Side Hustle

[Xerute]

Call me crazy but don't look for a side hustle. You need to look for an investment that doesn't equate your time with money. In the past I've done welding/fabrication and residential HVAC design work to name a few. I always ended up getting burnt out. Instead I'm focusing on getting to the highest level possible of my career. I now make 20k more than my old job plus my hustles. In two years I'll be able to start my own company and make 50k more not to mention any benefits from the investing along the way. For reference were about the same age.

Yeah the side hustle was something I would potentially take that skillset and make a business out of. Would take all the money from my side hustle and reinvest into tools or into something with passive income was my thought process.

 

[Xerute]

Are there things you can do related to your existing skillset that you see a need for in your day to day work, that you could do on the weekends, that wouldn’t be considered “moonlighting”’or unethical by your employer?

Not really sadly, maybe running cables in new housing but that is about it. Job doesn't provide a good skill set to do anything on the weekends which is why I will probably learn a trade at a local trade school that just opened up.

 

[Xerute]

Its a fact, The US is a service economy. Learn a trade.
Heck, A good handyman here makes $75 an hour and is booked out.

Plus, owning a business and having a lot of your expenses on the before tax line is huge.
Example; a $50,000 pickup [rough numbers, many variables]
This is an investment expense and can be written off. If you make $80k, your tax debt will be about $30,000-35,000 in many states- netting about $45,000.

write off the truck before tax, your income is now based on $30k, tax is only about $10,000-12,000

Total savings vary by state and circumstance, but its $10,000- 25,000 in your pocket the first year.

Then factor the partial deduction from insurance, fuel and repairs is all before tax....essentially saving you 15%-40% on everything.

Yeah, I was looking more and more into handyman stuff and is probably the route I am going to go. Will also give me the skill set to make furniture for myself, my family, or if I am bored to make something to sell since I like building stuff. I know a handyman who I can also ask a bunch of questions and maybe work with him because he is close to retiring.

 

[texastea23]

I don’t know if it’d be a side hustle you’d have to ask around, but give some local surveyors a call. Before I got on with my company I was asked by three people if I wanted to do survey in the cincy area. The job market is pretty hot for the industry right now.

If you like the job you can get the education and you can end up making some serious cash (6 figs is attainable for licensed surveyors in Ohio). Columbus state community college has a program and I’m sure somewhere in cincy does too. It could become a full time job and in cincy/kentucky area you’ll get the added benefit of training at work for the mountains lugging survey equipment up and down those hills!

As an edit: if you do get in, don’t settle where you’re at for more than a couple years until you feel you’re getting paid what you want. Someone will pay more when you get experience if your company doesn’t. I’d say anything under 25/hr is low for experienced people.

 

[Customweld]

I don’t know if it’d be a side hustle you’d have to ask around, but give some local surveyors a call. Before I got on with my company I was asked by three people if I wanted to do survey in the cincy area. The job market is pretty hot for the industry right now.

If you like the job you can get the education and you can end up making some serious cash (6 figs is attainable for licensed surveyors in Ohio). Columbus state community college has a program and I’m sure somewhere in cincy does too. It could become a full time job and in cincy/kentucky area you’ll get the added benefit of training at work for the mountains lugging survey equipment up and down those hills!

As an edit: if you do get in, don’t settle where you’re at for more than a couple years until you feel you’re getting paid what you want. Someone will pay more when you get experience if your company doesn’t. I’d say anything under 25/hr is low for experienced people.

I’d second that. In my area (Boise) a PLS can damn near name their price.

 

[WV Mountaineer]

There is a huge sacrifice to HVAC work.

I'm pushing 30 years as a refrigeration/HVAC tech and my body is pretty close to wrecked.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great living. I'm not sure about the "more than a doctor" thing, but I'm a union fitter and I generally pull north of $100k plus a great benefit package a 401k and a pension.

I also spent 3 months laid FLAT from a back injury this past year and missed the entire hunting season.

HVAC is a great career, but let's not pretend it's a "magic bullet", OK?

