Young Underpaid Professionals

Here’s the first part of the Yuppie Guide, the series where you’ll see your extra income options and weigh them accordingly. By this time, you should know that it takes real work to get from Point A (where you are right now) to Point B (where you want to be, preferably retired by 50) and there is some amount of risk with each option. For the first option we have, there is minimal risk and the only capital you’ll need is time and effort. It’s part-time work, people.

Back when I was a kid, I used to spend my weekend mornings with my brother and some of our neighbors going around the subdivision delivering newspapers. An enterprising neighbor started that and hired us for the weekends and summers. I don’t remember how much we got paid for that activity, but I do remember getting a lot of ice creams in the summer. Anyway, what I’m getting at is, what we did back then did generate income and it only required a fraction of our playtimes (I don’t think my mother even counted that as playtime).

Anyway, back to this time period. Part-time may be defined as work you do apart from the day (or night) job you already have. Extra income potential-wise, part-time gigs present interesting distractions from your usual office toils while giving your income that needed boost.

Check your skill set

What can you do? What sort of part-time gig should you try out? Well, check your skill set arsenal and that should give you ideas. Note though that while you’re thinking about your skill set, you should fairly assess yourself. It’s not a good idea to sell yourself short, and it’s not a good idea to score yourself beyond your assets. Remember to be realistic in your assessments.

Are you good with kids (meaning you can at least stand them and not threaten to drown them) and are your teaching skills okay? You can try out part-time tutoring. Some companies offer part-time work to tutors; the students and the pay may vary. Part-time tutoring might eat up some of your weekend or some part of your weekdays, but the extra income should be worth the trouble. Risks here are minimal, unless you bite off more than you can chew. Consider how much time you can spare and how many clients you can take, because fainting in front of an eight-year old will be very awkward.

A friend of mine, Bam, used to part-time with his friends and play gigs (their band is No Parking, you should check them out, I’m serious). Some of you might think that playing in a band is a hobby, but that doesn’t mean it can’t generate income. Bam played nights and showed up in the office mornings.

There are a million other ways to go about part-time work, and there are a couple of good places you can look at. I used to find work ranging from data encoding to writing at oDesk.com and for a few hours, I earned some extra cash. You can try it and see if it works for you.

Where do I find work?

Dude, I can’t tell you. What I can tell you is that you can’t find work while sitting there watching TV or watching your Live Feed at Facebook. Do the legwork and research the internet, and you’ll find something that works with your job schedule. Now, go.

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