Successful Moonlighting For Geeks?

Lawksamussy writes "Having just bought a really old house that's on the verge of falling down, I'm now trying to find a way to pay to fix it up. I have a great job in software development that pays the bills, but I'm looking to earn some extra cash in my spare time. Whatever I end up doing has to be reasonably lucrative (or at least have the potential to be so), not require any specific time commitment, and be doable equally well from home or from a hotel room. I'm also keen that it should be sufficiently different to my day job to keep my interest up, so the most obvious things like bidding for programming projects on Rentacoder.com, or fixing up neighbors' PCs, aren't really on. Above all, it should appeal to my inner geek, otherwise my low boredom threshold will doom it to failure before I even start! So, I wonder if any of my fellow Slashdotters run little part-time ventures that they find more of an inspiration than a chore... and if they are willing to share what they do and perhaps even how much money they make doing it?"

Comments

Exposure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't read the title too fast. "Mooning" isn't what's being asked.

Re:Exposure.

[ozphx]

Oh.... Successful MoonLIGHTing for Greeks!

My bad... so what did the Greeks invent again? Surely we can find SOMETHING hes naturally good at? ;)

Re:Exposure.

[smilindog2000]

This guy poses a legit question, and one that often poses ethical issues. Not only have I done a bit of moonlighting in my past, but I've always encouraged my best programmers to do a bit on the side. Without sampling that grass on the other side of the fence, those talented programmers I train are likely to hop over.

As an old programmer (I'm 44), I've got a few stories. When I worked for David Burns at HP, my previous company, National Semiconductor, needed my help badly. The work David assigned was mind-numbingly boring, and the LM628/LM629 (motor controllers) I'd worked on at National were in serious trouble without me, and frankly they were fun (my old boss, David Squires, was about the best ever). I asked Mr Burns if I could do the project as a favor to old friends at National, and he said it was up for the HP *Board of Directors* to decide! So, if HP/Burns was going to be a PITA, without any pangs of lack of integrity, I stopped asking Burns what I could or could not do.

I helped National push the LM628/LM629 into the market. Then, I quit working for Burns. As a consultant for a while, I wrote the original Simple Switcher design code (National did most of the work - bench validation). If you haven't heard of this line of products, you obviously aren't in power electronics. I enjoyed the consulting, but basically I sucked. I have this terrible desire to call stupid people stupid. It's *really* bad for consultants. So, now I'm CTO of a small company I founded, and I can't complain. Again, when my programmers feel the need for some moonlighting, I'm fully supportive. I've never lost a good one because of it.

Re:Exposure.

[Deekin_Scalesinger]

Whatever I end up doing has to be reasonably lucrative (or at least have the potential to be so), not require any specific time commitment, and be doable equally well from home or from a hotel room. I'm also keen that it should be sufficiently different to my day job to keep my interest up, so the most obvious things like bidding for programming projects on Rentacoder.com, or fixing up neighbors' PCs, aren't really on.

Based on your stated goals and desires, allow me to be the first to welcome you to the exciting and lucrative world of drug dealing!

Re:Exposure.

[magisterx]

It is a legit question, but the standards he sets are high:
1. Reasonably lucrative
2. No specific time requirements (which can be read as no deadlines)
3. Interesting
4. Cannot be tied to a specific office since he wants to be able to work from home or hotel room

And of course presumptively within his skill set. I have known many people in IT that have gotten moonlighting jobs with some of those criteria, but I've never known anyone to pull off all of them simultaneously.

To the poster, if you find something that meets all 4 and you need a sidekick, send me an e-mail.

As for my 2 cents on achieving it(or coming close), you may want to keep all 4 as goals, but be willing to accept something that does not meet all of them. There are plenty of technical training institutes that need teachers and that meets criteria 1 and 3 (4 as well if you limit yourself to online classes), and plenty of places that hire people on for special projects, but most of those will have deadlines and many will need you to come into their office at least occasionally.

Also, have you considered something like the National Gaurd as a Commo officer? They pay reasonably well, are very interesting and very different from your day job, and while they do require a time and space commitment, Federal Law will help protect that time from other demands to a degree.

Re:Exposure.

[SylvesterTheCat]

Yeah, real fun and exciting. You do know that we have a shortage of troops, and the fact is "the draft" is a phrase that shall not be spoken. As a result, joining the National Guard today almost guarantees you will do one or more rotations in Iraq/Afghanistan .
As a National Guardsman, I would agree that you can expect to be sent overseas. However, before you can be mobilized, you must be fully trained in your job (MOS), which means completing the associated required schooling. I would guess that by the time that is completed, things will be winding down. This assumes another hot spot doesn't appear, of course.

Yeah, supposedly they're not involved in combat patrols (mostly guard duty), but that doesn't mean the violence can't find them.

I'm not sure what you mean here. Do you mean:
a) national guard units are not involved with combat patrols (not true)
b) a signal officer doing guard duty - typically does not happpen, but could under rare circumstances. I (as a field grade officer) have pulled security shifts during night patrol base halts in Afghanistan, but that was primarly due to manning of my team.

Your end point is absolutely valid. The violence can find you anywhere.

Yeah, real fun and exciting.

I've been doing this for over 21 years, have been mobilized twice, including once to Afghanistan (returned this past spring). There have been many moments of fun and excitement, to include the good kind from successfully accomplishing a challenging task to the non-so fun kind from stuff that happens in a combat zone. I've been a pallbearer for a very good friend and have been at several send-offs of colleagues onto a C-130 for the last flight home. On two ocassions, I (very) briefly wondered if I was going to see the end of that particular mission.

I've found it to be very rewarding at times and very frustrating at other times. I also expect that I will be going somewhere again within 2-3 years.

Having said all of this, I haven't kept up with the details with current age limits, so he may be too old. However, there may be others who are thinking about it.

Let me think...

[chill]

Reasonably lucrative, no major time commitment, can be done at home or a hotel room. Hmmmm...think, think, think.

Have you tried an ad on Craigslist? Make sure to post a picture of yourself, along with your "rates". Good luck!

Re:Let me think...

[somersault]

It has to appeal to his geek side too though, so I recommend setting up a streaming feed from his webcam capturing all the action..

Re:Let me think...

[Korbeau]

"should be sufficiently different to my day job ...". No penetration testing then!

I myself am into LaTeX, BSOD, backporting, deep throttling ...

Fork the jokes ... I think EVERYONE reading this summary had the same line of thought, I'm even wondering if the poster is not a troll ;)

"... it should appeal to my inner geek", I mean ... what are your other geeky interests? You can be curious, passionate and hack about anything ... if you're like me I'd suggest you glue lollipop stick model of things and sell them on eBay - good money! :)

Re:Let me think...

[DurendalMac]

No, sell stuff on Craigslist. I make some good money on the side by scouring local surplus sales/auctions and picking up computers. Then I fix 'em up and sell them on CL for a profit. Get a line on all city/state/county/higher ed surplus sales and you can run around picking up all kinds of goodies.

Re:Let me think...

[MiKM]

How to stretch your moonlighting budget tip #43: Defective CAT5 cables? Don't throw them away, they can easily be used for light bondage!

