During the last downturn, I lost about 35% of my net worth in about six months. I don’t plan on doing that again. Losing 35% is not as bad as the S&P 500 losing ~60% during its worst period, but it still hurt like hell due to the speed and absolute dollar amount of the
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Hello! Here's a guest post from a reader, Nick. Nick was feeling stuck a few years ago and wasn't making progress on his student loans. He ended up researching a lot about salaries and the cost of living for English teachers in China and realized that he would be able to save far more money in China than back home. Even without teaching experience, and still living very comfortably, including taking vacations, it has been easy for him to save $20,000 in a year. For him, it had a huge impact on his life and financial freedom. Enjoy his story on how to teach English in China below!
It must have been about 4.5 years ago. I remember walking out of an interview in Chicago feeling completely dejected.
The interviewer mentioned the salary, and along with it, how most new hires take on a second job during the weekend.
I wasn’t expecting to find an amazing job, but this was just too much. None of my past decisions looked particularly good on a resume. I had just returned from a 3.5-year stint traveling around Latin America while earning a very modest living playing online poker.
But, I was burnt out, making no progress on my student loans, and realizing it was time to get a normal job. I was actually really excited to do so but job hunting was incredibly frustrating and when I realized how little money I’d be earning, I began looking for alternative options.
Somewhere along the way, I had heard about teachers in Asia making good money and motivated by the frustration of the job search, I began looking into it more seriously.
After spending countless hours reading online, I ended up settling on China as that seemed to be where it’d be easiest to save the most money.
I’ve since been in China for four years, paid off my student loans, and finally feel comfortable with my finances.
Without a doubt, moving to China isn’t for everyone or even most people. However, for those that are a little bit adventurous, not opposed to working as a teacher, and want to save money fast, it’s an option worth considering.
It’s not at all difficult to save $20,000 per year, without needing to be particularly frugal, and still have plenty of vacation time.
Related articles on how to make extra money:
- 12 Work From Home Jobs That Can Earn You $1,000+ Each Month
- 30+ Ways To Save Money Each Month
- The Best Online Tutoring Jobs
How to start teaching English in China.
The demand for teachers in China
Chinese parents spend an average of $17,400 per year on extracurricular tutoring for their children.
More than 60% of students receive tutoring outside of school at an average of six hours per week and English is among the most popular subjects for after school tutoring.
While these numbers look insanely high from my Midwestern American point of view, it barely scratches the surface for the demand for English tutoring in China.
In fact, English is a required subject in Chinese schools. Private schools often take this a step further, with many classes and programs taught exclusively in English. Meanwhile, the online tutoring industry has created lots of opportunities to teach English online.
Chinese parents are obviously willing to pay for English education. This demand for English teachers becomes even more apparent when you consider just how huge of a country it is. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, there are 32 cities with more people than Chicago.
The requirements to be an English teacher
It’s not difficult to become an English teacher in China. The huge demand has made for relatively lax requirements. These are…
- A bachelor’s degree
- Two years of work experience
- 120 hour TEFL certificate
- Clear criminal background check
- Pass a health check
- Native English speaker
The bachelor’s degree doesn’t need to be in any specific subject, nor do the two years of work experience. The 120-hour TEFL is easy and pretty cheap to do online.
Of course, having these doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be able to get a great job right off the bat. Some of the best schools will have a very rigorous hiring process. However, even a standard first job in China can allow you to save a lot of money.
The types of English teaching jobs in China
Most foreign teachers in China come to teach English. However, there are other opportunities as well, such as with teaching sports, a specific subject, or as a homeroom teacher who teaches a variety of subjects.
There’s a wide range of salaries and teaching environments, with the main positions being in kindergartens, public schools, international schools, training centers, and universities. Salaries, working hours, and work environment can vary quite a bit depending on the type of school.
Additionally, the chosen city will have a large impact on your life with bigger cities paying more but also having a higher cost of living. ESL Authority has a good breakdown of the different salary ranges for different school types and locations.
My teaching experience in China has exclusively been in Beijing at two public schools and one international school. I’ll share a bit about my experiences and salary at these schools.
Teaching at a public school in China
Public school teaching jobs typically focus on oral English, meaning you’ll help students with their speaking and listening comprehension. The class sizes tend to be quite large. I often had 30-40 students in a class and would see each class only a couple of times per week, while often teaching multiple classes and different grade levels. In a given week I’d see 200-300 students.
