Alternate Streams of Income

One of the best ways to tackle debt or work to accomplish other financial goals is with alternate streams of income. This would include any income that is above your "regular" day-job income. Some alternate income sources might include:

Tutoring

Part-Time Job

Seasonal Work (cutting grass, snowplowing, raking leaves)

Home Parties (Home & Garden, PartyLite, Tupperware)

Selling on Ebay

Crafting/Selling on Etsy

Alternate incomes tend to be illregular, which is what makes them great for reaching any financial goals you may have whether it is paying off debt, saving for a "new to you" car, a vacation or a house. Because alternate incomes may not be consistent pay each month. You can't count on them to pay our bills or other regular monthly expenses. SO if you can find one or two great "part-time" incomes -then when you hit a payday with them- use that money to pay into whatever your financial goal is.

Over the years we have had tons of different alternate incomes. I have taught home instruction, done pritvate tutoring, sold avon, and sold items on ebay. Gary has done seasonal work, worked a night job, retrieved golf balls to sell on ebay, and most recently became an installer for Link-to-Life which has surpised us and is bringing in more money than we thought- which we are really hoping continues, as the golf balls on ebay have fallen off quite a bit in the off-season.

Right now our best "alternate incomes" come from selling used golf balls on ebay which "In Season" makes us up to $800/month and in the "Off Season" makes us about $300/month. This new Link-To-Life job made us $190 in December and so far for January has earned us $350. (they pay you on the 15th of the following month for all the jobs you complete in the month prior). So far in December Gary has earned $350- but he won't be paid until Jan 15th. If he gets more jobs in the last few weeks of December that January payday could be more.

As I said before, these irregular payments are just that- irregular. So our plans for the "extra income" is to meet our Christmas club goals for 2009, to set some money aside for our "emergency fund" above our normal $25 deposit each month, and to set some additional funds aside for the summer when I do not get paid (my teaching job only pays 10 months out of the year). If, and this is a BIG IF, If the money is there we are also hoping to take a vacation this summer. We did not take one last summer because we just didn't have the money- but we are hoping that does not become the "norm" and instead was just a one-time-thing. But as with all financial goals you need a plan. Since this "extra income" is unpredictable- we will have to see how much we can make and then what we are able to accomplish with it.


Pinyo at Moolanomy (a great personal finance blog) has a great list of 40+alternate income ideas, click on the link below to check it out.

http://www.moolanomy.com/462/30-alternative-income-ideas-and-resources/