Personal Finance Tips.com » Work

How to Make Extra Money

tim — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:12:09 +0000

There are two main ways to increase your cash flow. The first way is to decrease your spending (money that leaves your pocket). The second, which I haven’t written as much on recently is to increase your income. Below are several ideas on how to increase your income.

Sell Your Old Stuff
Most people have junk laying around their place that they don’t use anymore. If you have a few items that you’re willing to part with, list them on Ebay or Craigslist. If you have a ton of stuff consider having a garage/yard sale.

Rent Out Extra Rooms
If you have a spare bedroom or two, consider getting a roommate.

Get a Part Time Job
Find a job doing something that you like in the evenings or weekends.

Offer Your Services
If you have a skill such as photography, painting, or computer repair, offer your services for a fee. Even if you don’t have a specific skill set, you can always look into areas such as lawn mowing, dog walking or shoveling snow.

Optimize Your Full Time Job
Asking for a raise or getting a higher paying job is usually the most efficient way to make extra money.

Never Take the First Offer

tim — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:02:02 +0000

You should almost never take the first offer given to you. There’s a good chance that a better offer will be given to you after you turn down the first offer. If there isn’t, you can almost always go back and accept the original offer.

When I was offered my first job out of college, I was able to get about a 5% increase over what I would have gotten by turning down the initial offer. I told the hiring manager that I was expecting more given the current market rate. I showed him the going rate for my position and location according to Salary.com.

Turning down the first offer works in most situations where there is a list price, asking price or an offer given to you.

Annual Salary vs. Hourly Wage

tim — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:12:00 +0000

When comparing pay between various jobs, it’s always easier to compare apples to apples. Below are two simple calculations that you can use to compare salaries vs. wages.

Calculating Hourly Wage
If you are paid a salary, a simple way to calculate how much you make per an hour is to divide your salary by 2000. For example, if you make $40,000 a year, that would equal $20/hour ($40,000/2,000 hours).

Calculating Annual Salary
The above calculation also works in reverse; if you are paid an annual salary, you can calculate how much you make per year by multiplying your hourly wage by 2000. For example, if you make $20/hour, that would equal $40,000/year ($20*2,000 hours).

The above calculations are based on the assumption that you work 40 hours week for 50 weeks out of the year (40 hours *50 weeks = 2000 hours). If you know the number of hours that you’ll work in a year, you can subsitute that number in place of 2000.