“You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.”

– Richard Branson

This week marks the four month anniversary of me not having a “real job.” In honor of this, I’ve decided to share a few things that I learned during this time:

• You don’t have to think big.

Every method that I’ve used to generate an income has been pathetically low brow. Even some of the cooler gigs, like web design, aren’t particularly ambiguous. Most of the jobs that I’ve done are related to my interests, like writing and coding, and have felt more like an extension of my hobbies than actual work.

• You become more responsible with money.

Back when I worked for someone else, I spent recklessly. Making stupid purchases were no big deal, since I was always guaranteed a steady income stream. When you earn $10 an hour no matter what quality of work you do, you have no respect for money. When you actually have to hunt down a client and put in your best effort, you develop a special bond with your earnings.

• You become more responsible with your work.

At my old job I put in an acceptable level of effort. I wasn’t the worst employee, but I wasn’t the best either. If I screwed up, someone else would solve the problem. As such, there was no pressure for me to try hard. Now I’m responsible for every action I make. Because of this, I always have to do my best. A “Case of the Mondays” is death.

• You fail, a lot.

For one of my business ventures I decided to start selling 70’s and 80’s comic books on eBay. I went out, bought a mountain of old Savage Sword of Conan and Master of Kung Fu magazines. I still have almost all of them. I also decided to write a satirical eBook about monetized blogging, but ended up shelving it. Of everything I’ve tried doing, only two or three things have actually worked out.

While I enjoy doing what I do now, I don’t think it’s for everyone. Being self-employed is both incredibly time consuming, and a huge responsibility. In all honesty, having a regular job is a lot easier; abet far less rewarding. Still, I’d much rather be my own boss and set my own hours than waste my time taking orders from someone else.

“The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them everything.”

– Benjamin Franklin

In our contemporary society the word frugal carries a negative connotation. Frugality is usually associated with staying in on weekends, buying only the cheapest necessities, and living a threadbare life.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

I’m incredibly frugal, yet I still manage to eat healthy, go out every weekend, buy nice things, have hobbies, and vacation once a year. Aside from not wasting my money on frivolous expenses, I’m able to maximize the value of my money by doing the following:

Eating healthy

I hate going out to eat. I don’t like sit down restaurants, fast food, or cafes. At most I’ll go out once a month for sushi, otherwise I eat at home or pack my own meals. Because I cook my own food, I end up saving a small fortune. For frame of reference: a combo meal at McDonald’s costs around $5 -$7 while a home cooked egg and tomato omelet costs about $2. By not indulging in processed garbage I save roughly $1,820 a year.

 Reading

Admittedly I spend a lot on books. I’ve been cutting down on my expenses by visiting the library more frequently, but I still buy tons of literature. Despite all the money I’ve spent on books, I still consider myself to be saving money by reading. Instead of watching television or mindlessly surfing the web, I’m learning new and applicable information. The $8 I spend on a book is an investment, not a waste.

Not drinking

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, drinking is a great way to drain your productivity and wallet. When I go out on a Friday or Saturday night, my total expenses are usually around $5. Although I spend next to nothing, I guarantee that I still have as much fun as the dudes who drop a couple hundred dollars for the evening.

 Having a goal

Being bored is expensive. When I’m pursuing a goal I tend to spend very little money. For example: learning how to program cost me nothing. I got all my books for free, and I used the tutorials at Codecademy for additional practice. Likewise, several of my other hobbies are free as well. The more goals I embark on, the less time I have to make reckless purchases out of tedium.

Bettering yourself is actually quite inexpensive. Eating right, learning, partying, and achieving my goals all cost me less per month than I used to spend when I was a couch potato.

If you have any additional advice on frugality, feel free to share it in the comments section.

“Thanks to the economic crisis, bartending got upgraded from a job to a career.”

– Goldman Sachs Elevator Gossip

[Disclaimer: For this post, please place the word “allegedly” in front of any legally questionable content that you see.]