Re:Let me think...

[Anarke_Incarnate]

Light bondage requires LC/LC fiber optic cables. You are thinking of copper bondage. ;)

Re:Let me think...

[enoz]

You'd have to be a twisted pair to try that.

Re:Let me think...

[preggie_greggie]

Reasonably lucrative, no major time commitment, can be done at home or a hotel room. Hmmmm...think, think, think.

Have you tried an ad on Craigslist?

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/orl/740493470.html

Re:Let me think...

[Glonoinha]

Or possibly just as good (in parallel) - post on CL looking for a roommate. Take your time finding a good one and Voila! it's almost like free money.

Granted you have to tone your living habits just a touch (ie, no more walking around the house in your underware, no more crazy sex in the kitchen) but honestly - $700 a month net (that's rent and 1/2 the bills) is the same as a $12,000 raise at work (before taxes). You can buy a LOT of stuff for that $8,400 per year, and honestly you don't have to do anything even remotely resembling work to do it.

I'm not saying it's for everybody - but if you have room in your house, well $8,400 a year net is a pretty good chunk of change with which to finance home upgrades (or toys.)

Re:Let me think...

[lupis42]

I sold an old Machine at the MIT swap meet to a guy once, and he gave me full price when I offered to warranty that everything worked and was linux compatible by giving him my phone #. I got a call from him two years later, just thanking me and letting me know it was all still working.

Re:Let me think...

[Linker3000]

Ouch that's pricey!

I use to use a 100m reel of waxed lacing cord with a small steel nut tied to the end. ...for cabling, that is!

Stay up late and watch informercials

[BitZtream]

They all seem to be selling the get rich quick without spending any time and from any where you want using the Internet plans.

The secret however is not to buy them, its to sell them.

Sell/ebay all your old tech

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been doing this for a while and I've managed to release a fair bit of cash.

Re:Sell/ebay all your old tech

[Trogre]

Great going, but how did you manage to find this guy's old tech?

Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[catchy_handle]

Have you considered doing work on the house yourself? The money you save may make the second job unnecessary.

My wife & I remodeled our previous house: tore off plaster, moved walls, rewired, tiled, etc. We hired out the roof tear off, rough plumbing work and some of the drywalling. Saved a ton of money. Eventually, it made more sense for me quit my low-paying job and become the full-time house repair dude while she worked her good job.

It's not that hard, you learn new skills, have an excuse to aquire tools, and have something to be proud of. It did take seven years, though. YMMV

This time around, we are paying others as much as we can, but we'll probably be left with a weathered-in shell.

It's also a good way to find out you your friends really are. Forget moving day, real friends help you demo and haul.

Good luck.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[Antique Geekmeister]

Or investing in a bit aftershave, a bath, some flowers, and marrying a carpenter?

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[martinQblank]

I have to second this. Hire out the big jobs -- anything foundation-related/structural especially -- but otherwise learn to do it yourself. Yes, it will take longer but there is really a sense of accomplishment at the end. Presumably you bought the house because it either really appealed to you; you saw it as a great investment or whatever. If you feel strongly enough about it, you'll learn to do the job right. FWIW - I've owned seven -- and lived in five -- houses so far. Most have been fixer-uppers and I've enjoyed making each of them better than before. WARNING -- it can get addictive.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[frission]

if you decide to do this, know your limitations, and the permit laws in your state. Here in NC, you need a permit for any new framing/walls, electric, plumbing, etc. If you don't get the proper permits, you may have a hard time selling your house down the road.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[hbackert]

I second this. Instead of working to earn money to pay someone, you can do it yourself in the first place.

Back in my home country it is (in the country side) common to let someone (AKA people who know what they are doing) build the outer part of a house (basement, cellar, walls, roof) and some other important or safety-critical parts like heating system, staircases, electric wiring (not allowed to do without proper qualification) and water pipes (you don't want them to leak in 5 years), and maybe finish enough rooms to live inside the house (kitchen, bathroom, one bedroom, living room), and then do the rest yourself.

There are enough books to read about the needed tools and skills.

The best part about this is when later something breaks, you have the tools and knowledge to fix many problems yourself.

And carpenters and related jobs are unpopular enough (no one wants to learn this type of work any more) that there is enough shortage of those people so that their hourly rates are surprisingly high and they get away with it. So it's a nice "Plan B" in case your current computer related job no longer earns you enough.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[Anonymous Coward]

As a former reno-carpenter, I'd have to suggest doing it yourself too. You're not going to make enough money moonlighting to pay for the kind of work that needs doing in anything like equal hours.

That said... I don't know you, & thus how well you'll learn what needs to be done. You could take to this like a duck to water and have an excellent balance for your keyboard day job. And you could have a relationship-breaking disaster.

And this just gives me chills: "Having just bought a really old house that's on the verge of falling down".

You have no idea how big the hole is you're looking at. A moderately old house that seems pretty good to the amateur can be an enormous money pit. Gear up your humour and character, because you've bought yourself a gelatinous cube. (And I /do/ love the old houses. There's been a lot of hard lessons on the way to being the sort of guy who'll tell you to just knock it down and start over. But it's your adventure -- just realize it is an adventure, and it's going to be for the next several years. Good luck.)

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[daeg]

Skip the chicks, the pickings are better on the other side of the fence.

My geek cooks, cleans, helps with outside chores and house maintenance, and lets me kick his ass in various multi-player games AND doesn't require expensive flowers.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[couchslug]

Worked for me, three times!

Buy COMMERCIAL quality basic power tools. The insane money you will save more than pays for them and they are a joy to use.

Buy tools as you need them for a given task, and check prices/vendors on the net just as you would for computer parts.

28-volt Milwaukee cordless tools are excellent. Set prices are much cheaper than "one at a time".

Use a digital camera to take MANY before/during/after photos so you KNOW where the stuff you cover up in the walls is located! You'll have an owners manual for your home.

Screws are usually better than nails, because you can (drumroll) UNscrew them and they hold much better. I don't use drywall screws even for drywall because they are brittle. Deck screws are rustproofed, tough, and trivially more expensive.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[w0mprat]

Not to mention a great oppurtunity to wire your house for networking just how you want it..

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[adolf]

I'll be flamed for this, but: I think it's better to just do it yourself.

I've owned two houses, both of them ancient. The first, which was small, appeared to be done; new flooring throughout, new paint inside, good siding outside, all new plumbing, new exterior doors, some new windows, mostly new wiring... Everything looked good. So we bought it and moved in.

The drain for the kitchen sink ran uphill. The water heater (complete with recent inspection sticker) was plumbed backward. There was no attempt at plumbing venting. The office had 3-prong outlets, which lead to 2-conductor wire. The living room also had 3-prong outlets, which did appear to be actually grounded, but which were miswired somewhere, such that 60-cycle hum would emanate from the stereo -unless- the clothes drier was running, which I still haven't figured out. The new vinyl windows in the kitchen were overstuffed with insulation, such that the frame bowed to such an extent that it was nearly impossible to fully close and latch the things.

This was all done, supposedly, by professionals.

