Does anyone earn a living without having a job?

SammyS1987

Whilst I was at work earlier I was wondering if anyone manages to earn a living without having a job if that makes sense?

I guess I mean people that trade in stocks/shares, sell on eBay, matched betting, that kind of thing.

I'm not talking about people who have 4 kids and get loads of benefits, I'm talking about someone who is a single, home owning/renting person?

Your thoughts...

HannahIOW

So you're talking about self employed people then?

SammyS1987

HannahIOW wrote: »

So you're talking about self employed people then?

Err I guess so! I'm trying to not offended people when I say not a proper job. Basically earning enough to make a living without working too hard, or only working hard for a few hours a day. I've had enough lol!

HannahIOW

If only we all knew the secret to that one, we would be happy lol

PasturesNew

I earn all my income "from thin air" if that's what you mean. Writing stuff, couple of websites. Mostly I don't do anything, it just all happens... then I'll get an idea and work with it for a few days before .... doing nothing. And the free money from nowhere keeps plopping into the bank. Hardest work I do all year is my tax return, going through my bank account etc and making sure I know where all the free money's come from....

I'm kind of lazy .... and at the moment not really "set up" to really work the knowledge I have... and as the money just plops into the bank account all the time it's easy to be lazy.

On the other hand, I lost £1000 last month as my hosting company were sold off and my site moved (no warning) and then I had a whole 2 weeks loss of earnings and a new host to find/pay for and move the whole site across. After that though .... I sat and did nothing and the cash is again plopping into my account.

HannahIOW

So what is this 'nothing' that you do?

usa1

SammyS1987 wrote: »

Whilst I was at work earlier I was wondering if anyone manages to earn a living without having a job if that makes sense?

I guess I mean people that trade in stocks/shares, sell on eBay, matched betting, that kind of thing.

I'm not talking about people who have 4 kids and get loads of benefits, I'm talking about someone who is a single, home owning/renting person?

Your thoughts...

I have wondered the same over the few months, i suppose it takes a while to build it all up, I mean that I will have to use my salary to buy share and such..

geordie_joe

PasturesNew wrote: »

On the other hand, I lost £1000 last month as my hosting company were sold off and my site moved (no warning) and then I had a whole 2 weeks loss of earnings and a new host to find/pay for and move the whole site across. After that though .... I sat and did nothing and the cash is again plopping into my account.

I can't keep up with your figures!

Here you say you earn £1000 in two weeks, so £500 per week x 52 = £26,000. If you pay normal tax you'll have a wage of around £20,000 per year.

Yet this morning you said http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=34451821&postcount=2

PasturesNew wrote: »

I did this last night and it said I needed £22k (I have about half that at the moment).

Which means you have £11,000

Then this afternoon you said http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=34462325&postcount=13

PasturesNew wrote: »

I was earning that much at various times between 1986 and 1995.... no chance now though, no jobs pay as much as £14k it seems.

I did the "how much" thing - and once I'd put in the LHA rate for a 1-bed flat where I live, it said I'd need £22k for the lifestyle that included being part of society. I've known for years (earning £16-17k) that I was surviving and not taking part in society, so nothing new there then.

The amount they give is to "get a life". So, socialising etc. As a single person I've stayed in for years because a social life was too expensive.

So which is the real figure? £11k, £16-17k or £20k

You claim to be earning £500 for doing nothing, just using the knowledge you have, yet you are on the referrers board reading articles for a few cents on a site that is clearly not going to pay you for it. I think you said you would reach the $50 minimum to get paid in around 6 weeks, that's a lot of reading, rating and clicking for a lazy person like you say you are.

I just can't keep up with you!

PasturesNew

geordie_joe wrote: »

I can't keep up with your figures!

Here you say you earn £1000 in two weeks, so £500 per week x 52 = £26,000. If you pay normal tax you'll have a wage of around £20,000 per year.

