Side Hustles

[RJC]

I'm starting to look into credit card churning. Anyone else do this with success? Worth it?

[Mustang8307]

I coached high school football for five years. Earned about $3,500 per season. Also coached middle school flag fb for $75 per hour. Hope to get back into it when my kids are older.

[calwatch]

I'm starting to look into credit card churning. Anyone else do this with success? Worth it?

It's not bad but the ability to manufacture spending has dropped dramatically over the past few years. If you have upcoming expenses such as a vacation or wedding, it's certainly worth maximizing rewards from these events, but I wouldn't necessarily start heading into Walmarts to buy money orders like folks used to do a couple of years ago.

As far as my personal side hustles, I used to drive for Lyft and Postmates to make sign up bonuses, and still periodically drive when I get bored, and to earn some Social Security credits since my day job is not covered by Social Security. I do low hanging fruit type bank bonuses - usually I open three or four bank accounts a year for the bonus. I work elections, and work as a paid volunteer with the state bureau that licenses my profession on various issues.

[maroon]

My current side hustle is website contributor; I earned ~$12K last year providing content.

Also, I have a pretty nice RV sitting unused and I'm considering turning it into an AirBNB rental. (Should anyone have tips on this, I'm eager to hear them.)

[keyfort]

Crushing it is a good thing. I'll make $80,000-$90,000 on AirBnB rents this year on a 2,500 sq/ft house with an 83% occupancy rate. That same house used to rent for $2,100 a month or $25,200 for the year for reference. I realize the majority doesn't know what this means, but that's almost 4x rents and that same house has appreciated almost $200K since I bought it. Hence my appetite for shifting more long term rentals to short term.

Real estate investing isn't for everyone, you can see from a lot of posts on this forum. You definitely have the "leaky toilet" type of calls, but I am a handy type person and love meeting with people.

Anyone who is interested (or clicked this thread to begin with) should watch Mark Kohler for tax saving strategies. He's a funny guy and WILL save you money through his tax savings strategies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLllDKDs6M8 (fast forward to 11:50 on this video for the good stuff)

This is absolutely incredible. How do you even find a place that's so good for Airbnbs? I'm guessing there are a lot of locations where there's no demand for Airbnb.

[keyfort]

My current side hustle is website contributor; I earned ~$12K last year providing content.

Also, I have a pretty nice RV sitting unused and I'm considering turning it into an AirBNB rental. (Should anyone have tips on this, I'm eager to hear them.)

That's impressive. Is the content photographs? Or writing?

[slalom]

One thing that can be very lucrative is putting out ads to buy people's old (and I mean old) computers.

Old graphics cards, sound cards, monitors, CPUs, memory, clicky keyboards, etc from the 80s and 90s are all very popular on the vintage computing/gaming market, and the prices are remarkably high since so much of that stuff has been scrapped and it's harder than you'd think to find them.

You have to research a bit to know what parts are worth what so you know how much to offer, but it's a fun hobby.

Not uncommon to sell certain old soundcards someone might throw away.. for $250-300.

[toomanysidehustles]

[/quote]

This is absolutely incredible. How do you even find a place that's so good for Airbnbs? I'm guessing there are a lot of locations where there's no demand for Airbnb.
[/quote]

I'm in Fort Collins, Colorado which is an hour north of Denver. https://www.visitftcollins.com

The market here is great, lots of people come to visit family or use it as a base camp for their Colorado vacation. In the mountain towns (Vail, Steamboat, etc) a similar property would be $800+/night. We are at $325-385/night. We self manage so no property manager and more profit for us. I do have 2 teenagers that help, so they are on payroll and my son has $2600 in a Roth already. Start 'em young!

Again, this is a lot of work but the cash flow is great and appreciation of our properties has been phenomenal in the 2 years we have been doing this. I'll add all our properties are located a mile or less from our primary residence so it's super easy. I put less than 3000 miles on my car each year.

[brennok]

My current side hustle is website contributor; I earned ~$12K last year providing content.