At the public schools I taught, I earned around $1,600 per month, which included a round-trip plane ticket to America, and housing. A typical schedule for public schools would be Monday-Friday, from 8 am – 4 pm, with 16-20 classes per week, with each one lasting around 45 minutes. There would be a lot of down-time during the day which I used to study Chinese.
Many public schools, but not all, will let foreign teachers leave if they don’t have classes. Both public schools I taught at while in Beijing allowed me to leave when my classes were finished, which meant I’d often be done for the day around 2 pm.
Vacation time is very generous, exceeding 3 months for summer and winter vacation, plus all of the national holidays during the year. Both public schools I’ve taught at allowed foreigners to finish the semester earlier and start later than their Chinese counterparts which makes sense as foreign teachers aren’t usually responsible for grading homework or preparing exams.
The salary at public schools is more than enough to live comfortably and save quite a bit of money. Still, many teachers use their substantial free time to teach extra on the side with private students or at training centers. Doing so can be quite lucrative with an average rate of around $30 per hour.
Having said that, it’s not exactly legal to teach with a different school than the one that sponsored your visa. If you got caught, it could get you in trouble and you could have your visa canceled and your time in China cut short. But, it’s one of those things that nearly everyone does and almost nobody gets in trouble for. So, if you choose to teach on the side, you should be aware of the risks.
It isn’t difficult to teach an extra six hours per week during the ~8 months of the school year. This would earn an extra $5,760. Teaching 20 hours per week during 2 months of the summer/winter vacation would earn an extra $4,800. Combining these with the public school salary would make your yearly after-tax income $29,760 – with housing already paid for.
Plus, you’d still have close to two months’ vacation throughout the year.
While I didn’t keep good track of my earnings and expenses while teaching at the public schools, these numbers are very close to my own experience.
My experience teaching at an international school in China
If you’re more interested in teaching a subject like history or math, as opposed to English, an international school would be your best bet.
These are the schools where wealthy Chinese and expats typically send their children to study. Teaching positions at some of the better schools can be very competitive, often requiring a teaching license, graduate degree, and a number of years of experience. Of course, those who qualify for these positions will earn higher salaries.
However, a large number of international schools don’t have any additional requirements for teachers above the bare minimum required to teach in China.
The work at these schools can be very demanding, much like teaching in America would be, requiring things like communicating with parents, creating exams, giving and grading homework, and plenty of meetings. Vacation periods are typically shorter than those for public school teachers. Likewise, working hours may be from 8 am – 5 pm, but most international school teachers will find themselves with very little downtime throughout the day.
On the plus side, class sizes are generally much smaller and salaries higher. While teaching at an international school, I earned around $2,800 per month or $33,600 per year after taxes, with housing and a round-trip plane ticket included.
However, due to the shorter vacations and more tiring day-to-day work, I didn’t have any interest in tutoring on the side.
What does a typical budget look like for an English teacher?
This can be hard to say as everyone has a different lifestyle and things they’re willing or not willing to spend money on. I’ll share my budget below.
Housing and Healthcare – $0/mo – In China, especially in the bigger cities, rent would make up the largest portion of a budget. Fortunately for foreign teachers, most schools include housing or a housing allowance. Housing would typically be a one-bedroom apartment, which may be on or off-campus, depending on the school. Some teachers may choose to add some of their own money to the housing allowance so that they can stay in a nicer place. But, I’ve been happy with the provided accommodation and didn’t pay any extra. Health insurance is also provided and many schools have gyms on campus that you can use for free.
Food – $350/mo – You can spend a lot of money on food or not much at all, depending on your preferences. Cheaper meals can be had for under $3 but you could easily spend $30 on a meal if you choose to go to fancier places. It also depends on how much you cook vs eat out and whether you like buying imported groceries. Most schools will offer free lunch to their teachers. Even so, I tend to spend quite a bit on food but am cheaper in other areas, so my food budget would be something like:
Groceries: $150
Restaurants: $200
Entertainment – $100/mo – Being the old man I am, I rarely go out for drinks at bars and my preferred entertainment is also the cheaper kind – hanging out, eating, and playing games with friends. Still, my wife and I will go to the occasional show.
Transportation – $60/mo – Public transportation in China is fantastic and a single trip on the subway or in a bus can cost less than 50 cents. Shared bikes are everywhere and extremely cheap. Even using Didi, the Chinese version of Uber, is very affordable. This is another area where I spend more than necessary, often taking a Didi out of laziness when there are cheaper options.
