Category Archives for Make Money

Office Work Hacks

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Marie. You can read more of Marie’s articles over at her own blog, Family Money Values. Enjoy! 

Getting along and getting ahead in the office involve age old problems.  Here are some problems with ideas on solutions.

Inability to focus is causing you to be less productive.

You head into the office each day refreshed and ready, but once you get logged in to your applications, the next thing you know it’s lunch time and you haven’t accomplished anything!

Hack: Downsize distractions and focus on priorities.

You can’t control your office environment, but you can change its effect on you.  If the guy in the next cube has a constant stream of visitors, talks to himself out loud, plays loud music or just otherwise distracts you – put on your headphones (they will discourage visitors from approaching and can block the noise).  Reduce clutter in your area so that you aren’t distracted by it.  If you are in a high traffic area, see if the company will put up some noise and sight protection in the form of higher cube walls, signs or other preventative measures.

Focus on priorities by writing down the very most important things that you accomplish each day, and listing tomorrow’s priority tasks.  Check in once in a while with the boss or project leader to make sure you are on track.  Avoid diverting phone calls, emails, text messages, and non-essential or less important project tasks so that you have laser like focus on the priority items.  BUT, if you get stuck working on priority items, it is OK to switch off temporarily to work other items – as long as you get back on track fast.

You feel invisible to the boss.

A boss or mentor higher in the corporate chain of command is an important ally when trying to advance your career.  He or she can steer special projects to you, make you known to other executives, put you in for a raise or bonus, push your ideas, save you from a general layoff, or help in a myriad of other ways.

Hack:  Go face to face

Electronic or phone communication is fine, but your boss is inundated with it day in, day out.  Get to know the boss by going face to face on select topics.  You won’t be invisible long – but take care to be visible in a positive way!

Here are some ways to to meet person to person with your boss.

If he assigned a task or deliverable to you and you finish it successfully, try hand delivering it with a very short verbal reminder of what it is and when it was requested.

If your boss does an annual evaluation, request a touch base meeting once a quarter or twice a year to ‘verify that I’m on track’ with what is needed.

Ask around to see what your boss’s outside interests are, and if you have similar ones, strike up a conversation in the lunch line, bathroom or break-room about the topic.

Volunteer for special projects or activities in which your boss is also involved.   Working directly together on a project will allow you to directly demonstrate your ability, creativity and productivity.

If your boss is not at the same location as you are, try using the phone, video calls or attempting to schedule a visit to his or her location for a special meeting on something important to the boss.

Your work performance suffers due to co-worker or staff member office socialization.

Yes, you are part of a group.  Yes, the group is important.  Some socialization is good for the group and good for productivity, but too much is just a waste of time.  Creativity can be spawned by some group socialization, but so can negative, hurtful gossip that distracts you from the job at hand.   If your good friend in the next department makes a habit of stopping by for a chat each day, and ends up talking for half an hour, the benefit of inter-department communication is outweighed by the loss of work time from both of you.

Hack: Turn the talk back to work subjects.

Don’t be a jerk, do visit for a few minutes, but then gently turn the talk back to what is going on with the project, or a new idea you had to make things better, or a discussion of how to go about the next steps you both need to take.  Don’t get me wrong, managers can gain a lot of good perspective by being open to informal communication with their staff and peers, but perspective on who will take the Superbowl may not be all that beneficial.

Use off hours (such as breaks, lunch and after work time) to really socialize with co-workers.

Meetings suck your office time, then you have to stay late to get your actual work done.

As a manager, I attended and ran a lot of meetings.  There were very good reasons to hold many of the meetings, but often the purpose was not realized.  Sometimes (actually many times) the meeting participants are unprepared to fully participate in what could be a great meeting. Sometimes the meeting organizer isn’t aware of other work that should be happening in the meeting time frame.  Meetings don’t equal work done (usually), but can be beneficial in some cases.

Hack:  Make your meetings meaningful.

When you attend a meeting:

• Understand its purpose.

Question the meeting purpose it doesn’t make sense or if a meeting is not the way to achieve that purpose, but question in private.

• Make sure you should be attending – are you an interested party, can you contribute? Check in with the meeting organizer or your boss if you are unsure why you are attending and then:
• Participate fully.

As the meeting organizer:

• Make sure you have a purpose.

Consider carefully whether a meeting is the very best way to achieve that purpose.

• Verify that each and every meeting participant is required.
• Hold the meeting for the shortest possible time, with the tightest possible agenda.
• Lead efficiently.
• If you hold a lot of meetings, get training on how to lead effective ones and how to accomplish things without meetings.

Any meeting where the leader talks and everyone else sits around fidgeting is a failure!

Work sucks but you don’t feel like you can do anything to change the way things are.

When we lack seniority, we often don’t feel empowered to put our own imprint on our work place.  If we try, sometimes we are told “This is the way we do it – it’s always been done this way”.  Yet you do know of a better way – or at least think you do.

Hack: Figure out how your company solicits or allows input. 

Most companies have implemented multiple ways for employee ideas to trickle up to higher levels of management.  Many companies long for the great employee suggestions and go to great lengths to make sure they are heard.  You just need to figure out what those currently are.

A few methods I have seen at various employers include:

Company wiki’s with sections for various parts of the company – where anyone can post an idea.

Ongoing braintrust meetings – open invites for certain departments, levels or mixes of employees gather to present and discuss ideas for new products, process improvements and etc.

Awards – formal channels to submit written proposals to an award committee to review and get implemented.

Third party award systems – third parties sometimes are hired to come in and solicit money saving suggestions from the folks closest to the work.  These usually come with some pretty significant ‘prizes’.

Special calls to action – a director or vice-president is on a special mission and requests ideas on how to accomplish that mission.

Company Strategic mission committees – most companies have a mission, with goals, strategies and tactics to get to them.  Ask around to find out who is eligible to work on these committees, offer up strategies and tactics or be on the projects to implement them.

Brainstorming meetings – typically held around one particular topic.

Once you understand the change procedures, explore the particular item you want to change.  Learn the history of how and why the process came to be.  What was tried before, would it fail again now?  Was your idea previously suggested?  How could it be implemented differently to be more effective?

Of course, you can always just talk it over with the boss or your other co-workers.  Building support for your change can give its chances of adoption a big boost.

The above work hacks are based on my own work experience and may not necessarily work for you.  It’s always good to get the lay of the land before diving in head first on some of these things.

How about you all? What work hacks have you seen?  Are there issues in your workplace interfering with your productivity?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/83532250@N06/7650804342/

Set Goals to Create Additional Streams of Income

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

How many streams of income do you have? When my husband got laid off early last year, we realized that one stream of income just won’t cut it anymore.

Diversifying your income can provide you with more financial security which is why it’s a great idea to set goals to create additional streams of income this year.