The second house is a bit different. About the same price, about the same age, the same quality of neighborhood, much larger (used to be a triplex), and totally trashed inside. Scary wiring, bad plumbing (every single pipe leaked, every single one), no heat upstairs, tired floor coverings, lousy exterior doors, etc. So we bought it, and began work. Once we had a functional bathroom and shower, we moved in.

It's been an adventure, but at least I have an opportunity to do everything right the first time, instead of finding and fixing a million things that were done wrong. Including, of course, wiring, basement stairs, plumbing, flooring, kitchen cabinets, plaster where needed, drywall where practical...

Plumbing is easy. I ripped out all of the old copper, galvanized, and black iron drain pipe, since it was all shit. Running new pressure lines is bloody easy these days thanks to the virtue of snap-on PEX fittings and manifolds with individual outlets for each room or fixture -- it's pretty hard to fuck up a line to a sink if it only has two connections. The drain lines are also pretty easy to figure out (shit goes downhill). Venting is harder to get right, but still not bad.

Electrical wiring is easy. Drill up from below, or down from above, into the stud cavity. Pull the romex in. Black wire to the little side of the outlet, white to the big, and copper to the ground screw. Give the fridge and the sump pump their own circuits, so that something else in the house failing short and blowing a breaker doesn't result in a freezer full of spoiled food or a flood. Permanent lighting gets its own circuits, so that tripping a breaker doesn't result in darkness. Don't daisy-chain too many outlets, don't send too many wires into a single junction box, and always use a GFCI wherever there might ever be water, always ground metal boxes... So on, so forth. It's easy to overbuild with lots of independent circuits, and so one might as well do so.

Even cutting in a 36" (up from 30") front door was easy.

And real, honest-to-God 3/4"-thick solid oak flooring is both cheap to buy and easy (even fun) to install and finish, and truly wonderful when done.

I've run ductwork professionally in the past, which is about the most braindead task in the world even with correct size reductions and consideration for laminar flow, and will probably tackle installing a high-efficiency gas furnace upstairs in the next month or two (before it gets really cold out).

There's no way I'd have been able to hire someone else to do all of this work. And, given the quality of the "improvements" at the last last house, there's still no way I'd have hired any of it done even if I could afford to.

Now, I didn't go about any of this lightly. I spent a long time studying plumbing before I even considered doing it myself, but it's not at all rocket science. I also spent some time brushing up on the NEC bef

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[morari]

Or you could ignore the permits as no one will ever know anyway. It's not really any of their business to begin with. American cities are epicenters of totalitarianism when it comes to wanting to charge you to install door frames or repaint your kitchen!

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[Mr. Slippery]

Or you could ignore the permits as no one will ever know anyway. It's not really any of their business to begin with. American cities are epicenters of totalitarianism when it comes to wanting to charge you to install door frames or repaint your kitchen!

Hmm. I've never heard of any place where you needed a permit to repaint your kitchen. Where would that be?

It depends on what sort of work and what sort of building. If it won't burn down the house, make it collapse, or flood the neighborhood if you mess up, ok.

But in a city or rowhouses, if you fsck up structural work, you can take out your neighbors' houses too. Been a lot of that in Baltimore lately.

Screwed-up electrical or gas work can not just burn down or blow up your place, but could start a fire that spreads to other house - or could lie in wait and kill the next owner of your house. And water from a burst pipe - or sewer line - doesn't respect property lines.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[TapeCutter]

"Have you considered doing work on the house yourself?"

This is a great advice! The first 10yrs of my working life were spent as a day labourer in various places mainly the building industry. I bought a second hand Apple IIe as a hobby in the mid-eighties, a few years later I found I could make money from my hobby and decided to educate myself properly. I have been a well paid geek now for almost 20yrs.

The wife and I got sick of the sight of each other about 8yrs ago and I ended up in a flat near the beach and close to work, I also ended up putting on about 20kg due to no longer having an active life doing the renovations/lanscaping I had done to the family home (the gym simply bores me to death).

Anyway to cut a long story short I took advantage of the recent slump in the housing market to save $50-80k on the purchase price of a house "in need of some TLC". I am about to move into this 60yr old dump that has a huge backyard and is literally a 5min stroll from the beach, shops, school, and train station.

The block is zoned high density and I plan (with the help of an architect and builder) to put two townhouses in the backyard and renovate the dump into a period style home and add an attic to take advantage of the views over the bay on one side and the wetlands on the other. The building of the townhouses and the structural work for the attic will all be done by hired labour enabeling me to sell off the townhouses quickly.

Some of my friends see the house and I'm sure they think I have lost my mind, but the house is structurally sound and I have just two simple objectives. 1. Get fit/active again and 2. lose the mortgage.

Very, very, worst case senarion is I end up with the same mortgage that I have now. However I will have gained a nice home and lost 20kg. The health aspect alone might be enough to encorage me to do it all over again with a different dump that nobody but an old fool like me would bid on at auction. :)

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[Anonymous Coward]

>The living room also had 3-prong outlets, which did appear to be actually grounded, but which were miswired somewhere, such that 60-cycle hum would emanate from the stereo -unless- the clothes drier was running, which I still haven't figured out.

Check for a loose neutral, neutral tied to ground outside the panel, or (*much* worse, but probably more likely) a split neutral tying into your dryer. At absolute worst (VERY unlikely) you have an issue at the service not being tied into the panel correctly where one of the phases is loose.

Just some suggestions; I'm not an electrician by any means, just did 6 months of courses on it. :-)

>My situation is a little unique, compared to many localities, in that there is no residential building code here; anyone can plumb or wire their own house.

Well, there *is* a code here in Ontario, Canada (electrical and plumbing, although you don't need a license for household plumbing, IIRC -- as a fellow electrician said "worst that happens is you get wet"... and ruin the house... or let sewer gas in...).

The code does allow a homeowner to do their own electrical and plumbing work. However, for the electrical work the homeowner *has* to pull permits (they are allowed to do that).

IIRC, you can get around those must have a license laws by doing all the rough-in work yourself, and paying a licensed electrician to connect the outlets and the panel (or you might get away with just the panel!)

Best thing you can do for house wiring: DON'T BUY THE CODE BOOK (just yet). You should buy a book that teaches wiring based on the code book instead. The codes don't read much like a manual, and there are many, many, many conflicting, confusing, and unclear codes (example: Here you may use "buried" junction boxes in an unfinished basement, and don't need one outlet every 18 feet (or so). Unfinished is defined elsewhere [if at all] and means the bottom few inches of drywall have to be missing). I would suggest, for North America, your region's version of "Electrical Wiring Residential" (Ray C. Mullin). It references the code as it teaches you. You won't even need the code book if you read it thoroughly and only want to wire normal things in a house (eg: No welding outlets or 220 volt window AC outlets).

