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When you’re behind in retirement savings, you might be tempted to try all sorts of unusual or creative ways to make extra money. After all, you may not have that many working years left (or at least you hope not). I know you’d rather be enjoying your retirement!
Making extra money from a hobby that you enjoy can be a great way to increase your saving rate. Especially if your hobby is a profitable one.
If you don’t have a lucrative hobby, don’t despair! There are many other money making ideas you can try. This post highlights different ways to bring in some cash, including ones that are weird, strange, or just plain funny!
Table of Contents
The Usual Path To Making Money
Most of us are willing to get a job or follow a career path to create an income that will meet our needs. That works if you are able to avoid debt and remain debt free. In addition, you need to have been saving money for retirement from an early age.
Oops! My husband & I missed the memo to save early and stay out of debt! We lived beyond our means for too many years. Not that it helped, but we were not alone. The 2017 CareerBuilder survey found that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck!
Even when working hard to make and save money, things happen that can set anyone back financially. None of us expect to get injured, sick or disabled, but it happens all the time. In addition, the deck is stacked against some of us when it comes to wealth building.
What To Do When You Need More Money
You can cut back expenses to save money, but you’ll be better off in the long run if you can increase your income. That might mean taking on more responsibility in your current position to get a promotion or changing companies for a better paying job.
It could also mean picking up a part-time job or side hustle in addition to your main job. Something as simple as delivering pizza or take-out food on weekends, if you have a car.
Money Making Ideas If You’re Looking For Another Job
For those who have lost their jobs during this pandemic, my heart goes out to you! Hopefully you will find another job soon, but maybe some of the money making ideas in this post will help in the meantime.
In my effort to help catch-up our retirement savings, I became a speech therapy assistant on the side. I’ve tried to find additional ways to bring in more money by selling things and blogging. There are a lot of money making ideas I haven’t tried, though…
First, What Not To Do
Do not buy Bitcoin.
Enough said.
Money Making Ideas To Make You Laugh
People have been known to do some strange things for money. Some of these ideas may make you laugh out loud, or they may gross you out. Slime, anyone?
5 money making ideas:
Be A Clown!
Clowns are fun loving and enjoy putting a smile on your face. We had two clowns in our town – one entertained the community at our local farmer’s market, making balloon animals. The other was booked solid doing children’s birthday parties.
If you enjoy making other people laugh, this might be a great way for you to make extra money. ZipRecruiter listed the average salary for a clown at $854 per week (prior to COVID-19). Could you use an extra $850 per week working as a clown on weekends?
Lead Online Laughter Classes
COVID-19 won’t be with us forever, but it is here now. Use your time at home to get certified as a Laughter Yoga Teacher or Laughter Therapist. You can even lead your own laughter classes online. Many laughter therapists branch out to offer workshops to corporate clients, who want to provide additional wellness benefits for their employees.
By combining laughter and breathing exercises, laughter therapy oxygenates the body and the brain. It lowers stress and increases relaxation, helping us to focus on the positive. Laughter boosts the immune system and can help us look younger. Sounds good to me!
Tell Jokes For a Living
Due to the global pandemic, you won’t get booked as a stand-up comedian in a club right now. You might still be able to get paid to make people laugh, though. Way before COVID-19, comedy coach Shannon Gettins started a business teaching stand-up comedy to high school students. Do you see another opportunity to tap into online education here?
YouTube provides a way to take the laughs online, and get paid to do it. Before his departure from the YouTube channel he started, Ray William Johnson grew his Equals Three series to over 10 million subscribers. A high number of views means high ad revenue.
Comedians are not the only ones making money on YouTube, though. If you build up a large enough audience, you will earn money through ad revenue. Like anything, it takes time to get to that point. But we have a lot of that right now, right?
Funny, Or Odd Money Making Ideas?
Become a YouTube Star By Eating Loudly
Would it make you laugh to know people make money just by eating food on their YouTube channel? It’s called mukbang (Korean for eating and broadcasting) and is literally a broadcast while eating. The crispier, crunchier and louder, the better!
I could not believe this was a thing, but apparently people get some kind of satisfaction watching other people eat, because popular mukbangers get a LOT of views! The part that makes this seem accessible as a money making idea is you don’t have to talk, just eat!
Play With Slime
Karina Garcia started out on YouTube, playing with slime. Known as the Slime Queen, she was the first one to begin posting homemade slime videos. She’s since grown her brand and has authored several books and founded Craft City. Her craft kits are found in major stores.
I’ve mentioned Karina before, because it’s just hilarious to me that she makes up to $200,000 per month from YouTube advertising revenue on her slime videos. Does this make you want to laugh, or cry? Can you imagine making that kind of money by playing with slime?