Why You Need More Income Streams

Most millionaires have an average of 7 different streams of income. Whether you’re trying to be a millionaire or not, you can probably agree that the more income you have coming in from various different sources, the more financially secure you’ll be.

When my husband got laid off, he lost his entire income in one fatal swoop. Luckily, I was working at the time and freelancing on the side with more than 10+ different clients. It was safe to say that by me having multiple streams of income, it really helped up get through that rough patch.

Income diversification can not only help you feel more stable, it can also allow you to meet your other financial goals quicker and allow you to earn more money over time as well.

Here are a few ways to diversify your income this year.

Start Freelancing

If you can provide a service to others on the side of your full-time job, it can be a great way to create an additional stream of income. There are so many different ways to freelance whether you like to write, edit, design graphics, take photos, do customer service or data entry work and so on.

The best part about freelancing is that you can choose your own clients to work with and set your own rates and hours. You don’t have to work an extra 30 hours per week if you don’t want to or know you won’t have the energy. Once you build your network and start finding clients, you can maintain as little or as much work as you want.

If you want to perform the tasks you do at your day job on the side for others as well, that’s an option as long as your employer is okay with it. For example, if you work at a daycare and want to offer some of the parents babysitting services on weekends, as long as your employer is fine with it, you can earn some extra money that way.

I used to take my son to a child care center that allowed that and parents like me were relieved since the center was closed during evenings and weekends.

Back when I worked at a web design firm, I used to think about how much the graphic designers and programmers I worked with could have earned if they did a few freelance projects on the side.

A graphic designer can easily earn an extra $1,000 per month by taking on only 1-2 extra projects on the side.

Sell a Product

Want to sell a product your created or a product on the market that you believe in? Consider this semi-passive way to diversify your income.

If you like to create handmade products and goods, consider setting up an Etsy shop and selling your items online. You can also design t-shirts to sell, create an e-book, flip used items for profit by selling them on sites like Amazon and Ebay.

I knew a blogger who wanted to pay off her student loans so bad that she started buying gently used designer clothing at thrift stores for cheap then selling them online for a profit.

As another option, you can sell products through a direct sales company so you can earn commission from each sale. Companies like Avon, Stella and Dot, Beach Body and Premier Designs, are all great options but there are tons of direct sales companies out there depending on what you’re interested in.

You can show your product catalogs to family, friends, and coworkers and make extra money that way.

Invest

Investing is a great way to diversify your income by creating passive income streams. You can invest in the stock market or in peer-to-peer lending.

You can also invest in real estate. Crowdfunded real estate will allow you to share the costs of investing in commercial and residential properties if you don’t want to purchase a property entirely on your own.

However, if you do purchase a small home or condo, you can earn money each month by renting it out and allow your tenants to pay off the mortgage for you.

Start Brainstorming With This Master List of 20+ Ideas

As you can see, there are quite a few options for diversifying your income this year. Below, I’ve compiled a list of specific ways that you can create additional streams of income. With these ideas, you shouldn’t even consider having one job or a single income stream a possibility anymore.

• Babysit
• Offer a cleaning service
• Buy a rental property
• Drive for Uber or Lyft
• Rent out your car when you’re not using it with Turo
• Rent out your home or a property with Airbnb
• Write an ebook that helps a specific target audience solve a problem
• Start a blog and monetize it
• Sell your crafts and creations on Etsy
• Design T-shirts via Tee Spring to sell online
• Become a freelance writer
• Become a virtual assistant
• Become a freelance photographer
• Sell your images to stock photo websites
• Sell clothes or books online
• Tutor students online or in your community
• Invest in the stock market by building a dividend portfolio
• Flip a house
• Become a peer lender
• Buy website domain names then resell them online
• Host direct sales parties

How about you all? How will you create additional streams of income this year?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

****Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/101594790/

One of the Benefits of Financial Independence: Sabbaticals

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Kevin Mercadante, who is a freelance professional personal finance blogger for hire, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry.

One of the benefits of achieving financial independence is the possibility of creating sabbaticals. These are breaks you can take from work, every few years. They can last anywhere from a few months to a couple of years. They are more typical in the education field, but if you have financial independence, you can work them into your own lifestyle.

After all, since we all have limited time in his life, there’s often a trade-off between time and earning money for a living. We can see the value in weekends and vacations, so periodic sabbaticals aren’t a ridiculous idea.

Early Retirement Doesn’t Have to be the Ultimate Goal of Financial Independence

The whole concept of financial independence has now become almost synonymous with early retirement. The idea is that you will reach a level of financial worth where you will no longer need to work to earn a living.

That’s certainly a worthwhile goal, but it does have a few flaws in it. The first is that it’s not likely that most people are going to reach a point where they can stop working fairly early in life, and never have to worry about money again. Another is that not everyone necessarily wants to stop working and retire. For many, it’s enough just to have the ability to retire, even if you never do.

But that’s where sabbaticals can come into the picture. Even if you don’t fully retire for the rest of your life, you can take periodic breaks during your career. For example, you could decide to work for five years, and then take a year off.

One of the advantages of this is that you don’t have to wait until you have the enormous amount of money you will need to keep you from having the work for the rest of life. Instead of waiting until you can early retire at say, 50, you can take sabbaticals much earlier in life. If you create some level of financial independence, you could even do it as early as 30. It’s a less challenging task, which makes it more doable in the near-term.

Sometimes You Just Need a Break for a While

So why would you even want to take a sabbatical? Sometimes you just need a break. For many people, working year after year is a recipe for job burnout. But if you take a break every few years – and schedule that into your life – just the idea of doing it could prevent burnout from happening.

It may not even be that you dislike what it is you do for a living. Sometimes just getting out of it for a while helps you to reorganize yourself and clear your head, so that you can come back with a fresh perspective and a new determination.

Recharging for the Next Major Advance in Your Life

It may also be that you just need some time to get yourself ready for a major change in your life. It could be a career change, starting a new business, taking a different approach with the same career, or perhaps taking some time to get some additional training or education. A sabbatical can help you to bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to go.

Sometimes those advances are not necessarily career related. For example, you may need to take some time off to be with ailing relative, or even to welcome a new child into the world. Your employer may allow you up to 12 weeks for either of those responsibilities, but you might choose to take more time. If you have achieved a solid level of financial independence, you can take that time.

Adding Rich Experiences to Your Life

Maybe you just want to take some time off to travel the world. While it may be nice to have such a plan for when you retire, what if you don’t want to wait another 10, or 20, or 30 years to do it?

Planning a sabbatical can enable you to take such a trip in just a couple of years. There’s no need to wait until you are 50 or 55 or 65. And let’s face it, even if you’re on track to retire early, there’s no guarantee how it will all play out, or what your outside circumstances will be at the time.

If you’ve achieve financial independence, you should be able to take that time now, rather than waiting for sometime in the distant future.

Creating a Series of Mini-Retirements

It’s not necessary to try and pack a lifetime of experience into a single sabbatical. You can plan one every few years. That will give you time in between to decide on new goals and directions.