And if you don't read a resource like that you won't know what you're doing! Eg: You can have a single outlet above the fridge tied to the fridge outlet (which otherwise MUST be on it's own independent circuit and MAY NOT IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be GFCI protected, BY LAW). Or that you may (nay, MUST) use a single neutral when running two phases to a SPLIT duplex outlet (you may use this configuration for kitchen outlets, but you'll need GFCI breakers). Bedrooms MUST be protected by AFCI breakers, etc, etc. :-)

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[the_B0fh]

And my GF is a nympho

as written by Creepy Crawler (680178)

Somehow, that picture just makes me shudder! :)

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[Slugster]

I'd agree that doing it yourself would be a lot cheaper (as well as cure the problem of all that annoying free time you have) but I also agree that you need to find out what you can do yourself first--without a permit, and that doesn't require a licensed professional to do.
....

And carpenters and related jobs are unpopular enough (no one wants to learn this type of work any more) that there is enough shortage of those people so that their hourly rates are surprisingly high and they get away with it. So it's a nice "Plan B" in case your current computer related job no longer earns you enough.

I don't know what country you are in... but in the US, the areas where carpenters, plumbers and electricians are highest paid--are the same places that require a permit/licensed professional to do most things. The code inspectors know the difference between the job done properly and well, the job done properly and poorly, or the job done incorrectly by somebody who thought they knew what they were doing. In the more union-heavy regions, if they see something that wasn't done properly and you can't provide proof of who did it, they will require all the work be re-done, and that you show proof of the [union] laborer that you hired to do it.

And how will they find out, you ask? Well, somebody might inform them about you--but even if that doesn't occur....-many places, whenever a house changes ownership, the code inspector will go over it before the transfer is approved. And so when you're trying to sell the house is when you're going to get hit with all this trouble, if it happens.

It sucks and it's a crock of bullshit, but in some places, it is the law. And it is cheaper to find out before you do anything yourself than it is to find out after.
~

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[adolf]

Check for a loose neutral, neutral tied to ground outside the panel, or (*much* worse, but probably more likely) a split neutral tying into your dryer. At absolute worst (VERY unlikely) you have an issue at the service not being tied into the panel correctly where one of the phases is loose.

Good suggestions. I still own that house, but I'm not interested in fixing it anymore (it was ruined in a flood).

The "neutral tied to ground outside the panel" reminds me of what I found when I moved into my new house:

In the process of replacing the plumbing, I cut the water main near where it entered the basement using a Sawzall. As I separated the pipes, sparks jumped between them (!). Turns out the furnace, installed and inspected in 2002, was using the water line as a neutral return (!!!!!), and there was no earth connected to the chassis. So, only one wire out of a 14-3 Romex was connected to the furnace at all with the rest clipped off.

Scary shit, though it had apparently been running the furnace just fine until I fixed the plumbing. (needless to say it is not like that any more.)

And if you don't read a resource like that you won't know what you're doing! Eg: You can have a single outlet above the fridge tied to the fridge outlet (which otherwise MUST be on it's own independent circuit and MAY NOT IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be GFCI protected, BY LAW). Or that you may (nay, MUST) use a single neutral when running two phases to a SPLIT duplex outlet (you may use this configuration for kitchen outlets, but you'll need GFCI breakers). Bedrooms MUST be protected by AFCI breakers, etc, etc. :-)

Interesting. Why would I want an outlet on top of my fridge?

And I never understood the whole split-phase duplex outlet thing. Why do you Canadians do that? :) (And doesn't it lead to an overloaded neutral?)

And, AFCI breakers. I've seen those for sale, and shudder at the expense. And while I'm all for cheap insurance, nobody here is telling me that I need them.

Besides, I'd have had so much less fun as a kid if my bedroom had AFCI protection. There wouldn't have been any meaningful fireworks from sticking a pair of needlenose pliers into the cord for a boombox, nor from driving the mounting screws into a 120V Erector Set motor so far that I'd shorted the windings. It'd have been so much harder to learn what not to do.

I'll look up the book -- thanks for the reference. The wiring here isn't quite done (downstairs, yes - upstairs, no), and I'm all for learning new stuff.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[Dun Malg]

I never understood the whole split-phase duplex outlet thing. Why do you Canadians do that? :) (And doesn't it lead to an overloaded neutral?)

The two phases can share the neutral because the AC sine waves aren't synchronized. As one wave reaches peak, the other is hitting zero. Together, they never add up to more than one wire can handle. Further proof of the superiority of AC over DC. Edison sucks! Go Tesla!

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[Fulcrum of Evil]

um, they are synchronized - they're either 120 or 180 out of phase. If they weren't synchronized, the phase difference would wander up and down.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[j-pimp]

Well this is slashdot, so yeah a female needing aftershave would make sense.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[confused one]

Please don't hold me to the dates, I'm pulling them from memory. AFCI (arc-fault circuit interrupter) is required by code in the US, beginning in 2003(?). Any circuit (including ceiling lamps) going into a bedroom must have an AFCI breaker. As of 2008(?) Series AFCI is required.

I've just bought an old house and am beginning the remodel... got a notebook full of tasks to be done. Since a panel upgrade and rewire are in order, I have been checking into the code requirements.

You might want to check with your local codes compliance office to determine what year code book they will hold you to (they're still using the 2005 version where I live) and at what point you have to meet the new code requirements. For example, if I'm adding a new circuit to an existing panel I am only required to meet the old rules; but, they'd prefer I follow the new ones if possible. Unfortunately, I need a new panel; so, I must upgrade to the current code requirements.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[corbettw]

Or you could ignore the permits as no one will ever know anyway.

As long as you don't try to sell your home, no one will know. But I guarantee you, a decent home inspector will discover it, and will determine that it wasn't done to "code". Which could mean that other corners were cut, which will almost certainly discourage buyers (not to mention you can't transfer title until everything is brought up to code, anyway). So now you're stuck with a house you can't sell. How's that gonna work out for you?

I'll happily concede that building codes are entirely too onerous in most cases, but they do serve a useful purpose, in theory: to make sure that people who don't know anything about construction don't get screwed over by shifty conmen.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[AmaDaden]

it can get addictive.

In my family when my father ran out of things to fix on a house it was time to move. But to be fair he is a civil engineer so he spends his days telling people how to build buildings but is not allowed to actually touch the tools him self. We have done massive renovations over the years some of them just to see if we could. For example our pool has both a solar heater and a connection to the heat in the house. We hardly use either.

With some work you can do almost any fairly large project on a house in a month or two. You'll still spend money on parts and have days where it's just frustrating but it's all doable.

That said I would like to point out this bit from the parent "Hire out the big jobs -- anything foundation-related/structural especially". Very true. My dad is as cheep as they come and knows how to build a house from end to end but we still hired people for several things. Installing the pool, working on a water leek in our driveway, framing the addition of a second story to the house. Some jobs need LOTS of time and energy and must be done with in a reasonable time frame. If you plan on working on something that is time critical or critical to the functioning of the house the money is well spent.

Re:Fix the house, skip the 2nd job

[geoskd]

I have to second this. Hire out the big jobs -- anything foundation-related/structural especially -- but otherwise learn to do it yourself. Yes, it will take longer but there is really a sense of accomplishment at the end.

I have to disagree, structural work is the best kind of fun. There is nothing more exciting and geeky than figuring out which supports you can afford to pull out, and then testing it on the real thing...

