Income Incoming

Once upon a time I worked middle management at a big box retail chain. There are things I miss about that job. While I wasn't in management at the time that I left, there were things I really loved about the management position that I had once held. Unfortunately, the things I enjoyed most about the job (the need for it be perfectly done in order for the numbers all over the store not to be thrown into chaos, for instance) are also the parts that made it far too mentally, physically, and emotionally demanding if one actually attempted to do it "the right way." It was impossible to do "the right way" and meet the demands of each department it impacted (which was all of them) so I suspect that is why they did away with the position entirely not long after I left and swept it under another manager's workload where it could be much more easily overlooked (not to mention the fact they edited out many of its key components, too.) Anyway, this entry is not about that position or the fact that it drove me insane, ruined my hip, and destroyed a couple of relationships. This entry is about the fact that I haven't worked outside of the home since 2010 by choice. This entry is about how I've made a little cash over the years without selling myself back into retail.

The most rewarding way to make money from the comfort of your own home is to find something that you love to make and make it! For Christmas a couple of years ago my mother-in-law bought me some beads and supplies and said I should make some things to sell when they go to sell their honey at Groveport's Apple Butter Day. I'd only ever made one piece of beaded jewelry and that was a necklace for my mother on a whim after visiting a long since defunct bead store downtown years before. I'd played with a bead loom and and off, too, but it never "took." Something about that gift of beads sparked my imagination and I got to work. By the time Apple Butter Day rolled around in October, I had a modest collection of natural and glass jewelry put together. I've sold at that festival two years in a row now and it's been an incredibly rewarding experience. There is no joy greater than seeing someone's face light up when they pick up a piece of your art and feel it was made just for them when they've never even met you before. I love to sell my jewelry and I plan to run a booth there for as long as we sell our honey there. I've debated branching out to other festivals, but I just haven't been feeling the creative bug this year so my stock is a little low. I don't currently have my own vehicle, either, which would make making more of a go of things a lot simpler. It's an idea I toss around, though, and its still a possibility for the future. I love making pretty things that make people feel pretty. It's a good feeling and I'm glad I discovered this latent talent when I did. You can see some of my bejeweled (and beboned and bebeaded) artwork at http://www.facebook.com/SaturnineTreasures.

Finding a hobby that can bring in some extra cash is fun and rewarding, but more often than not you end up putting more money into something like that than you ever get out of it. Sometimes you just want to do, not make, and there are options for that as well --or at least there's one that really is what it says it is. There are a lot of scams out there that promise ways to make money online the fast and easy way. Of all the ones I've seen, only one site I've used really does allow you to make a little cash on your terms in your free time without scamming anyone and without being scammed yourself (so long as you spot a scam --there are more on the site as it's gotten to be something more people use, but they are generally easy to spot and steer clear.) Amazon's Mechanical Turk won't net you huge amounts of money unless you dedicate a large amount of time to it and get in with one of the higher paying firms, but it is what is says it is and it delivers what it promises. MTurk (as it's called) is a place where companies and researchers go to pay people to do small tasks for them. Some companies use MTurk to test their search keywords or score cheap written content for their webpages while others use it to have things transcribed for them or edited. Students and researchers use MTurk to gather data via paid surveys (which can be one of the fastest ways to earn the most, but are generally one shot opportunities. Once you've taken a particular survey you can not take it again.) Some of the easiest and least time consuming tasks on MTurk pay out only a penny or six, but those can add up if you're willing to put in the time. Some of the surveys or chartered content can pay out $10 or more. There is one now that is a followup to a survey (only available to those who originally took the survey --or maybe even only one specific person) that pays out $60. Short tasks that offer upwards of ten cents can be worth the time and surveys that offer more than a quarter almost always are, I've found. I've done some transcribing. Sometimes college lectures are offered up and those can be extremely interesting to transcribe, just make sure you can understand the person speaking before you take the hit. Almost all transcribing jobs can be previewed before you accept them. There is penalty for turning in hits that are poorly done in that some hits can not even be accepted if your percentages are too high in the rejected column. Turning hits back in without completing them can have the same effect, but is generally not as weighty. You are paid in REAL MONEY via Amazon Payments which can be paid out in a number of ways. I generally just leave it all in my account and use it on Amazon directly. It's a reliable site run by a trusted company and there is oppurtunity to make extra money using it. I'm sure there are even those, in with the right companies, who use it for their entire income, but that's not what's going to happen for the typical user of the site. It's all in your hands, though, which is what a lot of places promise but don't tend to live up to at the end of the day.

All too often when you tell someone you work from home they'll give you some degree of Sturgeon Face. People raised within the American culture tend to believe that if you can work then you should and if you aren't without what they consider a "damn good reason," then you must be a bad person. If you're staying at home to raise a child, this can sometimes be an acceptable situation, but otherwise it's Just Not Done. Well, I'm not a bad person and I am capable of holding down a job and even moving up the corporate ladder. I don't work because I choose not to work. It's a situation that makes my spouse and I happy, it doesn't hurt anyone, and it most certainly doesn't make us bad people. I don't need to bring in extra money, and I'm sure that my jewelry has taken more than it's given, all told, but I do enjoy the extra money for books for my Kindle that I get from MTurk and I wanted to share this with others who might find a place for it in their lives, too. Follow Your Bliss and don't let anyone thumb their nose at where it takes you.