Also, I have a pretty nice RV sitting unused and I'm considering turning it into an AirBNB rental. (Should anyone have tips on this, I'm eager to hear them.)

You might also want to look at some of the RV share options also.

[keyfort]

This is absolutely incredible. How do you even find a place that's so good for Airbnbs? I'm guessing there are a lot of locations where there's no demand for Airbnb.

I'm in Fort Collins, Colorado which is an hour north of Denver. https://www.visitftcollins.com

The market here is great, lots of people come to visit family or use it as a base camp for their Colorado vacation. In the mountain towns (Vail, Steamboat, etc) a similar property would be $800+/night. We are at $325-385/night. We self manage so no property manager and more profit for us. I do have 2 teenagers that help, so they are on payroll and my son has $2600 in a Roth already. Start 'em young!

Again, this is a lot of work but the cash flow is great and appreciation of our properties has been phenomenal in the 2 years we have been doing this. I'll add all our properties are located a mile or less from our primary residence so it's super easy. I put less than 3000 miles on my car each year.

Oh ok wow, you've found a good niche area. The thing about Airbnb that worries me is how a city/county can basically destroy the market just like that, if they change regulation to outlaw it. Around where we live I was looking at this idea but almost all the cities have banned short term rentals. It must be terrible to have bought a place for that and then the law changes. Seems kind of uncertain.

[BV3273]

Algotrading is the best side hustle. I'm quickly approaching the one comma club from two.

Do you buy and hold? Or just buy and sell when it goes up?

[Marseille07]

Algotrading is the best side hustle. I'm quickly approaching the one comma club from two.

Do you buy and hold? Or just buy and sell when it goes up?

It really depends. My trading pattern tends to be swing trading; I do hold for at least a day.

[davemanjam]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLllDKDs6M8 (fast forward to 11:50 on this video for the good stuff)

Skip this cat, he's basically encouraging abuse of the tax system.

[toomanysidehustles]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLllDKDs6M8 (fast forward to 11:50 on this video for the good stuff)

Skip this cat, he's basically encouraging abuse of the tax system.

How so? He's not only an attorney but also a CPA.

[Aaand...it'sgone]

I work in video production in a FT salaried staff position. Before I had a baby, I used to freelance, mostly in doc video production.

When our little guy is old enough, I'd love to freelance again on the side. Or... If my portfolio gets big enough... I'd love to ditch the FT gig and just freelance on interesting projects.

[toomanysidehustles]

Oh ok wow, you've found a good niche area. The thing about Airbnb that worries me is how a city/county can basically destroy the market just like that, if they change regulation to outlaw it. Around where we live I was looking at this idea but almost all the cities have banned short term rentals. It must be terrible to have bought a place for that and then the law changes. Seems kind of uncertain.


Yeah you need to do your homework on local municipalities for sure. My AirBnB is actually in the county, not city which has different requirements.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/53 ... discussion - this is a good spot for learning about short term rentals and vacation rentals.

[Cycle]

B) Focus groups, product research engagements (a few K)

My wife does this, too. Usually good for a couple hundred in cash/gift cards periodically. Not bad for <1 hour of effort (usually). I've tried to get into it, fill out the surveys and whatnot, but never seem to get the return call to participate.

For me this has taken off and I have no idea how. It’s still the same 2-3 companies that have called me since 2016, but for the first time I have to actually take off work to do one of these focus groups - 14 hours - all done remote via WebEx. That’s an ATH for me.

-TheDDC

I have an invitation for one in my inbox, but i ignored it bc i was afraid of conflict of interest and don't want to get fired for cause and lose a high salary job to make $350 for a phone interview. we have lengthly employment contract. I work in medical device R&D. It says they are "only interested in your personal point of view and are not seeking confidential information"

[Cycle]

I'm starting to look into credit card churning. Anyone else do this with success? Worth it?

eventually you get locked out of a lot of these. I and my wife can no longer get any signon bonuses through amex. I think i did the delta amex three times for me and another 3 times for my wife, but now we're locked out of that one. I was locked out of chase for a couple years, though i might have access again. If you just do the big ones, it can be lucrative. I once did the chase saphire reserve for $125k miles and then again for my wife. That was like $5k in travel points and we did multiple international trips with those miles.