It never fails. Only on the internet.

I do construction work full time. I’m a general contractor. I know what I pay to get hvac work done. There are doctors in my family. So, I’m certain about that statement as well. As sure as I know other hvac contractors make $50,000/year.

I never said it was a magic bullet. Get out of the union and take the plunge. No one is going to pay an employee that much for hvac work. You and I both know that’s not what I said.

It doesn’t toll the body like other jobs. It pays very well. It pays incredible if you are self employed and hustle. However, It’s work. Not a fantasy dream. Type for 30 years and your hands are going to hurt too.

Is that better?

 

[brn2hnt]

Another here that turned a hustle into full time.

I write emails for ecom companies. Started out just on my own, now employ 3 other people in addition to myself.

 

[Beendare]

It never fails. Only on the internet.

I do construction work full time. I’m a general contractor. I know what I pay to get hvac work done. There are doctors in my family. So, I’m certain about that statement as well. As sure as I know other hvac contractors make $50,000/year.

I never said it was a magic bullet. Get out of the union and take the plunge. No one is going to pay an employee that much for hvac work. You and I both know that’s not what I said.

It doesn’t toll the body like other jobs. It pays very well. It pays incredible if you are self employed and hustle. However, It’s work. Not a fantasy dream. Type for 30 years and your hands are going to hurt too.

Is that better?

My nephew is a HVAC guy and he will hire every $50,000/yr hvac guy you can get him with a $2000 finders fee per man in the SF bay area.

He makes well over $100k /yr as a journeyman HVAC guy specializing in grocery stores and big refrigeration stuff.

If you are talking non union tract hacks doing duct work…then I can get the $50k comment…but a legit journeyman HVAC guy can make $100k here in his sleep.

 

[MtGomer]

I don’t know if it’d be a side hustle you’d have to ask around, but give some local surveyors a call. Before I got on with my company I was asked by three people if I wanted to do survey in the cincy area. The job market is pretty hot for the industry right now.

If you like the job you can get the education and you can end up making some serious cash (6 figs is attainable for licensed surveyors in Ohio). Columbus state community college has a program and I’m sure somewhere in cincy does too. It could become a full time job and in cincy/kentucky area you’ll get the added benefit of training at work for the mountains lugging survey equipment up and down those hills!

As an edit: if you do get in, don’t settle where you’re at for more than a couple years until you feel you’re getting paid what you want. Someone will pay more when you get experience if your company doesn’t. I’d say anything under 25/hr is low for experienced people.

I am a surveyor and this is good advice.

 

[def90]

My nephew is a HVAC guy and he will hire every $50,000/yr hvac guy you can get him with a $2000 finders fee per man in the SF bay area.

He makes well over $100k /yr as a journeyman HVAC guy specializing in grocery stores and big refrigeration stuff.

If you are talking non union tract hacks doing duct work…then I can get the $50k comment…but a legit journeyman HVAC guy can make $100k here in his sleep.

Lets keep things in perspective here.. A guy doing HVA C work as a side hustle is responding to craiglist ads and doing diy basement remodels at best. They aren’t working for a commercial HVAC company that is bringing in millions of dollars in work a year.

 

[Don Qui Puncher]

There’s a shortage of drivers in my area. I work the overnight at an oil terminal and companies can’t find drivers, some have been offering 40 an hour cash for the local firemen on their days off. The owner operators do extremely well.

I’ve always commercial fished and done charters for side money but recently bought a lobster business and it keeps me extremely busy.

 

[rtaylor]

My side hustle is beekeeping. It started as a hobby and has grown almost into a full time job. I wholesale honey. My primary job is mental so I wanted a side hustle that is physical.

 

[RS3579]

Had union job IUOE local 49 and spent less $ so never needed a side job.
retired now and do what I want cuz I don’t need a side job just living simply in the woods.

