How To Make Extra Income

Are you in need for some extra income to supplement your full time job?

By Tom Johnson

There are many of us out in the work force that just need a little bit more income each month to help supplement the pay that your present full time job offers us. Many of us just need a side job or business to put an additional $500 - $1000 a month in our pocket to pay off bills, or make ends meet, or to put away for retirement. The list of jobs that I am going to talk about I have actually done most of these jobs myself or know someone who has done one of these jobs while holding a 40 hour a week regular job. 

Let’s take a look at the list and see if one of these jobs can help you.

Office Cleaning

I was able to do this job in the evenings and on the weekends when businesses were closed. I would work from 6:00 – 9:00 pm four nights a week. Most of the time I would do the work for about $20.00 an hour. If you do the math I would clear about $850 - $900 a month. This is a great part time business that a person can do with their spouse. I have known several people that started doing this as a part time income source and turned it into a full time business.

House Cleaning

This is one job that I have not done myself, but several friends of mine have done this or are doing this presently. One particular friend works full time at a hospital in our town and she gets off of work at 3:00pm. When she gets off work she goes home and changes clothes and runs out for a couple hours and cleans two houses. So she does not get burned out she does this three nights a week. She is paid $40.00 per house and if you do the calculations she makes around $900 a month average.

Grass Cutting

Since I live in Florida lawn business can be big money. When I have needed some extra cash I have hooked my small trailer to the car and loaded up my mower and weed trimmer and gone out and cut lawns. A small lawn I charged $25.00 and a larger yard I would charge $40.00 dollars. In our area we see several husband and wife teams out cutting and trimming lawns. This also can start off small and grow into a full time business.

Pressure Washing Homes and Driveways

This is a great job to do in the summer, especially here in Florida when it is hot nine months out of the year. I have paid friends of mine up to $150.00 to pressure wash my house and $100.00 to pressure wash my roof. This is another job that can be done in the evening like my friends do or on a weekend.

Blogging

This is a great opportunity to sit at home in the evening and write articles about what you like. This is what I did to get my business off the ground. You do not have to quit your day job and it can be done in just a couple hours a few nights a week. You may have to invest some time to build up credibility and grow a following, but once this has been accomplished it can bring in a great side income or full time income. I personally do it for my future in order to have a nice residual income when I retire.

Handy Man Service

This has really put been a blessing for me and many of my friends. There are a huge population of people that do not know or are scared to death too try and tackle small jobs around their homes. Sometimes it can be a 10 minute small job that can put an extra $25.00 - $50.00 in your pocket. Larger jobs can put much more money in your pocket every month. Both here in Florida and in Chicago I was able to find work just by word of mouth. There are plenty of people that just don’t know how to do things for themselves or don’t have the time, this is where a good and honest handyman comes in handy.

Computer Repair

I have fixed people’s computers for years, and have made some serious extra income while still holding down a full time job. The only expense I had was a small add in the local paper in the classifieds. I also would put a small ad on Craigslist which I picked up a few computers each month from. I would charge less than the competition and I was always totally honest with the people and not sell them something that they did not need. By doing this I would get a lot of referrals and repeat customers. I have paid for several vacations and mission trips to Central America.

Music Lessons / Tutoring

If you are musically talented like my neighbor is you can make some serious money giving in home music lessons. My service manager’s wife is a full time teacher and she does private tutoring on the side to help supplement her family’s income. Both of these do require some special talent, but most of us do have our own things that we are talented at that we can offer people.

In today’s tough financial times most of us need extra money from time to time. I hope that these ideas have opened up some thoughts of what you can offer people in exchange for being paid for your services. All of us have talents in one thing or another, sometimes you just need to sit down and give some thought to what you can offer to the general public. Just put on your creative thinking cap!

Cash Back Rewards Credit Cards

Cash back reward credit cards are a wonderful thing, if you use the credit card wisely. It is a great to earn points that can be redeemed for cash, travel vouchers or others types of merchandise just for using your credit card.

Not all credit cards give back, so be careful and do your research and read the fine print on the credit card application. The cards that do offer cash back do not all give back the same amount, each card offers different incentives when rewarding the purchaser.

Here are some guidelines for choosing the best rewards credit card for you.