Right now doing a $2k amex bonus through a Better mortgage refi. It's 6k for jumbo mortgage people. I'll net $5k from this refi at closing. I've only had the mortgage for two months, but i'm going from 2.125 to 2% and then get $5k in lender credits + $2k in amex credit, though closing costs will be about $2k.

[RJC]

I'm starting to look into credit card churning. Anyone else do this with success? Worth it?

eventually you get locked out of a lot of these. I and my wife can no longer get any signon bonuses through amex. I think i did the delta amex three times for me and another 3 times for my wife, but now we're locked out of that one. I was locked out of chase for a couple years, though i might have access again. If you just do the big ones, it can be lucrative. I once did the chase saphire reserve for $125k miles and then again for my wife. That was like $5k in travel points and we did multiple international trips with those miles.

Right now doing a $2k amex bonus through a Better mortgage refi. It's 6k for jumbo mortgage people. I'll net $5k from this refi at closing. I've only had the mortgage for two months, but i'm going from 2.125 to 2% and then get $5k in lender credits + $2k in amex credit, though closing costs will be about $2k.

Good info. I think just doing the bigger ones is a no-brainer especially if your credit is good and there's no new anticipated mortgage/refi.

[Jack FFR1846]

I don't believe anyone gets completely locked out of CC bonus sign ups. Maybe for the $500 ones, or for the AMEX ones...ok. But be creative. Don't be so picky and you can keep getting them. I tend to just opportunistically pick these up. $75 bonus for a new card? Sure...why not? Then I pay off the amount needed to get that $75, go to zero and try the low balance forgiveness thing, charging 99 cents to my amazon gift card account. If it doesn't work, sock drawer and let it age. If it does work, add it to my monthly amazon freebie adds. When it gets old enough to qualify, add it to tradeline sales.

Plenty of people saw the Redbird crash and went away thinking manufactured spending is dead. It's not. It's simply different and you've got to be creative and find new opportunities.

On average, I'd say I open a new card for a bonus about every 2 months. I never close accounts. Another thing I do is watch for broker offers that aren't a stretch for me. eTrade just sent me an offer email yesterday. Add $5k to an existing account, leave it there for 6 months and get $75. I could easily ACH over $5k, so I did. Once its available, I'll buy the same equity I already have in my eTrade account. No, I'm not picking up thousands of dollars in one shot, but I am picking up many thousands of dollars over months with various bonuses and offers. They are absolutely out there. Be patient.

[RJC]

I don't believe anyone gets completely locked out of CC bonus sign ups. Maybe for the $500 ones, or for the AMEX ones...ok. But be creative. Don't be so picky and you can keep getting them. I tend to just opportunistically pick these up. $75 bonus for a new card? Sure...why not? Then I pay off the amount needed to get that $75, go to zero and try the low balance forgiveness thing, charging 99 cents to my amazon gift card account. If it doesn't work, sock drawer and let it age. If it does work, add it to my monthly amazon freebie adds. When it gets old enough to qualify, add it to tradeline sales.

Plenty of people saw the Redbird crash and went away thinking manufactured spending is dead. It's not. It's simply different and you've got to be creative and find new opportunities.

On average, I'd say I open a new card for a bonus about every 2 months. I never close accounts. Another thing I do is watch for broker offers that aren't a stretch for me. eTrade just sent me an offer email yesterday. Add $5k to an existing account, leave it there for 6 months and get $75. I could easily ACH over $5k, so I did. Once its available, I'll buy the same equity I already have in my eTrade account. No, I'm not picking up thousands of dollars in one shot, but I am picking up many thousands of dollars over months with various bonuses and offers. They are absolutely out there. Be patient.