It will also help you to prepare financially. Let’s say that you want to take a sabbatical in five years. If you can save 20% of what you will need to live on for a year, each year between now and the time the sabbatical starts, you will be able to take the time off and not worry about how you would survive.

Usually when people achieve financial independence, it’s because they are able to save a much higher percentage of their income than most other people. For example, while the average person might save 10% of their income each year, you may be able to save 20%, 30%, 40% or more. If you allocate some of your savings for your sabbatical, and some for longer-term savings and investments, you will be able to have the best of both worlds. That means a sabbatical in the near-term, and greater wealth in the future or whatever else you want to do.

Early retirement is an excellent life’s plan. But if you don’t entirely trust all the possibilities that the future may hold, it’s not a bad idea to plan on taking some extended time off in the not so distant future. Think about what you want to do with your life, and how a sabbatical might help you do it. You may find out that it’s the best time off you’ve ever had.

How about you all? Have you ever taken a sabbatical from your career? What were your experiences and what did you learn?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/tylerkaraszewski/2654986116/sizes/q/

How to Start a Profitable Home-Based Business From Scratch

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

Working from home is still a big craze on the internet these days. What some people may not realize is that it take a lot of hard work to work from home regardless if it’s a side hustle or a full-time business.

Yet and still, the results can be very rewarding. As someone who just quit my job to run my home-based freelance business, it was important for me to understand what to do in order to set up a profitable online business that could allow me to meet all my needs and financial goals.

Since I’m the breadwinner in my household and my family still has some debt, it was crucial that I set up my online business up for success. If you are in a similar boat and you want to work from home, one of the best ways to earn a good income is to set up a small home-based business.

Benefits of Starting a Home-Based Business

There are numerous benefits to setting up a home-based business and they include:

• Having the flexibility to work from home and cut out tedious tasks like dealing with commuter traffic.
• The ability to set your own hours (if you are completely location independent, you can work from anywhere)
• An unlimited earning potential. Since you control how little or how often you work along with other aspects of the business like sales and marketing, the sky can literally be the limit in terms of how much you can earn. If you don’t like waiting around for an employer to give you a small raise once a year, this can be a huge perk that allows you to have more control over your future.

If all of those benefits sounds good to you and you’ve been playing around with the idea of working from home or starting a full online business, here are a few things you need to do in order to set yourself up for success.

Brainstorm Business Ideas

First you need to determine what type of business you’d like to have. This initial step may take a while because it’s very important. You need to choose something that you are good at and something you can see yourself doing in the long run. In other words, it should be enjoyable and a passion.

It’s also important to focus on earning potential because going into business for something you’re passionate about and not earning money will just turn it into a hobby and won’t put bread on the table. Who will you serve and what type of demand exists in that industry.

For example, if you plan on running a travel agent business because you love helping friends and family plan their trips, decide who your target market will be to gain clarity.

You can look at the industry as a whole and see if there is potential for growth and what competitors are doing to bring in income. If you can see longevity in the idea in terms of income and your happiness, it may be worth looking into further.

Some top home-based business ideas include:

• Private Tutor
• Childcare
• Business Coaching
• Consulting
• Transcription
• Freelance Writing
• Virtual Assistant
• Accounting
• Web Design
• Photography
• Bakery
• Wedding Planner

Develop a Business Plan

After you’ve determined what you will be doing and who you will be serving, it’s time to write out a business plan. Your business plan doesn’t have to be super extensive, but it should be thorough, clear, and summarize the mission of your business and how you plan to grow it.

This will help you stay organized when making certain decisions regarding your services, clients you work with, partnerships you develop, etc.

You should also include some financial information in your business plan since you might need to show it to potential investors. Determine what your start-up costs will be, if you will be providing specific services or resources to the community, and how much funding you may need to meet certain business goals.

Find Funding

Depending on what type of business you establish, you may need funding from outside sources.

If you have low startup costs and can invest your own money into your business, that’s fine, but it’s best to avoid taking out a business loan if you can.

You can start by pitching family and friends to invest in your business, but don’t stop there. You can also reach out to private investors or ask if they can sponsor a project, event, or campaign you’re having.

One business owner I know who started a remote business in order to travel around the country with his wife pitched a well-known job board to assist him and they ended up sponsoring a documentary he was working on.

Depending on the type of business you have, you may be able to qualify for some government grants. The Small Business Administration offers different types of loans and grants to businesses but the requirements vary. You can learn more about SBA grants here and search for various different grants at Grants.gov.

Sort Out the Legal Matters

You may not have to legitimize your business by forming an LLC or S-Corp, but it could help you out around tax time. Entrepreneurs need to set aside a rather large amount of their earnings aside for taxes because they don’t have an employer to supplement it for them.

Depending on your needs, you may want to just be a sole proprietorship, or become a limited liability company (LLC) or an S-Corp. You can learn more about your federal tax responsibilities here.

Trusted sites like LegalZoom.com can help you legitimize your business and if you choose this route, you’ll also need to make sure you register your business name with your state and get a tax identification number.

It’s Best to Start On the Side

While all of these steps may sound overwhelming, it’s important to realize that you can go at your own pace when setting up your business. One of the best things I did to ensure that my business was profitable was starting it on the side of my full-time job more than two years ago.

I started out slow and paced myself. I made use of the extra time I had to get organized, gain clients, and execute my business strategy and slowly it started to pay off and I was able to replace the income I was earning at my full-time job.

It was a lot of trial and error though but it wasn’t as risky because I knew that if my side business’ income didn’t meet the goals I had for the month I could always fall back on my full-time job.

Starting your business off on the side is a great way to play it safe so you can reach success when you make the leap and leave a traditional job with steady income.

How about you all? Have you ever thought about starting a home-based business? Do you have any side hustles?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/duskblackwolf/4286862314/

What the ‘Hes’ Do Is More Valuable Than What the ‘Shes’ Do – Really??

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Marie. You can read more of Marie’s articles over at her own blog, Family Money Values. Enjoy! 

Ladies, work hard, study STEM, get a high paying job and close the gender pay gap – right?  Your efforts are an important and valued part of society, right?

Apparently not.

Three researchers analyzed Census data from 1950 to 2000 trying to figure out if women get paid less than men because they don’t go after the high paying jobs or if the high paying jobs lose their luster when dominated by women (the study’s ‘devaluation view’).

Guess what.  According to site Payscale :

“Ultimately, the evidence came down on the side of the devaluation view, meaning that occupations with more women pay less because they’re female-dominated.”

Women’s work.  Worth less.  Wrong and Wrong.

Computer science is a field that has changed from being female dominated to male dominated.

Computer programming used to be ‘women’s work’ way back in the 60’s and 70’s.  Grace Hopper (who most programmers will recognize as the woman who wrote the compiler that was a precursor to the  COBOL language and coined the term ‘computer bug’ due to a moth in her hardware) and the girls who programmed the University of Pennsylvania’s ENIAC computer in the 1940’s started it.

