How to make an extra $50k+ per year without changing jobs?
Curious if anyone here has either built a side project or started something with the explicit goal of making $50k+?
This would be in addition to holding down a 40 hour work week full-time job.
I launched a baby book, Computer Engineering for Babies (https://computerengineeringforbabies.com/), back in September. And have surpassed my regular salary by a 3x. It’s still a side project because I am having a hard time leaving my own job. I’ll probably leave soon, but when you have a mortgage and kids, something about a regular paycheck is hard to leave behind.
> Curious if anyone here has either built a side project or started something with the explicit goal of making $50k+?
No, but in general:
"The desire to get rich fast is pretty dangerous."
- Charlie Munger
What he means by this is that a lot of dumb things are caused by the desire to get rich fast. On average, slow but steady strategies outperform quick but risky strategies. See also the nice book The Dhandho Investor which talkes about placing "heads I win, tails I don’t lose much" bets. And yes, investment advice applies here because the question is about where to invest time (and possibly other resources too).
- Pick up the top 10-20 B2B SaaS by revenue (not money raised). A very crowded space is better.
- Try to used them for a few weeks
- Carefully talk to users and read feedback online about what it doesn't work good
- Build an MVP which solve really well that particular feature and it's 10x easier to use.
- Crete a landing page with Webflow/Umso and try to sell it
Assuming you’re a developer or similar type of tech worker.
Ask your previous employer if they need any work done. You can easily bring in $50k+ by renting our your time.
Friends charge anywhere from $80-250/hr.
If you don’t have a previous employer, then try Upwork. Start with a low rate then work your way up.
There are honestly so many small problems that need to be solved with software. Many if not most of these problems are too small for a real company to take on. Find one of them and solve it and you’ll easily clear $50,000/yr from your side project.
I think starting a side project with a goal of revenue is not practical. For me, doing side project is doing something that you can't normally do in day to day job. So, it has to something that I love to spend time for. On the other hand, I always think about making many part when I start something new. My side projects are generally about making games and mobile applications, search engine optimization, writing programs that transform data from one form to another. When I finish a side project, I don't hesitate to putting some ads and make passive income. It is lovely to make money while you are sleeping from something that you have enjoyed creating it.
Most surefire way would be Upwork or similar platform. There are "easier" passive income type ways that many have listed here, but they are high risk (Amazon FBA, mobile apps, side project SaaS, etc...)
I have a side project SaaS that nets about $30k/yr income - it takes about 2 hours a week of my time to maintain (99% is responding to user support), though I spend another 5-6/wk trying to grow it (~50/50 marketing and eng development).
Full disclosure, however...I bought it (on Microacquire) for ~$100k. But there's no reason I could not have/you cannot build something with similar economics, though you will need to frontload many more hours to get it going.
Been with the same company for ~10 years. Am now making roughly 50k (EUR) more than when I started. Probably no the answer you were looking for, but it's worked out pretty well for me.
Depending on how much cash you have sitting around, I have heard of people on /r/churning pulling that amount in from credit card and bank bonus churning.
Consulting on the side would be the obvious way. At 200 per hour you need about 20 hours a month.
Yes, doing Amazon FBA as a side hustle.
If you're a software engineer, start interviewing. A $50k raise is entirely possible.