So there is no value in closing an account? What about when the next annual fee is due? Just starting out so any help is appreciated.

[keyfort]

Oh ok wow, you've found a good niche area. The thing about Airbnb that worries me is how a city/county can basically destroy the market just like that, if they change regulation to outlaw it. Around where we live I was looking at this idea but almost all the cities have banned short term rentals. It must be terrible to have bought a place for that and then the law changes. Seems kind of uncertain.


Yeah you need to do your homework on local municipalities for sure. My AirBnB is actually in the county, not city which has different requirements.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/53 ... discussion - this is a good spot for learning about short term rentals and vacation rentals.

Oh hey, I missed your reply. I think something strange is going on with the quote function on the site.

Anyhow, thank you for the link! I'm looking at investing in an STR but hesitant because of how quickly the regulations can change. That would keep me up at night.

I still can't get my head around how there are so many listings in areas around where we live, and it's illegal. Seems strange.

[Invictus002]

When it gets old enough to qualify, add it to tradeline sales.

What is tradeline sales? Is it what I read online where you add strangers as AU to your card? Can you explain more please? Also, how much does it yield?

[ClevrChico]

One thing that can be very lucrative is putting out ads to buy people's old (and I mean old) computers.

Old graphics cards, sound cards, monitors, CPUs, memory, clicky keyboards, etc from the 80s and 90s are all very popular on the vintage computing/gaming market, and the prices are remarkably high since so much of that stuff has been scrapped and it's harder than you'd think to find them.

You have to research a bit to know what parts are worth what so you know how much to offer, but it's a fun hobby.

Not uncommon to sell certain old soundcards someone might throw away.. for $250-300.

That is an excellent hustle I never thought about! I sent mountains and mountains of this stuff to the recycler when I worked in Corp IT.

[davemanjam]

How so? He's not only an attorney but also a CPA.

So, being an attorney and CPA makes anything you say ok?
He's suggesting that if you have a business that many of your/family expenses can be a write off, And you're a dummy for not doing it.
At best there is a lot of exaggeration going on. At worst...well I said my opinion on that.
In the middle sounds like he's promoting his CPA/attorney services more than anything because in order to account for all expenses and have them be written off you would need a CPA, and a creative one at that. It sounds like an invitation for an audit.

[toomanysidehustles]

Duplicate

[toomanysidehustles]

Oh ok wow, you've found a good niche area. The thing about Airbnb that worries me is how a city/county can basically destroy the market just like that, if they change regulation to outlaw it. Around where we live I was looking at this idea but almost all the cities have banned short term rentals. It must be terrible to have bought a place for that and then the law changes. Seems kind of uncertain.


Yeah you need to do your homework on local municipalities for sure. My AirBnB is actually in the county, not city which has different requirements.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/53 ... discussion - this is a good spot for learning about short term rentals and vacation rentals.

We applied with our county to be above board and paid the $400.00 short term rental fee....there are indeed a LOT of people going rogue right now and where we live crackdowns will start to happen for sure. But the revenue for the city/county is needed - especially since most of the world got slammed by non-travel and that sales tax revenue from hotel (and local retail sales spending) wasn't there for well over a year. The coffers are light in most cities but on the rebound now.

[old medic]

Use to do a ton of side line work of all kinds... Even had an auto repair shop at the old house..
Bought a tractor/backhoe to do work at the new place, and it makes its payments doing some sideline work.
And working on setting up a lawncare sideline with my brother... AKA new zeroturn makes its money back...

[toomanysidehustles]

How so? He's not only an attorney but also a CPA.

So, being an attorney and CPA makes anything you say ok?
He's suggesting that if you have a business that many of your/family expenses can be a write off, And you're a dummy for not doing it.
At best there is a lot of exaggeration going on. At worst...well I said my opinion on that.
In the middle sounds like he's promoting his CPA/attorney services more than anything because in order to account for all expenses and have them be written off you would need a CPA, and a creative one at that. It sounds like an invitation for an audit.

