So you want to have more money than you do now? That’s great. Your at the right website. So here on the Dave The Discount Dad website you can find great ways to make extra money and ways to save you money, resulting in you having more money than you do now. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Goal achieved. But as they say, wait, there’s more.
What I want you to do now, is go one step further. Take a holistic look at your income and the ways you are making and saving money. What makes or saves the most amount of money in the least amount of time and/or effort. Not all the ways suit your circumstances either, so you can do some, and not some others. But what I’m wanting you to do is review it all. What’s the best way for you to make extra money? You need to put time and effort (and sometimes money) into making more money, but how much do you get and/or save for that time and effort? That’s what I want you to think about and look at what works for you and what makes the most of your valuable time.
An example of this is one of the ways I suggest to make extra money, is doing online surveys. I was originally doing surveys from quite a few different survey websites. I knew that some paid more than others, but I sat down and did a spreadsheet showing how much per hour you were getting doing surveys and it was a bit of a shock. (The way I calculated it was based on their estimated time to complete the survey. So if it was 15 mins and it paid $2, then 4 x 15 mins is 1 hour, so 4 x $2 is $8. So $8 an hour. This is rough, you might do it quicker or slower, but it’s just to get an estimate to compare other money making/saving ideas.) So when I went through all of the survey sites I did surveys on, and the differences were amazing. The best one, Octopus pays around $15-16 an hour, Pure Profile pays around $9-$10 an hour, but it went down and down, and some places their surveys were variable, some paying around $3-4 an hour, others down to less than $2 an hour. I don’t know about you, but $2 an hour is so not worth it for me. So, from a pure money making perspective, choose the best paying survey site first. Then if you still have more time for surveys, choose the next best paid etc. You can find my top 6 survey sites listed here.
Take a look at what you are doing and see how much extra your getting or saving. Some like getting paid for recycling cans/bottles may be a no brainer in terms of time. If your already drinking what’s in the containers, if you have a place to store them, then it’s just a trip to the recyclers every now and then. Others, especially if you don’t have a car, or can’t get to a recycling place regularly, it might be too much of a hassle.
Other options for making more money.
So you have looked through what you do to make and/or save money and you have got a rough idea of how much an hour you make doing it. Write that down. Now work out around how much per week/month/year you can make. Write that down. Is that just a bonus amount, is it enough for what you need or are saving up for?
So what else can you do? Do you currently have a job? Full time, part time? How much does it pay per hour? if it’s part time, can you do more hours? Is there an option to do ad hoc or regular overtime? Can you get a part time job? Can you make more money by looking for a better job, or doing some training to get a better job? In Australia at the current date of 29/7/2021, the minimum wage here is $20.33 an hour for an adult. I understand that there are exceptions to this, but use this as a base comparison (and casual wages will be more). Can you pick up a second job, either short term or longer term? Can you use your expertise to run a small business on the side? What I’m getting at is, make sure you look at what you are doing to make money and maximise it, and to suit it to your situation.
Not everyone can go out and get a job, a better job, get more casual hours or have the option to do overtime, but some can, so it’s worth a look. Look at it a bit more long term. If you can get yourself a higher paying job, money wise, that will be the most beneficial thing you can do compared to other options on the website, plus you can add other money making/saving options if you wish. So imagine your working full time, making $20 an hour. If you could get yourself to a better company/position etc and make $25 an hour. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but working a 37.5 hour week, $20 an hour will give you $660 after tax, $25 a week will give you, $797. $137 a week extra (or $7124 a year extra). So $137 a week is around 8.5 hours a week doing the best paying surveys (if you can find enough at $16 an hour). That is going to keep on coming in each week, for the same amount of hours (but might be more stressful, or a further commute, so you have to do what works for you). Plus, because your earning more, more money will go into your superannuation for your retirement. There is certainly more to life than money, so each of us has to work out the trade off between working and our own time.
So maybe you have young kids at home, so working is out of the question, then maybe doing a 10 minute survey a few times a week might be the best for you. Too busy and tired? Don’t do any this week, no problem. Do what works for you.
Are you happy doing some or all of the things I suggest to make and save money? If you hate doing it, then find an option that works for you. I used to work at Franklins supermarket years ago (a mainstream, but very dull and cheap grocery chain). Shopping at Franklins used to have a bit of a stigma attached to it and it felt quite depressing in the store store. I’m sure that put a lot of people off buying cheaper groceries. Now saving money is for everyone. Look at Aldi, which has more or less taken the place of Franklins. The car park is filled with a mix of old cars as well as many very expensive cars. The other day, there was even a brand new Porsche parked there and the driver went into the store.
It’s an individual thing. There are lots of options, some on the Dave The Tech Dad website, others elsewhere, or making more money from your job/business etc. But what I say to you, is just step back, have a broad look at what’s happening in your life money wise and then direct your efforts to the combination of what makes you the most money for the effort combined with what your happy doing. Step back every 6 or 12 months and make sure your on the best track for you.
Cheers
Dave The Tech Dad