My 4 Income Streams as an Average University Student
By: Lu Mar
Tags: Inspiration, Ideas, Advice, Self Improvement, Life

My 4 Income Streams as an Average University Student

And other ideas to make money

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

As a completely average University student, my priority is not building multiple income streams or earning lots of money on the side but studying hard to get my degree and have a great CV for job hunting. Nonetheless, I have four current methods of putting money in my bank account, with a couple that are entirely scalable. In the end, you will see other ways I earned money when I was younger and in high school.

All these sources of income came to me quite gradually; I did not go to University and set these income streams up straight away. Yet, it has transpired that two years into my degree, I have four streams of income, two of which I will be able to bring with me when I graduate, no matter what job I land.

Student Maintenance loan

£9,000 a year

In the UK, the student loan system is, in my opinion, far fairer than what I’ve seen in the US. We don’t have to pay our loans back unless we earn enough money; they simply take a percentage of our income after say £25k a year, so it usually works out at only £30 a month to repay University fees, with the total sum owed being wiped out after 30 years.

Therefore, almost everyone takes a student loan when they come to University, no matter how much money they have, myself included.

These come in 3 lump sums a year, once a term, and is the money I use to live off, pay rent, feed myself, etc.

University open days

£350 a year

By working at the open days for my University around 5 times a year, I get paid just over £10 per hour to speak to prospective students considering attending my University.

I would recommend this method to any University student that has this offered to them. It is super easy, really quite fun, and pretty lucrative for what it is. It looks great on my CV and puts extra money in my bank account.

Medium

£5–90 a month

While not lucrative for me at the moment (I’m not writing as much as I should be!), this is a way I earn a little money. The most I have earned in a month is $84, and the least was under $1 in my first month.

The most important aspect of this income source is that it is scalable, and in a way, passive.

As an English student, I absolutely love writing anyway and write a lot for my degree and, as you’ll read below, for some freelance gigs. Nonetheless, this is definitely the income source I want to work on the most in the coming months to increase to a steady £200 a month at least.

Freelancing

£0–100 a month

I have worked in the past (for free) as a Remote Social Media Manager and paid as a Sports writer.

I am pretty happy to write for free as a freelance writer if the company is a great name to put on my CV because my priority is to graduate with a job as a sports journalist. However, I have been lucky enough to receive paid gigs from reputable companies that serve to boost my CV and give me some pocket money.

I have decided that no matter what job I do when I graduate, I would love to use freelance writing as a way to earn money on the side. Equally though, as my student loan gives me enough money to live on, my priority is getting good names on my CV.

Previous methods of earning money:

Babysitting

Throughout school, I earned decent money by babysitting in my village. For a solid £5 an hour, I would earn £25 to £40 a night watching TV or doing homework.

If I had more contacts in my University city, I would definitely be open to picking up babysitting shifts. I have just struggled to organise something safely, but occasionally babysit while home for summers and Christmas.

Restaurant work

I worked part-time in a restaurant for around 4 years, between the ages of 16 and 20. This is the way I built up savings for University.

As my University city is far away from my hometown, I don’t have a conventional part-time job at University because I can’t commit to a contract as I go home for months at a time in summer and weeks at Christmas.

However, because I saved so much when working throughout high school, I can afford not to have a conventional part-time job at University.