Utilities – $15/mo – I think most schools typically pay for household utilities, like electricity and water. At least, the schools I worked at did. So, the only expense here is my phone which is on a pay as you go plan.
Travel – $250/mo – Living in China and working as a teacher opens up lots of travel opportunities, both within China and around Asia. Unfortunately, although plentiful, teacher’s vacation time is usually during national holidays when the cost of tickets is a bit higher. Still, I tend to go on at least one international trip a year and also like to travel within China. Plus, almost every school also provides a round-trip ticket to your home country. If I were to guess, I probably spend around $3,000 per year on travel. I know people who spend much more and others who spend much less, so this cost will depend a lot on each individual’s preferences.
Miscellaneous – $50/mo – These are other expenses such as buying household appliances, clothes, and other random things. I’m not a big shopper, but random things do come up.
Total Expenses – $825/mo or $9,900/year
Although I’m conscious of my spending, I wouldn’t say that I’m especially frugal while in China. Far much less than I’d be if I were still living in Michigan.
Some people might consider my spending extravagant while others might think I’m cheap. For me, it’s a good balance of comfort and enjoying my lifestyle with saving for the future.
How much money can you save teaching English in China?
In my experience, I earned between $29,760 and $33,600 per year with expenses around $9,900 per year. This led to savings between $19,860 and $23,700 per year. Unfortunately, I didn’t track my exact earnings and spending each year, but these ballpark numbers are pretty accurate.
It’s not particularly difficult to save $20,000 in a year of teaching in China while still living comfortably, traveling, and leaving yourself with enough free time to pursue other interests.
Plenty of people save more than this each year. There are also opportunities to increase your earnings as you gain more experience.
However, like most places, life can be as expensive as you make it. If you’re bad with money back home, it’s unlikely you’ll suddenly become good with money by moving abroad. In fact, the money may disappear even faster than it would back home as there are lots of exciting ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunities.
But, if you’re somewhat frugal and work fairly hard, you’ll have no problem saving a lot of money.
How to find a job teaching English in China
There are tons of websites with job listings for English teachers in China. I can’t comment on most sites as all the jobs I found started with a search on the eChinacities job board.
The start of your job search can be a bit overwhelming, especially if you’re still not sure where you’d like to live in China. This isn’t helped by the fact that a lot of recruiters will earn more money if they can get a teacher to accept a lower salary.
I’ve known teachers that came to China and received terrible salary packages, earning less than half of what a typical salary would be and with an apartment far from the school. These people tended to not do enough research beforehand and accepted the first offer they received.
I would strongly recommend talking with lots of recruiters before accepting any position. Be sure to ask tons of questions, and be willing to say no to a jobs that don’t fit your criteria. There is no shortage of opportunities, so be patient when looking for your ideal position.
Before accepting any position, be sure to do your due diligence on the school.
Most schools are fine and professional, but there are some sketchy ones. You won’t always find much information online about the school, but if they’ve done shady things in the past, you’ll probably see people talking about it.
Asking to speak with any current or former teachers can give you a bit more insight into the school as well.
Final thoughts on teaching English in China
Not everyone will be excited to live in China and I can understand that. It’s far from home, the language is difficult, and many people have a negative perception of the country.
However, I’ve really enjoyed my life here and the experience has been exceptionally positive. Sure, there are small annoyances, but these will happen anywhere. Plenty of people worry about air quality, and while still not great, it has been improving every year.
Beijing is extremely modern with no shortage of interesting and unique things to do. Moving here has been one of the best decisions I’ve made.
I came here with only a few thousand dollars in the bank and what felt like an endless pit of student loan debt. In only a few years, I’ve been able to completely turn around my finances, pay off my loans, and save up a nice nest egg.
I know that it’s not for everyone, but if you’re open to new experiences, can see yourself enjoying teaching, and want to save a lot of money, moving to China to teach English is an option worth considering.
Nick Dahlhoff is an English teacher living in Beijing. Since moving there in 2016, he’s paid off his student loans, studied Chinese, gotten married and started a blog. At All Language Resources, he tests out lots of language learning resources to help language learners figure out which resources are worth using and which ones are better off avoiding.
Would you take a job in another country to pay off your debt? Would you start teaching English in China?
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That’s what some health officials are saying, but the data aren’t so clear. We look into what’s known (and not known) about the prevalence and effects of loneliness — including the possible upsides.
Listen and subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or elsewhere. Below is a transcript of the episode, edited for readability. For more information on the people and ideas in the episode, see the links at the bottom of this post.
