you think!
I’ve kept two part time jobs from my “career transition” so I can work on paying down my debt. Now, this is no where close to being passive income, I work at a restaurant on Saturdays and will start sorting recycling at events soon, it’s real serious labor. But I love both jobs and the people I work with so it makes it totally worth it! I’ll get my first paycheck of the year from the recycling job tomorrow and am going to put it towards debt and nothing else. I know I’m very lucky to have finally woken up to my financial woes as a single person and want to get as much squared away as possible before my next chapter in life!
You are so wise to be doing it this way! You’ve got exactly the right mindset to see how much better it is to tackle your finances now instead of waiting until they grow to twice (or three times!) their size. When I was single, I wasn’t smart with my money. I figured it was better to spend what I had so I could enjoy the present. Now I have two babies, a house to take care of, a full-time job, and freelance work to manage! I would kick past me if I didn’t instead appreciate her for lessons learned. Keep doin’ you, you’re doing awesome!!
Thanks for sharing! I have been apart of Upwork for more than 3 years now.The first year I joined. I didn’t make a cent, after I had given up I tried again until I made $85 on my first job, after that it use to be my daily job. I kinda cool off on Upwork at the moment but I still get invites for job, some contractors want to pay too cheap for lengthy writing and it really turns me off especially when I have more important things I can do with my time…..
I know what you mean! I’ve been offered $60 to write a 6k-8k ebook and it’s borderline insulting! But like you said, I’ve also had some great results, too. Just depends on the day I guess!
Great insights! These are very helpful and these will truly help anyone looking for a side hustle. Imagine, you’re already loosing weight yet you’re also earning. Unbelievable! Thank you for your thoughts 🙂