Thinking out loud of potential ideas to increase my income

[AngelineRose]

I am really just thinking out loud but I would welcome any feedback or ideas from another's perspective as I was not raised or hang out with others that were either educated or good with their money, but they are wonderful people nonetheless and I am rich with love.

I live in the Bay Area and with the drastic increase in rents all over the bay recently, I am no longer in the comfortable cash flow. I can't leave the area for another 15 years due to custody. So I have to deal with high rents. On the bright side, my rental has a private yard with garage, office shed and all that for the price of a tiny apartment now so in that sense, its quite an enjoyable place to rent while raising my son. I tried looking for cheaper rent.. those days are long gone now. I think my landlord cried when I accepted the rent increase this year instead of moving out.. because she know she cam easily increase rent by another thousand for the next tenant.

I worked at my place of employer for 14 years now. I stay because of excellent Benefits, the company pays out of pocket additional to the Benefits employer plan so I pay little for the family package. Up until this year, they only contribute $1500 each year to my 401k. Now it is $3000 if I contribute 15%. Salary is not that great and barely earn enough to live simply here with rent (along with child support)

I may have a chance to move up a little in the next year or so.. but not too much more than that due to my skills and not being able to hear on the phone. Human Resource/Business.

Obviously I need more income. These are the ideas I have and to keep in mind, have a preschooler to tend to so that limits some of my time.

Idea 1. Find supplemental incomes addition to my work. Maybe a mixture of online surveys, some kind of project to work from home, craft making and selling on Etsy (I make hair accessories to homemade organic lotions and creams)...

Idea 2. Take advantage of the Tuition Reimbursement program that my employer offers and go back to school to complete my degree. I go back and forth on this.. I am age 39 and not sure if that is too late. The other fear is that I am limited to degrees that somewhat relates to my line at work in Human Resource, so it would have to be HR, Business, communication related... From what I learned in HR, there is always impromptu meetings, constant changes and etc. Its not impossible but challenges me greatly with my hearing loss. I've been doing it so far but not sure the effort put into a degree will actually benefits my chances of a higher paying position?

Idea 3. Just keep searching and applying for jobs that may have better pay. (I work for a solid and top of the high tech industry company already - you would think I would be paid more by now)

Am I missing any other ideas?

[autoxer]

Idea 3. Just keep searching and applying for jobs that may have better pay. (I work for a solid and top of the high tech industry company already - you would think I would be paid more by now)

Am I missing any other ideas?

Have you asked your current employer for more money? You will need to be able to convince them you are worth it, but that could be easier than switching jobs. You could ask them for more responsibility which will make you more valuable and make it easier to ask for a raise.

[AngelineRose]

Have you asked your current employer for more money? You will need to be able to convince them you are worth it, but that could be easier than switching jobs. You could ask them for more responsibility which will make you more valuable and make it easier to ask for a raise.

Yes, I have. I was given a tiny raise . My manager says she is working hard to get me there with more responsibilities and an increase but after years after years hearing that, I just no longer trust and hope for that. With HR being more automated every year due to high tech applications, there is now less need for manpower. We also offshore any data entry related roles to international countries to do the work for us as well as use vendors to do a lot of our other tasks like job postings and etc. Human Resources has changed how they work dramatically over the years in large corporate.

[avil_saver36]

I am really just thinking out loud but I would welcome any feedback or ideas from another's perspective as I was not raised or hang out with others that were either educated or good with their money, but they are wonderful people nonetheless and I am rich with love.

I live in the Bay Area and with the drastic increase in rents all over the bay recently, I am no longer in the comfortable cash flow. I can't leave the area for another 15 years due to custody. So I have to deal with high rents. On the bright side, my rental has a private yard with garage, office shed and all that for the price of a tiny apartment now so in that sense, its quite an enjoyable place to rent while raising my son. I tried looking for cheaper rent.. those days are long gone now. I think my landlord cried when I accepted the rent increase this year instead of moving out.. because she know she cam easily increase rent by another thousand for the next tenant.