Credit Score

Each card company will have different qualifications for their cards. Know your credit score and check with the card company to see what their average approved credit score is for their rewards card. If you have a medium or low credit score then most likely you will have a hard time getting approved for a rewards credit card.

High Cash Back Rewards

Not all rewards cards offer the same cash back. Some credit cards only offer 1 percent cash back on purchases, while other card companies will offer a higher cash back reward. Again do your research and try to get approved for one that offers higher cash back rewards.

Unlimited Cash Back

Again not all cards are the same even when it comes to the amount of cash back they will award you. Some companies put a cap on the amount of money they will reward you, while others have no cap on their cash back rewards.

Sign Up Bonus

Several of the rewards cards offer great bonuses if you spend $500 dollars within the first 90 days of having the rewards credit card. This is a great way to maximize the cash back benefits right in the beginning. Some card companies offer different types of promotions from time to time, check with your card company and see what types of promotions they offer.

Annual Fee’s

Check around, you should be able to find a rewards card that does not have an annual fee tied to it. Some cards may have an annual fee but the cash back rewards outweigh the annual fee being charged so in this case the fee is worth it.

Remember these rewards cards are credit cards, so if you want the best from the rewards then you need to pay off the balance every month so you don’t start acquiring interest. Having interest charges on these cards negates the cash back rewards, Another thing to remember is just because you are getting cash back rewards does not mean you can go out and overspend and ruin your budget. It can be tempting to overspend and purchase items you really don’t need. These cash back rewards cards are great if used responsibly and used sensibly.

Envelope Budget System That Works

If you are new to planning a budget or if you are not technologically advanced, this simple budgeting process of using envelopes may be right for you. I remember back many years ago when I was just around twenty years of age this technique was introduced to me. This particular budgeting system is very effective and has a proven track record for working for most people as long as they stick to the program. Many people today rely on technology to do their budget and finances but if you look back you will probably see that a large portion of population is in debt because of technology. It is so easy for people to pull out that plastic card to pay for things even when they don’t have the money to pay for them. We all have been guilty of this in one way or another and that is why we are in debt, and many us are deep in debt way over our heads.

Let’s take a look at these simple steps to setting up an envelope budget.

• The first thing you will want to do is go to a Dollar store and purchase a box of envelopes. I like e to use the yellow envelopes that has a clasp on the top.
• Next write on each envelope preferably with a Sharpie the items you need to budget for. The envelopes need to be categorized and labeled. For example, label one for groceries, one for gasoline, one for credit cards, and so on. I would also make a miscellaneous envelope and a backup envelope. These will be used only for a couple of months to make sure that you do not run out of cash in a particular envelope. This will be your cushion while you are adjusting your budget per category.
• Now that you have your envelopes set up you will need to sit down and figure out the monthly dollar amount for each envelope. You should have a good idea of how much you spend on each of the categories. If for some reason you have no clue what you spend on these then you will need to keep track over a month or two on paper to see what you are spending so you have an idea of what to put on the envelopes.
• Now pay your recurring fixed bills like your mortgage, utilities, car payment, etc. The money left over is what you are going to use to set up the envelope budget.
•  Take cash out of your account at the bank and put in the allocated funds into each envelope. When you make a purchase you will pay for the item with the cash in the envelope. Get a receipt for the item even if it is for gas, take the cash from the envelope and replace it with the receipt. When all the cash is gone in the envelope you are finished for the month in spending in that category. The idea of the receipt is for review, if you are upset because you have no more cash in that category and you want to know where it went you can go back and look at the receipts and see what you spent the money on.

You will find it takes a couple three months of tweaking this system to make it work smoothly. This is why you have a miscellaneous and a backup envelope with spare cash in them to fall back on so one of your envelopes runs dry and a emergency happens in one of these categories.

At the end of the month and you have left over money in any of the envelopes you will want to take this money and put it into a savings account. If you are like most and you don’t have a savings, now is the time to start one. Once you have three to six months of income saved up in your savings you will want to take the money that is left over each month to start paying down your debts until you are fully financially free of debt.