Yet this morning you said http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=34451821&postcount=2

Which means you have £11,000

Then this afternoon you said http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=34462325&postcount=13

So which is the real figure? £11k, £16-17k or £20k

You claim to be earning £500 for doing nothing, just using the knowledge you have, yet you are on the referrers board reading articles for a few cents on a site that is clearly not going to pay you for it. I think you said you would reach the $50 minimum to get paid in around 6 weeks, that's a lot of reading, rating and clicking for a lazy person like you say you are.

I just can't keep up with you!

If people take one posting out of the air from what I say, then things never look right.

I have earnt £20k/year from doing what I do. But what I do is variable.... and some things that were doing well in the past stop doing well ... and sometimes I find new things that do well for varying amounts of time.

And I have costs.... probably this year about £2k of costs .... to do what I do.

How much do I earn is hard to pin down. I can look at the amount each day, or each week, each month, or last tax year. I can forecast an annualised figure based on what happened last month. It's always moving.

I'd say though that it's varied from £20k/year (before costs) to £10k/year (after costs). But just in the past month I've discovered things I hope will add another £1k/year.

What I said was I lost £1000 in two weeks, that's a combination of lost income and increased costs (changed hosts to a bigger/more powerful one on a more stable platform).

The reading articles thing was part of an experiment - and is part of a bigger plan, it is one tiny cornerstone of a 30 day plan I am working on. Again, one thing in isolation does not make enough money to live on. Things need to be seen, tested, tried out; several things need to be daisy-chained. New concepts explored, statistics analysed.... and lots of thinking.

I won't know how much I earnt from April 2009 to April 2010 until I've actually done my tax return later this year, but I DO know that each month I had enough to live on. The final figure will come out in the return.

Because of losing my site in June, for two weeks plus (probably more like 17 days), my income for June will be down, this will affect my yearly income whichever way I cut it.

The item you've picked above, that referenced £16-17k was speaking of my recent experiences of being employed, but I've not been employed since June 2006 when I was laid off (after working for six months for a company that's now been sold off). It wasn't current, but referred to a generalisation of recent years.

As for reading/being lazy... I've not got my 4rse into gear since my site went down to get back round to doing that, but I will be doing it soon.

I also completely lost the Internet in June, this impacted upon what I could achieve and am still catching up from that.

You don't have to believe, but my life changes all the time .... and it is how I've made my living since 2006 when I was laid off and was just fiddling about ... and the money started coming in, so I just kept doing it. I intend to "get a proper job" at some point, at which point I'll still do what I do online because that would give me 2 incomes and I could then just use the online stuff to save.

As for measuring earnings, sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. I have about 100 things on the go... most I never monitor, but once a year or so maybe I'll get a cheque from them, or money will randomly turn up in my Paypal account. I mostly just monitor my Adsense income, which is easy to view and there's no mucking about with Google... you earn it, you get it. Regular as clockwork. I tend, therefore, to see Google as my "take home" and all the rest will pay my tax bill. Helps me understand what money I have coming in easier.

Did I answer everything?

PasturesNew

HannahIOW wrote: »

So what is this 'nothing' that you do?

The nothing I do includes, but is not limited to: having a couple of websites, doing article writing, affiliate marketing, surveys and the odd bit of freelance work.

Most of my time is spent looking into things, looking at things, rather than sitting down and doing something specific. Right now I don't have the space to be organised and focussed, or I'd crack on and move things forward better.

PassedAtFailing

PasturesNew wrote: »

The nothing I do includes, but is not limited to: having a couple of websites, doing article writing, affiliate marketing, surveys and the odd bit of freelance work.

Most of my time is spent looking into things, looking at things, rather than sitting down and doing something specific. Right now I don't have the space to be organised and focussed, or I'd crack on and move things forward better.

Can I ask the subjects of your websites?

In my experience websites are very hit and miss, with a very fine formula that is ever changing for them to be popular. Naturally you have to make your website easily found and interesting. I guess I am basically asking: what is working for you?