In recent months (you know, when I’ve actually posted), I’ve moved more toward a more overall view of my finances. (I am trying to move toward financial independence, after all.) But this blog (and its predecessor) originally started as much of a side hustle showcase. I still do some of that, so I thought I would take a few paragraphs and talk about where I am actually making any amount of money with these.
The Big One
There’s one side venture I have, about which, for various reasons, I can’t go into too much detail. Suffice it to say it’s a project I can do on the home computer. This project is still in progress, but my client has already sent me a partial payment of $1000. More is forthcoming this quarter.
Live Trivia
Who said live trivia apps are dead? Certainly not me…though, to be fair, there are a lot fewer apps than there once were. (I’ve written about that before.) And, of those apps, there aren’t many that I find to be worth my time. Even those which I do still play have moments of frustration, usually relating to certain unnamed hosts who think players show up to hear anything they have to say, rather than, you know, the trivia questions.
So, after all that, which ones have actually paid me anything in 2021? It’s a really short list:
HQ Trivia. Three years after I discovered it, HQ is still paying out $5000 per night. Is it as great as it once was? No way. Are they delaying most payments by at least a month after a game is won? Oh, yeah. But it is still making payments, and from January to March, HQ paid me $150.58.
To play, search for “HQ Trivia” at the app store and use the referral code “snowedin”!
Swagbucks Live. I could list Swagbucks in the next section, but quite honestly, most of my personal earnings on Swagbucks over the past three years have come from their trivia game. (This does not count my referrals, who have provided me a fair amount of earnings as well.) Swagbucks gives a nice discount on the first digital prepaid $25 Visa every month, and so I always order one. (It comes out to about a 13% discount.) Quite simply, then, Swagbucks paid me $75 in the first quarter of this year.
To join Swagbucks, click here!
Survey Sites
“Sure,” I hear you say, “every other financial blog pushes survey sites.” It’s certainly true that a lot of these blogs list at least one site (it’s usually Swagbucks) and say that it’s simple to make money while you watch TV, or whatever. But let’s be realistic: survey sites are not for everyone. If you’re the type who will get frustrated after disqualifying from surveys time after time, this may not be the best thing for you. With that said, here are the sites I still use and (mostly) enjoy:
TreasureTrooper. Like Swagbucks, TreasureTrooper has been around a long time, and they definitely pay. Yes, other sites pay better for the same surveys, but only TreasureTrooper has a dragon game that allows you an extra opportunity to make a fairly good amount of cash. I personally “sell” a dragon every month for $5. Overall, with surveys and dragons, I have made $75 so far this year.
To join TreasureTrooper, click here!
1Q. This is a mobile app that irregularly (but fairly often) sends a push notification for a question or questions. Each question answered pays 25 cents, but the caveat is that some questions expire within minutes of the notification. Payment is very nearly instant. From January to March, 1Q has paid me $17.50.
To join 1Q, click here!
Survey Junkie. Survey Junkie has a fair amount of surveys, many of which are hosted on its own website/server, so there’s not nearly as much clicking over to the same surveys you could get to from TreasureTrooper or Swagbucks. The thing to watch out for here is how many points they offer for the amount of time they expect each survey to take. I’ll readily go for the daily survey email offering a 10-point (or 10-cent), one-minute survey, but I’m more reluctant, for example, to take a 7-minute survey for 15 points. This probably has caused my earnings to accrue rather slowly compared to those of others. Oh, well. I’ve made $10.02 from Survey Junkie in the first quarter of this year.
To join Survey Junkie, click here!
Silly Apps
I occasionally play games on my phone, usually when there are a thousand other things running through my head. (The games don’t usually help with that…but that’s when I play them.)
The only game from which I received a payment worth much of anything in the first quarter of 2021 is Bitcoin Solitaire, which – let’s be honest – is paying me mostly to watch ads on my phone. (I typically ignore them, if we’re really being honest.) That app is run by a company called Bling, which has a few other Bitcoin games that operate the same way. Since I don’t play often, I only received one payment, which was for 0.00000167 BTC, which was worth, at the time, a whopping $0.09. (It’s worth about half a cent more as of this writing. Woohoo.)
Other Income
I have made a little more money outside the 9-to-5 in the first quarter of this year. Thanks to the generosity of Brian over at Lazy Man and Money, I made $30 just for identifying a movie on Twitter from a few clues.
And, of course, there was another round of economic stimulus from Uncle Sam. I won’t go into how much I got from that because the number might indicate more about how many children I have than I want to say right now.
The Bottom Line
So, the first quarter of this year was pretty good to me, I suppose. And how good? Well, the non-stimulus money listed above totals to:
Is this amount going to help me reach FI? Well, it can’t hurt. Obviously, I will need to do more, but this at least keeps me from spending that much more.