For decades after (until the early 1990’s), women tended to dominate the field.  I myself started programming in 1983 and there were a number of women right there with me.

Men weren’t being altruistic or favoring the woman’s movement back then.  They thought that programming was a low level skill that was akin to typing – not one of those ‘manly’ jobs.

In Stanford News article Researcher reveals how “Computer Geeks” replaced “Computer Girls” author Brenda D. Frink  explains how that changed into primarily a male dominated field today.

Two trends helped.  First, according to Frink:

“Male computer programmers sought to increase the prestige of their field, through creating professional associations, through erecting educational requirements for programming careers, and through discouraging the hiring of women. Increasingly, computer industry ad campaigns linked women staffers to human error and inefficiency.”

Secondly, sets of hiring tests were devised to help steer folks into jobs related to programming.  These tests were highly slanted to select male type traits.

Additionally, during the early 1990s, after the advent of personal home computing, geeking out on a home computer became a guy thing – like working on a car or playing football.  Families tended to give their boys access to the PCs, leaving the girls behind.  When it came time to attend computer classes then, girls were immediately at a disadvantage.

Oh, and did I mention that computer science fields are among the highest paying fields today in the 21st century?

I pursued a career in software development.  It paid more than any other job I could have found back in the 1980’s. Through the years, women continued to disappear from my companies. Most of my coworkers (both managers and staffers) were male.

Over the years, the pay differential between my salary and the salaries of my peer managers (mostly male) in my geographic region diverged by more than 11 %.  How do I know that?  My HR department did a study one year and gave me an 11% raise to bring my salary up to the norm so I wouldn’t leave.  The worst part of it was that my own boss was mad at HR because they didn’t consult him so he could adjust his part of my raise downward to compensate!!!

It’s not just a pay gap issue.

Aside from gender pay inequality, work that women have traditionally done and are starting to do now – gets undervalued.

My case in point.  I was the high wage earner in our family – as a computer software manager.  I made more than twice as much as hubby, even before bonus’s and stock options and retirement benefits.  I’m not sure anyone in my circle even recognized that.

Hubby retired 3 years before me and went to work landscaping our 6 acres.  He cuts grass, plants or removes trees, picks up trash and plants gardens.  After I retired, I started a revenue producing website, managed rentals for our condo resulting in tax cuts and profits, and established myself as an author (through writing a book as well as for sites such as this).  Guess whose work is valued more by our friends and family?

His ability to retire early, in part, relied on my success in my field.  Yet few of our circle realized that, my contributions were mainly invisible.

In Quartz article; At work as at home, men reap the benefits of women’s “invisible labor”,  the author included information on a study done on tenured men vs women and reported:

“In December of 2015, Heather Sarsons, an economist completing her PhD in economics at Harvard, released a working paper: “Gender Differences in Recognition for Group Work (pdf).” As part of her study, Sarsons analyzed 40 years’ worth of publications produced by economists at top US universities. She found that women who wrote on their own had the same chance of receiving tenure as men. However, women who collaborated with men had lower chances. The value of the women’s contributions were erased.

Meanwhile, men who collaborated with women didn’t suffer any penalty. In fact, they were four times more likely to succeed. Sarsons’ working conclusion? Women get almost no credit at all for collaborating and are tacitly perceived as subservient employees. Their gender, essentially, renders them assistants by default.”

Again, women doing the same (or more) work than men and being undervalued.

Will it ever end?

My advice?  In your next life, be born male.

How about you all?  What are your thoughts on the man vs woman pay gaps? What have you experienced compared to your colleagues of the other gender?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/nickefford/26642377714/

When a Side Gig Isn’t All That

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai.  Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food.  She blogs at Mom’s Plans where she shares her family’s journey to healthier living and paying down debt.

When I started working at my full-time teaching job out of grad school, the pay was pitifully small, especially for the cost of living in a big city (Chicago).  From the minute I started the job, I looked for extra ways to make money.  I taught extra classes, I took on additional work assignments that had monetary stipends to boost my pay, and I took more graduate classes to get a pay raise.

I wasn’t afraid to work hard, and I needed to.  My husband was in graduate school himself and also working as a grad assistant.

But all of those extra jobs weren’t enough.  I tried my hand at running an eBay business for a while (which was a disaster!), and then I started blogging.  After my second child was born, I only worked as a teacher for another year before I quit after the birth of my third child.

Within a year of having a third child, I was working 30+ hours a week from home doing virtual assistant work and freelance writing.

I had a side gig for nearly 15 years.

Thanks to the Internet and the ability to work flex-time from home online, many, many bloggers talk about the benefits of a side hustle.  After all, you have the ability to gain more and more work and ramp up your income.  What’s not to love?

Well, I’m here to tell you that a side hustle as a permanent way of life is not always a good thing.

 

The Drawbacks of a Side Hustle

Though the money from a side hustle is nice, that’s definitely not the only consideration.  Working too hard can have serious repercussions on your life.

Health.  Working more than 40 hours or every day of the week can have serious repercussions on your health.  “Over time, working long hours can increase your risk of depression, heart attack, and heart disease” (Business Insider).

Not only is the physical stress bad for you, but when you’re working so many hours, finding time to exercise and eat healthy foods is difficult.

Your amount and quality of sleep is also likely to suffer.  A “study, published last year in the Journal of Sleep Research, found a link between long work hours and reduced quality of sleep.  The health effects of too little sleep are well documented and include decreased memory, increased weight gain, irritability, and other mood problems, serious cardiovascular health problems, and possibly cancer, to name a few” (LinkedIn).

Depression.  Since working too many hours can lead to stress, health issues, and weight gain, it’s no surprise that working too many hours can lead to depression.  In fact, a “European study suggests that those who work long hours are twice as likely to experience a major depressive episode” (ABC News) as those who don’t.  One worker, Shari McGuire, was frustrated working 70 to 80 hours a week because she had no time to spend with her toddler son.  She ended up on not one but two depression medications.  When she finally quit her job, she set new boundaries at her new job, and she was able to get off her depression medications.  “The key, she said, is not managing time better but ‘changing your behavior.  I now only work 40 hours a week and I’m happier,’ she said. ‘I can live my life again. . . .If your job doesn’t allow you to do that, you are in the wrong job’” (ABC News).

Relationships.  To have a successful relationship with your family, you need to be able to spend time together and to talk.  However, when you’re working all the time, this simply can’t happen.  Without the nurturing relationships require, you may find yourself with little in common with your family, and, as a result, little to say to them.

 

What If You Need a Side Gig?

I get it, sometimes in life you just need a side gig.  I certainly did when I was making such a low salary.  Like me, you may need one because you simply need the extra money or maybe because you’re planning to quit your job and make your side gig your full-time job.

