Might be time to start looking for more income streams...

[Nickelless]

As many of you know, I'm driving a cab at the moment, which has been paying the bills well for the past 18 months. Well, we've had a situation arise with accidents and other vehicle problems the past 10 days or so which in and of itself isn't cutting my hours, but the resulting effect is that there are now fewer vehicles in our fleet. Our company does ambulance and medical transportation (which is what the company did originally) in addition to cab service (which it started in 2002), and because there's no guarantee that an independent contractor will be available to help cover extra demand for medical transportation, the company is now mandating that at least two non-IC drivers be available at all times. Non-IC drivers are on the company payroll and have set schedules, although they only make minimum wage and any tips they might get from taxi runs, whereas independent contractors lease cabs on a per-shift basis but have to cover the cab lease before they make any money for themselves.

So for me and other independent contractors, if we don't get to the station before other ICs snap up available vehicles, we're out of luck for the day, or until another driver goes home. Because independent contractors set their own hours--we just come in whenever we want, not having a set schedule--there's no guarantee that we will be able to get a cab when we want to drive, as is the case for me today (at least until 7 p.m.--I usually start driving on Saturdays at around 4 p.m. if there's a cab available). So as I'm writing this, I'm sitting here at the station across the room from another independent contractor who's watching golf on TV and babbling on and on about how he hopes he'll be able to get a car to drive this evening while I'm sitting here typing this and am about to see if I've got leads on freelance writing/editing jobs. It looks like a good time to start looking for more income streams.

[agmoose]

Good luck, sure hope things take a positive turn.

[TXBullion]

multiple income streams are always a great idea regardless if you need them or not. Let us know what you come up with ! are you looking for a part time job or something else? I like this topic

[Nickelless]

I've been resurrecting communication with a source for editing jobs that I hadn't been in touch with in some time because I'd been so busy with the cab company. My goal is to make at least $400 a month from editing jobs--not a hard task, it's just going to take a bit of footwork on my part, which I'm working on. That will cover my expected shortfall if I end up with one less cab shift a week.

[TXBullion]

I've been resurrecting communication with a source for editing jobs that I hadn't been in touch with in some time because I'd been so busy with the cab company. My goal is to make at least $400 a month from editing jobs--not a hard task, it's just going to take a bit of footwork on my part, which I'm working on. That will cover my expected shortfall if I end up with one less cab shift a week.

awesome, so you know how to write well to? Maybe publishing content for blogs? Anyways to get paid royalties on that stuff too if you can write or just editing?

[AGCoinHunter]

It will take a little upfront money and sweat but rental properties has been a great second stream of income for me. Depending on your financial shape you can get into properties fairly cheap and rent them out to section 8 dwellers...

[Numis Pam]

It will take a little upfront money and sweat but rental properties has been a great second stream of income for me. Depending on your financial shape you can get into properties fairly cheap and rent them out to section 8 dwellers...

+1 on rental properties. They have done well for us... but..... we pulled ours out from under section 8 because of too many problems with tenants trashing units; We would rather let some go unrented if need be than to deal with goverment programs...
but managed well, rental properties are an awesome extra stream of income!!

[AGCoinHunter]

It will take a little upfront money and sweat but rental properties has been a great second stream of income for me. Depending on your financial shape you can get into properties fairly cheap and rent them out to section 8 dwellers...

+1 on rental properties. They have done well for us... but..... we pulled ours out from under section 8 because of too many problems with tenants trashing units; We would rather let some go unrented if need be than to deal with goverment programs...
but managed well, rental properties are an awesome extra stream of income!!

I dont do section 8 on my properties either but if you are able to pick up some real lower end places on the cheap and have guaranteed income on them its a nice revenue stream. I have a co_worker who ownes around 20 cheap (less than 10k each) houses and has them in section 8 and gets 4-500 a month each. Nice income and he could care less what happens to the house. Yes the tear them up but he doesnt really care, fixes them on the cheap and back on the market.

[Hawkeye]

It will take a little upfront money and sweat but rental properties has been a great second stream of income for me. Depending on your financial shape you can get into properties fairly cheap and rent them out to section 8 dwellers...

+1 on rental properties. They have done well for us... but..... we pulled ours out from under section 8 because of too many problems with tenants trashing units; We would rather let some go unrented if need be than to deal with goverment programs...
but managed well, rental properties are an awesome extra stream of income!!

I dont do section 8 on my properties either but if you are able to pick up some real lower end places on the cheap and have guaranteed income on them its a nice revenue stream. I have a co_worker who ownes around 20 cheap (less than 10k each) houses and has them in section 8 and gets 4-500 a month each. Nice income and he could care less what happens to the house. Yes the tear them up but he doesnt really care, fixes them on the cheap and back on the market.

I've been looking into trying something like that for a while now, but haven't found the right property yet. I've been delivering appliances on the weekends for a couple of years for some extra cash. I've also been doing some halfway serious woodworking and am going to try to sell a couple of solid pine and solid oak tables in the spring. (made from solid 2x10s and 4x4s). We will see if that generates anything worthwhile.