I’m going Broke and Need your Input
Yesterday I realized that I’m going broke.
Ok not broke, but definitely not rolling in the dough. I noticed my shockingly low bank balance after I transferred a decent amount of money to my stocks account. I’m currently a college kid finishing up my last semester. Six classes keep me busy enough not to get a part-time job. Besides stocks, I’m not making much money these days.
I’ve been contemplating a few money making tactics recently, like consulting or websites designed for monetization. But nothing concrete just yet. Still meditating. Two heads are better than one right? Can you give me suggestions on how I can make some money these few months? Really anything’s game. I need ideas. Your ideas!
How can a broke college student like myself make some quick money?
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March 9th, 2007 at 12:21 am
Depends. How many hours and flexibility would you have to start an internship in the Valley that would eventually lead to a solid job in the tech sector?
March 9th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Louis, I’ve been though a few co-ops and internships in tech companies during college. But with 6 classes this semester, 10 hours a week would be my max for such a commitment. I had such an offer two weeks ago at a big tech company, but the duties were not interesting at all, so I declined.
I guess a combo of 1) interesting/exciting opportunity and 2) 10 hours a week may be a rarity.
March 9th, 2007 at 3:22 am
Why don’t you try taking advantage of Skype Prime beta and charge people by the minute for your expertise. More information http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2007/03/skype_prime_beta_introducing_t.html
March 9th, 2007 at 3:33 am
The other comments are right-on. What about text-link-ads? You would have to do some work on your blog stats, but that could be an option.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:01 am
Man, this is a tough one. Blog monetization just takes time. I’ll think about this one, but other than donating plasma, I can’t think of a quick fix.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:37 am
The quintessential college student dilemma. I’m in the same boat man! Barely scraping by and desperately looking for ways to fund my startup (without bringing in outside investors just yet). I’m probably going to get a part time job and my suggestion for you would probably be to drop some classes and do the same you crazy mof’! 6 classes..I can’t even begin to fathom how that’s possible.
Anyway just wanted to say thanks for dropping by my blog, lovin’ your site and yes we definitely have more than a few shared interests. Seems like you have a lot of exciting things going on! I’m gonna suscribe to your blog and I’ll be sure to keep in touch.
March 9th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Dude, why don’t you tutor. In the past I’ve actually responded to posts on the career center website for people looking for tutors for their kids or other things of that nature. You’re an engineer, you have the math and science background. I did tutor a middle school student a year ago doing this. This can be really flexible and you’d be working less than 10 hours a week. You just gotta look, it’s not something you’ll get right away.
March 9th, 2007 at 9:58 am
You can help me run the next Entrepreneur27 event…That pays. Let me know.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:30 am
Teach music. Post some fliers around campus and charge $40/hour for lessons. I’m sure there are lots of kids who want to learn how to play guitar. If you really need money you could always SELL SOME STOCK. Food >>> Stocks.
March 9th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Thanks y’all for your awesome input! You’ve all provided some great ideas.
William - I had no idea this existed, wonder how many people do. Do you take advantage of it? If so, how’s it going for you?
cctech - How’s Text Link Ads treating the crystalcoasttech blog? Good return?
Preston - Thanks buddy, look fwd to your thoughts!
Andy - A little late to drop classes and it’s my last semester, so just hashing it out with 6 classes. I figured it’s time to get my BS degree and move on. G’luck with the part-time job, I think you won’t have much trouble finding one. Let’s fight this CSPB together (college student poverty batle) =)
Jason - Wicked suggestion. I think this one’s definitely a possibility.
Noah - Thanks for the offer! I’ll ping you offline.
Kevin - =) Your comments always rock, keep em coming. Food >>> Stocks. Agreed. I’ll be cashing out my 15% gainers soon.
Any other ideas?
March 9th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Tony: No, I haven’t take advantage of it yet. The feature is still in beta and recently announced two days ago.
March 9th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
i agree with jason - tutoring is rewarding and PAYS. i know from experience. it may be a lot of work but i’m thinking if you just find one student who wants to be tutored, it will be a breeze because you don’t have to prepare lesson plans or anything. so that’s even better for you - definitely less than 10 hrs a week paying you just as well. it might even brush you up on whatever classes you need to study for!
and i absolutely agree with kevin. it’s not like you bought stocks and now you’re broke. you’re money isn’t gone. you’re money = your stocks. i’m not a stock person but they are more or less liquid although your return is slightly variable, right? and what about what you made from 40 hr weeks at cisco?? blew it on your video ipod and PS2 eh… ;P
QUESTION (Dwight-style): are you broke because you need the money or because you just feel crappy you’re not making money? there’s a difference. if you need money then by all means do something. if you just feel broke because you miss the feeling of getting a paycheck - then change the way you think because your education IS your investment.