However, to make sure that you don’t burn out or let your side gig affect your health or your personal relationships, you need to set some boundaries.

Put a time limit on the side gig.  When most people start a side gig, they’re doing something that they enjoy, so at first, the extra job isn’t a burden.  Plus, the extra money is always nice.  However, early on in your side gig, you should make an exit strategy.  How long will you have your side gig?  Set a concrete goal so you don’t end up like me, having a side gig for 15 years and facing health repercussions because I always worked too hard.  Maybe set a goal of two years with the side gig, which should be enough to boost your income or transition your side gig into your full time job.

Change your lifestyle so you don’t need the money as much.  If you have to work a side gig for the money, consider changing your lifestyle so you don’t need the money as much.  I’ll be honest, a few years into my side gig, I was in a vicious circle.  Because I was working so much, I was stressed and tired.  Because I was so busy, I didn’t have time to grocery shop as I should have, so my husband and I started going out to eat more.  Essentially, then, my side gig was helping to pay for a luxury we didn’t really need.  I would have been better off working less on my side gig and taking better care of myself.

Be smart and responsible with the money you earn.  Create a nice emergency fund so you won’t have to rely on the side gig as much.  Try not to give in to lifestyle inflation because you’re exhausted.  Cut your expenses where you can to make the extra income go further so you can reduce your hours and gain your life back.

Set office hours so you’re not working all the time.  Set limits on your side gig.  Let’s be honest, there’s always work to do.  But a lot of the work can wait.  If you’re working 40 hours at your full-time job, maybe cap your side gig hours to 10 to 15 hours a week.  Don’t run yourself into the ground.  Give yourself time to relax and enjoy time with family and friends.  Set strict office hours for your side gig and abide by them.

Thanks to the Internet, more and more people can find side gigs online.  While a side gig can be great, try to limit the hours that you work and be responsible with the extra money so that you don’t become a slave to your side gig.  When you routinely work too much, you face a host of physical and mental health issues as well as the possible loss of family and friends.

How about you all? Do you have a side gig?  If so, how long have you had it?  Have you faced any serious physical or mental health issues because of your side gig?

Share your experiences by commenting below! 

***Photo courtesy of http://www.idpinthat.com/edit/2476

Think Like You’re Self-Employed – Even if You Have a Job

The following is a post by MPFJ staff writer, Kevin Mercadante, who is a freelance professional personal finance blogger for hire, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry.

Employees sometimes pigeonhole themselves into very tight niches. They focus on very specific tasks and skill sets, which can enable them to do their job more efficiently. But one of the problems with this approach is that it can result in a very narrow focus, that can result in them being passed over for promotions, or even subject to layoffs.

It might be better to think like your self-employed, even if you have a job. A self-employed person is always forced by circumstances to look at the bigger picture. That means being aware and prepared to deal with the bigger picture. That bigger picture focus can often expand opportunities, and produce new and valuable skills sets.

In truth, virtually every employee is really self-employed – they just don’t see it that way.

You’re a Self-Employed Person With One Client

Unless you’re in a union, you really are self-employed. But if you have a full-time job, it just means that you are self-employed with a single client. Yes, your employer is actually your client! You’re ability to earn a living is dependent upon your ability to deliver specific services, at a specific price. To the degree that you are successful, you keep your job, and even create opportunities for promotion.

Some people even have two or more jobs, which means – technically speaking – they actually have two or more clients.

This view of your employer as your client is more than just semantics. If you view your employer as a client, then you will want to keep them satisfied, so that they will see the value of your worth, and keep you as a service provider.

This is very different from the more common working-for-a-paycheck mindset that so many employees bring to the job. That’s often an attempt at earning the most amount of money, for the least amount of effort. Put another way – going through the motions.

But if you consider yourself to be self-employed, and you view your employer as a client, both the relationship and the work takes on deeper meaning.

In addition, viewing yourself as self-employed also tends to minimize the feeling that you are trapped. Since your employer is a client, the loss of that client at some point will simply mean that you move on to another client.

Take Ownership of Your Work

As a business owner, you would have to be prepared to stand behind your work. If you don’t, you will lose customers and clients. This is very different from the go-along-to-get-along thinking that often accompanies the more traditional view of work.

A business owner isn’t content to merely to get the job done, but also to make sure that his client is happy with the work performed. He knows that the client can always go elsewhere, so he carefully provides his products and services to keep the client coming back.

Still another aspect of self-employment is taking ownership of failure. The business owner takes responsibility for failure – after all, there’s no one else to blame. More important, she works quickly to rectify the problem, whatever it is. Mistakes are made, and obstacles are encountered, but the self-employed person always knows whose responsibility it is to make it all work.

This is vastly different than the efforts to deflect failure that commonly happen in organizations. But if you can become known as a problem solver – as someone who takes ownership of the situation at hand – you practically win by default. While everyone else is ducking for cover, you become the seen as the person who saves the day.

Developing a Keen Sense for the Bottom Line

If you’re self-employed, you’re always aware of profitability. For this reason, you will consciously work to do more of what’s most profitable, and less of what is least profitable. This is a critical concept in virtually any money-making venture.

Many employees don’t grasp that it works the same way in a large organization. Look around your company, you will probably notice that the people who move up the chain of command the most quickly are almost always people who are closely connected to profitability.

The more that you can do to either increase sales or decrease costs, the stronger your position in the organization will become. This is in no small part because management will recognize and appreciate that your goals and actions are more closely aligned with theirs than the other members of the staff.

Always be Building New Skills and Contacts

Self-employed people work in a highly competitive environment. Since there is strong competition for the client base in almost every business category, the entrepreneur knows that his skills and abilities must stand out.

That requires building new skills and contacts as a part of business-as-usual. Every skill that you acquire puts you in a position to fill or expand a different niche. Every contact that you develop becomes a potential partner, and an opportunity to network and synergize skills.

In addition, a network of capable contacts can give you the resources you need to get a job done that may be beyond your own skill set. This is a talent that every successful business owner must develop. It enables you to take on larger and more important assignments, and to complete them even if you don’t have the necessary ability to do them completely on your own. It represents the ability to leverage both people and skills.

Always Be Looking for New Opportunities

If you’re self-employed, you’re never “stuck” with one client. You are aware that there are other clients, and you are always open to the possibilities that they present. This can go a long way toward eliminating the fear factor many employees have in regard to their employers. If you think that your current employer is the only game in town – whatever the reason – you’ll work with a certain amount of fear. That kind of emotional state is never conducive to doing your best work.

As an employee, you may fear the loss of your job. But if you see yourself as self-employed, you’ll likely see the loss as inevitable – at least eventually. For that reason, you’ll always be on the hunt for new opportunities. You may even make it a practice to build a portfolio of potential opportunities. This is Self-employment 101 – the business owner is always aware that he can and will lose clients. For that reason, he’s always on the lookout for new ones.

