Part time work in addition to full time work

[Kauai bound]

With our common goal of early retirement and financial independence, we can lower our expenses, reduce debt, and increase our retirement savings. The thought has crossed my mind to look for supplemental part time work in addition to my full time job (work from home - same employer for over 24 years) for the purpose of early retirement and financial independence.

Does anybody have any idea of part time work (prefer home base and internet base) opportunities out there?

 

[unclemick]

Probably old fashioned but I had rental property were I reinvested the profit left after paying the expenses of the part I lived in for 15 years.

heh heh heh - Work in any form I have always been philosophically opposed too.

 

[Sunset]

invent some neat cool thing, and create a website to sell it on, get rich !
Build an app, let Google buy it from you for few 100 million, get richer.
Otherwise nope, no ideas...

 

[Kauai bound]

invent some neat cool thing, and create a website to sell it on, get rich !
Build an app, let Google buy it from you for few 100 million, get richer.
Otherwise nope, no ideas...

Lol... I thought I was doing well in my early retirement plan at 53 until I joined this site. The 401K is at $930,000 and I don't have major expenses, but the more I learn from this Forum site (great site btw) and reading the recommended books, I may fall short of my goal.

Ugh... what can I do but consider a second job?

 

[Lakewood90712]

Independent contractor from home , or cash under the table at a nearby "JOB".Those sound good.

Taking traditional part time employment is usually a big loser , extra commute time etc.

Overtime at your current job is usually the best deal.

 

[Senator]

I started a mowing business. Also snow plowing. I have 24 rentals of my own that I manage myself. I manage a Home Owners Association and have a blog that I make a few bucks at.

So, pick your poison. There are a lot of opportunities. Staying at home limits your options. Make sure you are working for yourself, not a W2 employee.

 

[Senator]

heh heh heh - Work in any form I have always been philosophically opposed too.

I am not afraid of work. I can lay down and sleep right beside it.

 

[Walt34]

I am not afraid of work. I can lay down and sleep right beside it.

Same here. Work doesn't bother me. I can watch it for hours.

 

[robnplunder]

There got to be an easier way to pull in ER without working more than a full time job.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Create a business you can scale up and cash out and/or sell evergreen intellectual property type work you can create once and sell a million times without much ongoing effort.

 

[aaronc879]

Lol... I thought I was doing well in my early retirement plan at 53 until I joined this site. The 401K is at $930,000 and I don't have major expenses, but the more I learn from this Forum site (great site btw) and reading the recommended books, I may fall short of my goal.

Ugh... what can I do but consider a second job?

Lower your expenses. Anyone can retire on $930,000 if they're willing to take the steps required to lower their expenses. Only you can decide if it's worth working longer to have a higher standard of living. If I had $930,000 I wouldn't even consider working another day in my life.

 

[Kauai bound]

There got to be an easier way to pull in ER without working more than a full time job.

I like your thinking and attitude! I'm all ears for guidance, suggestions, and recommendations... because I would rather not work a second job if I don't have to.

 

[Kauai bound]

Lower your expenses. Anyone can retire on $930,000 if they're willing to take the steps required to lower their expenses. Only you can decide if it's worth working longer to have a higher standard of living. If I had $930,000 I wouldn't even consider working another day in my life.

Thanks for the feedback. I did buy a few recommended book from this page with that same idea... with the theme to retire with a lot less than what most consider necessary.

 

[target2019]

A part-time job with deductions will probably make you unhappy. In another thread I was reading an article about what makes one happy, and the article stated that time is more important as you grow older.

For about 20 years I have provided a wide range of technical support to a growing business. I used to enjoy driving to their offices and working on solving problems in the evening, or on the weekends. Now I find that the money (which is very good) is not as important as the time I am giving up.

 

[rodi]

There are always ways to cut back. You mention you have a kid in college in your OP. That will be changing soon, and improving your cash flow. Now for other things that can improve your retirement cashflow needs.

- Pay down the primary home mortgage. This will reduce expenses needed in retirement, AND get you used to living on less while you pay it down. That's a double benefit since you're getting used to living on less. Even $100 extra a month will make a dent if you're not at the beginning of the loan.

- Consider selling or downsizing one of your homes. Since your kids are almost launched can you move to a smaller NW home at some point. Once kids move out you don't need as much space for them. Smaller home means smaller maintenance/utilitie/property tax bills. Plus you could extract some equity to add to your post tax piles of money.

- Look hard at all the recurring monthly bills. Can you get by with less frills on cell phones? (ex. I switched from Verizon to Ting and save about $50/month). Do you need a landline? (I did - so I went with magic-jack - saving about $30/month). Do you need cable? Do you need netflix? (I dropped netflix and use redbox instead.) Look at each of your monthly bills and figure out if you can downgrade or cut them entirely.

Every thing you cut out of your budget now does 2 things:
1)Adds cash to your savings
2)shrinks the spending budget you'll need in retirement.

I got serious about this about 5 years ago... I picked up tips here on ER on what to cut. It was amazing to me how much faster I reached my goal *without* serious lifestyle changes. (My lifestyle isn't negatively impacted by using magic jack, for example.)

Good luck! We're rooting for you.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Outsource your full time job and also the part time one.

 

[RunningBum]

If I was going to try to make money at home without making a big commitment of my time or availability, I'd probably try blogging. It takes awhile to build anything up, but some people get advertisers or sell affiliate products through through their blogs. I don't really know how to get started but I'm sure there are a bunch of sites out there with tips.

