Handling money in the summer is like putting a load of socks through the laundry. Somewhere between the spin cycle and the dryer, you lose one, presumably behind the washing machine or through black magic, never to be seen or worn again. It isn’t a big deal for the most part because it’s just one sock and it was that holey one you didn’t wear often and who really cares about hosiery anyway? But then you lose another couple, and another couple, and suddenly one day your feet are freezing and you are left to do without, sulking and sockless.
This is exactly how it goes with your dollars over the summer. What’s a dozen George Washingtons on a bottle of red when it’s going toward a couple homemade pitchers of sangria, right? And with a glass of that punch, you can’t help but toast to one long, glam, illustrious summer of fun and frivolity, and spending whatever amount of money it may take to achieve both. Suddenly, however, you’ve lost track of what exactly happened to your most recent paycheck (and the one prior), and as your summer vacay hits the halfway point, you realize you need to make extra money stat, or the entirety of the next school year is going to be a big ole’ broke bust.
So avoid college bankruptcy and tap into HC’s financial advice for how you can make a little extra money before the summer’s over. Wouldn’t you like to have your sangria and drink it too?
1. Tutor online
You may be unqualified for some of the jobs you’ve desperately applied for (Cruise boat captain? Really?), but tutoring is one gig you’ve got in the bag. You don’t have to be an education major to tutor a younger student in a subject of your expertise. A website like tutor.com [http://www.tutor.com/] invites college students to apply for online tutoring positions through the completion of several introductory placement tests. Since their tutoring services are provided online through chat-style windows, you can work from anywhere with an internet connection (Starbucks, anyone?).
Also, you’re only obligated to be available for as few as five hours a week, and you have complete control over those hours. However, according to the website, highly active tutors “earn anywhere from $800 to $1,600 a month.” And having held a tutoring position, even for a couple months, will look great on your resume when applying elsewhere in the future.
2. Teach another language
Speaking another language is not only an impressive skill but also a bankable commodity. If you are a fully fluent speaker of another language and feel confident in your ability to teach it, why not put your linguistic skills up for sale? Advertise your services in places likely to garner a response, such as libraries, childcare centers, tutoring agencies, and in the online classifieds of any colleges around your area.
If local advertisements aren’t receiving many bites, expand your pool of possibilities and check out Verbalplanet.com, which is a website that links up language teachers and students from all over the world via Skype for video classroom sessions. Signing up is free, and if you’re accepted as a language tutor, you can start immediately and receive payment via PayPal. All you need is an internet connection and Skype, which is free to download at its website.
From Irish Gaelic to Urdu, Verbal Planet has students who want to learn your language. You determine how much to charge for your services and keep 100% of what you earn, which for English tutors, for example, falls around $30 per lesson!
Beth, a graduate of University of Toronto, even used her knowledge of American Sign Language to find a tutoring job. “After I finished teachers college, I was looking for a way to set my résumé apart from the rest, and out of personal interest, fell upon learning sign language, which I picked up quickly and fell in love with. Teaching it to others is not only lucrative, because fluency in ASL is so rare, but I gained teaching experience too, which was instrumental in finding a job post-grad.”
