In this 2nd part of this 3-part article series, Marc Linsky, CFP at Estreet Financial, explores ways to create extra income during your retirement years.
Are you good talking to people over the phone? Sales may be a great way for you to generate extra income. Marc Linsky says if you’ve got a “people” personality or have previous sales experience, there are plenty of companies like those found on Indeed who will pay you to sell for them. The days of dialing random numbers are over, and technology has taken over, he adds. This is great for someone who can do sales from home since it means you’re calling leads that have already indicated an interest in the product, not simply dialing every number in the phone book, Marc says.
Make Money Off Your Change: Here’s a novel idea, Marc Linsky says. Acorns is a company that rounds up your purchases from anywhere and then invests it on your behalf. It not so much a money maker as it is a money saver, he adds. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you buy a cup of coffee for $4.75 from Starbucks. Acorns will automatically round it up to $5.00 and invest that $.25 for you automatically. It’s a pretty decent way to save your extra change easily, he adds.
Lose Weight for Cash: Marc Linsky says this HealthyWage site pays you for losing weight. Just enter in the amount you want to lose and the amount you are willing to “bet” per month. It’s a good incentive to losing weight, but if you don’t hit your goal, the money goes to the company to help support others who are losing weight. For that reason, it might not be a good idea unless you’re sure you can do it.
Sell Your Photographs: This side gig doesn’t require extra training, Marc Linsky says, and it’s easy to do. You upload photos to the site and when one sells, you get paid. It’s probably not going to pay your bills, Marc adds, but every little bit helps. Some sites for selling your photos as stock photograph are Shutterstock, iStockPhoto, DreamsTime, BigStockPhoto, Crestock, PhotoStockPlus, 123RoyaltyFree, Adobe Stock, CanStockPhoto, and DepositPhotos. Note that each of sites has different terms and payment amounts, so read carefully.
If you consider yourself an artist and want to sell online, some good sites to consider are PicassoMio, Red Bubble, and ImageKind. You can also sell prints on sites where you can set up your own store, like Etsy, eBay, CafePress, and Zazzle.
Give Your Opinions: Companies want your opinions, and you can get paid for giving them, Marc Linsky says. User Testing and UserFeel are a couple of reputable companies that will pay you to give your opinion on their clients’ websites.
Another site called InboxDollars will pay you to watch short video clips online.
If you have any qualifying medical conditions, M3Global will pay you for your opinions.
Swagbucks is another popular site in which you can earn gift cards by shopping online, watching videos, taking surveys. Even if it won’t make you rich, it might pay a bill or two.
Sell Your Used Books: Making money with used books has never been easier, Marc Linsky says. A website called BookScouter will let you enter the ISBN number of your book and show you the best places that will pay you money for that book. If you want to make more, you can enter in books from places like thrift stores and flea markets or yard sales. Some people are reporting some good extra income from selling books this way on a regular basis.
Local Shopping: Many people are using local shoppers to save time. With Instacart, you sign up and start earning money helping other people do things they don’t have time for.
Get Cash Back: Consider apps that pay you for doing things you’d normally do anyway. Dosh is an app that is completely passive. When you install the app and link your credit card, every time you spend money at a participating merchant, you earn cash.
Another legitimate site to check out for getting money back from your purchases is Rakuten. For this one, Marc Linsky says, you earn money in the form of “rebates” after a qualifying purchase.
Ibotta is another site that lets you get cash back for items you’d buy anyway. You send them a copy of your receipt from participating stores and earn cash. When you use apps like these for things you’d purchase anyway, it’s just being smart.
Misc: Some companies like Dotdash have a career board in which they’re looking for reliable help from home doing writing and other things. Some of the jobs they advertise require skills in certain areas and some don’t.
If you’re interested in getting free stock, you might want to sign up for Robinhood. This one is good since it doesn’t charge commissions and you can buy and sell stocks for free, Marc says. They say you get free stock just by opening an account and downloading the app.
Don’t miss out on the rest of these ideas to generate extra income from home. See Part 3 for more ideas and recommendations.
Marc Linsky CFP is a certified financial planner and the President of Estreet Financial, a financial investment firm specializing in retirement and financial planning with particular focus on those in the medical professions. He holds the CFP certification, which is recognized as the standard of excellence for the financial planning profession and has been helping people with their financial, retirement, and estate planning since 1986. Marc Linsky holds a bachelor’s degree in Marketing and Economics from Penn State University. He has been married 33 years to his wife, Molly, and has 3 grown children and 2 grandchildren. Estreet Financial has offices in New Jersey, Florida, and New York.