4 Awesome Financial Applications That Are Free

There are several free budgeting tool applications that can help everybody keep better track of their finances, and spending habits. These tools allows users to sign into their own personal account and electronically connect through a security portal and have their spending habits broke down to show the consumer an overall picture of their accounts. We are going to take a look at what I feel are the top four money management and budget management tools that are free to consumers to use.

The first one that we are going to look at is BillGuard.

Billguard was rated number one application in 2013 and 2014 by PCMag and TechCrunch magazine and along with being rated number one by CNNMoney for being the best application for money management.

The application is great for tracking your spending habits over time and comparing your habits to months previous in order to show you where you are doing great or where you are doing bad with spending or tracking on your budget. This app will also compare your spending habits and scans the internet for coupons that match your habits in order to save you time and money when you go to the store.

BillGuard sends personalized messages to it members in order to notify users if they've shopped at a merchant who has been breached, this is very helpful especially for the last couple of years where large department stores data has been breached and consumers credit cards has been compromised.

There are three categories to BillGuard, there is the free version that entitles you too: Smart Inbox, Spending Analytic's, Transaction Intelligence, Card Fraud Alerts, Data Breach Alerts, and Card Concierge.

The second version cost $2.99 a month and it entitles you will too: everything the free version offers plus, Live support 24/7, Lost wallet recovery, Credit Monitoring from one bureau, Identity Restoration.

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The third version cost $6.99 a month and entitles you too: everything the first two versions offers plus Credit Monitoring from all three credit bureaus, Full Identity Restoration, Black Market Surveillance, SSN Fraud Alerts and $1 million ID Theft Insurance.

The second service that we will look at is Mint.com

Many of you have heard of this awesome application called Mint.com. This is a free money management tool that is built by Intuit which brought us Quicken. The key features of this application is for you to be able to view all your accounts in one place so you know where you are spending to much money and the areas that you are saving money in.

Mint.com is a great tool to help you build your financial budget, especially for people that have never lived by a budget before. This budget tool comes with all the step by step instructions to help you build your budget, start a savings plan, and helps you pay down your bills.

If you are an investor in the stock or commodities market Mint.com offers a nice tool to help you track your stocks and commodities. There are also some good learning tools to help new investors learn about investment strategies.

Another great feature with Mint is that you can keep track of your credit score at anytime with this program.

When you sign up for Mint you do not have to give them any credit card information. Many people including myself get really skeptical about being charged for something when it is advertised as a free service. But with Mint you do not have to worry about this, they will never ask for your credit card information.

The third app we will look at is called Checkbook.

This application is very similar to the Mint.com application but with Checkbook you can transfer funds from one account to another account. This application is a great tool to manage your personal written checkbook, set up a budget for your home, keep track of spending habits and etc.

This tool is also free and easy to use.

The forth tool we are looking at is Spending Tracker.

Spending Tracker is another easy to use free application for tracking your expenses and helps you setup and run a household budget. Just like the other apps it offers you great looking charts and graphs to help you with all your budget needs.

Save money when grocery shopping.

Save money when grocery shopping.

Have you noticed that over the years food prices are sky rocketing through the roof? I go shopping pretty much every time that my wife goes to the grocery store, not to monitor her purchasing habits but just because I like shopping just as much as she does and it is a great time for us to spend together.

We both work well together when it comes to purchasing food. We shop for the best prices, but we do not buy generic unless we know for sure that it is just as good as the name brand items. We have ran across a few generic items that were definitely not worth the compromise to buying generic to save money.

We are not health nuts and only eat vegetarian style far from it, but we do eat a wide variety of items. We try to stay away from processed foods and eat more of a healthier diet of fresh vegetable, fruit, and meats. We do try and stay away from foods that are high in sugars and carbs, just because we are trying to watch our weight. So many pre-packaged foods and processed foods are loaded with ingredients that are not good for human consumption.

There are many ways to save on your food bill no matter what type of diet or how your family lives and eats , but it does take some work on your part to make some changes in your lifestyle to make this work. Her are a few ideas that have helped my wife and I save money in the past on our grocery bill, I hope these will help you out also.