* * *
Stephen DUBNER: So Eric, when you read an article that says, “more than half of all Americans say they regularly experience x emotion” or, “only 12 percent of Americans feel such-and-such” — what is that experience like for you, as a sociologist?
Eric KLINENBERG: Right, so about half the time I think, Wow, that’s pretty interesting, and about half the time I’m pulling out my hair thinking, No, don’t — don’t say that!
Eric Klinenberg is a professor of sociology at New York University.
KLINENBERG: Unfortunately, what I find is that journalistic reporting will use survey data when it’s useful for the story and they kind of don’t care that much about whether the data underlying it is reliable.
And what’s wrong with survey data?
KLINENBERG: A lot of survey data is based on a sample that’s not really worth generalizing from. A lot of surveys ask questions that will work for a particular time and place but might not work very well after that, which means you can get a snapshot of a moment in time but not really a dynamic portrait of something over time.
Would you like an example of how survey data gets used in the media? Okay, here’s an example:
ABC Action News: A top doctor calls it a national health crisis. Not obesity, or heart disease—
CBS This Morning: A condition that is so common, you may not think of it as a mental health problem.
ABC Action News: Loneliness. That’s right, loneliness.
Vivek MURTHY: People who struggle with loneliness end up living shorter lives, and they also are at increased risk for heart disease, depression, dementia, anxiety, and a host of other conditions.
And that is the “top doctor” who rang the alarm on what he calls “the loneliness epidemic.”
MURTHY: My name is Vivek Murthy, and I was trained as an internal-medicine physician and recently served as surgeon general of the United States.
Murthy is the author of a forthcoming book about loneliness; it’s called Together.
MURTHY: Well, if you had told me several years ago that I would be talking about and thinking about loneliness, I would have said you were probably wrong.
When he was surgeon general, Murthy met with many people suffering from chronic illness and addiction.
MURTHY: But I found that behind many of those stories were stories of a deeper emotional pain. And that pain was often manifest as loneliness. And I realized that there’s something very important happening here, which is that people all across the world are experiencing a sense of disconnection from the people in their community, from the more abstract society that they’re supposedly part of. I became curious about why that was, about what its consequences were for their health.
These consequences are said to be dire — perhaps best evidenced by one jarring statistic that made its way through the media:
WSJ: Loneliness — it turns out it is a strong predictor of early death, maybe as much as alcoholism and smoking 15 cigarettes—
Skavlan: 15 cigarettes.
CBS: 15 cigarettes a day.
Today on Freakonomics Radio: how real is the loneliness epidemic, and is it really that risky? Are there any upsides to loneliness? And are there any solutions to it?
* * *
Tracey Crouch is a Member of Parliament in the U.K.
Tracey CROUCH: I’ve been an M.P. since 2010.
And also:
CROUCH: I was formerly the world’s first Loneliness Minister.
Why did the U.K. feel compelled to have a loneliness minister?
CROUCH: Loneliness shows no prejudice. It doesn’t matter who you are, how successful you are, how rich you are, where you live in the country, whether you work, whether you don’t work. The simple truth is, loneliness can hit at any given time.
Any why should loneliness be the government’s concern?
CROUCH: Because it’s actually something that can have an enormous public-health consequence. I think we are in loneliness where we were with mental health a decade ago. People didn’t talk about poor mental health, whereas now we are removing the stigma around mental health and that means that we can tackle some of the issues relating to mental health. And that was very much the same with loneliness. It’s about removing the stigma of being lonely and thinking, well, how can we ensure that people stay connected to society?
The very idea of a loneliness minister struck some people as comical:
Stephen COLBERT: This is so British.
The American comic Stephen Colbert, for instance:
COLBERT: They’ve identified the most ineffable human problem and come up with the most cold, bureaucratic solution.
But Tracey Crouch didn’t mind.
CROUCH: I actually thought that it was a really good opportunity to get the message out there, that we in the United Kingdom recognize that the issue of loneliness is something that is serious. And that was recognized actually by the number of countries who got in touch with us to come and talk about how they, too, could tackle loneliness. And that included, by the way, the former chief medical officer from the United States.
That former chief medical officer being Vivek Murthy.
MURTHY: That’s right. Yes.
Murthy had found compelling the argument that loneliness was increasing and that loneliness can be damaging, even physiologically damaging.
