As someone who works a day job, it can be difficult to find extra time to earn additional money to put towards your goals. There are lots of options for weekend jobs and side hustles but again, that makes means giving up free time in order to bring in extra income.
Here are five options to earn extra money without asking for overtime at work or doing odd jobs on the weekend.
One way to earn extra money is to offer additional skills that your employer may find valuable. Often times companies need services and expert help but don’t want to hire a new employee, so they seek out consultants to perform the job as a contractor.
Do them a favor by offering your skills as a consultant as a company insider. This applies to past employers too, as they are the best candidates for knowing your work ethic and history. You’ll likely be able to get paid more for the consulting work while still holding down a day job.
A tried-and-true strategy for earning more money in less time is to negotiate a raise. But instead of approaching it from a traditional angle, use an anniversary date or the beginning of a new year as leverage of your worth.
Bosses are usually in the mindset of giving raises around these date milestones so they’ll already be open to the idea of paying you more. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to ask. You never know what your employer might say, so what have you got to lose?
>> SEE MORE: 5 Things to Do After Getting a Raise
One way to increase your income quickly is to work unconventional times of the day. Consider swapping your regular shift for different hours, like the graveyard shift. Workers who are on-call during late night hours often get paid 1.5 times more than employees who work during regular daytime hours.
You don’t have to work odd hours for a long period of time, just a month or two until you’ve earned enough money to reach your goal. Then you can revert back to your regular day job hours and schedule.
Does your job offer an annual or quarterly bonus? Can you sign-on for additional work that is commission based? Use this to your advantage and work diligently each week to meet your goals so you can obtain this extra bonus money. Compete with your coworkers in a friendly competition to see who can win this month’s bonus.
As long as the team reaches these regular goals most employers will offer bonus incentives for commission-based work. There’s no need to pick up any extra hours of overtime when you’ve got a bonus coming down the pipeline.
Check around your job for cheap or free equipment that’s no longer being used. Offer to clean out the storage space, or organize a closet, in exchange for you to have the chance to sell any unwanted items. You’d be surprised at the things you can salvage from work, everything from old computers to recycling soda cans from the break room.
Just keep your eyes and ears open for opportunities, like if your employer is replacing tables, desks and other office equipment. There’s a big market for old computer equipment and used office furniture.
You may have to get a little creative but there are ways you can earn extra money at your job without working overtime. That way you’ll still have your weekends and evenings open for family time and social activities.