Make a shopping list. With today’s technology there are many apps for smartphones out on the market for making a shopping list, pick one at put it to use. On my smartphone my wife and I will work on a shopping list at least a week ahead. When something comes to her mind she will shoot me a text to put it on the shopping list, then on pay day we will take the list and do our grocery shopping. We always go to the store with a plan, and if we stick to this plan and stay focused we do not over purchase and waste money. Another reason to make a shopping list is so we can sit down the night before and go through our coupons and find the ones that line up with our list, this way we do not forget about giving the clerk the coupon for the item's we buy, using coupons can save us a lot of money if we use them correctly.

Don’t shop hungry. This has been said for years, but it is a good statement to live by. When you are hungry you will buy out the store and most of it you dont need. One thing that I found is that when I shop while I am hungry I will have less patience and I will not grab the first thing I see on the shelf and I will not comparison shop for the best price.  When you are hungry you will also make some serious bad choices for the food you eat especially if you are on any sort of diet.

Shop at warehouse stores.  You will find a lot of items at discount prices if you purchase in case lots. Yes you have to pay for a membership fee, but the most I ever had to pay was $35.00 for year. I made that up the first time I went shopping. Canned vegetables, soups, rice, pasta, cereal, chips, these are just a few items that have long shelf life and can be purchased at a fraction f the price than at a normal grocery store. This is an excellent way to purchase at a reduced rate and stock the shelves at home.

Discount Food Stores. This is really popular in Florida, we have several discount food stores all around the state. These stores are a no thrill type of store where you even have to bring your own grocery bags and you have to bag your own groceries. I can walk into one of these store and cut my weekly grocery bill in half. Granted a lot of the food at these discount stores are generic, but most of what I have purchased at these places is just as good as name brand food at normal grocery stores.

Purchase fresh fruit and vegetables locally.  Most communities have farmer markets and local fruit stands. These are excellent places to purchase home grown fruits, vegetables, eggs, and sometimes even locally grown beef, pork and chicken. Usually the food from these places are very high quality, organic and most of the time free of hormones. I love shopping at these types of places, I build a rep-or with the farmer or the owner of the fruit stand and I can sometime make a barter with the person or find out if they have something seasonal that is coming in shortly.

Prepackaged Food. Don’t ever purchase food that is prepackaged for you. For an example, in the produce area of the store you will find vegetables like onions, peppers, and celery already cut up and packaged. If you look at the price it will be three to four times more expensive than the non-cut up product. Also when you go through the frozen food section you will find bags of frozen vegetables, frozen meals and many other pre-packaged food and processed food. The cost of these foods will definitely drive up the price of you grocery.

Comparison shop. Keep all your receipts from shopping for strictly groceries. At the end of a month write down the main items that you usually purchase with the prices. Take the list to several different grocery stores in your community and compare prices. You may be astounded to find that even though you thought you were getting a great deal at the store you most often shop at you could save money by shopping at a couple different stores. My wife and I do this, we will purchase all our canned goods at warehouse store, then all our meat products at our local butcher shop, and then our remaining items at a big box store along with our toiletries, and household items.

For many people the grocery bill is one of the most costly expenditure in their budget. Saving money on your grocery bill will help put money back into the budget to help pay off other debts you want to get rid of or save this money to add to your investment portfolio. Every area where you can save money will help to make your dreams come true and help you to be financially independent.  

Help with building a budget

A good budget is the number one tool to helping a person pay off debt, build their retirement accounts, and plan for their financial future. A budget is a road map to help you with your everyday finances. A person should not look at a budget as being a negative item, but a helpful tool. When you take a vacation you use a road map or google maps in order to map your way from point “A” to point “B”, well a budget is the same thing, a map to help you manage your finances.

Many Americans have troubles with their bank accounts and other finances because many of us lack the skills to manage their accounts and their debt. There are many tools out there to help us with skills but most people do not know where to look or what to look for. Many financial tools  are free of charge if you know where to look.

Before putting together a budget the first thing you need to do is track all your expenses for a month. There are mobile apps that can help you record all of your purchases. Every purchase, from small ones to large ones need to be recorded for this month. Even ATM fee’s and bank fees need to be recorded in order to get a good picture of you spending habits.

Take this data after a month of tracking and sit down and you will probably be surprised to see where your money has gone. This is best way to get an overall picture about how you allocate your funds and spend your hard earned money..

