A big issue aspiring traders run into: How can I make money to sustain myself while I’m building up my trading account without working a full-time job?
If you are considering transitioning into full-timing trading, it is tough to work a job where you are preoccupied for 8 hours a day, and often during the market open. But you also don’t want to cut yourself off completely from a reliable income source, especially if it is early in your career or you don’t have much savings.
There are several ideal part-time jobs that work well for aspiring traders, who are looking to transition into full-time traders. When I was transitioning to a full-time trader, I did all of these jobs, so all of these accounts of these jobs are from first-hand experience.
These are not glorious jobs, but easy ways to sustain yourself while you get your trading career off the ground. All of these jobs require few qualifications, and are very flexible with their hours:
Lyft/Uber Driver
If you have a car, this is a great way to make some extra cash outside of market hours. The average hourly wage is probably about $15-$20 an hour, depending on when you drive (After gas and insurance expenses). The best part about these is that you can work whenever you want.
You can trade in the day, and drive in the evening or early morning. Usually, you can find a consistent amount of work once you hit the road. It helps to sign up with both apps to increase the probability of you finding riders if things get slow on one of the apps.
Postmates/Doordash/Uber Eats
If you don’t want strangers in your car or don’t have a car, food delivery for these companies is a decent solution. If you live in a big city, you don’t even need a car, you can use a bike or go by foot. Like with Uber/Lyft, you can work whenever you want.
You probably make about $15 an hour on average, but you also get tips. One of the downsides is that sometimes you might run into dry patches where you don’t get any orders while you’re out. To minimize the chance of this happening, work during lunch and dinner hours, and also work for multiple companies. If UberEats is slow, you can also have your Postmates app up to find jobs.
TaskRabbit
Very cool app that allows you to get hired to all kinds of projects. You can get hired to do delivery service, home repairs, moving, heavy lifting, and a bunch of other chores people don’t want to do. You can make decent money from some of the heavy lifting and moving projects, I’ve gotten up to $50 an hour in the past for these.
The downside is that the projects aren’t as consistent as Lyft and Uber. With Uber, Uber Eats, Postmates ect. you know for sure that you will be getting work as soon as you turn on the app.
With TaskRabbit, you need to build up your rating and credibility in a bit in the beginning before you can get hired consistently. An easy way to get over this hump is to drop your hourly rate below average to get yourself a flow of projects in the beginning. Ask your friends/family to hire you through the app to get going.
Upwork
If you have skill sets in the creative and digital realms, Upwork.com can bring you some decent income. I know some traders who are web designers and copywriters who used the site for supplemental income when they were getting their trading off the ground. Like with TaskRabbit, you need to get projects and good reviews under your belt to start generating consistent projects and money from it. Do projects for friends/family and have them pay you through Upwork to get you off the ground.
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