It was Spring Break and I needed money. One hundred and twenty-eight dollars to be exact. I had to pay for the copy editing of Brains & Brawn, renew my quarterly gym membership, finance my going out expenses, purchase some juicing carrots, and buy a new tub of protein powder. Since no business is willing to hire an employee for only one week, I had to get creative with my revenue streams. What follows are the actual three jobs that I did to cover my expenditures:

Scrapping metal

Recycling metal is one of the easiest ways to make money. There are no start up costs and it takes no skill. I’ve been scrapping cans and wire since before I hit puberty.

When I was thirteen my family moved into a house whose former owner was an alcoholic. Our property was littered with thousands of beer cans. Rather than hiring someone to clean up the property, my parents told my brother and I that we could keep the profits from any cans that we collected. By midsummer, I’d made over three hundred dollars. Not bad for a kid who wasn’t even old enough to work at McDonald’s.

Last weekend I decided to retry my hand at scrapping metal.

I ended up spending about two hours stripping the plastic coating off of old copper wiring (it’s worth more that way), and earned about fifteen dollars from the ordeal. While it works out to being sightly less than minimum wage, I had zero investment and got paid the same day. When the weather clears up, I plan on doing some larger scale scrapping and will probably earn a couple hundred for an afternoon’s worth hard work.

Earnings: $15 for two hours (not horrible, it covered my weekend expenses).

Day labor

I want to issue another disclaimer: If you’re planning on doing this side hustle, please use some common sense when locating an employer. While most people are pretty decent, there is still a chance that you could end up working for some psychopath. Or a really cheap old dude, who’ll refuse to pay you (it’s happened to me before).

Even in a recession physically exerting work never goes out of style. People will always need someone with raw strength to move furniture, dig holes, and do a variety of other strenuous tasks. While this type of work is usually unpleasant, it does have one major benefit: cash payments. When I actually had a job I’d make about $10 an hour (before taxes). Doing day labor I make slightly less, but the money goes straight to my pocket.

Earnings: $120 for a weekend (between this and scrapping metal, I’d financed my whole week in just two days).

Affiliate marketing

The amount of money I make from my online ventures is pathetically low. Per hour, I probably earn as much as a sweatshop worker. On average I earn about $40 a month from blogging and running another small site. Despite this, I am, technically, getting paid to do something I love. How cool is that? Plus, the money I do earn online is usually enough to cover my month’s juicing supplies.

Earnings: Not much… Yet

 Conclusion

When I had a regular job, I made about $500 a week. After taxes, transportation fees, and miscellaneous expenditures; I probably walked away with 40% of what I had earned. Nowadays I might make considerably less, but the money is mine and I actually have free time. According to my hasty math, I actually make more now and am more productive than when I worked for someone else. To quote Alec Baldwin’s character from Glengarry Glen Ross: “The money’s out there, you pick it up, it’s yours.”

“As long as your going to be thinking anyway, think big.”

– Donald Trump

On April 30th, I turn 20. Before that happens, I want to get some of my last minute teenage goals accomplished. As such, this month’s challenge is a mash-up between learning a foreign language and mastering business.

Rather than try to artificially combine both my goals, I plan on focusing almost exclusively on the money aspect and occasionally posting something about my Spanish lessons. I’ll also be sharing a lot of stories about ventures that I’ve attempted and failed at. If you’re interested in establishing a side income, you’ll like the material that I’ve got in store.

Expect posts on the following topics:

• Monetized blogging
• eBook creation
• Taxes
• Businesses that turn a same-day profit
• How to create business ideas
• Marketing
• Dealing with failure
• Employment verses Entrepreneurship
• Language learning reasources
• Conversational Spanish hacks
• And much more

I’m really excited to embark on this challenge, and I think it will be a lot of fun. Check back tomorrow, when I kick things off with: The three side hustles that I did last week.