Summary of Money Making Ideas That Will Make You Laugh
As you can see, there are many creative money making ideas out there, and some of them will make you laugh. A few might be unusual or odd, but when you are behind in retirement savings, the number one goal is to make and save more money. With a bigger retirement nest egg, you will be the one smiling.
Question: Do You Have Unusual Money Making Ideas?
What is the most weird, wacky or funny way you have made money? Please share in the comments below! We could all use a laugh.
If you enjoyed this post and would like to get even more creative money making ideas, be sure to subscribe to the blog!
I have to say, I wasn’t expecting to see being a clown as an option to make some extra money. Don’t you have to register to be a clown to make sure your face paint is unique?
Not sure about that, Unwanted Life. The people I’ve known who have worked as clowns talked about going to clown school and maintain a strong network with other clowns. But I haven’t heard of a registry to copyright clown face make-up design in the USA. While looking this up, I discovered the Clown Egg Register in England, which is an archive of ceramic eggs painted to commemorate unique face paint of professional clowns there.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/clown-egg-register
I love this! It just goes to show, if you have a true passion for something, you can make our dreams come true. Right? I know someone that is a clown as her side job and she truly LOVES it. It makes her smile almost as much, if not more than the people that she is trying to make laugh.
Thanks so much, Britt! Yes, passion builds excitement and the money is supposed to follow, lol. That is great to hear about your friend. Clowns are happy people!
Laughter Yoga sounds great! I think we all need a little laughter right now.
Definitely!
We need so much laughter, Tiffany.
Thanks for reading & commenting!
Lol these ideas are all great. I love the idea of being a YouTube star by chewing loudly! Thanks for a good laugh while reading this!
So glad it made you laugh, Charity!
It is so interesting to see how you can make more money with some unique side gigs. I like the idea of teaching classes online. I’ve been thinking about doing some kind of adjunct. So interesting to see all of these ASMR videos on youtube, especially with eating. Thanks for sharing these great ideas!
Nancy ✨ exquisitely.me
I think you can make money doing almost anything, especially online. It’s just a matter of finding the right niche for you, Nancy. Thanks for your comments!
Its amazing where people’s minds will go when they are in need of a few extra dollars. I totally like the clown idea, expect that is HARD work! I know a husband and wife who are professional clowns and they are ALWAYS working which is a good thing, but then again they are ALWAYS working.
Thanks so much for the tips and things to think about!
Oh, I’m sure being a clown is hard work, Patty! At least it’s fun and makes people laugh. There’s really no magical way to make money without some kind of effort. Even investing in index funds takes effort and discipline to do it.
Haha eating loudly, never seen that. I guess this is a funny idea.
Glad it made you laugh, Fransic verso! Blew my mind the first time I discovered it.
Wow that’s crazy that so many Americans live paycheck to paycheck. I would never have guessed it was that high! I’d have guessed maybe half. But that’s very concerning…
It’s probably going to be much worse now, due to COVID-19, Clarissa. Possibly the silver lining of the pandemic is that people will be committed to building their emergency fund.
It’s crazy what people make a lot of money off of. Reminds me of the pet rock! If only I could get that lucky. 🙂
Oh, I remember the pet rock! Another good example, Sandra! I never had one, but pet rocks originally sold for $3.95 each, back in 1975. Creator Gary Dahl made $15 million from the pet rock fad!
I like the mukbang video idea!
Isobel x
New post: https://www.fashionistachic.co.uk/2020/10/lifestyle-cute-nutrition-review.html?m=1
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Mukbang is just mind blowing! Thanks for reading & commenting, Isobel!
The world needs this! Thanks for sharing. I’m telling my husband he needs to tell his dad jokes – ha.
I’m sure your husband will appreciate that, Jamie! Here’s to his 15 minutes of fame!
Such a fun post! I love your concept of thinking outside the box ways of generating income! Thanks for sharing.
Aw, thank you! Glad you enjoyed it, Jodie!
These are great!
Not necessarily anything I could see myself doing but great ideas
Some of these money making ideas are extreme, I agree! Glad you enjoyed reading the post. Thanks for your comments, Kat!
These are such fun ideas! Who knew that you could make money playing with slime or eating loudly haha.
Pretty incredible, I agree! Thanks for commenting, Jen!
Yes some very funny ideas. It’s crazy how some people manage to make money
Hope it make you laugh! Thanks for reading and commenting, Claire!
Hey Kathy, these are some interesting money media ideas that I have never even considered. Well, except for Bitcoin. That was a huge mistake, and I still cringe whenever I think about how I fell for that craze and forfeited $100 in the process. I was young, dumb, and foolish lol. Thanks for sharing this lighthearted list of money-making ideas! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it, Ming! I appreciate your feedback and comments. Bitcoin, ouch!
Loved this post! I had no idea you could lead online laughter classes!
