5 Ideas for Making Extra Money to Reduce College Graduate Debt

Going through all of my tips that I have given so far, I really haven’t covered how to make money, outside of just the basic “get a job” quote.  Getting a job is a great thing, don’t get me wrong, but while you’re in school the majority of your time you  should be either going to class, studying, or enjoying some of the great benefits of going to college like new friends and new experiences.  The below ideas that I will give are not ideas to live by and some won’t be feasible for every person, but I will cover what I have done to try and earn some extra cash here and there.

1.  Sell on eBay

One of my favorite things to do is sell my old stuff and things I find at thrift stores on eBay.  I actually started right out of high school when I was 18 years-old, and have continued to this very day.  Over the last 2 months, I have earned around $250 in profits selling both old and new clothing as well as cell phones and shoes that I never wore.  The one thing I will say is don’t get into these ideas that you are going to get rich all of a sudden or have a full time business.  Most people that do it full time, have an enormous amount of inventory, employees, storage buildings or even store fronts.  What I will tell you to focus on is find something that you are interested in such as old antiques, kids clothing (both used and new), or something like car parts.

Look through your house/apartment/room and find items that you don’t use anymore.  Most people have old toys, old video games, or old clothing that they are keeping that they don’t need, I actually had an old pair of Chuck Taylor shoes that i had worn about 3 times and didn’t wear them ever again.  But in order to learn to sell on eBay you have to try, you can’t just read an article and know all of a sudden what people are going to want.  Find your little niche and be an expert in it and try to find products that match that niche for a good price.  The biggest mistake people make is buying some item that they think is amazing and that they think they are getting  for a good price and then finding out people are already selling 100 of them below what you actually bought that item for.  Its not simple but eBay can work if you do the research, put in the effort, and find a niche.  You won’t get rich, but if you are making an extra $50-$200 a month that will equate to about $600-$2,400 a year.  A nice little dent in your college debt.

2.  Side Jobs

I know this is a broad category, but I’m going to break it down a little bit in terms of who you should ask when looking for side jobs.  I define side jobs as small 1 or 2 day jobs when you normally work for family, friend’s parents, or even coworkers or teachers.  I will always say that the more people you know the more likely you are to find some type of job whether it be a career or just a small side job.  For me, I always went straight to my dad to look for something that he needed done around the house or yard.  My father now is 71 and still works in his yard all the time and still has a small part time job that he still does, but he needs help with some of the larger things.  Whenever he needs tree limbs cut down, or any type of stump removal or limbs that fall down during the winter months he lets me do them.  For between 2-4 hours of work I would make between $20-$40 and was happy to help my family in the process.  I always say that mowing a few yards during the summer and fall is a great way to make a little extra here and there.  Go to your parents neighborhood and your neighborhood and ask around, even ask your grandparents or parents if they would like a little extra help every so often.  One thing that I learned while managing at a gym is that everyone needs a babysitter or daycare service.  The girls that worked down in the playroom always had offers from members to babysit their children every so often.  Parents wanted to go out on a date night, or had an event for their work that they needed to go to.  All of these little things add up, again they may sound like obvious choices , and they aren’t going to make you thousands of dollars, but until you put them into practice you may be losing out on a few hundred or even $1,000 a year that you could have been using to pay off debt.

3. Coaching at Sports Camps

I know this one may get people a little questioning what I’m saying, but again I’m offering advice based off of what I did.  Instead of looking at it like you have to do this, maybe look at it as tutor younger math students and that may work for you.  One thing that always happened around my hometown was sports camps, whether it was baseball, basketball, soccer, or even tennis, someone had a camp.  Guess what?  They also were during the summer and winter months when I wasn’t in school!  If you can find an old coach, or a training facility that is putting a sports camp on, go visit them and see if they need some extra help.  They usually last for about a week or more, most of the time they pay for your meals, and not only that if you are interested in going into coaching, you may be able to keep in contact with some coaches to try and find a job later.  The first places that I always looked at to help were major colleges or universities and then went to local sports facilities and teams to try and find fliers and handouts with contact information and who was actually in charge.  Give them a call and see if they need some help, they may say no, or they may gladly take an extra person, you never know until you ask.

4. Make a Product and Sell it

This is going to require a little money to put into your product, but it may lead to large returns in the future.  I used to try and make e-books and sell them on either eBay or other affiliate websites.  Obviously, I wasn’t very successful, but I didn’t have to put up money upfront and if I failed (which I did) I didn’t lose a ton of money.  My sister has become a candle guru of sorts, she makes them in her house and sells them on eBay as well as garage sales, to friends and family, and even at her booth at a flea market.  But what you have to remember is that sometime in your life you probably loved to make something.  Try it again, see if you can improve it, and try and see if people are interested in buying it.  Arts and craft ideas can be great for places like Craigslist or flea markets, it could turn into something that you could do full time later down the road.

5. Create a Blog or Website

I am not a good person to look at for these but, I have researched and researched on different people that make between $10-$5,000 a month from their online adventures.  Some have created an amazing blog like ViperChill and some have created an amazing product.  I have officially made $7.00 in my lifetime with trying to make different websites that never seem to pan out because I usually get tired of waiting for results.  I have now decided to make this one because I was tired of sitting around and hearing all of the different stories of so many people having so much college graduate debt.  Here was the process that I took to create my website

-Created a website domain name at GoDaddy.com.

-Purchased one year of hosting at HostGator.com

-Started writing blog posts on what I felt like were important topics to myself as well as what could help other people.

-Made it live by publishing all my articles on my blog and trying to create a group of information that wouldn’t go out of style but also help a ton of individuals.

If you would like help with eBay, creating a blog, or any of the above mentioned items, please e-mail me, make a comment below, or request for a more detailed article to be written.  I’m all about helping!!!

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