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Ask HN: What would you do to bring in $3K / month?

16 points by UncleOxidant ↗ HN
We're out of debt (including paid off house). But not quite old enough to draw Social Security. I looked for a tech job for the first half of this year without any luck and I'm really tired of the whole tech interview process so now I'm starting to wonder about other ways of bringing in money. As we have no debt it's not like we need a huge amount of money - $3k/month would do it. Looking for ideas.

27 comments

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MuffinFlavored
> $3k/month would do it.

$3k/month, after taxes?

> I looked for a tech job for the first half of this year without any luck and I'm really tired of the whole tech interview process so now I'm starting to wonder about other ways of bringing in money.

I'm not sure if I'd ask this general advice question here. This isn't Reddit. HN is basically a "tech" board. Nothing says it needs to be exclusively that but I'd be surprised if you get good general answers from non-tech people.

Go wait tables? Go get a job that pays $3k/mo net?

"What would you do to bring in $3k/mo?"

I'd work. It isn't realistic/easy to snap your fingers and find an unturned corner in the market where you can just "start a business". You aren't going to Etsy jewelry/sell t-shirts/think of an app nobody else has/start a YouTube channel/Twitch stream/daytrade your way to $3k/mo net of taxes easily.

pbjtime
If your response sounds like "I don't know" or "I don't like this question" perhaps it's a better use of one's time to just keep scrolling?
ofcourseyoudo
But if your response is "I don't like this comment" definitely use your time to tell someone else how to spend their time.
pbjtime
People who push first always cry about being pushed back.
navane
Assuming OP hasn't found an answer on YouTube or any social media, I'd suggest start making YouTube or other social media content on how to make 3k/month or on how to be debtless, the situation he is in right now.

Why would you need 3k a month if you're debt less though. If I were you I'd watch some yt on how to get by on a lot less, and then rephrase your query with a lower value.

floxy
>Why would you need 3k a month if you're debt less though

Property taxes? Food other than ramen? Utilities (electricity, water, garbage, internet, cell phones, etc.)? Hobbies? Entertainment? Gasoline/car maintenance? Home repairs? Visits to see friends and family?

add-sub-mul-div
And health insurance, ugh. I also own my house which is nice but it's not on its own enough of a game changer to be able to stop working.
bityard
> You aren't going to Etsy jewelry/sell t-shirts/think of an app nobody else has/start a YouTube channel/Twitch stream/daytrade your way to $3k/mo net of taxes easily.

I'm not retired yet but I'm starting a series of many small projects/businesses on the side now, so that with some consistent attention and effort over time, one or more of them can grow into a serious thing by the time I'm ready to hand in my ~/.vimrc for good. My goal is to embody the phrase, "it took me 10 years of work to become an overnight success."

bityard
Have you tapped into your network? If you're in tech and "not quite old enough" for Social Security, then I assume you are in the middle to later stages of your career, which means you ought to have plenty of former co-workers and managers you could contact to see if they need someone or know of a team looking for help.

I would also look into contracting, freelance, or consulting work. It's not as easy as just going to work for someone, because you essentially have to set up a whole business around your work, which means you need tax planning, accounting, etc. However, right now most of the open jobs I see in my line of work are contracts or contract-to-hire. If you can stay organized and have excellent communication skills, running your own show can be a great way to go.

UncleOxidant
> Have you tapped into your network?

A big chunk of my network is either retired or about to at this point.

reacharavindh
It would help when asking such a question to list what you can or are skilled to do?

Perhaps if you listed those, your question would be answered already or lead to a different question altogether…

TiredGuy
You could use your tech skills to do some freelancing a la Upwork, Fiverr, etc.

You could look on Cofounderslab for someone looking for a tech cofounder and start a business together.

You could go into one of the in-demand job fields such as construction or truck driving.

warrenm
$3k per month (post tax) is in the ballpark of $60k per year

If you're talking $3k/mo pre-tax, that's in the neighborhood of $18.75/hr

If you're "not quite old enough to draw Social Security", surely you know how to find a job ...no? You must have had one at some point - and loads of places all over are hiring all the time :)

pcthrowaway
I'm not too familiar with the tax rates in the U.S. but wouldn't a post-tax take-home of 36K/year be more in the ballpark of 45K-50K/year?
warrenm
depends on where you live - 16y ago, my pretax $60k/y was just over $3k/mo take home ... between state & fed, I was paying >35% in income and payroll taxes :\",
pcthrowaway
16 years ago, a larger portion of 60K would have been in higher brackets. Still, I don't see how you'd pay 40% in taxes.. did you perhaps get some of that back after filing your taxes?

