Ways to make minimal amounts of money, working on what you love

Question

I have a funny situation.- I'm a fulltime software engineer stuck in a boring role- I have RSI in both forearms, so programming time is limited to work hours to minimize pain (which sucks because programming was my hobby and now I can't work on my projects after work, otherwise I get worse RSI)My goal: make at least a very minimal amounts of money (say 10k $USD/year) to sustain myself, while being able to work a solid 4-5 hours daily on programming projects that I am passionate about.I spent some time trying to figure out ways to make this work, without much success. Which is why I came here, maybe some people are in the same situation and were able to figure out a way to be able to continue working on their passions despite RSI?

tough · Accepted Answer

Hey havd you thought about voice based interfaces?
I know of Talon talonvoice.com
Also gh labs is working on hey Github https://githubnext.com/projects/hey-github/
I got invited to the waitlist to test it recently, maybe it could help you to be able to code without typing?

akeck · Answer

Assuming you're in the US - At the current dividend yield rate, save up about $350,000 in Vanguard VYM for $10k/year paid quarterly. If I recall correctly, if that's your only income and it's all dividends, you will pay minimal federal taxes (check with a tax pro though).

thw09j9m · Answer

Become a contractor. Work 1-2 months/year and spend the rest of the year doing what you want.

prirun · Answer

Have you figured out what you were/are doing that is causing RSI in both forearms? For example, are you bending your wrists while typing (just one example)? This is not a direct answer to your question, but maybe figuring out what is contributing to your RSI can be part of the solution.I'm not an expert in RSI. I have typed on computers for 10 hours/day for decades and never had a problem, but I also touch-type with correct hand position and play piano regularly, so maybe those things have protected me somewhat. Perhaps something like breaks every 20 minutes or icing your wrists/forearms periodically while working could help reduce your RSI problems.

nier · Answer

More than ten years ago someone here on Hacker News recommended The Divided Mind by John Sarno and my debilitating wrist pain went away shortly after reading it.

jbirer · Answer

Basically, develop a MVP and monetize it. I had many small projects get bought out by bigger companies which led me into a comfortable dev / product manager role for them. Crypto makes this a breeze and also it's trending so it'll lead to easier monetization.

mattfields · Answer

Might suggest learning up some on stocks and trading.Depending on your interest, aptitude, and spare income for trading/investment, you could potentially make a reasonable side income that you can maintain in parallel with your job.