You're staring at your bank account again. It’s not that you’re broke, necessarily, but there’s this nagging feeling that the math just isn't mathing for the life you actually want to lead. Maybe the rent jumped another ten percent, or maybe you're just tired of saying "maybe next year" to every vacation idea that pops into the group chat. So you start typing it into the search bar: what can i do to make more money?
Honestly, most of the advice out there is garbage. It’s either "take these surveys for three cents an hour" or "start a multi-million dollar SaaS company by Tuesday." Neither of those helps the person who has a full-time job, three loads of laundry waiting, and a genuine need for an extra thousand bucks a month.
Cash flow is a puzzle. Sometimes you need a quick win—selling that old guitar gathering dust in the corner—and sometimes you need a structural overhaul of your entire career. We're going to talk about both. No fluff, no "passive income" lies that actually require forty hours of work a week, and definitely no multi-level marketing pitches.
The High-Skill Pivot: Why Your 9-to-5 is Probably Underpaying You
If you want to move the needle significantly, your day job is usually the biggest lever you have. It sounds boring, I know. You wanted a "hustle," not a meeting with HR. But let's look at the data. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "job switchers" frequently see higher wage growth than "job stayers." In some sectors, like tech or specialized healthcare, switching companies can net you a 10% to 20% bump instantly.
Stop asking what can i do to make more money and start asking what your skills are actually worth on the open market right now. Have you checked Glassdoor or Levels.fyi lately? You might be surprised. If you’ve been at the same desk for three years, you’re likely being paid at 2022 rates in a 2026 world. That’s a losing game.
Negotiation is a scary word for most people. It feels like conflict. But look at it this way: if you don’t ask, the answer is always no. Career experts like Ramit Sethi often point out that a single five-minute conversation about your salary can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars over the span of your working life. You don’t need a fancy script. You need a list of your accomplishments, a clear understanding of the market rate, and the guts to sit in a quiet room until someone gives you a number.
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Upskilling Without the Debt
Sometimes you can't just ask for more because you’ve hit a ceiling. This is where "stacking" comes in. If you're a graphic designer, you're a dime a dozen. If you're a graphic designer who understands UX research and can write basic Python, you're a unicorn.
Platforms like Coursera, edX, and even YouTube University (if you're disciplined) have made the traditional degree less of a gatekeeper. I’ve seen people transition from retail management into data analytics in six months just by getting a Google Career Certificate and building a public portfolio on GitHub. It’s hard work. It’s late nights. But the ROI is massive compared to driving for Uber.
The "Gig" Reality Check: Picking Your Battles
Let’s talk about the gig economy because it’s the first thing everyone thinks of. Uber, DoorDash, TaskRabbit. These are fine for an emergency. If your car breaks down and you need $300 by Friday, go for it. But as a long-term strategy for what can i do to make more money, they are often a trap.
Why? Because you’re trading time for money at a linear rate, and you’re bearing all the costs—gas, wear and tear, insurance. If you’re going to do a side gig, try to find something with "asymmetric upside."
- Niche Consulting: Are you weirdly good at organizing spreadsheets? Small business owners are drowning in messy data. They will pay $100 an hour for you to fix their backend processes because it saves them ten hours of headaches.
- High-End Pet Sitting: Don’t just walk dogs. Specialize. People with high-needs pets (think senior dogs or exotic birds) will pay a premium for someone they actually trust.
- Technical Writing: If you can explain complex things simply, companies will pay you a lot to write their documentation. Most engineers hate writing. Most writers don't understand engineering. If you sit in the middle, you’re golden.
Selling What You Already Have (The Low-Hanging Fruit)
Look around your room. Seriously. Most Americans are sitting on about $5,000 worth of stuff they don’t use.
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Poshmark, Depop, and eBay are the obvious choices for clothes and electronics. But have you looked at Facebook Marketplace lately? It has become the "new" Craigslist but with less sketchiness because of the profile links. I know a guy who makes an extra $800 a month just "flipping" mid-century modern furniture he finds at estate sales. He doesn't even refinish them; he just takes better photos than the original seller and delivers them to people who don't have trucks.
It’s about friction. If you can remove friction for someone else—the friction of moving a heavy couch, the friction of researching a product—they will give you money.
The Digital Asset Route
This is where people get "scammy," so let's be careful. No, you probably shouldn't try to get rich off NFTs or day-trading crypto. But if you have a specific knowledge set, digital products are a legitimate way to decouple your time from your income.
Think about Gumroad or Etsy. If you’ve spent five years perfecting a specific workout plan or a set of budget templates that actually work, someone else wants those. You build it once, and it sells while you’re sleeping. It’s not "passive"—you still have to market the thing—but it’s a lot more scalable than mowing lawns.
The Psychological Barrier: Why Most People Fail
Most people never make more money because they are afraid of looking "cringe."
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Starting a side business feels vulnerable. Asking for a raise feels confrontational. Posting your services on LinkedIn feels like you're bragging. Get over it. The people who make more money are the ones who are willing to be slightly uncomfortable for a long period of time.
I remember talking to a freelance editor who was complaining about her rates. She was charging $25 an hour. I asked why. She said, "I don't want people to think I'm greedy." Meanwhile, the agencies she was working for were billing her out at $150 an hour. That $125 gap is the "politeness tax." Stop paying it.
Actionable Steps to Increase Your Income Today
If you’re still wondering what can i do to make more money, stop browsing and start executing. Here is a rough roadmap that isn't a "one size fits all" but usually works.
- Audit your current expenses. This isn't "making" money, but finding $200 in zombie subscriptions is the fastest "raise" you'll ever get.
- Update your LinkedIn profile. Don't just list your job duties. List your results. Did you save the company money? Did you increase efficiency by 20%? Numbers get you hired.
- Pick one "high-value" skill to learn over the next 90 days. Focus on something that bridges two worlds. Marketing + Data. HR + Legal. Design + AI Prompting.
- Set a "Selling Saturday." Spend four hours taking high-quality photos of everything in your house you haven't touched in a year. List it all.
- Reach out to three former colleagues. Just say hi. Ask what they're working on. Referrals are how the best-paying jobs are actually found.
Making more money isn't about one giant "eureka" moment. It’s about a series of small, calculated risks. It’s about realizing that your time is a finite resource and you should be selling it to the highest bidder, or using it to build something that doesn't require you to be present every second.
Next Steps for Your Wallet
Go open a separate high-yield savings account (HYSA) right now. If you're going to start making extra money, don't let it sit in your checking account where it'll disappear into "lifestyle creep." When that first $50 from a sale or that first $500 from a freelance gig hits, move it there immediately.
Check your company's internal job board. Often, there are roles with slightly different titles that pay significantly more, and they’d rather hire someone they already know than go through the hassle of an outside search.
Finally, stop overthinking the "perfect" hustle. The best way to make more money is to start doing something that pays, even if it's small, to build the momentum you need for the big moves.