Foundation work is even more involved, and can be daunting to the first timer, but isn't really any harder than structural. Keep in mind that people have been building houses for thousands of years, and a disturbingly large percentage of them couldn't even count to 20, but their houses didn't fall down.

-=Geoskd

grow pot?

[SirLars]

I hear that pays well

Re:grow pot?

[Anonymous Coward]

You're completely out to lunch. There is almost no profit in LSD unless you are a primary manufacturer, in which case you "only" need about 8 years of organic chemistry experience, an advanced lab, and a couple of million dollars to buy precursors (and remember that ergotamine tartrate is closely monitored). Ecstasy has good profit margins, but the risks are high (it's a high profile LEO target), and you have to deal with the chance of getting bunk pills, as well as the kind of "cooks" who also run meth labs. You run a decent risk of getting jacked for your money buying a boat. Cocaine is even worse.

"Research Chemicals" (designer drugs) are still where it's at-- unscheduled analogues of scheduled chemicals. Things like DOI, DOB, DOC, 2C-E, 2C-I, MDMCat (Methylone), *-DIPT, *-DMT, *-DPT, etc. You can get these things in bulk for next to nothing from otherwise legitimate chemical houses in China, and then turn around and sell them online. Since Operation Web Tryp, pressure has been higher from the DEA, but anonymous hosting, website security, encrypting all email communications, etc., should be right up the alley of any geek. Profit margins are incredibly impressive, and it's easy to move. Relatively insignificant weights have good profit margins, as opposed to something like cocaine where you have to move kilos to make significant money.

For comparison, before Web Tryp you could get a gram of 5-MeO-DMT for about 200 dollars. You could easily sell it for a dollar a milligram. Go forth and profit on club scene kids with disposable income to burn (or snort, or eat, or inject).

Gee.. uh..

[houbou]

and be doable equally well from home or from a hotel room

Amateur porn site project perhaps? :P

should appeal to my inner geek

If "inner geek" is its nickname, he should definitively find some appeal to this project.

Re:Gee.. uh..

[rograndom]

"I noticed a free porn site and thought "God, that looks like a 3 year old made that". A month later I launched my own using free content and affiliate programs."

Ok..I'm curious. How do you make $$ off a free porn site????

You make it up in volume

Home renovation?

[lsommerer]

Have you considered getting into home renovation? Granted, you won't be able to do it from most hotel rooms, but I understand there is a growing market for those services in your immediate area. It would certainly be different from your day job.

Web Development and Design

[Bicx]

I'm not sure what you do for your main job, but personally I would suggest learning some web technologies like PHP, MySQL, and possibly something like Flash. Maybe throw in some graphic design to exercise your creative side. Web programming and web development can, in my experience, be more enjoyable than other types of programming jobs due to the relative simplicity and "instant" results. It is relatively easy to get web development gigs (after you start building up contacts), and it can be done from anywhere. Personally, I may try part-time web development myself after getting my day job settled.

I run a global software company

[Ostracus]

"Everyone needs to run a software company."

Are you based in India? :)

Re:I run a global software company

[Anonymous Coward]

No no, he said "Everyone needs to run a software company."

If he were from India, it would be "Everyone is needing to be running a software company."

Re:I run a global software company

[JuzzFunky]

You know those small retail shops that don't really have many customers. The ones where the attendant just sits there for 90% of the day with a bored look on their face.
I've often thought about getting a job in a store like that and spending my idle time writing software...
It's a thought I have every time I see a bored retail worker sitting on their butt waiting for the next customer.

Re:I run a global software company

[Anonymous Coward]

That Bangalorese, if he's in northern India, it'd be: "Do the needful, run a software company."

Re:I run a global software company

[BluBrick]

That remonds me of something that happened when I used to work for a well-known IT service provider which, at the time, had a large contract with a major American automobile manufacturer. From our offshore support in Thailand, we got this gem:

Please do the needful. The customer is on fire.

It took quite some time to work out what it meant. Apparently, "on fire" was the literal translation of a Thai expression for "very angry".

Re:I run a global software company

[hiroller]

Speaking as a developer in a team which is split into both US and Indian resources, I don't think it's the accent that is troublesome. It is the barrier of actual understanding that is an issue. Sometimes, they just don't get it no matter how many times you explain it to them.

And as for actually fixing the problem, have you ever had to maintain anything fixed by Indians? I have nightmares about it. It is at times atrocious. And this isn't b/c they're not talented developers; most of the time it's because they don't understand the concepts we are trying to use and why we are using them. All in all, when I go back to fix another defect that is introduced into a section where an Indian resource has been working, it will take me twice as long.

Re:I run a software company

[Anonymous Coward]

I've tried to do that, but always had a difficult time acquiring clients. The few people who've expressed interest, I've done some work, only to get gipped. Where do you get your leads, and how do you go about starting up successfully?

PC Building

[KGIII]

Build and sell PCs. Not just normal PCs but ones with nifty cut-outs (you DO have a Dremel tool, right) and flashy lights. Call them by some nifty name. When you're not home you can be working on the designs or maybe building some of the smaller bits. As this is "free time" it won't really be that unprofitable if you can build a name and find the market.

Me? I'd like to build some out of exotic woods.

Re:PC Building

[Heembo]

Me? I'd like to build some out of exotic woods.

There is already a niche market for PC's made from high-end hard woods - I saw one advertised in a catalog on a commercial airplane that cost upwards around 3-4k with crappy innards. Go for it man....

What would Tyler Durden do?

[TeknoHog]

a really old house that's on the verge of falling down

Soap. Make and sell soap. Sell rich women their own fat asses back to them.

Re:What would Tyler Durden do?

[SirLurksAlot]

Soap. Make and sell soap.

Actually this is a very good suggestion. A friend of mine recently opened her own soap business and she is making money hand over fist. She mostly sells soap at trade shows, fairs, etc, but I helped her set up her e-commerce site and business is really picking up for her. Soap is relatively easy to make, and creating large batches of it at a time can lead to great economies of scale. You could do worse as far as side-businesses go.

OnForce.com

[RiffRafff]

Check out OnForce.com. They look for people in your area to do one-off installs, change out UPS batteries, run cable, update virus programs; all kinds of things that make more sense to hire someone knowledgeable one time than to keep people on staff "just in case."

I used these folks in my last gig to do field work all over the country...cheaper than flying someone out to do it.

Re:OnForce.com

[squarefish]

OnForce is awesome and easy to work with- the platform allows providers a lot of flexibility on what types of jobs they want, for how much, and easily allows you to set multiple parameters for how far you are willing to travel including zip codes, mileage rages, and area codes. I completed 29 jobs for them a few years ago when I was between jobs and I still keep an active profile in case I end up in that situation again. They are a great organization and they do a great job. I would highly recommend them to anyone. You also get your money within a couple days of completing the job- there are some tricks and you'll learn those as you go, but most of the clients are good, but they all have their own rules and policies that you really have to pay attention too.