In today’s hyper-competitive job market, having that kind of attitude is practically a survival skill by itself. It doesn’t mean that you are disloyal to your current client/employer, but more that you are aware of the uncertainties of the business environment that you’re operating in.

There’s one other benefit to the perpetual search for new opportunities. If you find enough of them, you may be setting yourself up to enter formal self-employment. If you identify multiple opportunities – that is, potential new clients – you may create a niche for yourself as an independent consultant.

In this way, thinking like you’re self-employed, even if you have a job, creates an eventual point of entry into actual self-employment.

Give it a try, and see what it does for your career.

How about you all?  Have you ever tried something like this to give your career a boost?  How did it work out for you?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

***Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/shimelle/877913815/

Are Conferences Really Worth the Price?

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Chonce. You can read more articles by Chonce over at her personal blog, My Debt Epiphany. Enjoy! 

Attending a conference is a great way to network and connect with others, learn new skills and strategies, and gain tons of inspiration. There are probably thousands of conferences dedicated to each specific industry that occur all over the country each year.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, retail manager, gamer, or finance enthusiast, odds are there’s a conference out there for you.

Conferences are often referred to as in investment due to how expensive they can be. Most conferences are between 2-5 days and tickets can range anywhere from $250-$1000+. The average conference attendee who is paying out of pocket can expect to spend at least $1000 for the entire experience in most cases when you consider the cost of your ticket, travel, your hotel stay, food and extra non-including activities and so on.

Now you may be wondering, who can afford to spend that much money on a conference?

Americans spend that type of money on vacations, dining out annually, clothes, etc. very easily. Investing that money in an educational conference instead might be a better way to spend your money, only if you see the return on your investment.

Here are a few ways to determine whether or not a conference is really worth the price.

Determine How Valuable the Education Is

Will you be receiving an education worth $1000+ by attending a particular conference? I know this is hard to determine if you’ve never attended the conference. However, you can do some research by reading reviews from past attendees and checking out the main conference website to look at the agenda for each day.

If you are considering attending a conference in the first place, you must have a main goal in mind that you would like to achieve as a result of the experience. Look at the titles of the sessions along with the bio for each presenter to see if you are interested in the presentation topics and if you will take anything away from it. What skills and strategies do you hope to learn and will they help you save time and money? What issues are you having that could possibly be solved during one of the sessions?

It’s best to organize your schedule before heading to a conference and map out which events and presentations you will attend. You should even write out a series of questions.

What Kind of Networking Opportunities Does the Conference Provide?

Networking opportunities are a given at conferences. When you put a ton of people who have similar interests in the same area together for a few days, there are bound to be active conversations in the hallway, during breakfast, and in between sessions to say the least.

You will definitely meet new people and receive tons of business cards for follow ups which are good things if you’re looking to expand your network.

If the conference you are considering attending offers additional, more specific network opportunities, that is an added bonus. For example, last year I attended FinCon which is an annual financial bloggers’ conference. It’s not just for financial bloggers, though. Podcasters, financial advisors, fin-tech businesses and other companies also attend.

What I loved about FinCon last year was the private networking session they have for freelance writers who were actively looking for work. Before the conference, personal writers had a chance to reach out to blogs and websites that were hiring to set up a time to talk during the conference.

There were also opportunities for people who didn’t set up formal meetings to walk around the room and introduce themselves to potential clients. This event was right up my alley since I was looking for additional clients and I gained a ton of leads that day as this event.

Priceless networking opportunities like these are so worth it.

What Types of Sponsors of Brands Will be There?

Conferences have several sponsors and a lot of them may try to sell you something or get you to sign up for something at the conference. However, some brands and sponsors may also be looking for partnerships as well.

If you own a blog, website, or business, attending a conference can put you face-to-face with popular national brands so you can connect with them on a personal level and secure some new opportunities for yourself.

During FinCon last year, I got the chance to sit down with the team at Credit Karma and share my money story on camera. Months later, they reached out to me with an interest in getting permission to use my story either on their site or for their training materials. When I agreed, they sent me a $500 gift card for compensation – more than the price of my conference ticket itself.

Will There Be Any Freebies or Additional Features and Perks Included?

If the owner or company that is hosting the conference has some additional freebies and offers in store for you, that is always a good thing. Some conferences offer a discount on your hotel room rate, free swag from sponsors, free or discounted entry to events that occur outside the normal conference schedule, a few meals throughout the day and so on.

If a conference doesn’t offer any of these things, you don’t have to write the opportunity off completely, but be cautious of conferences where you are expected to pay for every little thing out of pocket. Freebies and perks can go a long way in terms of lowering your costs and making a conference worth it in terms of your budget in ROI.

Additional Ways to Lower the Cost of a Conference

Speaking of lowering the costs of attending a conference, here are some additional things you can do to make sure you are getting the most out of the experience and not going too overboard on your budget.

Attend a conference in a nearby city first – This may be a good option if you are on the fence about paying for an entire conference experience. Back when I was trying to become a professional resume writer, the National Resume Writer’s Association was hosting their annual conference in Chicago which was only about 45 minutes away from me. I practically couldn’t resist attending because I didn’t have to worry about booking a flight or staying in a pricey hotel since I could stay with my sister who lived in Chicago for the duration of the event.

Order Your Ticket Early – Most conferences have early-bird rates that are extremely discounted so if you know you want to attend a conference, you can probably purchase your ticket for cheap at least a year out in advance.

Consider a Roommate – Even if the conference organizer negotiates a lower hotel room rate for attendees, staying in a nice hotel can still be pretty expensive. For FinCon I got a roommate and it cut the price of the hotel room for 4 days from $650 to only about $325 plus tax. Ask the organizers of the conference if they have any groups for attendees to communicate before the event and secure a roommate.

Cash in Credit Card Rewards for Your Flight – If you have credit card rewards or cash back, attending a conference would be a great time to cash those rewards in to save money on your flight.

All in all, you must keep all these factors in mind and weigh the benefits in comparison to the costs of the entire experience to determine whether it will be worthwhile for you.

How about you all? Have you ever attended a conference? Do you think conferences are worth the price?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

****Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/dionhinchcliffe/3020387867/

The College Talk that You Need to Keep Having Every Year

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Melissa Batai.  Melissa is a freelance writer who covers topics ranging from personal finance to business to organics to food.  She blogs at Mom’s Plans where she shares her family’s journey to healthier living and paying down debt.

I met with some of my friends a few nights ago.  One woman I’ll call Rose has a daughter who will be a senior in high school this year.  Rose is frustrated because her daughter has her heart set on attending one of three different colleges twelve or more hours away.

The distance away isn’t Rose’s concern.  She’s concerned that each of these colleges costs $40,000 to $50,000 a year, and her daughter will not consider any other options.  Rose and her husband refuse to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt for their child’s college education, and they don’t want their daughter to leave school saddled with debt, either.

Unfortunately, this scenario will be played out across the country as upcoming seniors set their sights on their dream colleges, which often cost a fortune.

