My $10,000 New Year’s Resolution

In every 2021 resolution I’m challenging myself in small ways. Going on more long walks, reading more books, that kind of thing. I’m also challenging myself in a big way with a resolution I’m nervous about: earning $10,000 in income outside my full-time job.

Unlike the other resolution or two I have for 2021, this five-figure resolution seems like a tall order. And one I’m not totally sure I’ll hit, despite first having this idea last July. (When I should’ve been writing a more relevant article…) But hey! This is a finance blog, is it not? Financial experiments are the name of the game! Or so I’m led to believe!

So come along with me as I tentatively do my best to earn an additional five figures! Over the next 354 days! 🎉

And to make sure this is actually side income, it comes with a few caveats:

• Investment growth does not count here. Dividends can, but they’re on thin ice
• Can’t include anything related to my 9-5, including bonuses or raises
• This $10k is pre-tax income, NOT take home. If I wanted $10k after taxes I’d have to make roughly $13,158. This would keep me in the same tax bracket as I am in now

How I’ll Fulfill This 10K Resolution

The statistics I’ve found say it’s certainly possible, although sort of a stretch to reach five figures. Especially as a woman, apparently. The last time I had one was in 2017 as a waitress on the weekends; according to my paystubs, that brought in an extra $6,000 in all of 2016. But now that I’ve got less stress and more resources at my disposal. I’ve got a decent enough shot at crossing that threshold as a result. So with that in mind, here’s my 2021 resolution initial breakdown:

Bank account bonuses – $4,000

Banks like getting new customers, as most businesses do. To get more they’ll offer to pay YOU for banking with them, provided you also meet certain requirements. Oftentimes those requirements are something like “give us at least $1,000 in direct deposits within two months of you opening the account,” which means they want you to change your payroll requirements and reroute your paycheck to your new bank instead. You might have heard it called “churning” before, which you can also do with credit cards if you’re super spendy.

I’ve only tried this out a little bit last year but ended up netting $1,300 in bonuses. This is despite only doing it for half the year in, you know, 2020, so netting more in 2021 seems attainable. The typical payouts I’ve seen are $200-$400 per bank; if we take the median at $300, I’d need to earn 1 or 2 bonuses a month to hit $4k. Now that I’ve also got some experience with this (i.e. it’s no longer a new process to me) this should be the second-easiest way to complete my 2021 resolution.

Dividends – $1,500

I put “second-easiest” in that previous sentence because this is the easiest way. All this requires is that I don’t take money out of my investment accounts, which means I do nothing. Choosing $1,500 is a ridiculously conservative estimate; in 2020 my taxable account delivered $280 on average each quarter (i.e. every three months). This should (hopefully) increase in 2021, as dividends generally correlate to the value of your investments. That, combined with the yearly dividends I net in my Roth IRA (around $450 last time I checked) puts me even further ahead. Assuming I keep my stable job in 2021, I’ll be adding more monies to both accounts in the coming year and, thus, further help my resolution.

Now there’s an interesting note: these two ways take care of over half my goal!

Now I only need to “really” make around $4,500 in the year. That shakes out to $375 each month, or around $85 in any given week.

Flipping – $1,000

You guys know I’m the free stuff queen, having furnished my apartment with mostly free stuff. In the last year or two I’ve also flipped some big ticket items I got for free without really trying, which include a dresser, two bikes, a luggage set, and a super heavy TV. Hitting this number means going on more walks around my neighborhood for curbside treasures; lucky for me, this would simultaneously satisfy another 2021 resolution of walking more often! There are plenty of wealthy neighbors around me that would rather haul their nice stuff to the curb than resell, which means there’s a lot of potential profit to be had. As long as I hustle enough (especially during our spring cleaning season) this is pretty doable.

Weekend gigs – $3,500

With the above three income streams taking care of $6,500, that’s a little less than $300 a month I’ll now need to scrounge up. With each month having 4 or 5 weekends, I’d have to make between 59 and 73 dollars in my off-hours, minimum. I can make $73 in a weekend of work. At $15 an hour that’s 5 hours of work; at $25 it’s less than 3.

Since I live in a major urban area (Greater Boston) there’s plenty of opportunities for side gigs, even during a three-for-one pandemic, economic slump, and attempted coup! Only in a capitalist society would you have to worry about finance when your community is facing war and plague ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’ve got some specific ideas for weekend work, which include freelance writing and resume help. Once the government gets its act together and gets me vaccinated I’ll look into further gigs outside the home, like housesitting/pet sitting or going back into catering. I might even participate in some university studies, if the payout seems okay; absolutely nothing that involves ingesting mysterious substances, but stuff like “block out 75 minutes of your day for a Zoom call and get an Amazon gift card”? I’m down.

And just to see how it plays out, I’m taking a leaf out of Saving Sherpa’s book and seeing about donating blood. I have zero fear of needles and there’s a place in Boston that pays you for donating. I’m visiting the lab for screening later this month so we’ll see if I make the cut!

Why I Made This Resolution

Now to be clear, I don’t actually need to make this money to be comfortable. After being transparent about my salary and raises I’d give myself some major side eye if I couldn’t make that work. Because work it is, and working awesomely. In fact, it’s so awesome that I’m increasing my overall budget to $33,000, which I’ve written about before. Even raising my spending to this level means I’m still saving over half my income, meaning there’s already tens of thousands to spare.

Yes, duh, I would very much like to have more money. Ten thousand would cover some big-ticket items I have planned, like a used car and a new personal laptop. But beyond that, I want to show how I’d go about making more money if I needed to. There’s a lot of ways you can make money on the side.

Question is, what’s going to work best for me?

I’m going to take some cues from I Like to Dabble and try out different ways to reach some nice income.

Plus, it’ll be interesting to explore different gigs while being safe in a pandemic (or a “panny” if you’re listening to my brother). Operation Warp Speed is, so far, a big fail so vaccines – and, by extension, economic recovery – are only going to come very slowly. And not fast enough to prevent more people from being affected. Because we know COVID recovery will be slow-going, we also know Americans are looking for something extra to help make ends meet.

Everything I write is meant to help those that are coming after me, who haven’t been an adult for that long at all and haven’t gotten much of a financial education. I can’t provide that help if I’m disconnected from reality, hence this 2021 resolution. Do you have some insights or ideas for how I can keep this goal going? We’ve already established I do things outside the norm, so any suggestion goes!

Cover image credit: KOBU Agency via Unsplash