Re:Remember:

[Anonymous Coward]

But that costs money!

lol

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Slashdot,

I consider myself fairly well off but just spent beyond my means, making me like most of middle class America. I'm now looking for a get-richer-quick scheme, preferably that can be done at home sitting on my ass, and whenever I want. It must also appeal to the inner sense of superiority I give myself at my day job... but it must NOT be like my day job.

Sincerely,

R.A. Tracer, Jr.

Re:lol

[Leebert]

Yeah, that about sums it up.

I kept hearing my dad's voice in my head while reading this:

"That's why it's called 'work', son."

Re:Obvious, really.

[chill]

Yeah, but it is the insane ones that makes it worth all the waiting!

Congress

[Arterion]

Sounds like you should run for Congress.

Barter

[antifoidulus]

A second job probably isn't a good idea because it could very easily interfere with your first and you may end up losing that. I would try bartering instead. Seriously, somewhere in your network of friends you have to know people who can help you fix up their house and may have a kid that needs help with math or want a web site for their business etc. Not only is this probably more efficient(no need to earn money, get it taxed, then go find people who are also getting paid taxable income to do the work), the overall commitment is probably smaller as well so you don't have to worry about your second job becoming your first.

Not sure how to add tags ...

[PaganRitual]

... so can someone please create a idalsolikeapony tag and place it on this please.

Write an iPhone App

[fredmosby]

I know the iPhone's not popular here right now. But it has a very low barrier to entry compared to writing a program for any other platform. Internet hosting, collecting payments, and to a certain extent marketing is already handled for you. All you would have to do is the actual programming work.

Re:Write an iPhone App

[paulthomas]

That is a valid complaint. Not only do you need a Mac, you need the most recent OS.

I have a Powerbook G4 and a Macbook, both running OS X 10.4. Developing on the Powerbook is out because it has a risc processor, and I need OS 10.5 to develop on my (x86) Macbook.

Last night I downloaded Google's android SDK and emulator, and today I have a working Hello World and sample Lunar Lander.

Although Google has promised Android Market there are no android phones out there right yet, so the revenue potential is much less than for the iPhone at the moment.

women?

[MushMouth]

uhh, only men hire prostitutes, even male ones.

Re:women?

[Anonymous Coward]

uhh, only men hire prostitutes, even male ones.

Yeah, keep thinking that.

Drug Dealer

[gyrogeerloose]

Reasonably lucrative, no major time commitment, can be done at home or a hotel room.

Seriously--there are not many legal options that meet your requirements.

I'd suggest you take a little trip down to the "bad" part of your town and start talking to the guys you see standing around on the street corners. I'm sure one of them would be more than happy to help you set up a franchise of your own.

You can try this...

[nawcom]

How big is your wang? (If the rumor that nerd cock is huge is true) then swing it around like a helicopter at after-hours bars for some cash.

Or, start up some web servers at your place and host content for some twisted yet legal sexual fetish. Or sell autographed pictures of your mom.

Okay, so I'm really not helping at all. I myself have earned extra cash repairing laptop hardware, cleaning up horrid computers running windows, and the occasional assisting of installing legal copies of OS X on the purchaser's PC. Mostly connected through word of mouth, so I don't advertise or anything like that.

If you have well built software programming skills (with your previous code as proof) you would be surprised about the people who want a program to do x, y, and z and will give you a nice check to do so. I've done that 4 times in my free time, all with lawyers who a relative knew of.

If you still have your foreskin, you can play "guess what's in the foreskin pouch" where you hide a random item by enclosing it with your foreskin. Not sure how much cash you can get from that - betting perhaps.

Trade

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a video game developer by day, and a trader/investor by night. I don't intraday trade, so I guess that makes me an investor.

Typically with 10% of my cash invested in the market, I can make about 3% return (about 30% ROI) monthly *if* I do proper research, pretty consistently.

If you don't mind risk, this is a nice way to make cash as it requires only a minimal time investment and can be done from anywhere in the world.

Re:Trade

[paulthomas]

Caveat Investor. Parent is likely a lucky and/or foolish speculator rather than an investor.

Practically no one earns 30% annually with consistency, especially not people for whom it is a hobby. Many people remember the good bets and forget the bad ones. The only way you should be tracking returns is by measuring the net value of the account/s from period to period.

Ten years ago, people "invested" in their homes with leverage (debt) when everyone was saying that you'd be insane not to and that renters were throwing away their money. Now many of these people are upside down. You can be lucky for a long time, but that's not necessarily investing.

Sometimes markets aren't efficient, and a smart, even-tempered investor can beat them. This combination is rare, and on average, the average investor has average returns. For your reference, the average annual compounding return for the S&P 500, a fairly representative index of 500 American stocks, was 5.3% from 1 Jan. 2002 to 31 Dec. 2007. It's fallen since then.

Doing what the parent advocates, especially with leverage — options, forwards & futures, buying on margin (borrowing money), or shorting (borrowing stock)—, could net you big money, but it could also wipe you out.

tutor

[story645]

You've got a college degree in math/science, right? Tutoring hopeless college kids or high school kids from middle class families can net something like $50-75 an hour, more depending on your qualifications and neighborhood. Hours are totally flexible. Hell, if ethics aren't a problem, sell term papers and coding assignments while you're at it.

Re:tutor

[Comatose51]

I've been a tutor before and am still one but it's harder than you would think. It's not so much knowing the material as it is explaining to the student that's difficult. A lot of times I find myself explain things in an abstract way that only confuses the hell out of my students. It's so obvious to me but it makes no sense to them, which is of course why they need help in the first place. My point is that a good teacher/tutor isn't always one who knows the material the best but one who is the best at explaining it to someone. I'm not saying that the OP isn't good at this but it tends to be that nerds/engineers aren't very good with communications.

As a lifelong geek entrepreneur: new markets!

[dada21]

I've been an entrepreneur since the age of 12, running a variety of geeky businesses from BBSes in the 80s, to 3D design studios and rendering farms in the 90s. I've had my consulting business since I incorporated it when I was 15 (with an adult business partner who I bought out at 18).

I still moonlight through a variety of ventures, none of them geek oriented. EVERY moonlighting gig I did that was geek-oriented made my life miserable. Too much geekiness can really break you, honestly.

I run a Christian Printing business that accounts for about 25% of my income, and I run it on the side, maybe 1-2 hours a day. I blog, which accounts for 10% of my income, also very part time. I've owned retail stores which became too full time to manage. I'm starting a digg-like print magazine focused on Chicago (details to come).

Everything I do moonlighting-wise is anti-geek. Much of it is hands on, without programming or thinking about technology or electronics. It keeps me fulfilled.

Stay away from moonlighting in what you do for a living. Find a hobby you can profit from. There's a billion ways to make money, but the most fun ones are the ones that don't cross into the market you're in for a living.

DIY?

[farnsworth]

it should be sufficiently different to my day job to keep my interest up [...]. Above all, it should appeal to my inner geek

Why not do the majority of the work yourself? There is nothing more geeky or interesting than learning something new, from basic carpentry, to plumbing, to design work.

With my first house, I did the vast majority of the work myself, simply because cash was scarce. As time went on and I was able to save up some cash for expected work, I sometimes just hired the work out because it was something I tried and failed at, or was something that didn't interest me at all. But mostly I still do a lot of the projects myself.

