How To Earn Extra Money

It's 3am, and you're freezing your tail off as you stand in the street, stark naked, watching your house burn to the ground. Not a good end to the week, for sure, especially since you got hit by the layoff bug three days ago, and your checking account is already overdrawn. Did I mention that your car got stolen two hours earlier? To top it all off, you really have nowhere to turn, since you've only lived here two months and have no family, no close friends, and no social support network established here yet.

Well, now what?

This scenario is obviously an extreme. In reality, nobody ever has absolutely nothing. We all usually have some "stuff" left over, some skills, knowledge, friends, social affiliations to fall back on, etc. Even children somehow manage to survive on the streets through natural human intuition, instinct, bonding, and cunning.

However, as more and more people end up on the streets after losing their jobs and homes, I figured that I would share some of what I've learned through my own experience. Having been in similar situations on more than one occasion for various reasons, I can attest to the difficulty in being there.

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This is the Frequently Asked Questions page for the Work From Home Cookbook program.

1. What is Work From Home Cookbook?

WorkFromHomeCookbook.com is a sister site to How To Earn that provides detailed instructions in the form of checklists, videos, etc. (aka, "recipes") for making money working from home.

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I had sort of an epiphany today. A lot of people, myself included, make strides to isolate ourselves from the overall ups and downs of the general economy. While I think it's impossible to do so completely, excepting perhaps if you live completely off the land and choose not to participate in the economy at all, I think there are ways to, in general, insulate yourself against the broader economic fumblings going on around you without dropping out of society.

This is something I've been exploring for years on a thought experiment sort of basis, in particular. I think I finally had a breakthrough about it today. In retrospect, it seems kind of obvious, and what I'm about to write is by no means profound, but here it is anyway. In general, I believe that there are certain goods and services within a modern, civilized society that are fairly critical. If you can associate yourself with one or more of those critical functions, and do so in a way that precludes removal of you as a worker, then I think that the probability of long-term economic success drastically increases. This relates in particular to the idea of working in a field that will more or less always be around.

I have no intention of making an exhaustive list of what these essential occupations in an economy would be, but I think I've come up with some generalities. For example, in general I think there always has been, and always will be, a place in the world for the person that can make broken things become fixed things (e.g., construction trades, repair personnel, mechanics, etc.). On the same line of reasoning, I think there will always be a place for people that can take an idea and turn it into a time or labor saving physical device (such as designers, engineers, builders, etc.). In other words, if you're "good with your hands" you'll probably always be able to at least scrape by. Even in the event of the collapse of civilization, these kind of folks will have a better grasp on how to become self-sufficient and maximize the use of materials they have at hand for survival.

Also, look at the things that are essential for life. I think that if you're able to participate in the production and distribution of food and water, you've probably got some good job security. In this day and age, you could probably also add in jobs relating to the extraction and distribution of raw materials and energy. Computers are so tied into our daily lives that the world of information technology is also likely to have long term economic stability.

Life and death happen to be on the guaranteed side of things, too, so I think that those workers in healthcare professions will always be around. At the very least, doctors, nurses, and morticians should be with us for quite a while.

What actually got me thinking about this today was that I was thinking about the necessity of two of my own professional interests: real estate and taxes. Everybody needs a place to live, as the saying goes, so being involved in providing that housing is a good long term bet. Also, whenever you get large groups of human beings together, some sort of government usually tends to emerge from the ether (be it for better or worse), which invariably leads to taxation.

A lot of this sort of thought process definitely involves making assumptions about the future and the world in which we live. I could definitely see how a person's viewpoint on the world could impact there thought process here, particularly based on political and religious beliefs. Some people think we're less than 2 years away from total global annihilation, while other people think we're only two years from some Utopian paradise where nobody wants for anything and all humans have flying cars condensed into their briefcases.

In general, though, I think it's safe (and sane) to assume that in 20 years, much of our world will be fairly similar to what it is today. Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse. There might be major system changes to society similar to what the computer brought along, but even then, most of the basics for living in a modern, civilized environment tend to remain similar.

A profound example of this is that, despite the growth of online sales, the retail sector remains as strong as it is. Yes, there have been changes in the retail landscape, but that landscape is still there and it's still really, really huge, economically. If you're involved in retail trade or customer service, I think there's long-term job stability there, too. People still want STUFF. The nature of that stuff might change, but stuff is what we tend to accumulate. Maybe this year you're selling iPods on eBay or as a sales associate in a retail store, or providing telephone customer service for that iPod, or selling accessories for it out of your trunk in a parking lot, etc. But it's still connected to retail, and "stuff". Next decade, that "stuff" might be micro-miniaturized verboplasm power packs that power every device known to man, but somebody still has to sell, service, repair, provide tech support, account for, set up displays, rotate inventory, collect sales tax, ship/transport/deliver, and who knows what else in support of that gizmo, so again, in general, those related retail and service professions will still exist, in some way.

So, in closing, let me just say that I now believe that if your primarily goal in planning your future work is to achieve maximum probability of being able to work, I think it's important to build a history of connection to some of these essential things within life and society, and stay on top of the learning curve when it comes to the slow, gradual changes that move these fields along.

Now, also keep in mind that ensuring employability isn't the ONLY thing. Many of the fields I've mentioned in this post tend to be lower paying occupations these days. So, if you're more motivated by extremely high earnings, then maybe you need to look at other factors for selecting an occupation, instead of what I've discussed here. Or maybe you're motivated by the excitement of a rapidly advancing field, regardless of long term employment stability or money. Only you can decide that for yourself, of course.

Make it a GREAT day!

-Jassen