However, your child doesn’t have to be one of these kids with unrealistic expectations, especially if you talk with him regularly from middle school on about what you can pay for college.

Here are some strategies you can use to help keep your child’s expectations in line with your financial reality:

Let them pay for their own expenses

Many high school seniors who have unrealistic expectations about attending a pricey college haven’t had to handle their own budget.  Their parents may supply them with a car and insurance when they’re teens.  When it’s time to go out with friends on Saturday, they just ask mom or dad for money.  This dependent relationship isn’t helping the parents or teens.

Instead, put your kids in charge of their own budget as early as possible.  When kids are in 7^th grade, increase their allowance (perhaps based on the chores they do) and let them assume some of their own expenses.  Let them buy their own clothes and pay for their entertainment.  Don’t forget to also teach them to save.

Your child will quickly learn that she’s not earning enough money to meet all of her wants.  When she’s shopping for back to school clothes, maybe she’ll pass on the $90 jeans and instead by two pairs of the $30 jeans.  (True penny pinchers may even check out the thrift store.)

The earlier a child understands the concept of money and how far it can or cannot stretch, the more he will understand why a college that costs $50,000 a year is not feasible.

Match their own college savings

One easy way to motivate your children to save for college is to match their college savings contribution.  My husband and I want to help our children with college, but we don’t want to just hand them money that we alone have set aside for their college education because we don’t believe they’ll value the money or the education as much.  Instead, we want our kids to be invested in saving and paying for college.

Our son just turned 12, and for the last six months he’s been saving for college.  Of course, he’s also used his money for other things, but so far he’s saved $100, and we matched that amount.  We have it invested, and he gets excited seeing the money grow (even though at such a small amount it’s not earning much interest yet).  This strategy not only helps him invest in his own education, but it also teaches him about matching, which will be so important when he’s in his twenties and newly employed.  I’m quite sure, based on this experience, that he’ll take advantage of the company match on retirement savings.

Let them borrow money from you and pay it back with interest

At least once or twice, when your child’s wants are greater than her available money, let her borrow money from you with interest.  Put her on a payment plan, though make the repayment terms a bit aggressive.  Maybe she has to use 50% of her allowance per week to use to pay back her loan to you.  Also include interest.

While this tactic sounds mean, it teaches your child how constrictive student loan payments can be on a budget, especially when it’s a large student loan with steep monthly payments and the borrower is earning a relatively low salary when starting out.

Hopefully, after a time or two of borrowing money, your child will learn that it isn’t worthwhile.  If she doesn’t learn the lesson, however, feel free to turn her down for loans.  She also need to learn to stick to her budget so that she doesn’t constantly borrow money as an adult and stay in a never ending debt cycle.

Clearly outline what you can contribute to their college education

No parent likes to tell their child no, but for your own sake, you may need to.  Decide in advance with your spouse how much you plan to pay for college per child and then have a chat with your child, as early as possible, perhaps even as early as 8^th grade and then repeat the conversation every year.

This talk will help your child understand how much is available when shopping colleges, and it may also motivate her to look more aggressively for scholarships or to pick more reasonably priced schools.

Remind them grad school might be time for the school of their dreams

If your child will need to attend grad school for his chosen career path, encourage him to choose a more reasonably priced college for undergrad.  Then, he might choose the college of his dreams that is best in his field for grad school.  There are more opportunities to help fund grad school such as assistantships than there are for an undergraduate degree.

Let them apply to the unrealistic college

Finally, if all else fails and your child is adamant about the unrealistic college choices, as my friend’s daughter is, let her apply to the schools.  Once accepted, she can then fill out the financial aid package.  This may be the time that your child finally accepts financial reality.  Or, it may be the time that you’re surprised by the generous financial aid package.

I went to a community college for the first two years of college.  When it was time to transfer, I looked at our local four year college and a more prestigious four year college several hours away.  I was shocked when I got the financial aid packages.  It was cheaper for me to attend the prestigious college after financial aid, even though that college cost about 50% more.  Turns out the college had generous alumni, so that school was able to offer more financial aid.

When it comes to raising your children, college is likely the biggest expense you’ll face.  However, if you regularly chat with your child about how much you can afford to pay for college AND if you teach your child financial responsibility from an early age, hopefully you can avoid a fight over which colleges your child should plan on attending.

Most importantly, stand your ground.  A child who doesn’t get to go to his dream college will likely understand years down the road and thank you, especially when say “no” to your child and expensive college parental loans means saying yes to your own retirement funding.

How about you all? How did you handle college choices and expenses with your child?  Or, if your child is not yet that old, how do you plan to handle this situation?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

****Photo courtesy https://pixabay.com/en/graduation-grads-cap-diploma-907565/

How to Help Your Child Explore the World of Work

The following post is by MPFJ staff writer, Marie. You can read more of Marie’s articles over at her own blog, Family Money Values. Enjoy! 

In days past, finding your occupation could mean just following in your father’s footsteps.  Often, the son would follow the father in whatever occupation he had.  Hence many of our current day surnames actually derive from occupations – Smith (as in Blacksmith or any type of learned trade in fact), Taylor (as in clothing tailor), Potter (as in making pottery), and Carpenter (as in working with wood) are just a few examples.  If there wasn’t room in the family occupation for all the sons, some of them would be apprenticed out to local area businessmen.

Benjamin Franklin was apprenticed by his father into his elder brother’s printing business.

In other words, there wasn’t a whole lot of choice about what you ended up doing for a living (practically none for women in fact).

Although in recent history, we have more freedom to choose our own path, it is sometimes difficult for a young person to figure out what that path should be.  We tend to limit our choices to what we see around us – those things to which we are exposed in life.

Assuming you want your child to find one (or many) enjoyable and profitable career opportunities, how can you widen their view of what is available?  How can you as a parent (or grandparent) give the child a broad base of experience AND knowledge about current or potential future career choices?

In my book, Choose Wealth – Be a Millionaire by Midlife, I theorize that we need to be exposed to a wide variety of experiences to even begin to understand what it is we want out of life – to learn how to “dream big” and find a way to provide ourselves and our dependents with the monetary and psychological wealth needed for a happy and productive life.

There are numerous ways to help your child develop a broad base to soak up and consider the opportunities available in the world of work around them.

Here are a few of those ideas.

Activities

We all learn best by doing.  From their early years on up, encourage your child to try out different activities.  Help them find ways to learn how to draw, play a musical instrument, pitch a baseball game, dance, act, use math, organize events, see different things and experience different ways of living.  Without trying out some of these things, how will your child ever know if he or she has a knack for them or enjoys them?

Observations

Train them (and yourself!) to be aware of the world around them.  As you go through your every day life, point out how people are making their livings.  Talk to them about what the grocery clerk does, and about who owns the grocery store and what they do.  Let them know that there are behind the scenes people doing jobs to support any number of visible jobs – the engineers behind the design of the space craft, the architect behind the construction of a building, etc.

