Opportunities
There are loads of different opportunities for boosting the amount of money that lands in your bank account each month. If you were to look really, really hard then you’d likely find thousands of them.
The problem, of course, is that in a lot of cases the reward is barely worth the effort. For instance I started participating in surveys to try and get a little extra cash. Where I live, there are highly reputable market research companies who carry out polls to find out people’s voting intentions and so on. And they pay you money for participating! Sadly, it’s only a small amount. And it took literally years to get to the stage where I had an amount big enough to transfer to my bank account. On the plus side, I enjoyed the surveys.
Options
Of course, there is always the option of part-time work. If it’s unskilled work, for instance dog walking or helping out in a shop, it’s unlikely to be big money – but it’s always better to be supplementing your income than eating into it at a rate faster than you can earn it. The only problem with part-time work is that if you already have a full-time job, then additional hours can be a little bit exhausting.
However, there are other options. This Telegraph guide highlights some very interesting ones – and with a little lateral thinking you may even identify additional options that could suit you. Additionally, it may be worth considering the possibility of turning a hobby into a money-making endeavour. If you’re good with your hands and enjoy making things, then there’s the possibility that there may be people out there who want to buy them. It’s not unheard of for people to make (for instance) jewellery as a hobby, and then end up having to outsource some of the fabrication work when they turn professional – due to the amount of custom created exceeding the free time they have to make the items.
Breaking out on your own
Of course, if you find that your hobby really takes off, then you may want to consider becoming a fully-fledged business. In which case, the finance question won’t necessarily be your monthly income, but finding the numbers to support your business. A lot depends on your business model, but if you have a new and unique idea, you may want to go for crowdfunding – however there are pros and cons to each type of business borrowing – so think each one through comprehensively if you do decide to go along the self-employed route.
Tried and tested routes to higher income
Sadly, the chances of instant riches are pretty low. Many of us will know or have met people who won a significant amount on the lottery. But these people are few and far between. And like perhaps many people, my biggest-ever lottery win amounted to the about the same figure as it takes to pay the bill for a steak dinner for two (with wine). Welcome, but not really a life changing windfall.
One of the most obvious tried-and-tested ways to increase income is to retrain. And while we’re being creative about things, it’s worth thinking creatively about how you can work towards a better job with more money. Are there areas that interest you that you’ve never investigated before? Are there any untapped training opportunities within your current organisation? Set some time aside each week to have a ‘deep think’ about your career and ways that you could improve your working life. It’s also worth checking out careers advice and learning sites (there is a useful example here).
Without a change of thought, there can never be a change in reality. Knowing what you want is the first step in achieving just that.
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