Why “Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket.” Is the Best Money Advice I’ve Ever Heard
By: Alice Toneatto
Tags: Life Lessons, Money, Side Hustle, Work, Wealth

My friend Sara came by the other day; I haven’t seen her since the first lockdown in March. We talked a little, and she confessed she’s not working at the moment. You might think this is something that happens; people lose their jobs every day.

But Sara didn’t lose the job; she’s a freelancer working for retirement homes doing mani-pedi and other aesthetic treatments for the senior citizens. Since the Covid-19 hit, the situation in nursing homes all across Italy fell apart. Some assistants and families got infected, went inside the houses, and a lot of the elderly got sick and died.

As the circumstances aren’t improving, and my friend Sara isn’t part of the essential staff, she’s been told to stay home. As a freelancer, she doesn’t have any unemployment benefits. She’s on her own with her savings and the income taxes to pay.

At some point in the conversation, Sara said, “I want to invest some of the money in my bank account. What do you think I should buy?” I’m no investor, but her question seemed to be a desperate move in an even more desperate time. Shouldn’t she have thought about diversifying her sources of income long before finding herself in this situation?

“Who would have ever guessed something like this (Covid-19) would happen?” She told me. “What would you have done if you broke your leg or pelvis?” I replied.

My dear friend Sara is a good person, a mix of reckless and positivity. She’s never thinking about a plan B, a “just in case” option. Now what?

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”

I’ve been raised according to the philosophy of “find a quiet well-paid job for the rest of your life.” Then, around 2008 the economic crisis hit Italy, and I’ve experienced the decline of what I thought was a safe work.

Nobody taught me to diversify my sources of income, to invest, to make money online. I realize now, almost ten years of my working career have been lost chasing a dream that wasn’t mine and following a dated idea.

In 2020 lots of people have access to a computer/smartphone and the internet. If you don’t have them at home, you can go to the local library or internet cafe and use their services. Take some hours from your weekly useless activities, add some willpower, mix it with perseverance and hard work, and you can come up with several extra baskets.

Having different income sources can help you pay the bills if your primary job gets shut down for any reason and bring in some extra cash for fancy expenses.

Little or big side hustles can be found as on the internet as in real life. “I can’t.”, “I don’t know how to do it.”, “I’m busy.”, “I’m not as smart as you are.” Are just excuses you tell yourself.

5 online side income ideas

1. Blogging

Don’t believe who says blogging is dead. Million of people search for information every day, and some of them might land on your website. Blogging isn’t a get rich quick solution but offers you the opportunity to freely choose the topic you want to discuss and the way to monetize the content.

Through a blog, you can display ads, sell affiliate products, or sell your products and services. Your blog will take longer to become an established source of information than it will take you to write articles to post on it.

For a successful blog, you need a profitable niche, some informative articles, external traffic sources like Pinterest, and a good product/service to solve your audience’s problems. If you are already posting on Medium, you can consider republishing the same content on your self-hosted blog.

2. Freelancing

Have you ever heard about Fiverr or Upwork? These are only two of the many platforms where freelancers can offer their services. You can sell a consult about a subject you are an expert on, digital artwork, translations, and many other services.

Some platforms are free to join, and all you have to do is correctly upload your data to get paid and create an attractive profile to attract clients.

3. Selling Ebooks

Ebooks are easy to create, and many platforms offer the chance to sell them for free or beyond the payment of a fee. Like the famous Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing service where you get paid a percentage of every Ebook sold. But Amazon isn’t the only place where you can sell your book.

SendOwl offers the opportunity to sell Ebooks and other digital products, paying a monthly fee. If you have no idea about what to write and how to do it, you can purchase some PLR books to resell.

4. Print on Demand

I’ll never grow tired to say that print on demand is a cheap way to make money online accessible to anyone, artist or not. Learn to create designs and learn the basic tasks to do with graphic programs to adjust your pictures might take some time and effort for newbies, but once you have created your portfolio or bought the artwork from another artist, you can upload your design for free to several platforms.

These platforms will handle payments, make the products, shipping them, and deal with customers. If you don’t know where to start, check Redbubble or Teespring.

5. Selling photos

Are you a professional or amateur photographer who likes to edit his own pictures? Then selling photos to stock-image websites can be your new way to make money passively.

For example, you can create an account on Shutterstock and uploading your best pictures there. A team will review your photos and, if approved, will collect the money from the buyers and pay you a percentage.