Chores

Lots of experience can be gained in your own home, by letting your child handle age appropriate household tasks such as mowing the lawn, fixing a broken lamp, doing the laundry, helping to plan an event such as a family vacation, fixing the family dinner or figuring out how much paint you need to buy to re-paint the living room.  Hands on experience with many of these will not only prepare your child to be self sufficient but will also allow them to decide if they enjoy that activity and want to pursue it.

Books

Books are the time honored way of getting outside your own world.  Encourage your child to read about other people and what they have done.  Biographies are great for this.  Take them to the library and let them pick out one at their reading level – any one that spikes their interest.

Movies

Movies are a great way to entertain your child and let them see other possibilities.  Documentaries can also feature various careers – Planet Earth for example, showcases not only photographers but also other occupations.  The One Week Job documentary follows a Canadian college graduate as he ‘tries out’ multiple jobs over a year – working each for one week.

Seeing features such as Mary Poppins or The Sound of Music can spur discussions on child care occupations.  Watching Apollo 13 with your older child can give insight into the many supporting professions behind our space program.  Watching short videos such as Curious Kids   or some of the Biz Kid$  episodes can shed light on opportunities as well.

Movies are about life.  In life we have to support ourselves.  Almost any movie can be a starting point for a discussion of career opportunities.

Family and friends

As in days gone by, our nearest career examples may be with family or a friend.  Use this.  Make sure your child knows what you do for a living and why.  Let them talk with and interview family members about their careers.  I asked members of our family to make a short video about what they do – for my grandkids to watch in my annual Grandma Rie’s Money Camp.

In my family alone, we have CFO’s, accountants, auditors, web developers, software engineers, government workers, self employed business people, farmers, chefs, lawyers, dietitians, nurses and more.  Yours is probably the same.  Use it.

School clubs & activities

Most schools at every level have clubs and activities students can join.  These can be an excellent way for kids to try out aspects of different careers.  The school newspaper (in middle or high school) can be a springboard to reporting, photography, editing, publishing, marketing and more.  The speech club can let a student decide if they like public speaking.  Math and science clubs give kids a taste of the usefulness of each.  Drama clubs and school plays and musicals help kids experience theater, back stage, directing, acting and more.

School counselor

In late middle school and high school your child’s counselor can be helpful in locating opportunities outside the school.

There may, for example, be  programs in the community to help high school students learn about careers for such as these two I found in the US Midwest:  Northland Career Center and Northland CAPS.  Some of these provide off school site programs regarding specific types of careers using area industry workers as teachers and potentially providing internships for students at area companies during the summer months.

Area college programs for high school students might also be identified by your counselor (or by you through library or internet searches).  One such program at St. Louis University has a myriad of summer workshops high schoolers can attend, such as their Adventures in Medicine and Science program workshops.

School counselors may also recommend interest or personality testing tools that can help a person figure out what they are interested in and what careers might currently be available that utilize those interests.

Summer camps

The sky is the limit on what kinds of involvement and learning can be had at summer camps for kids and teens.  Everything from STEM to sports to equestrian skills to drama and more are available.  Most camps are for profit and can be expensive.  My grandkids for example, have attended a Junior Achievement camp called Biz Town, to learn about jobs and businesses, music camp to practice viola, horse camp to learn to care for and ride horses, as well as more rounded activity camps which provide multiple types of experiences.

Civil Air Patrol

If you think your child might be interested in flight or military options, take a look at the Civil Air Patrol.  They have a youth program for kids 12 – 19 years old that (according to their site):

“The CAP Cadet Program is a year-round program where Cadets fly, learn to lead, hike, camp, get in shape, and push themselves to new limits. If you’re dreaming about a career in aviation, space, or the military, CAP’s Cadet Program is for you.”

One of my grand kid’s cousins is a youth member and has had the opportunity to fly and learn a bit about piloting.

Volunteer projects

Even kids can volunteer on projects that help them gain strengths in several areas.  Kids even start their own charities – fostering organizational skills, communication abilities, persistence and etc.  Here are 10 examples.

When your kids are young, you will probably want to volunteer alongside them – for their safety and so they can observe you in action.

Find opportunities through any number of websites including:

• Volunteer Match
• United Way
• Volunteer Gov
• National and State individual park openings
• Your local church or school

There is even a site especially for the young – Generation One

One of my nephews volunteered internationally through his church.  He had to raise his own air fare and cover his own expenses.  In return, the church sent an adult to supervise the volunteers and my nephew experienced a whole new (and more primitive) way of life while directly helping a village.  He now is aiming at a medical career in Public Hospital Administration.

Student Exchanges

Exposing your child to another culture can be accomplished by participating in your school’s student exchange program.  Most programs bring a foreign student into your home and then that student’s family reciprocates by bringing your child to their country and home.

Not only will your high school-er get in depth language practice but will see a whole new way of living and thinking – at each home.

Take your kid to work day

If your work place allows, do take your child to work on the designated day (and on other days as applicable).  Show AND TELL them what you are doing and why when they come to work with you.   Better still, if possible, let them help. Watching you sit at a computer terminal and type isn’t all that instructive without the tell part.

When my boys were high school and college age, I arranged for several of my colleagues to do a pretend job interview with them.  I paid for lunch and my boys got to interact with professionals in my field in an interview situation – without any interference from me (or even knowledge of how it went).

Job shadowing

Your child’s school counselor (or you via your own contacts or through searches) may be able to arrange for your kid to shadow other people in different career areas.  Following a doctor or school teacher or another worker around for a day or so can give your child some idea of what that career is like.  PrepScholar does a decent job of describing this.

Summer jobs

Of course, actual work experience can be the best way for your kid to know what they like and don’t.  But encourage your student to select a job, not just on how easy it is to get or what it pays or the hours but also on what they might experience while working there.

One summer I worked for a large chemical company – as a mail clerk.  But I got to deliver mail all over the executive offices and see what went on there – as well as learn about mail rooms.

Some students work throughout the year at part time jobs either before or after school or on the weekends.  It is my opinion, that unless absolutely necessary, this can be more detrimental than beneficial to a young person.

Internships

Summer internships can be had, even in high school.  If your student is willing to work for free – rewarded by the network he or she is building and the learning taking place, they are easier to land.

Advice from others

Check out the Career Planning for High Schoolers guide at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Wikipedia’s list of organizations providing career and technical training for more information.

Although my own grandchildren are only 12 and 9, this summer in my Grandma Rie’s Money Camp, we will be focusing on starting to explore the World of Work – using some of the above resources.  We will watch some of the movies and videos, go on field trips to observe and interview folks doing different jobs, make a movie about an interesting career and they will also have to come up with and perform a skit with a focus on careers.

How about you all? How do you help your child explore the world of work?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

****Photo courtesy https://www.flickr.com/photos/usacehq/14146897913/