Financially, you should try to compare the earnings that might be available to you to the cost of laborers and craftsmen. I live in the Bay Area, I can earn $80/hr for side projects easily (I could earn way more if I could pick and choose, but if I'm just trying to fill my free time, $80/hr seems to be the sweet spot). Craftsmen charge pretty close to that. So, depending on the specifics of the work on my home needs to happen, I'll either do it myself or try to raise the money with side jobs. It also depends upon what I want to learn.

For example, electrical work doesn't interest me at all, plus it scares me, so I always hire that out. But anything else I'll spend at least some time trying to figure out if I can learn how to do it myself.

As for moonlighting, you'll find the best work through people you know and who trust you. The best advice is to let everyone you know know 1) that you are looking for work 2) what you are great at 3) what your availability is. Eg, "I'm looking for work, I've used X technology to build web sites for Y years, and I'm available Z weekends per month.

Also, don't overextend yourself. Fixing up a house can take years. Don't get impatient, enjoy the process, and don't sacrifice your happiness for the sake of a faster schedule.

Easy Money

[Anonymous Coward]

Well if it's money you are after I know of this man in Nigeria who has come into a large amount of money, and needs to transfer it off shore for Tax Reasons. You will get 50% if you let him use your bank account. All he needs is your Name, Bank Account Details, and SSN. It is all perfectly above board. I know because I read it in an email.

Re:I'll give you $50

[ozphx]

Mod parent up +1 Helpful.

I'll chip in $10 for the video.

Geophysical data processing

[SupplyMission]

Geophysical data processing may be what you are looking for. It fits what you are looking for, because you can do it from anywhere you have internet access, and the money is good. I have a few friends doing this kind of work from home during nights and weekends, while working full-time at their day jobs.

Typical work situation: there will be a field crew somewhere in the world, acquiring geophysical measurements from an aircraft-based sensor platform, usually for the purpose of mineral exploration. Every night, they'll FTP the day's data to you. You do the bulk of the quality control, data reduction and processing work, and then upload the processed data back to the FTP. You'd also notify the field guys about any potential problems in the data. After that, the in-house specialists will do any final processing (leveling magnetic grids, fine drift corrections, etc.) and when the fieldwork is completed, they'll also prepare the client deliverables (maps, reports, interpretations, etc.).

Hourly rates for this kind of work range anywhere from $25/hr to $80/hr ($200/day to $500/day). If there are no serious glitches in the data that need troubleshooting, a data processor with some computer skills can usually rip through a day's worth of data in 3 or 4 hours. So if you get your data at 7pm, you can be done before midnight and still get a good night's sleep and be ready for your "real" job the next day. (On the other hand, if you have a girlfriend or wife, you may get into some time sharing conflicts, because the production schedules usually don't tolerate much latency.)

Educational requirements are typically a 4-year university/college Geophysics degree, or something somewhat related, such as Physics, Engineering, Math, etc. In any case, if you have a degree, your chances are good.

Training will probably take a few weeks, for you to get some experience and develop a feel for what good and bad data look like. Essentially you are the first line of quality control, so it's up to you to quickly flag any problems that could be due to operator error, sensor malfunction, or other factors.

You may or may not have to do some selling to potential employers to get them to let you work entirely from home. However, the way the mineral exploration market is these days (base metals such as copper and nickel are expensive), this shouldn't be difficult as there is too much data to process and not enough people.

A few geophysics companies are always hiring data processors:

• Aeroquest Ltd.
• Sander Geophysics
• Geotech Airborne

Translation services.

[ManicDeity]

The way I make a little extra cash is from doing freelance translation. There are quite a few companies that contract out linguist support for several languages such as Arabic (duh...), Mandarin/Cantonese and several others. The more in demand a language is the more that is paid to the translator.

I understand that learning a new language can be daunting and difficult, but I have always considered it a very geeky pursuit and a complete removal from my daily coding. Also I must amend that the Army taught me a language so I do have a leg up, but if anyone does follow this path then at the end of it they will know an entirely new language and with it come greater job opportunities and access to another culture.

Day trading and automated trading systems

[stevegee58]

I'm shocked no one suggested trading. I've been teaching myself trading for a few years now. Engineers are analytical by nature and trading is absolutely perfect. Backtesting systems and analyzing data for patterns are a yin-yang fit for techies. It's potentially lucrative and can be done from home or a hotel room, as the OP specified.

Espionage

[nurb432]

Just sell off some of your daytime data to the highest bidder.

Fortune-telling

[zobier]

Consider astrology/divination/psychic readings sort of thing.
Minimal learning required, reasonable money.
Can be done online too.

Asterisk Hacking

[trevnick]

Try building AGI scripts for Asterisk machines. $100+/hr, and can be done from anywhere (use Trixbox in a vmware session and xten softphone to test, or remote into a machine).

Re:I run a software company

[ceifeira]

From your site:

Our six core services

• web development and design
• network engineering
• custom programming solutions
• corporate identity design, marketing and promotion
• IT consulting

?

Take a welding class

[HangingChad]

You won't be able to do this from a hotel room but I took a welding class and everyone that passed their test had a chance to meet with local companies looking for welders. Most of them were willing to consider part-timers, especially if you were TIG certified. If you can weld aluminum or do food grade work, you're golden.

One guy in our class got a job at an Antarctic research station.

I ended up getting an exec job before the class was over, so it never turned into a part-time gig. But I still have people who want me to weld stuff for them. And if you have a plasma cutter besides the welding gear, you'll have lots of friends and plenty of part-time work. Even my buddies will slip me a couple bucks, it's enough to pay for my welding supplies. You can usually find classes at a local community college, I'd stay away from the trade schools.

The only problem with getting certified in stick welding is you'll never be able to look at big pipes or structural welds without inspecting the beads. Checking for splatter, bad puddles and spots where they missed flux. You can get to be a seam snob.

If you're artistic metal art is really popular. There was a guy who come in once in a while to buy our class scrap. He made metal art little things and made quite a lot of money selling them. I used the plasma cutter to make a name plate for a friend and I bet I've had five of her friends call and ask if I would make them one. And, I have to say, a plasma cutter is not only a cool tool to use, it sounds totally bad ass. Like a jet engine that blasts a spray of molten metal. Imagine being able to cut in 1/4 steel as easy as writing with a big Sharpie.

Re:I run a software company

[Anonymous Coward]

Profit!!!

Nobody cares like you do

[mkcmkc]

I don't know that you really save money by doing it yourself, and it may actually end up costing you more when you figure in the price of your time and other non-obvious costs, but there is still one killer advantage to doing it yourself, which is that nobody will care as much as you do about getting it done right.

Over the years, I'd say 20% of the tradesmen I've hired have done a great job, 40% are mediocre, doing almost as good as I might do if I was in a hurry. The other 40% are chimpanzees, and it can cost a lot of time and grief to unroll their messes. Unfortunately I'm not very good at prospectively telling the difference between these groups.

Right...

[SuperBanana]

...and with zero minutes a month, my money is earning more than 3% in a savings account.

