It has never been easier to bring home the bacon (make money).

The digital age has brought a multitude of new opportunities, and if you’re willing to try something new, you could find a new source of income. All it takes is a little time, work and optimism.

I currently have 3 sources of income and working on a 4th, not including the potential for this blog to start bringing in something. Some people people would scoff at my measly 3 income streams.

A few months after I started this blog, I came across an ad where a company was looking for blog posts. After a quick phone call and a couple of hours work, I was $50 richer. I haven’t spent anymore time trying to get paid to write, but it’s just one of the many options out there.

I had a conversation with an elderly, retired man one time. He told me he had only had 3 jobs in his entire career. I’m only 25 and I’ve had more than that! Being loyal to a company for decades may have been popular back in the day, but times are changing.

I’ve heard some horror stories where people have worked for a company for 15 years, didn’t develop any new skills outside of work, and ended up getting laid off. Don’t let this be you.

Diversify Your Sources to Bring Home The Bacon

Unless you’ve signed a contract with your employer, when you work for someone else, you could be let go at anytime. You’re probably safe if you’re in a high demand position and are a decent worker, but there’s never a guarantee. Sometimes when you’re a high paid employee, your company may cut you if they need to save money.

If you’re only going to focus on your job, you need to become irreplaceable. Learn everything there is to know about your position and do everything there is to do. When you run out of work, help out in another department and learn everything you can about it. Being a unicorn is the safest bet to keeping your job for the long run and will help your resume stand out if you ever do get laid off.

If you’ve got a laptop, you have everything you need

If you like trying new things (which is a great way to stay young and sharp), then start thinking about a side hustle. I’d start with something you enjoy doing, and figure out a way to monetize it. Yes, it will take some creativity and may be challenging. It’s safe to say you aren’t living your life to its fullest capacity if you aren’t challenging yourself though.

This will be my 68th blog post, which means I’ve written probably close to 100,000 words (before editing) over the past 10 months. If you had told me a year ago I was going to write even 5,000 words and post them for the world to see, I’d have thought you were crazy. I say this just to show that we are capable of doing things we never thought about doing and it just takes the right mindset.

Back to the point, if you have a working computer, you have unlimited ways to make money at your fingertips. If an extra $1,000 dollars a month would change your life, start devoting some of your free time to developing a new skill. I just listened to a podcast featuring Grant from Millennial Money and he has a truly inspiring story.

In short, he spent a month studying to get a free Google Adwords certificate. After getting the certificate, he got a job as an ad manager. Within that position, he learned everything he needed to start building websites for people and 5 years later, he had a million dollar net worth!

The flood of digital work has left a drought

If you don’t like the idea of sitting at a computer for hours to make extra money, I’ve got good news. Everybody and their aunt is trying to make money online, and everyone is forgetting about physical labor.

There’s a huge labor gap in the trades industry, and you can make great money working with your hands. If you’re willing to learn how to fix or build things, you can charge big bucks for your services. It’s hard to find a dependable contractor who shows up on time and does what they say they’re going to do.

I’m not suggesting you go out and tell people you can build a house if you don’t have any experience, but you can learn quickly and start making good money in a short amount of time.

You might find a way to get that bacon doing something you love

It may sound weird to you, but I’ve found I truly enjoy finding junk for cheap and flipping it on eBay. Over the past several months, I’ve been able to slowly build up my inventory and now it’s generating several hundred dollars a month. Because I enjoy doing it, I’m motivated to go out and find things, then spend the time listing them.

I continue to learn of new things you can sell online and it only excites me more. Something I’d like to get into is stripping appliances of their parts and selling them, then scrapping the excess metal.

Making money doing something you love is the holy grail of earning an income. It’s sad how many people have worked 40 plus years doing something they hate when all they had to do was think a little differently. If you enjoy solving some kind of problem, chances are you can make money doing it. It just takes persistence.

Invest your savings and build a bacon cooking machine

While it’s good to have multiple income streams, not having to work for money is a great goal to have. You’re most likely going to come to a point in your life where you can’t physically/mentally work anymore. The good news is, if you save some, or a lot of your income, you will get to the point where work becomes optional.

You can go as deep as you’d like with investing, but thankfully you don’t have to. The simple answer is to invest in index funds. Particularly VTSAX. If you just invest as much money as you can, the money you invest will grow for the rest of your life. Eventually your investments will bring in enough money to cover your monthly expenses and you’ll be financially independent.

While I’m sure I’ll always have something to work on, having the freedom to choose what I do with my time is the ultimate goal.

Need some ideas for ways to bring home the bacon? Check out this post and scroll down to the “earn more” section.