I worked at my place of employer for 14 years now. I stay because of excellent Benefits, the company pays out of pocket additional to the Benefits employer plan so I pay little for the family package. Up until this year, they only contribute $1500 each year to my 401k. Now it is $3000 if I contribute 15%. Salary is not that great and barely earn enough to live simply here with rent (along with child support)

I may have a chance to move up a little in the next year or so.. but not too much more than that due to my skills and not being able to hear on the phone. Human Resource/Business.

Obviously I need more income. These are the ideas I have and to keep in mind, have a preschooler to tend to so that limits some of my time.

Idea 1. Find supplemental incomes addition to my work. Maybe a mixture of online surveys, some kind of project to work from home, craft making and selling on Etsy (I make hair accessories to homemade organic lotions and creams)...

Idea 2. Take advantage of the Tuition Reimbursement program that my employer offers and go back to school to complete my degree. I go back and forth on this.. I am age 39 and not sure if that is too late. The other fear is that I am limited to degrees that somewhat relates to my line at work in Human Resource, so it would have to be HR, Business, communication related... From what I learned in HR, there is always impromptu meetings, constant changes and etc. Its not impossible but challenges me greatly with my hearing loss. I've been doing it so far but not sure the effort put into a degree will actually benefits my chances of a higher paying position?

Idea 3. Just keep searching and applying for jobs that may have better pay. (I work for a solid and top of the high tech industry company already - you would think I would be paid more by now)

Am I missing any other ideas?

In tech, working at one single company for many years totally kills your long term prospects unless you are already in the management and moving up.

I changed jobs twice in the last 2 years. Each time, I got a 20%+ raise. I am already picking up new skills and planning on moving in the next year or two netting a similar % raise.

I don't mind sharing my income. I am 36, live in the DC metro area. I am making a base $115K+15% bonus paid out twice an year. About 5% 401K match. Health benefits suck but my wife has excellent benefits so I don't care.

From my research, the ceiling for a top software engineer in DC is around $160-170K. Beyond that, you need to be a serious geek capable of contributing to open source community, or you need to be in the management. I plan on reaching the ceiling as quickly as possible in the best possible company, and take my chances there. I plan on getting out of debt very quickly, so in my early 40s, an MBA and executive path would also be on the table.

That's kind of the picture in tech. If you are at one place (even if it's Facebook or Google), you are getting a 3% raise. You either move up or move around.

[Gailete]

I haven't been to this forum in a long while but I do know that there are many threads on how to make more money, especially at home. The important thing is whatever you do it will take WORK. None of the good ones are get rich quick schemes. Also as a mother of grown kids, I babysat when they were little and so usually had 4-5 or even more kids running around constantly and we lived in a small house. I got more done then than I can now. I have seen this attitude over the years creeping into young (children's age not necessarily the mother's) mother's conversations about what they can't do because they have a little one or two. I saw an ad once for a top of the line sewing machine for sale for several thousand dollars and it was a steal at that. Never been used because she had a toddler at home! What is having kids in the house got to do with not being able to sew? Your biggest problem is the time outside employment is sucking out of you. There are ways that you can make money, but you need to find your passion and follow that and your list of stuff you could do doesn't sound very passionate. I fell into my current business when I got sick 14 years ago. I have NEVER stuck out any job this long before. Although I enjoyed nursing and was good at it, it was never my passion, it was a way to make money. My on-line store now involves my passion (sewing) and so I rarely ever feel like I am going to work. And the money we rely on at this point to help make ends me and to get some money into savings.

So rather than try to figure out what you could maybe do. Think about what you are passionate about and THEN think outside the box to what you can do to make money at it. You may surprise yourself.

If you have a Kindle, down load samples of books on how to start a business, make money at home etc. I've found that aobut 10 samples books on one subject is almost as much info as I would have gotten from a whole book. And if you are lucky you might find some free books available as well.