MURTHY: The mechanisms for how it works and for how it impacts our lives, I think, are still in the very early stages of being understood. And so we have a lot of data that shows strong associations between loneliness and health outcomes, including shortened lifespans and conditions like heart disease. What we have far less of are the kind of studies that, beyond the shadow of a doubt, prove causation.
But when stories about loneliness hit the media, that doubt tends to be glossed over. Consider the much-reported story equating loneliness and smoking:
CBS: Researchers say suffering through it can be as lethal as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Julianne HOLT-LUNSTAD: That statistic is often cited, so let me give you a little background of where that came from.
That is Julianne Holt-Lunstad.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: And I am a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University.
Holt-Lunstad was the lead author of a 2010 paper where that 15-cigarettes-a-day comparison came from. She and her co-authors did what’s called a meta-analysis, rolling up nearly 150 earlier studies that covered more than 300,000 research subjects.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: And so this meta-analysis really wanted to look at the overall effect of being socially connected or lacking social connections on overall risk for premature mortality.
Some measures of social connection are objective: marital status, for instance, or network size or whether you live alone. And others are more subjective — like feelings of loneliness.
Julianne HOLT-LUNSTAD: Yeah. So it’s good to define loneliness upfront, because I think it’s used very loosely and can often be used interchangeably with social isolation and other related terms.
So how does her field define loneliness?
HOLT-LUNSTAD: Loneliness has been defined as that subjective discrepancy between our actual level of social connection and our desired level of connection.
Okay, that’s a pretty concrete definition. And maybe not what you or I might typically consider loneliness. Let’s hear it again:
HOLT-LUNSTAD: That subjective discrepancy between our actual level of social connection and our desired level of connection.
With that definition, you can see why loneliness may have spiked lately. With the rise of social media, it’s easier than ever to see other people doing things that you’d like to be doing, being with people you’d like to be with. But it’s also important to note the difference between loneliness and social isolation.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: And so someone could be objectively isolated and feel lonely. But it’s also possible that you could be objectively isolated and not feel lonely, so you may take pleasure in that solitude. And conversely, someone may have many people around them and yet still feel profoundly lonely.
Okay, so loneliness and social isolation are not the same thing. And in their meta-analysis, Lunstad and her colleagues looked at whether there was a relationship between mortality and social connections generally — including loneliness, social isolation, marital status, etc. In other words: how important is social connection to how long you live? The participants in the rolled-up studies were on the older side — average age, nearly 64 — and they were followed for an average of seven-and-a-half years. So what’d Lunstad find?
HOLT-LUNSTAD: What we found was that those who were more socially connected, across these various indicators, had a 50 percent increased odds of survival.
And the researchers controlled for socio-demographic differences as well as a person’s initial health status and cause of death.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: So what that means is that these studies followed people over time, and they were 50 percent more likely to be alive at the follow-up than those who lacked social connections or had insufficient social connections.
Okay, so that looks to be strong evidence that longevity is at least strongly correlated with social relationships. But you could imagine that the causal relationship isn’t so airtight. It could be, for instance, that people with fewer social connections may have other issues — personality or behavioral issues, or whatever — that make it harder to maintain social connections.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: And my concern was that by simply just stating the 50 percent increased odds of survival, that the general public and to some extent even perhaps the medical community, may not necessarily know what to make of that or how to contextualize that.
In other words, Holt-Lunstad didn’t want to contribute to sensationalized reporting.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: We are constantly bombarded with the latest health findings. And it’s hard to know what to take seriously and what not to take seriously.
But she also didn’t want her research finding to get lost. So she and her colleagues tried to draw specific, numerical parallels between the risk of low social connectivity and more common, physiological risks. Things like alcohol consumption—
HOLT-LUNSTAD: Alcohol consumption, obesity, air pollution.
And: smoking. Judging by the media’s response to the 15-cigarettes-a-day comparison, the message got through. But the nuance was lost.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: Oftentimes, people will say that “loneliness has a greater risk than smoking up to 15 cigarettes per day.” And of course, loneliness was one of the indicators. But it wasn’t the only indicator.
Remember, the researchers looked at a whole basket of social connections — all of which, by the way, can be measured more tangibly than loneliness. But in the media reports, it was loneliness that stood out. Now this doesn’t necessarily mean that loneliness doesn’t create health risks. So how can you tell? Let’s start by asking a different question: where does loneliness come from?
HOLT-LUNSTAD: So the late John Cacioppo argued that loneliness is a biological drive.