Tash // A Girl with a View
That was new to me, too! Although I had heard of laughter yoga before. Thanks for reading & commenting, Natasha!
Some great ideas to make money and have fun at the same time during these challenging period
Thanks, Jerry! Yes, both are needed now, more than ever. Thanks for commenting!
I definitely didn’t expect these at all, especially the clown. These really did make me laugh lol
Happy to hear it made you laugh, Deandra!
O wow!! Honestly, I didn’t expect any of them. Being a laughter yoga instructor, and Eating louder sound interesting!! Thanks for sharing these creative and unique ideas.
Trying to mix it up with a little fun. Thanks for reading & commenting, Navita! Glad you enjoyed it!
Eating loudly is a funny idea😀😀.. Nice post .
Very funny and strange! Thank you, Swarnali Das!
These are some really unique and funny ways to make money.
Thanks for reading & commenting, Kelly Diane! Glad you enjoyed it!
Not quite the list I was expecting 🤣 thanks for sharing!
Hope you got a laugh out of it, Irelandandelsewhere!
haha, what a funny lighthearted post, I was not expecting you to mention Clowns as a possible side hustle! This was very different to anything I have read before and will definitely be sticking with me!
Glad you enjoyed it, Kelly! Thanks for reading & commenting!
These really are such odd ways to make money but if it works, it works! Especially during a year when money can be tight!
Sometimes you have to get creative, Jennifer! It’s helpful to be able to think outside the box when money is tight, for additional ways to generate some income.
Great ideas!
Thank you, Nick! Glad you stopped by!
I must say that all of the listed methods are good, especially since someone is already earning in these ways. Great list!
Thanks, Milos! Glad you enjoyed it.
Haha! I love this. When I read “Do not buy Bitcoin. Enough said.”, I actually laughed hard! My mind flashed back to everyone I knew personally that was obsessed with Bitcoin! Love all these ideas! I’ve been doing side hustles since I was 5 selling beaded handmade jewellery wherever I went (including campgrounds! haha). I’m actually thinking of starting another side hustle for next year but I’m not sure what yet! Reading your post got my brain gears going! 🙂
I’m happy to hear I gave you a laugh and also helped spark some money-making ideas for you, Lynn! Thanks for reading & commenting!
These are fantastic! I have actually thought before about doing a sensory YouTube channel haha play with slime and make a living! Love it thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks, Rachael! Getting paid to play sounds fantastic, lol.
This was such an interesting read! I never thought about being a clown to earn some money on the side. I actually just heard today on TV about laughter yoga and wasn’t sure it was a real thing! Thanks for sharing x
Thank you, Cristina! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Funny how many ways there are to make money that we never think of!
If I wasn’t so scared of clowns, I’d actually consider the $850 a week! Wow that’s awesome 🙂 I can’t believe watching people eat is a thing! LOL. There are some crazy things on youtube. Mind you my little girl watches kids playing on youtube and they get millions of views, so maybe it can be done 🙂
http://www.thetravelvine.blog
Yes, there are so many opportunities out there for making money. You’ve got to think outside the box & get creative, but it can be worth it. Thanks, Lindsay!
Aw I love these idea, I had no idea being a clown could earn so much money! My auntie told me about laughter yoga yesterday – it does sound very interesting.
So happy you enjoyed the post, Caroline! I hope you get to try out laughter yoga with your aunt!
Haha, these are some fantastic ideas. Well, OK, not the clown one (even with that money) but that is because I am terrified of clowns. I think my top one would be youtuber and eating. XD
So many people have mixed feelings about clowns, Mehsi. I’m not sure why that is – scary movies? It’s great that your favorite money making ideas are starting a YouTube channel and eating. I never knew this was a thing, but apparently it’s very popular!
Haha this post is great! I didn’t know people could make money from eating on YouTube… sounds good to me haha 🙂
Thanks, Eleanor! Wouldn’t it be fun to get paid to eat? Then maybe get paid to lose weight, too! https://www.babyboomersupersaver.com/healthywage-review/
Some really interesting money making ideas. Though am not that funny guy, I like what you’ve shared.
Glad you found it interesting, John!
Eating loudly sounds like something I could do! Haha, this was a fun article with enjoyable suggestions on how to make money.
Thanks, Christina! I’m happy to hear it made you smile. Now go get that money!
These are some fun ideas! Laughter Yoga sounds interesting. Thanks for sharing!
There are many benefits to Laughter Yoga, Raji. It’s pretty fun! Thanks for reading & commenting!
This is the most unique and fun post I have read in a long time. It’s ironic how much technology has changed our lives. I have seen some really unusual stuff on YouTube and people are making money from it. If not full-time then as a side hustle people can definitely try these ideas. Great post 👍
Thank you, Ranjana! Yes, there are so many interesting ways to make extra money now. Thinking outside the box can really help boost retirement savings after a late start.