Get into this union! I’m a IBEW member and this trade is the envy of all other trades! Trust me

 

[49ereric]

Get into this union! I’m a IBEW member and this trade is the envy of all other trades! Trust me

Friend of mine switch to IBEW 160 from 49 and he has done extremely well as a crane operator. Had an employer try to get me to switch to 160 but I was 5 years from retiring so nope. That and I did nuclear outages in Mn where it was top $.

 

[nphunter]

Buy something at a good price and sell for a fair price. Start small and do the same with your profits. Classifieds on FB, and forums are great places to pick up items cheap. Just this week I bought an archery sight for what someone was asking for it. I planned on using it but it didn’t fort right in my bow, it came with an extra scope. I decided to sell it and buy a different one. I sold the extra scope for almost what I paid for the sight and will get enough out of the sight to pretty much pay for my other one I ordered. Turned $200 into $340 bucks in about 4 days.

I’ve seen multiple items sell on the classifieds in forums that sell for double on eBay. Also vise versa, sometimes items that sell like hotcakes on the forums are a dime a dozen on eBay or FB classifieds.

I use to also part our snowmobiles as a side hustle. You can pick up a $5-800 sleds and part it out for $2-3000 online if you know what you’re looking at. People would rather buy a motor or clutch for $4-500 that a new sled and people don’t have room for all the extra part buying a parts sled takes. I’ve done the same with motorcycles. Picked up 2 old Honda trails this summer for $400 for the pair. A little elbow grease and about $200 in parts and they are worth about $1500 each. I’ve done this off and on for years with motorcycles, atv’s, jet skis and cars. I picked up a superjet out of a field a couple years ago for $500. Replaced the turf, put a nice paint job on it and put a few hours of labor cleaning it up and maybe spent $400 in paint and new parts. I sold it for $4500.

It’s easy to loose money doing stuff like this too, just spend time researching before you buy. I don’t really need a side hustle any more but I still like to make money buying and selling things I enjoy messing with. Bows, hunting gear, etc.

The easiest way to make money is manual labor if you don’t feel like you have any other skills and don’t have capital to buy and up sell. Just this summer I paid a kid $500 to dig my crawl space out under my bathroom. It took him about 10hrs on the weekend. I’ve never seen anybody offering this type of service. I put a Facebook post on the classified asking for someone to spend a couple days working with a shovel. I happily paid him and will most likely do it again when I have to dig out the rest of the crawl space before selling the house.

 

[Xerute]

You all have been extremely helpful, I am going to tour the local trade school that offers just about every trade and will either be doing carpentry or something like a handyman study. I know both of these I can not only make money on but will enjoy even if I don't use them to make money.
Going to keep thread open for a bit just to see what other people do or recommend.

 

[nphunter]

I think you are on the right track doing handy man stuff. There is defiantly a need these days. Most people can’t even change a tire anymore and most contractors and busy doing large remodels or home builds for big bucks. I think a person could make a living doing just handy man work and probably start a full scale business with employees if they wanted.
The facility I manage constantly needs little repairs made and it takes months to get someone. Things like replacing shingles after a wind storm, adjusting doors, replacing light fixtures, outlets, staining decks, replacing the kitchen faucet etc.

 

[Xerute]

I think you are on the right track doing handy man stuff. There is defiantly a need these days. Most people can’t even change a tire anymore and most contractors and busy doing large remodels or home builds for big bucks. I think a person could make a living doing just handy man work and probably start a full scale business with employees if they wanted.
The facility I manage constantly needs little repairs made and it takes months to get someone. Things like replacing shingles after a wind storm, adjusting doors, replacing light fixtures, outlets, staining decks, replacing the kitchen faucet etc.

Yep, that class is a remodeling class technically but I would rather do smaller projects that take at most 1 day and still be able to make good money while being flexible.

 

[eltroco]

Sell random crap on Facebook

 

[simplepeddler]

You might be surprised to know how many folks can't hang their new smart TV.
I have a college buddy that is an Electrical Engineer. He started a side gig installing sound systems and TV's in homes.

Set aside the EE thing three years later.