You do realize that you're not even beating inflation, right?

Re:Right...

[rk]

Please tell me what bank you are using that pays 3% interest per month. I'll switch tomorrow.

Answer:

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't live past your means.

Re:play poker

[tverbeek]

...since she's been pregnant she doesn't have the energy, patience, or concentration, but she'll get back to it after the baby is born.

Um... is this your first, by any chance? :)

Eldercare-a legal way to sell to the less capable.

[RustinHWright]

For a few years I made my living doing a very geeky sort of eldercare. There are an awful lot of people, mostly women over the age of seventy-five, who need a hell of a lot of skilled help that a broadly skilled geek can provide. They are usually still managing three or four bank accounts, two to ten investment accounts, about twenty to fifty annual contributions, and various other expenses. And usually dealing with one or more personal aides, who almost never speak good English and even if they do, do a lot better with somebody young, firm, and capable who keeps them on target. And they are usually slowing dispersing their possessions, which frequently involves psychologically complex claims of interest in donating things but with dozens of conditions, most of which they can't even articulate. And all with families who want all of this dealt with but aren't going to make the time to be there enough to do this and would be hobbled by family dynamics if they even tried.

Once you learn to see it that way, almost all of it is systems problems. Things that can be hacked.

Add all of this up, and, especially when you added in the families who were in the process of moving from standalone homes to senior residences, I had far more work than I was willing to take on. And since I underpriced the market by charging thirty to fifty dollars an hour, I really got to pick and choose. Flexibility mattered far more to me than the marginal income. Just think of it as consulting work. The kind where the ability to keep a good timesheet is crucial, as is the ability to bill regularly, and then get the client to pay, which, when it goes wrong, is usually just another problem you can, ironically, bill to fix.

The trick to all of this? Being capable enough that whether the problem is about bookkeeping or logistics or finding and managing a contractor, your answer can be "don't worry; I'll take care of it." If you can make that promise and keep it, you're golden. You'll probably, like me, end up needing to find one or more assistants to help out if you're not willing to commit to doing this full time. I tried to keep it all at about fifteen hours a week and while peak load (say, moves of large houses or medical crises) was quite a bit higher, on average I did just fine. Fwiw, I peaked at five assistants on a couple of big jobs. Finding and managing them was, of course, much of what I was being paid for.
There are hundreds of thousands of affluent households who are just now moving from private homes into senior residences of one sort or another and the bottom line is that these residences are institutions. And from the food to the visual esthetics to the available services and schedules, these places are just not up to the job of satisfying these people who have had decades to get used to a higher standard. The person who can fill in that gap can write their own ticket.

What I'm describing is a boom industry and will be for years to come and it uses most of the skills I learned as an IT director and consultant. Financial management, crisis management, learning to live the "pager lifestyle", handling subcontractors, and so on. Things like explaining the limitations of servers to PHBs and routing installs around union b.s. apply, too. Not to mention being able to switch from being "a suit" talking to a lawyer (or a doctor, or both at once) to climbing under a desk to see if a new outlet was done properly. But since you're working for a family, you've got waaay more flexibility than you do at a corporate job. And if you're good the word of mouth will get you as many clients as you're willing to take on.

As for the "work from home" issue, like many kinds of consulting, for every hour you spend onsite, you spend half an hour to three hours offsite. Doing research, coordinating subcontractors, and so on. If you are online and can be on the phone for a while now and then, it doesn't matter if you're home, at work, or in the middle of a bro

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Re:Eldercare-a legal way to sell to the less capab

[Raenex]

What I'm describing is a boom industry

I am intrigued and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Re:I run a software company

[rograndom]

• math

Re:I run a software company

[knewter]

Know the saddest part? I was a math major.

Seriously though, fixed. I've known about that for freaking ever and just didn't think anyone would care :) "Painter's house is always the last to be painted" and all.

-Josh

But I really do mean it - everyone needs to run their own business. Fight the power, and whatnot!

Re:Eldercare-a legal way to sell to the less capab

[RustinHWright]

That's odd. I'm a pretty easy guy to reach, there being a grand total of two guys with my name in the entire country and all. Fwiw, I'm reachable as publisher as the email name, at the domain of my main site, streetcarpress.com. That having been said, I got involved first in logistics help for a family where the husband was dying and his stuff had to be cataloged, sorted, and dispersed. Since he was dying, his family was already arguing about who got how much and what.
"His stuff" turned out to include over a dozen (literally) file cabinets and approximately 300 sq feet by an average of five feet tall pile of boxes full of mixed bike parts, radiation monitoring components, and papers, including everything from personal letters to unwashed laundry, and uncashed checks and unregistered stock certificates. (The certificates eventually added up to about a third of a million dollars. I get the impression from the lawyers that about half of that was either underdocumented in the records they had or simply not recorded anywhere.)
My friends knew that I was sick of corporate IT, but was hurting for money and they knew that I always ended up coordinating things whenever a friend was moving or when something otherwise needed logistics or other organizational help. They also knew that I A.) was trustworthy, B.) could sort out machine tools and financial statements, and lab equipment, and hundreds of videos and movies and furniture to be donated, and on and on, and C.) was able and willing to give the appropriate class and demographic "recognition codes" to make the family feel that I would (and did) understand their concerns.

So two different people I knew socially recommended me. Every job after that came the same way. I never needed a resume. It was all word of mouth. Mostly I ended up working for people in an assisted living place called The Hallmark a few blocks from the WTC site. I got hired to help one couple there about a month after 9/11 with sorting out an apartment in the still somewhat secured area. Then the same family hired me to help them at their place, and so on.

As for charging, I started out pretty damn stupid. At first I did it for free, since I was helping friends of friends. Then I only charged expenses, then idjit stuff like expenses plus fifteen an hour or whatever. The only excuse for this is that I was dead broke and was using the shut down apartment I was working in (the former resident was too sick to be there) as a base of operations to get my work done. As I pointed out above, work like this means spending almost all of your onsite time in decidedly fancy places. If they can afford somebody like this, then they'll have unlimited calling on the phones, not care how long you run the air conditioner, and in cases like this, have cool tech stuff that most people wouldn't be able to even identify that I was quite glad to take as barter. So at a time that I was dead broke I was willing to charge very little to maintain the freedom to come and go any time I wanted (sorta) and to have an air-conditioned, quiet place to make my phone calls, do my reading, etc. Over time, as the time commitment got bigger and my finances got tighter, I started pulling out my old consulting timesheet templates and billing them as I would somebody I was doing computer work for.
Fwiw, I always insisted on flexible hours and the right to pick and choose what I did. I usually was given keys to places where I would be doing a lot of work and as long as I stayed very presentable (usual IT guy khakis but a bit more high end, with understated but expensive shirts, bag, and accessories) and made myself useful, I could work pretty much as much and when I chose. Obviously it helped to have as many as five clients in the same building at a given time. BUT to keep this flexibility, I always undercharged my competitors and always cut some slack on what expenses I billed. Since I was competing largely with lawyers and other overpriced pondscum, this wasn't all that hard. I als