I’m not sure how viable this recommendation is, but when I was younger I got my start in development through working online using a pseudonym, working in game development / management. You might be able to try to do the same through a combination of Fiverr, Hireup, and/or more specific and niche websites for markets that you might have skills that are valuable in. Then, just accept payment via some pseudonymous method, e.g. cryptocurrency or venmo or a PayPal business account.

What you could hypothetically make if you were to follow my advice above is a hard question to answer, because it really depends on your skills, how you market yourself, where you market yourself, how much of yourself and your time you dedicate to trying to make online contracting work out for you, and your negotiation skills. Another big part of making better money as an online contractor is building a reputation behind your name (or rather, pseudonym in this case), and gaining repeat clientele / referrals. Personally, when I was trying to hustle with online contracting, it was a slow start— I didn’t make much for the first few months. This was because my skills weren’t very developed, I didn’t have a reputation or repeat clientele, and I didn’t have the best grasp on how to play ball and negotiate with potential clients. Over time, these skills developed, though, and I did make more money before moving on to other things.

For brass tacks specifics, I made piss-poor money the first 3-6 months I think— maybe $1000 a month. I was a new developer though, which definitely hindered my income at the time. Past that, my income slowly and gradually increased by (rough guess, it’s been a few years since I was doing this) around 500 bucks a month before eventually slowing down around 4-5K a month with around a year and a half of experience doing online contracting. I’m sure I could’ve made more if I kept at it and had stronger negotiation and soft skills to help me win new clients and retain old clients better.

Only the white collar professional world insists on knowing who you are before taking you on for a position. You can get away without ever telling anyone your name so long as you’re not trying to work for a FAANG and are okay with working as a contractor for less professional oriented markets or businesses.

I was also able to work without giving anyone my name when I succeeded in bringing a side project of mine to life as a real income source. This isn’t exactly something you can do by following any specific set of instructions or guidelines though, and only works if you have a good idea and can execute on it properly. When I was doing my side project stuff, I started out making around 2-3K a month, gradually increasing my income month over month until a peak of around 20K a month, after which burnout started to hit me and my income fell off. There is good money in “side projects”, but only if your idea is good, your plan is good, your advertising is good and your execution of all of the previously listed things is good. Unfortunately it’s a very hazardous path to walk, and there’s a lot of things out of your control that will aid you or halt you if you try to make something of your own come to life in this way. For me, what really helped the most with my side project was a combination of luck, first movers advantage, a colossal amount of time I was able to dedicate, and my hyper-specific niche I was working in. If you go this route, or try this route, I would recommend finding something very very very narrow in scope, and building from there. My side project was so specific that I only ever had about a few thousand odd customers, but those customers had an average spend that was north of a hundred bucks per person, so it worked for me.

Again, I dunno if this is really advisable for you, but it is just what comes to my mind when I think about ways to make money where your name doesn’t need to be part of the picture.

Good luck man… I don’t envy your position. I hope everything works out for you and your kids.