As we head deeper into 2022 at a breakneck pace, you might be thinking of ways to earn some extra cash this year. With inflation showing no signs of stopping and the COVID-19 pandemic still in full swing due to the omicron variant, now is the time to save, invest, and find alternative forms of income.
Identify Your Risk Level Tolerance First
Financial specialists usually begin by analyzing what level of risk their clients can tolerate. I’ve taken a similar approach here and categorized my favorite strategies accordingly. I will walk you through a few different free, low, medium, and high-risk money-making strategies in this guide.
Low-Risk Money Strategies
When you first start thinking about ways to grow your net worth, these low-risk strategies are a great place to start.
Today, only 24% of millennials demonstrate basic financial literacy. Thinking about your own financial knowledge and skills and using some of these strategies can pay off huge dividends in the long run. Low-risk strategies are perfect if you have a tight budget, are nearing retirement or retired already, and are strained financially.
Slash Your Spending and Save More Money
The first low-risk strategy you should look at is saving money anywhere you can. A simple way to do this is to spend less on coffee. According to Yahoo, women spend about $2,327 per year on coffee beverages, whereas men spend about $1,934 per year. Cutting out your daily $5.00 Starbucks trip could potentially save you thousands of dollars.
If you’re not a coffee drinker, you can still save money in other ways. One alternative is to buy store brands versus name brands. In many cases, store brands are identical to those featuring known brands. For example, Costco, one of America’s best-known retailers, frequently sells products under its Kirkland label, but they are identical to other well-known reputable brands.
By cutting out unnecessary spending and seeking cheaper alternatives, you can save yourself money and keep more of it for retirement or a rainy-day fund.
Find a Side Gig
The second low-risk strategy you can use is finding a side gig. A side gig can be anything from picking up hours at your local grocery store to using a website like Fiverr or Upwork. If you have a skill worth selling, Fiverr and Upwork are probably the best choice for you. Both of these websites allow you to charge a fee for different types of services and can be an excellent way to earn more money. Many graphic designers, coders, writers, or artists use these platforms to increase their income.
Medium Risk Money Strategies
These strategies will require you to invest more resources and have a greater potential for loss. Medium risk strategies are best for people who are in the middle or beginning of their career, young to middle-aged and have a fair degree of financial stability.
Seek a Promotion
Seeking a promotion can be a great way to earn more money. It may sound like a low-risk strategy at first, but it may be more difficult than you think. Often, a promotion may require you to take on greater responsibilities at work. This means you may be working more frequently, thereby limiting your options to find a side gig. Greater responsibilities may also mean that you will be required to do more at work. Increasing demands in the workplace are no joke and may leave you feeling drained.
Finally, there is no guarantee you will get the promotion you apply for. Many times, higher-level positions require professional certifications or degrees. Either way, promotions assuredly come with a pay raise, and then you can start putting that money to good use, like in a 401(k).
Invest More Money
No money-making strategy would be complete without investing. Despite COVID-19 and the pandemic, the stock market has continued to climb. And there is a wealth of information available on how to grow your money and which investment types are available. However, choosing to invest ultimately means saving more of your money and putting it in some type of investment account.
High-Risk Money Strategies
Finally, we come to the high-risk strategies. These strategies can pay huge gains in the long run, but they obviously come with the biggest risks. With high-risk strategies, there is no one-size-fits-all recommendation. Anyone can use these strategies, but you should keep in mind whether or not you can afford to take any potential losses that can result from them.
Find a New Job and Change Industries
Changing your career can be a great way to earn more money. If you find that you’re trapped at a job that doesn’t pay you enough, you could consider looking for a new industry. This strategy can pay off big time.
For example, the mean average annual wage for computer programmers was over $95,000 in 2020. Switching to a new career can be a great but risky way of earning more money.
Consider Investing in Cryptocurrency
Public awareness of cryptocurrency grows more and more every year. However, these types of investments (if they can be called that) come with an incredible number of risks. For example, the price of crypto is very volatile, often experiencing huge swings within a day or even minutes. Crypto is also frequently used by scammers and other wrongdoers online. Furthermore, many of these digital tokens have questionable value. Keep in mind you’ll need a secure way to store your cryptocurrency too.
That said, the rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum definitely demonstrates that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. If you are willing to take the risk, there’s no reason why trading crypto couldn’t be a part of your money-growing strategy.
Conclusion
Start this year off by learning more about ways to make yourself financially literate and how to make more money in 2022. When thinking about how to increase your income, be sure to consider your current financial position and how much risk you can take on. No matter what you choose to do, the path to greater financial independence is sure to be beneficial.
