$10,000 (Extra) in 2010

Given my poor ability to stick to budget and control my spending splurges, I’ve decided that the best way to balance out my shopping addiction is to up my income by a significant amount. My goal is to earn $10k in extra income (preferably post tax) in 2010. This is totally do-able, although far from a certainty.

Granted, I am going to work hard at budgeting (with Mint’s iPhone app this may actually be possible. It’s harder to spend $1000 at Bloomie’s with your shopping budget in bright yellow, close approaching what you told yourself you would spend on clothes for the month) but even with budgeting, I think having a goal of side income is worth while, and one I can stick to in 2010.

I figure with self employment tax and my regular federal and state taxes, I will have to earn 40% more than 10,000 in order to end up with a net profit of $10k. So I’m just going to aim for $15k in extra earnings over the year, or about $1250 in additional income per month.

How do-able is this goal, really? I don’t want to set myself up for failure, but I think I can achieve this. The variables certainly hinder my plans, as there’s a large change I will no longer be in my current full-time position by the end of 2010 (either the company will fold or I will leave) and my next job may pay better but have less flexible hours or pay less and make the $15k extra income more of a necessity than a luxury.

Regardless, I’m going to approach 2010 as if nothing is going to change in my full-time income or freelance clients.

The closest to a sure thing is the $500 / month I make writing 20 entries per month for a blog. Beyond that, I have another client that I just started working for and I think I can make an average of $150 / month for them if they keep me on. That leaves another $600 to earn per month. I can earn this a variety of ways… through blogging (I’ve made about 8 dollars in AdSense Ads for the last five months so I doubt that’s really going to help), trying to get other freelance writing gigs, or doing random jobs that pay decently on the weekends. I’m not sure what yet, but I’ll have to figure that out. If my uncle’s business picks back up, maybe I will get to write for him again as well. That was a good, stable side gig until the economy flushed itself down the toilet.

Do you think it’s possible for me to earn an additional $1250 a month outside of my full-time job? Do you have any suggestions for what I should do to earn the income?

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3 thoughts on “$10,000 (Extra) in 2010”

  1. I definitely think it's possible, but make sure not to burn yourself out! For 3 months I worked 2 full time jobs. Up at 5:30am, not home until close to midnight.

  2. $10,000 is a LOT of money to earn in your spare time. Freelance jobs are probably a good plan and so is things like market research-type gigs. I just got $50 for about an hour of my time and my opinion. It was sooo easy! You just need to be careful because you'll burnout reallllly fast if all you're doing is working.

  3. Some people get a lot of money through babysitting and surveys/market research. Also, have you thought about tutoring?

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