If it's business related then yes, all these items can be a write off. My 14 and 17 year old are on the payroll of our small family business, my son's truck was purchased under our LLC, kids cell phones, etc. since we need to get ahold of them. We went to Steamboat Springs as a family to look at real estate (and met with an agent for about 2 hours) we wrote that entire 4 day trip off. Every meal out we take as a family goes on our business card because we are all operators in the business and business always gets brought up.

I guess it's opinion at this point. There are tremendous advantages to self employment, and Mark Kohler's YouTube channel offers a great way of showing business owners how to peel the onion back and show what's possible under the current tax law. Many people teach this on YouTube, but I've found him to be the easiest to watch and offers some comedy in there as well that even my kids will watch.

[AerialWombat]

deleted

[novemberrain]

[davemanjam]

If it's business related then yes, all these items can be a write off. My 14 and 17 year old are on the payroll of our small family business, my son's truck was purchased under our LLC, kids cell phones, etc. since we need to get ahold of them. We went to Steamboat Springs as a family to look at real estate (and met with an agent for about 2 hours) we wrote that entire 4 day trip off. Every meal out we take as a family goes on our business card because we are all operators in the business and business always gets brought up.

I guess it's opinion at this point. There are tremendous advantages to self employment, and Mark Kohler's YouTube channel offers a great way of showing business owners how to peel the onion back and show what's possible under the current tax law. Many people teach this on YouTube, but I've found him to be the easiest to watch and offers some comedy in there as well that even my kids will watch.

I couldn't stand to watch that guy as long as I did, which was maybe 10min.
The aspects you describe about your business dealings are problematic...I woudn't have posted them on a public forum.
But, lets assume there's much more background detail to what you're describing...
Like you keep a record of how much you use the truck, cell phones, etc for business vs. personal use.
You have a good reason why a family of 4 needed to go on a 4 day business trip. Etc.

I hope peeling the onion back doesn't make you cry one day.

[Flyer24]

Topic is getting derailed about tax write-offs. Let’s get back to the OP’s question.

[littlefuse]

Does anyone have any good side hustles that they do on the side in order to generate extra revenue? Curious what if any others in this community are doing besides their day jobs to get ahead...

I definitely need one of these.

[pasadena]

I'm in the camp of focusing on your main career. Learning new skills and keeping up with current technologies, getting certifications. Those will always have the best ROI for 90% of the population, unless you need the money right now.

That being said, I sometimes churn bank account bonuses - not credit cards as my spending is usually too low and I'm too lazy to manufacture more and I'd rather leave my credit score alone. I usually do this in the beginning and towards the end of each year, when I have more cash lying around. It can really pay off at first (until you exhaust the good ones and have to wait a few months before you can do them again). From Mid-October 2024 to the end of this year, I will have made a very easy $2k by moving cash around. About half of that cash has to stay put for 2 months and will pay off another $600 in January.

It takes very little effort, a little patience, and just a little organization - probably took me about 2-3hrs of actual work. Not sure it qualifies as a side hustle, but it's easy money.

[legalwriter1]

One option is adjunct teaching at a university. I starting teaching as an adjunct 20 years when I worked as in-house counsel. I found I really liked teaching and wrote some journal articles. About 14 years ago, I left my in-house position to become a full-time faculty member. My main job is working for a university where I teach business law that I love. I started my own part-time solo law practice side about 5 years ago. I also preside over administrative hearings for the state where I receive a per diem ($100 per hearing that takes about an hour). In addition, I receive book royalties. I can expense some of my travel expenses as book research.

I used to have a side business where I was a book indexer creating back of the book indexes for other authors and publishers. I basically got paid to read books.

[tibbitts]

Maybe it's time to consolidate the numerous "side hustle" threads into a single thread? Unlike some other current-market-related or tax-related topics that might not lend themselves to a master thread spanning years, there's really not much new with regard to side hustles.