I don't think there's a single state where you can pay 40% (or even 30%) of a 60K salary in taxes. Maybe at 120K

warrenm
I was also single - which puts you in higher brackets than married :)

but ... ~8% in FICA (SS & Medicare), >6% in state, and then ~20% in Fed income taxes (15% on the amount from ~8k-~30k, 25% to where I was salarywise) - comes out to right about 35% total

As for what I got back ... it was not much - maybe a couple hundred $$ from the state and feds combined

$35% is a good rule-of-thumb to cover several states - you may be lower, you may be higher ...but it is a good starting place to back-of-the-envelope think

Today, the Fed income tax rate on $60k is a little over 14% (single filer) - https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/federal-income-tax-...

Plus FICA @ 7.65% gets you to ~22%

Worst case state for $60k looks to be in the neighborhood of ~9% (NYS @ ~5% + NYC @ ~3.6%)

Which, in this case, does happen to get you to ~30-31% instead of 35% (and is all based on single and/or married filing separately, and nothing special you get to deduct)

All of which goes to say ... 35% is a reasonable approximation (do 30% if you want as a mildly-more-optimistic approximation) of take-home vs gross pay

And, of course, you can adjust this to your local state's rules easily enough - drop the personal income tax entirely in TN, for example

But FICA never goes away (SS drops after ~$160k, but Medicare's ~1.5% never does)

Neither does Fed income taxes

Of course, if you are married filing jointly, your standard deduction will cut your effective rate quite a bit. Add-on dependent children, and it goes even lower.

And every individual can figure this all out for themselves - but ballparking in the neighborhood of 1/3 of your income going to income and payroll taxes is not a bad place to start :)

pcthrowaway
Wow, thanks for that. I didn't realize there was a mandatory FICA payment (and that it was so large) on top of state and federal taxes. I lived in the U.S >10 years ago, but honestly never filed my taxes myself, and probably just had it come out of my paychecks also
UncleOxidant
> $3k per month (post tax) is in the ballpark of $60k per year

Not sure about that. Isn't the standard deduction (married filing jointly) $24K now? $24K of that $36K is free of federal tax leaving only $12K to pay taxes on at a pretty low rate. If that's 20% then we're talking $2400 in taxes.

Archelaos
Have you considered teaching in adult education?
nickelcitymario
Freelance doing something (development, design, copywriting, etc) that I can charge at least $75/hour for. If you only need $3k per month, you only need to sell 2 hours a day (Mon-Fri).

$3000 a month

= $750 per week

= $150 per day

= 2 hours per day (or a single 10 hour day per week) @ $75/hour.

As a bonus, $75/hour isn't particularly high for many fields.

turtlebits
If you're not willing to find a non-tech job, freelance.

If you're handy with home repairs/improvement, it's pretty easy to make money on the side, however 3k/month right off the bat sounds like a full time job.

Jemaclus
This is probably not the answer you're looking for, but you might consider buying an existing business and doing that. You could check Loopnet for some ideas.

For example, in the Denver area (just to pick a random place), there's a laundromat for sale for ~260K, with gross revenue of 214K and an EBITDA of 120K, which would certainly satisfy your 3K/mo revenue requirements. Link here: https://www.loopnet.com/biz/Business-Opportunity/under-contr...

I'm not a laundromat owner, though I know a few of them, and they aren't 40 hour/week jobs. It's not totally risk free, but it's not a terrible job.

Consider opening a Crossfit Gym: https://www.loopnet.com/biz/Business-Opportunity/established...

Or a Dog Kennel/Spa: https://www.loopnet.com/biz/Business-Opportunity/successful-...

I think a lot of us think that tech is the only or best way to make a bunch of money, but Hacker News is also a place of bustling entrepreneurship and starting your own business doesn't have to mean starting a SaaS company. You could write your own pet kennel reservation software, for example, and then dogfood it (ha!) until you feel comfortable spinning it out into software that can be sold to other pet kennels around the country/world.

I have no idea if this is useful to you, but I think it's a fun idea. I'm considering doing something similar to this myself, when my current job ends.

Good luck!

UncleOxidant
> For example, in the Denver area (just to pick a random place), there's a laundromat for sale for ~260K,

I'd just live off of the $260K (plus the interest I'd make having it in tbills) until I could draw SS (which is only about 5 years out). In reality, that's probably what I'll do (though I don't have $260K outside of retirement accounts - more like $150K).

Jemaclus
Well, certainly, but just to be clear, I wasn't assuming you had 260K cash. I didn't add this in my original post, but a small business loan wouldn't be too hard to get to do something like this, and so there's little-to-no out-of-pocket risk on this kind of thing, and instead you'd just make a few grand a month. It's not passive income by any means, but at least you control your own destiny here.

Anyway, good luck. Hope you figure something out. :)