 

[Senator]

You can always pick up a one-time side gig, for a week or more and use your vacations at work to do it.

I have used virtually all of my vacations over the past 15 years to do re-habs, attend seminars, get an education, etc. All in the goal of retiring earlier.

Pick something you like to do. Figure out how many people pay for what you want to do. Market to them, and pick a certain time to do it.

Here in the USA, anyone can be a millionaire if they have the drive, determination and ambition to do it. Do not substitute lack of opportunity for laziness.

 

[aaronc879]

Thanks for the feedback. I did buy a few recommended book from this page with that same idea... with the theme to retire with a lot less than what most consider necessary.

I assume your city has a library. If so, you should never buy a book or a DVD. Borrow them from the library instead. Little things like that really add up over time.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

What we did on the expense front is to make a list of all the interesting ideas from different forums and books, and then figure out how much we would make per hour of our time over 1, 10 or 50 years. There are a lot of money saving ideas on the various forums, but some save maybe $1 an hour, like making your own yogurt and some save $40 a month per phone by switching cell phone plans for maybe 1 - 2 hours of work total. If you like making your own yogurt and it is part hobby that is great, but the biggest savings are going to be to cuts to recurring expenses, like dropping the landline or replacing it with something like Ooma or Magic Jack, or cutting your energy bills by 1/2 or more by switching to LED bulbs and going room by room with a Kill a Watt and Thermal Heat Gun (to look for drafts).

I also found it helpful to read a few books and watch a few shows on Netflix on happiness. There is a huge disconnect between what marketing tries to tell people what will make them happy and what really makes people happy, and a lot of the things that really make people happy are free or inexpensive. Plus marketing over the years has tried to make a lot of very expensive habits the norm, like buying 65 pounds of clothes a year on average, buying $7 coffees each day you could make yourself at home if you got up 10 minutes earlier, having a lawn that needs constant care and maintenance instead of a permaculture garden or xeriscaping, or using disposable products when a reusable counterpart, like batteries or cloth kitchen towels, might be much less expensive.

 

[rodi]

I assume your city has a library. If so, you should never buy a book or a DVD. Borrow them from the library instead. Little things like that really add up over time.

Agree emphatically with this.
Learn to use the reserve/wait list feature most libraries have... when you see an interesting title - log onto the library website and put in a request for the book - rather than logging onto Amazon and purchasing the book. Little stuff like this can add up.

 

[robnplunder]

I like your thinking and attitude! I'm all ears for guidance, suggestions, and recommendations... because I would rather not work a second job if I don't have to.

I will voice a different opinion on this.

Working more than a full time job will likely add stress, and reduce your time for life's enjoyments now (when you are younger, more vigorous, have more interest). To give up your free time now for a chance at pulling your ER in is, IMO, not a very efficient use of your lifespan.

Why not be aggressive with your investment (80/20, e.g) instead of getting a part time job? That's what I would do although I didn't follow my own advice when I was younger.

 

[Kauai bound]

There are always ways to cut back. You mention you have a kid in college in your OP. That will be changing soon, and improving your cash flow. Now for other things that can improve your retirement cashflow needs.

- Pay down the primary home mortgage. This will reduce expenses needed in retirement, AND get you used to living on less while you pay it down. That's a double benefit since you're getting used to living on less. Even $100 extra a month will make a dent if you're not at the beginning of the loan.

- Consider selling or downsizing one of your homes. Since your kids are almost launched can you move to a smaller NW home at some point. Once kids move out you don't need as much space for them. Smaller home means smaller maintenance/utilitie/property tax bills. Plus you could extract some equity to add to your post tax piles of money.

- Look hard at all the recurring monthly bills. Can you get by with less frills on cell phones? (ex. I switched from Verizon to Ting and save about $50/month). Do you need a landline? (I did - so I went with magic-jack - saving about $30/month). Do you need cable? Do you need netflix? (I dropped netflix and use redbox instead.) Look at each of your monthly bills and figure out if you can downgrade or cut them entirely.

Every thing you cut out of your budget now does 2 things:
1)Adds cash to your savings
2)shrinks the spending budget you'll need in retirement.

I got serious about this about 5 years ago... I picked up tips here on ER on what to cut. It was amazing to me how much faster I reached my goal *without* serious lifestyle changes. (My lifestyle isn't negatively impacted by using magic jack, for example.)

Good luck! We're rooting for you.

Thanks for the great advice, guidance, and direction. This is a truly great Forum site to help accomplish our common goals!

 

[Kauai bound]

I will voice a different opinion on this.

Working more than a full time job will likely add stress, and reduce your time for life's enjoyments now (when you are younger, more vigorous, have more interest). To give up your free time now for a chance at pulling your ER in is, IMO, not a very efficient use of your lifespan.

Why not be aggressive with your investment (80/20, e.g) instead of getting a part time job? That's what I would do although I didn't follow my own advice when I was younger.

I have to agree, working two jobs suck. About 22 years ago, I worked a full time corporate job and appraised real estate on the side, and did miss a lot of family time. That only lasted 2 years. I think my 401K portfolio is pretty stock heavy in Mutual Funds diversity. We've all seen what happened about 8 years ago, and what happened 8 years later if we did not panic.