When you finally sit down to put together your first month’s budget the number one thing you do not want to do is cut out all the fun things you do. Don’t make this a punishment and take all the fun out of your life. If you are too strict on yourself you will probably fail in a short time period. You will find yourself cheating and eventually you will stop following your budget and you find yourself back in the same boat your are trying to leave. Instead learn to limit yourself. Example would be, “if you stop every morning for a starbucks coffee or eat out for lunch everyday, don’t stop doing these things you enjoy all together. Just set yourself some limits, instead of doing these things daily, cut yourself back to once or twice a week, you will see the benefits add up in your wallet at the end of the month.

Now take your bills for the month and separate them into categories. The first category should be your fixed expenses, such as your mortgage or rent, your utilities, car payment and any sort of membership fees that you pay monthly. Hopefully this does not go over fifty percent of your monthly take home pay.

The next category would be savings. Experts recommend putting away ten to twenty percent of your take home pay into a auto deposit savings account that earns interest. They recommend an auto deposit, this is where the money comes out of your check before you notice it is missing so these funds will not be seen, “out of sight out of mind” kind of thinking.

The third category would be flexible spending. Your monthly budget should not exceed thirty percent of your take home pay for this category. This would consist of eating out, morning Starbucks coffee runs, groceries, gas, entertainment, hobbies, and etc. This category is called flexible because these items can be adjusted. For example, when shopping for groceries, try cutting coupons and look at adds in the paper to save yourself some money. Shopping for clothes, is another area that you can compare prices in order to save money. Filling the car with gas, shop around the area for cheaper prices for fuel. Cut back to once or twice a week for going to Starbucks instead of going daily. These are just a few examples of where you can be flexible and save money.

So if you see, fifty percent of your money goes toward your large ticket items like rent or mortgage, twenty percent goes to savings of some kind, and thirty percent goes toward your more flexible items.

Here is a list of tools to help you build your budget. These tools are online so I have put the links here for you to click on.

Budget Calculator

Mint.com

Budget Worksheet

BudgetPulse

What is a budget?

I find that a lot of people live from paycheck to paycheck every week, then I come across others that run out of money before their next paycheck comes in. When this happens they have to charge items to their credit card in order to carry them to the next paycheck. I find that most of these people don't have any sort of budget they live by and this is the reason why they are run out of money by midweek. Using your charge cards to make ends meet is a very dangerous way to live. If you keep doing this week in and week out your only going to cause your debt to increase and eventually you will have more debt than you can pay back. This is why you need a budget to live by.

When I ask people if they have a budget they seem to get scared and want to change the subject. Most people don't even know what a budget is. So we come to the question, What is a budget? 

A budget is nothing more than a written down plan of how you are going to use your money this week, or month. A budget helps to make sure that you are going to have enough money to pay for all your needs and bills and not run out of money before your next paycheck. A budget is simply a financial road map to personal success.

There are some really good software programs out on the market that will help you set up your own personal budget. One of my favorite web based programs is called Mint.com, you cannot beat this program since it is totally free. Mint.com offers some really nice financial tools to help you get on your way to setting up your budget.

We will take a look in our future post of how to set up a successful budget.

Mint.com Financial Tool

Mint Personal Financial Tool

Many of you have probably never heard of MINT.com, this simple to use software program is a great web based financial tool that is totally free to the user and it only takes minuets to add your personal accounts to the program.

This program is mostly about helping you budget and track your expenses. Every time you use one of your accounts the software program will sync your transactions and then send them to a category that you and the system setup. This will help you find out where your money is going from week to week, it is an eye opener to see what your spending habits are. This will assist you with your budgets and make sure your spending habits are managed.

Since this web based program is free one thing that you cannot control on the site is the advertising. Mint does target advertising, so some of the ads on the site may be beneficial to you.

A lot of people have asked me about the security of the site especially today with all the online hacking that is taking place. Mint.com uses a bank-grade security software. According to the NY Times article all passwords and usernames are protected with the same level of security as a financial institution.

One of the newest features of Mint.com has recently rolled out is a free credit score tracking option. With just a click of the mouse you can view your credit score, payment history, age of your credit accounts, and your spending habits.

I truly believe this to be another great free tool for people needing help with their credit and or budgeting.