Hate the early morning rush hour traffic? Abhor the idea of slaving away in your office cubicle for long hours five days a week? For the most of us, holding a job is a means of earning a living and putting food on the table. It is the fine line between having a roof over our head and living on the streets like a hobo. Well, not everyone is an heir to a multi-billionaire empire.
For those who don’t believe in the corporate 9-to-5 lifestyle (if you call that a lifestyle) but still have to find money to eat: fret not, there are ways that you can actually earn money in your pajamas at the comfort of your home, or even sipping a pina colada on some foreign exotic beach. Anywhere is better than under the unforgiving fluorescent lights in the office, choking in your necktie!
Here are some creative hacks to earn you the money without having a 9-to-5 job:
1. Selling novelty stuff online
The easiest way to earn a few bucks without even leaving your bed is to sell your own stuff on online marketplace websites like mudah.my, lelong.my or eBay.
You’ll be surprised to find that your old action figure toys or Barbie dolls collecting dust in the storeroom could be worth something today. Remember the McDonald’s Happy Meal Despicable Me 2 Minions craze a while back? At one point, a complete set of 19 figurines could fetch you US$360 (that’s RM1, 260!)!
Selling your personal items may not seem like a sustainable income channel. You can step it up a notch by reselling exclusive novelty items. Go through flea markets for limited edition but forgotten items, or if you are too lazy, you can even scour online on ebay to look for these items.
Some of these items can fetch a high resale value especially among collectors. For example, realistic life-like replica limited edition action figures or pre-order models by HotToys can be sold (in mint condition of course) to collectors for a higher price, making a tidy sum of profit.
2. Setting up an online store
According to Open Minds Resources, 65% of Malaysians shop online, making online shops a potentially good money-making opportunity. Just going through your Facebook news feed, you will see many advertisements selling from fashion apparel, food, to some downright weird items, that you may not see walking in a mall.
With the Internet, you can be selling the same clothes as the next person, and you may still be raking in money, because you have millions and billions of potential customers waiting for you online!
That’s not even the best thing. The best thing is, you don’t need hundreds of thousands to set up your business, you may not even need to hire anyone in the beginning!
3. Blogging
If you are gifted with good writing skills, and can transform even the most mundane things to an adventure, you should milk that skill for some cash. There is no shortage of bloggers in the World Wide Web, and if you have a story to tell, what’s stopping you.
Writing about your daily life and thoughts can be an avenue to earn some money, either from advertising, sponsorship or even brand ambassador. As long your blog gains a strong following in whatever niche you may choose, soon enough companies will look for you to endorse their products or to advertise on your page.
Not only can you make some money, you might also receive free products and freebies or even free holiday trips from reviewing and endorsing on your blog.
4. Running marathons competitively
If you are one of those people who like the great outdoors, this is just the thing for you.
Get fit and healthy while earning sweet money by running competitively to win the prize money. Once you have established yourself in the game, you can even potentially earn some moolah from sponsors for wearing and endorsing their products.
Another perk you can get from being a professional marathon runner is to travel around the world to participate in various prestigious marathon events — all for free!
For example, the recent Standard Chartered KL Marathon’s prize money for the victor of the full marathon open category is US$17,500 (RM61,220). Winning these marathons may see yourself earning as much as a young working professional in a year!
5. Being a YouTube star
The new era of celebrity stardom has arrived, who hasn’t heard of JinnyboyTV in Malaysia? People have risen to stardom through YouTube and some even go as far as securing endorsement deals, modeling gigs, and movie contracts.
A great success story on this is none other than Park Jae-sang, also known as Psy, with his music video Gangnam Style. Videos are easier to make now than ever before and just about anything that can go viral on YouTube. Get it right and you’ll start seeing cash appearing on your doorstep.
6. Turning your passion into money
There is no right or wrong when it comes to passion (if it does not break any law, of course). If you are addicted to playing MMORPGs (Massive-multiplayer online role playing games), perhaps you can earn money from it. Farming in-game virtual currency and selling it for real cash is one way of earning an income from gaming. Though, this should be done legitimately on games that endorse these methods.
If you want to take it further, you can even consider gaming professionally (if you are any good at it). This “job” may be back-breaking from the long hours of sitting, but the potential income you can earn is mind-blowing. This year’s prize money for Dota 2 tournament was as high as US$10 million. Just winning a fraction of that money will see you off the entire year. .
What’s better than doing something you love while paving your way to becoming a millionaire?
7. Full-time investors
If you have adequate knowledge in finance and investment, plus a good sum of money to start as capital, you can consider being a full-time investor. Having a healthy risk appetite and the capacity to put your money into the market can potentially make you quite a handsome return, and perhaps eventually be your way to attain financial freedom.
Investing may have its risks but everything that offers good returns will have risks. The key is to diversify adequately, and do your homework before investing.
The above are just some of the common ways to earn an income outside of the conventional “job”.
Suspend your disbelief, the possibilities of earning an income without being strapped to a 9-to-5 job are endless. The sky is truly the limit to your creativity to find an ingenious way to create a sustainable income channel without having a job!
