I'm a longtime lurker, but i finally managed to register. Just to give some background: I work fulltime for about 5 years now doing as an analyst. So my main job is pretty much wrangling data around, write new (small) tools to help with that, etc.
In my spare time i am learning a lot about web development, both front- and backend. I want to be able to sustain myself, for which i would need ~1500 USD/month.
My problem is, that i have never learned how to earn money, except for trading time for money.
Does someone here know some ressources?
Thanks in advance! J
Edit: fixed format
Reuse your analyst skills and provide some useful data calculations or aggregations with mobile apps. Reuse you new font-end skills with React Native, Apache Cordova etc.
Mobile app stores handle a lot of hassle like distribution and billing. I would avoid complex backend at all cost if you don't want to be on 24/7 devops duty. Maybe periodically updated CVS at basic webhosting would be enough.
Some basic resources https://www.indiehackers.com/post/what-are-the-most-indispen... and IndieHackers community in general.
Mobile apps is something that I thought about too, the ease of distribution seems like a big win, but isn’t it hard to sell on these platform nowadays because they get flooded with x numbers of apps every day?
Also be aware that you can be sued for pretty much any reason and will need to defend yourself in court. If you remain a sole-proprietor and don't have much to lose, there are legal hotlines that will help defend you for a very low price. If you form an LLC, this service isn't available and life becomes more costly and complicated.
Also be aware that if you are running a successful site, security and performance will be important and costly vectors for you to consider.
Lastly, health insurance is more difficult and expensive to obtain when you are self employed in the USA, compared to a W2 job.
If all of that doesn't scare you, then begin to focus very hard on problems that people need solving and are willing to pay money for. One example would be online tutoring for whatever skills you have :)
Else, there is always stock trading, which comes with risk, but so does everything else in life.
I was also thinking about using something like Stripe Atlas to set up a US company, but I‘m not sure how expensive it is to run it (hire an tax attorney etc) over the year if it doesn’t generate any money.
I mean, I probably just have to try it out without worrying too much
It can be anything: fiction (romance/thriller/novellas) or nonfiction: how to books on the skills you already have.
You specified you want to earn the money on the side and you allude to not wanting to trade time for money, so it's a perfect arbitrage opportunity to get client work and outsource it, positioning yourself as the manager/architect.
Do you have more information how you would tackle that problem?
Re: bureaucracy - it depends a lot on where you're based, how regulated the industry is, and how sensitive the data is. I wasn't really suggesting hiring employees, you can find remote contract workers on freelancing boards as well (just be careful to filter out all the noise).
1500 / month * 12 months / year * 2 for taxes (this feels genetically safe as a high bar but maybe not) * 25 in order to safely pull 4% yearly forever
Trying to come up with a plan to get a business running that can safely yield 1500 / month (more for taxes) can be dicey and prone to all sorts of risk, and the time horizon is unknown. Just saying, don’t discount leveling up with learning and trying to move upwards, keeping your current lifestyle, and saving your way up.
Pretty reasonable, but without knowing more about OP's situation, advising someone asking how they can earn more income on the side to earn it by having $1m wealth invested in the share market may not be the most immediately actionable advice! A bit catch 22 if the current problem is "not enough surplus income".
But I would love to be able to earn enough to live (simple, I don’t need a luxury life) while saving the rest to become financial independent at some point.
Sorry for deviating from the topic.
Mind telling how you "wrangling data around", the tools you use? I just got a my 5 years bank transactions in a csv. I just looking at the data in excel, wondering how to "analyse the data". Thats when I noticed your post on HN.
Sorry :)
I mostly use Splunk, since I have to correlate a lot of different data sources.
You can also set up an ELK stack (Elasticsearch / Logstash / Kibana)
My excel skills are not that advanced, but depending on the result you want to achieve it might be sufficient.
I would suggest importing your data into a BI tool like Zoho Analytics first and see if that solves your needs, before advancing to Elastic Search or Splunk
