Cash on the Side

 I work out of state and am only home two and a half days a week. But when I fully retire there are some opportunities to earn some cash on the side.

Today, I removed the flail mower from my biggest tractor and hauled it from my farm to my residence, three miles down the road. When I bought this tractor, a Kubota, it was advertised as including a five foot wide underbelly mower. What also came with it, and was not mentioned in the ad at all, was a five foot wide, front mounted snow blower. What it didn't come with was an operator's manual. But I grew up on a farm using 1950s tractors and equipment and our family built and ran a campground, which also had some equipment. As the only boy in the family of seven, it was up to me to do most of the farming and maintenance at the campground (from age nine until I left home at 18). Result" I'm pretty handy and mechanically inclined. I figured out how to mount and operate the snow blower.

The first year I owned it we had significant snow (32 inches in October) and I was in between jobs. I went around my village and volunteered to clear neighbors' driveways and parking lots. Some accepted the free offer and some declined. Some that accepted offered me money after I was done, I hadn't asked for any. Some of the offerings I accepted and some I declined. I know the relative economic standing of most of my neighbors. If I knew they could afford to give me ten dollars, I took it (fuel costs money).

I didn't go far, just immediate neighbors of my small village. But, when I retire, I will go around and offer my services, for a fee, as a sideline business. There are a couple people that I won't charge, like the lady whose grass I have been cutting for two years. She is on a rather small fixed income.

I already have the equipment, do all my own maintenance on it (I replaced all the blowers' bearings two years ago), and enjoy doing the work. In a winter that we actually get enough snow that my services would be needed, I could probably make enough to pay for all my grass cutting gas and diesel fuel requirements for the year. 

I also have unlimited supplies of standing dead trees and bundled firewood sells for $7.50 a bundle in my area. I used to cut and bundle five to six hundred bundles of wood to sell at our campground every year. We sold it for 50 cents a bundle and my parents gave me five cents a bundle. It was a lot of work for $25 a summer but in the early 1970s, that money went a long way. If I sold just one hundred bundles of wood a year, I could make $750. The trees need to be cut and cleared out off my land or it gets impossible to drive through and I need to cut three cords of firewood each year for my home heating. I need to keep my woods healthy, open enough to drive through, and maintain a low risk of forest fires by reducing the dead wood on the ground.

A few people have suggested that I hire myself out as a river guide for canoe and kayak trips. There are three major rivers within an hour of my house; The Lehigh (ten minutes away), the Schuylkill (thirty minutes away), and the Susquehanna (an hour away). I am familiar with all of them and could do this one on one with one or two guests. I know the full histories of the miles that I routinely paddle so if they are interested in learning, I have the knowledge. That could be fun.

What are your skills and what resources do you have at hand that you can parlay into a little bit of a side income? Extra income means extra food security.