The Alternative Income Sources

I technically have two real part time jobs. One is working as a groom at a horse show barn, the other is I'm supposedly a real estate agent. I do have my license, but I have no clients and my real estate office has been dead quiet. Even the agents I used to help by doing admin work are not calling me, they have no clients and thus no income and unable to pay me. Those $20 and $30 little quick jobs were nice mad money in my wallet (movies, nice bottle of wine, spare cash).

The real estate gig is disheartening. I knew it was going to be slow going, but this whole economic down turn has made real estate a non existent second job. I've already decided to renew my license and associated fees for next year, I'm hoping things will take an upswing, I'm not holding my breath, but I have this gut feeling I need to keep my license active.

The barn/groom work is winding down for the late fall and winter. The school kids are involved in school sports, the shows are fewer and being held in indoor arenas (and I'm allergic to the horses, hay and indoor dust, ACHOO) and not as many people compete in the winter. I have a shift scheduled in two weeks, I may be needed one more time between then and Christmas. It's gonna be a tight second income month come December.

My other part time gig is photographing houses for mortgages companies. Again, given the state of the economy, not a lot of mortgages or re-financing happening. I picked up my first photo opportunity since the beginning of September. I earned $950 in 2007 doing that work, and I pretty much have earmarked any funds earned by doing the photo shots for my Credit Union Emergency Fund.

I'm looking into ways to diversify my income stream. I've not tapped into any advertising options for my web site (other than ad sense and the odd pay per post), I can probably do that. Just make the time, sit down and get the income stream moving.

Oh well, I'll keep trugging along!