Pretty much everyone in the United States has been profoundly impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Many individuals are required to work from home, and some people have lost their jobs altogether. In addition, many individuals are staying at home except in rare circumstances in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. However, if you keep a few things in mind, earning extra money while quarantining at home because of COVID-19 is possible in a variety of circumstances.
This website has already discussed a number of strategies that student debt borrowers can take in order to earn extra money to devote additional cash to debt. Many of these part-time gigs can be conducted from the comfort of your home, and while the COVID-19 pandemic is unfolding. This article summarizes some of the prior articles on this topic and more specifically explores earning extra money from home during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
There are a number of tried and true side-hustles that can be pursued when earning extra money while quarantining at home. One of the most popular side-hustles that you can perform in the comfort of your home is Amazon Mechanical Turk. As mentioned in a prior article, Mechanical Turk allows users to be paid for performing tasks through the internet that computers can’t perform. These tasks include typing, photo moderation, surveys, and other jobs.
It takes a little while in order to be skilled with using Mechanical Turk. This is because some tasks are easier to perform than others, and different jobs pay more money for the effort that is required. However, with a little practice, Mechanical Turk is a good way to try earning extra money while quarantining at home. You can access Mechanical Turk here, and there is often little setup necessary to begin performing tasks through this platform.
Freelancing is also a great way to try earning extra money while quarantining at home. As mentioned in a few prior articles, I work a number of freelance gigs. This includes gigs in the legal industry and writing gigs for a major legal news outlet. I am able to perform all of this work from the comfort of my own home, and the income from freelancing adds up to a substantial sum.
If you have pre-existing freelance connections, you can use these connections to get more gigs when earning extra money while quarantining at home. If you do not currently have freelancing gigs, it might be more difficult to create such connections during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this is not impossible. Normally, freelance gigs will relate to the work you do in your main job, but this does not always need to be the case. Indeed, my writing gigs only tangentially relate to my career as a lawyer. Each person has a different situation, but with some creativity, freelancing is one way to try earning extra money while quarantining at home.
In addition, taking surveys for cash is another solid option when earning extra money while quarantining at home. As mentioned in a prior article, InboxDollars is a fun website that can help users earn extra scratch. Essentially, users of this platform receive money to take surveys, click on emails, complete offers, and fulfill other types of tasks. When I was paying off my student loans, I regularly used InboxDollars on my commutes to and from work in order to make a little extra money that can be devoted to student loans.
I am not going to lie, you will not get rich off of InboxDollars. When I was using the platform on a daily basis, I would usually only make around $10 a day while using InboxDollars during my commutes and during free time that I had during the day. You can sign up for InboxDollars here, and if you use this link, I will likely receive a bonus I can use to keep the lights on here at Student Debt Diaries.
Individuals should also try using any number of freelancing websites when earning extra money while quarantining at home. As many people are aware, our economy is much more of a “gig economy” than at any other point in the past. There are a variety of websites that strive to connect freelancers with customers in order to make it easier for people to conduct freelance work from the comfort of their own homes.
During my student debt repayment saga, I explored a number of freelance websites. I tried offering legal services and help to law students who might need a practicing attorney to answer questions for them. To be completely honest, I lost interest in this potential side-hustle pretty quickly, and I never made any money through freelancing website. However, freelancing websites such as Fiverr and others exist that can make it easy for individuals to offer services and get paid for work through the internet.
It should be noted that there are a lot of benefits to having side-hustles and setting up income streams that can be worked from home. I have been doing this for years, and not only can this help you earn extra money to pay down debt, but this can help you deal with social interruptions like the present COVID-19 pandemic. In any case, earning extra money while quarantining from home is possible in a variety of circumstances, and if you keep a few things in mind, you can make the most of the time that you have at home.