March 9th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
Play Poker? Go muscle some money from the freshmen at a poker game. $100 easily in a night if you’re at college.
March 9th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
You can do what I do and just sell your body :)
March 9th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
you’re = your in my book. twice. hehe
March 9th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Wow I’m so thankful for you all =)
Floria - I should clarify. I am running out of money and need to make some. I do however have other amounts of money sitting in CDs or stocks. BUT I don’t intend to take money from those accounts for daily use. I treat them as money that I can’t touch, because I’d rather leave that money there to accrue interest over time. I wrote a previous post about it:
http://www.geekwhat.com/2006/09/19/my-finance-management/
Andrew - I love gambling. I love Vegas. But I also know that it’s addicting and I usually lose money ;)
Eric - Why didn’t I think of this? Talkmatic should’ve been ‘Stripmatic’ =)
Thank you everyone so much for the feedback. You’ve got my mind going and I’m going to try to figure something out in the next week…
March 9th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
1. I’d have to second the music idea - teach guitar! Do you have any idea how badly some people want to learn it? It seems like a never ending supply. Tutoring brings in the big bucks too, so take that one for some quick, non-taxable income.
2. Help Noah with E27. You’re local, so it will be a great experience with little sacrifice (time aside, but we all need to sacrifice time for income).
3. Work on Talkmatic! The rest will speak for itself.
4. No matter what Floria tells you, that PS2 was a GEAT investment - just hold off on the games you want for awhile. Their prices will drop, but the level of satisfaction you get from playing them will always be top-notch.
That’s about it!
JT
March 9th, 2007 at 10:32 pm
[…] a special thanks to everyone for the feedback on how I can get out of broke status, I’ll be taking some action in the next week or so. Wish me […]
March 9th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Gambling… one of my weak links. *sigh* Well, good luck Tony.
O, might I suggest Brian’s Threaded Comments Plugin… It’s very useful when replying to a certain comment… Check it out
March 9th, 2007 at 10:46 pm
Jon, I taught guitar a bit back in high school. It’s pretty rewarding, I might revisit that. Noah and I are in talks about the next event, exciting stuff! We’re going to talkmatic it up like no other.
PS2 for life! X-Men Legends rocks my world. Gran Turismo rules my weekends. Guitar Hero… I don’t own.. yet. :p
Gambling is awesome Andrew. I play Texas Hold ‘Em on my iPod all the time. Have you played it?
March 10th, 2007 at 12:46 am
Reduce the number of shares in your stock and/or invest in “income” stocks…stocks that provide very nice dividends. Then you can use those dividends for yourself. You mentioned that you just moved a good amount into your brokerage, why did you do that if you are broke?
Be more systematic in your money management. I allocate 1/3 into savings, 1/3 into investment and then 1/3 i can spend. The money in your CD should not be a significant long-term thing. For times like this, you should tap into that until you finish school and start earning income. Savings should be used for emergencies, like unemployment, which is your case. You have investments as your “don’t touch” money.
Tutoring is good too. I think you just need to hang in there until mid May, when school is done, and then you’re in a better position to starting bringing in some cash flow.
Hope that helps.
March 12th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
One thing that I noticed is that you blog a lot and look up new technolgoy news. At Carnegie Mellon we had these jobs called desk attendants where you sit and buzz students into dorms, but mainly you sit there with a PC. My friend who did it had the most active blog i’d ever seen. OR as night-shift librarian, you could do school stuff during the day and get paid while blogging/research at night.
March 15th, 2007 at 12:54 am
[…] on out, I’m going to try to keep it real and be more personal on geekwhat.com. Entries like ‘I’m Going Broke’ and ‘I got my Car Towed, it Sucked’ got the most response from you all and that’s […]
March 19th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
[…] at the Mountain Dew (nasty but the only soda available for 50 cents, yep I’m cheap cause I’m broke), and came to a […]
March 20th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
[…] figured it’s about time I provide an update on my previously broke status. So far, I’ve done two things to address the […]
April 10th, 2007 at 3:27 pm
Well maybe you should try to babysiting or somthing you can do at night and do your homework or studing after they go to sleep. Parents are usally out late, and the kids usally go to sleep early like at 8:30.
April 22nd, 2007 at 10:04 pm
[…] slowly fighting back from broke status. […]
April 25th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I sure know of a way you can make more than enough money to take care of your bills and keep you going…I didnt only take care of my bills when I had similar problems..but now, I am doing very well..I got a Home of my own , My own business…Well, If you are interested you can hit me up… email will be preferable…judithgiardin at yahoo . com.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:25 am
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August 12th, 2007 at 7:40 am
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October 18th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
What I did in College was to paint the addresses on the street curbs then go to the homes and ask for donations. Easy to do and at your leisure. Also I might make a specialty logo for the subdivisions in addition to the street numbers.