5 Income Sources That Helped Me In My College Years
I personally did all these things to earn a lot of money in my college days, so I could afford a living and enjoy my college days.
When I was 19, I always thought of making money as I didn’t come from a rich family. So, I always tried many things to earn money in order to support my living.
These are the five sources that I found useful in my teenage.
I think of sharing this stuff as it might help others who are facing the same problems as me.
#1 Day Trading
Day trading is one of the best income sources I ever found in my life. The ratio of time to income is so great in this that you won’t believe it.
I was able to make so much money, at such an early age that I almost stopped studying and tried to become a full-time trader.
It was not a wrong decision to become a full-time day trader, but the thing that I don’t like about trading is that I was not providing any value to the people or society.
Pros:
- Big money in a very small amount of time.
- The flexibility of time and place. Can trade from anywhere, all you need is a laptop or mobile and an internet connection.
- Trading changes your life in a good way, it will make you more kind, humble, and disciplined in the real life. It makes you an overall better person.
- Trading gives you freedom of many things like time, money, etc.
Cons:
- Might take a huge amount of time to learn this skill.
- Can become a very bad thing for mental health in the process of learning.
- You need money in the starting, as the market might take a lot of money before it starts giving it back.
- Not easy to learn.
- Not for everyone, as many people might give up in the learning process cause trading cost a lot of mental effort and money when starting.
Teaching
Teaching is one thing that can be done easily and almost anywhere, as you can easily find people who don’t have time to teach their kids.
You can also teach older students who want to learn big stuff. If you are a coder, you can teach coding, if you play musical instruments, then you can teach it as well.
Teaching can pay a lot of money depending on what are you teaching and who are your students.
If you teach elementary students, then the probability of making big money is quite hard.
Pros:
- You will gain respect in society as a teacher.
- Teaching can help you in getting a better understanding of the subject as well.
- Teaching helps you understand the community better as you spend time with students from different backgrounds to get to know about their mentality.
Cons:
- Teaching while studying can be a hard decision, as it won’t leave you much time for yourself.
- When teaching, you are trading your time for money.
- You must have a good understanding of the subject yourself.
Taking Freelance projects
Freelancing is something that I like a lot. Freelancing is what made me capable of making a noticeable amount in my early days in college. The one thing that I did as soon as I joined my college was to learn how to code.
When I gained confidence in my coding skills, I approached many people online and offline. I had a friend who used to work for a digital marketing and video editing firm. He introduced me to many clients who wanted a website for their business.
I worked for them and soon I had enough contacts that I was able to get 3–4 projects each month. And started making good money.
I then used this money to learn how to day trade.
Pros:
- The flexibility of time and place to work.
- Independence, you are independent of your work. You work wherever you want and when you want.
- You learn a lot about business, as you need to research on your own for a particular project.
- High income depending on your experience.
Cons:
- Taxation can become a huge problem if you manage to come under any tax slab.
- Not a fixed income, so you only get paid for how much you work.
- You will have to work on many skills such as marketing, handling clients, etc.
- Handling clients can be a huge problem, as sometimes clients don’t pay on time.
Handling Social media accounts for others
This is not something that I did, but some friends of mine were doing this. Also, I had a cousin’s brother who used to manage the social media accounts of many people.
Their job was simple, if you have a little knowledge of editing and photoshop, you can start this as well.
My friends and cousin used to take other’s accounts for $70-$100 each, their job was to post around 12–15 pieces of content on their Instagram and Facebook accounts.
They could easily make these contents as they were skilled editors. But I never felt that you have to have so advanced skills in editing to make some posts. You can easily do that on some online applications as well.
Pros:
- You will get to work with many big firms and brands.
- Your work will be seen by a lot of people.
- It will boost your creativity.
- Your marketing skill will improve. If you are trying to get into the marketing field, then you should give it a try.
Cons:
- You won’t have any original identity.
- Sometimes the work can be quite stressful.
- Your mistakes might go viral, and you may have to pay a lot because of it.
Being a Broker
This too is something that I did not do but again some of my friends and some people in my locality were doing this for good income. Being a broker is like being an affiliate marketer in the offline market.
There are many types of brokers. Some try to sell the rented property and these brokers charge big money for this tiny job.
I knew many people who used to charge 50% as the brokerage of the rental property the customer is looking for. It’s a good business but also very time-consuming.
Pros:
- Potential of earning big money.
- You will have quite a good network.
- With the flexibility of time, you can take a break whenever you want.
Cons:
- You must have a good network to get started in this field.
- A lot of time will be needed to get hang of this field, as there are quite big fishes in this field.
- Getting a license can be a hard deal.
These were my top 5 income sources, I hope you find this article helpful.
Thanks for reading.
