Great Tips for Increasing Your Income without a Second Job

You may have heard this piece of financial advice often: find a second stream of income. If you are working more than 40 hours a week, you may not have the time or the energy to increase your income with a second job. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to make money on the side without actually doing a proper second job. Here are several ideas:

Rent a Part of Your House

If you are lucky enough to live in a house, you can earn a lot of money each month by renting out a room or the basement. It’s a form of real estate investment that can be hugely lucrative. You might actually be able to make enough money from rent to cover the mortgage. Even if you don’t have any spare rooms, you can rent out a couch. There are vacationers and students who often are desperate for short-term rent solutions. Get listed on VRBO or AirBnB to find clients and make money without leaving the house. This, like some of the other ideas here, is a great source of income because it doesn’t require any effort on your part. It’s almost completely passive.

Invest Your Change

You know those quarters that might be hiding in your couch? You can actually invest those in the stock market for potentially lucrative returns. You can buy penny stocks, which are stocks worth less than $5. Be aware that some penny stocks are really worthless. But if you are willing to do some research, you can make considerable amount of money with these. You can also buy high dividend stocks, learn more about them here.

Invest in a Certificate of Deposit

If you are highly risk averse and don’t want to buy stock, you can invest your savings in a certificate of deposit. These work a lot like savings accounts, but you deposit a fixed amount and it doesn’t become available for withdrawal for a certain time period, such as a year or five years. Certificates of deposit are great for allowing your money to compound without lifting a finger. 

Write Blog Posts for Other People

If you are at least moderately a good writer, you can try your hand at writing blog content for money. One article can be worth a few dollars or hundreds of dollars depending on the task and your level of skill. If you are willing to spend several hours on a weekend writing, you can earn as much as a couple of hundred extra dollars each month. 

Sell Photos

Do you love taking photos with your smartphone? You can actually sell these. Stock photograph websites purchase photos all the time. You will have to give up all your rights to the photo once you sell it. If you are fine with it, you might be able to earn between five to ten dollars per photo online. A rare type of photo, such as of exotic animals, may sell for a lot more. 

Post Affiliate Links for Money

For those with considerable followings on social media, you can earn money from advertisers by posting affiliate links. There are programs like Amazon Associates that can be a great source of monthly passive income. You can post links on blogs as well. The money you can earn will really depend, but some people report earning hundreds of dollars per month just by posting affiliate links. 

Use the above suggestions to increase your monthly income, so you have more money to save, invest, and spend on the occasional indulgence.