Cacioppo was one of the founders of a field called social neuroscience.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: Much like hunger and thirst are biological drives. So hunger motivates us to seek out food; thirst, to seek out water. That loneliness is a biological drive that motivates us to seek out others.
And being around others, Cacioppo argued, was a key to survival.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: So we gain added resources by being around others. There is protection from predators, there’s protection from the elements.
On the flip side, then: when we’re alone, we have to be more vigilant.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: And so throughout human history, being around others has in essence been a form of protection and a more effective use of effort.
So when we are alone, what’s happening to us?
HOLT-LUNSTAD: So this activates regions of the brain that in turn signal our physiology to adapt to these situations, to handle whatever situation we’re in.
KLINENBERG: Loneliness is our bodies’ cue that we need to get out in the world and participate in social life.
That, again, is the NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg.
KLINENBERG: So if you experience some loneliness in your life, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. That can be restorative.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: And it’s not something we necessarily want to eliminate, because loneliness is what motivates us to reconnect socially. The problem becomes when it becomes chronic.
MURTHY: Loneliness places us in a threat state.
And that, again, is former surgeon general Vivek Murthy.
MURTHY: And whenever you’re in a state of threat, you are concerned about self-preservation.
Murthy believes this is how chronic loneliness can lead to bad health outcomes. The psychological stress of being in an elevated threat state can lead to biological responses like higher blood pressure and inflammation. You might also become hyper-vigilant about potential dangers — like the proverbial man-eating lion lurking in the tall grass of our ancestors’ savannah.
MURTHY: And that’s good, because I want to err on this side of thinking it’s a real threat because my survival may depend on it. But in the modern-day world, if you are in an elevated threat state for a prolonged period of time, not only is it exhausting, but that focus on yourself and that greater suspicion, if you will, of people and events around you can actually be a turnoff to other people.
It was Murthy who, as far as we can tell, first called loneliness an “epidemic,” back in 2017. Which would seem to imply that the threat is not only large but growing quickly.
MURTHY: We don’t exactly know how quickly loneliness is growing. But what we do know is that multiple studies have shown that loneliness is incredibly common. So, for example, if you look at a study that was published by The Economist a couple of years ago, they would peg the percentage of adults in the United States who are struggling with loneliness as above 20 percent. The U.K. is in a similar range, between 20 to 25 percent. The number of people struggling with loneliness in the United States is, in fact, greater than the number of adults who have diabetes. It’s greater than the number of people who smoke. For this reason, I think it’s worth investing more in understanding in greater depth the consequences of loneliness, who’s at greatest risk of loneliness, and most importantly, what we can do to address it.
* * *
Eric Klinenberg, the NYU sociologist, has come to hold a fairly nuanced, and somewhat contrarian, view on loneliness. But he didn’t start out that way. The story begins in 1995, in Chicago, after a terrible heat wave.
KLINENBERG: Seven hundred and thirty-nine people died.
Klinenberg was just starting graduate school, at Berkeley. But Chicago was his hometown.
KLINENBERG: It was my city. I cared about it. And Chicago prides itself as being the city of neighborhoods, a city of tight social connections. And this was such a big puzzle to me. Why did so many people in a booming American metropolis in the 1990s die of this heat wave?
After his first semester in Berkeley, he went back home:
KLINENBERG: And I started digging around. And I looked at all the data, and there was this puzzle that the epidemiologists picked up, which is that they had models that would predict how many people would die given certain climate conditions, and the deaths in the heat wave were far higher. The weather didn’t explain it. The physiology of people in the city didn’t explain it. So I came up with this idea of doing what I called a social autopsy, right? I was going to open up kind of the skin of the city, just like a doctor doing an autopsy opens up the skin of a body, and try to diagnose the organs that broke down. And the first thing I learned is that people died alone in the heat wave because so many people were living alone.
That basic fact, he said, was something that people weren’t really talking about.
KLINENBERG: The sad thing about a heat death is it’s so easily preventable if you’re with someone else who recognizes it. One of the most — maybe the most important risk factor for dying in the heat wave was living alone.
He ultimately wrote a book about the tragedy, called Heat Wave.
KLINENBERG: And this theme of people living alone and dying alone was one of many themes in the book.
But Klinenberg knew he had stumbled onto an even bigger idea, and he planned a new research project.
KLINENBERG: And it was my conviction that what the heat wave had uncovered for me is this incredible spike in loneliness, isolation, disconnection. What I thought I was going to discover in this new project was an America that had become so individualistic, so atomized, so disconnected by the twentieth-century marketplace, the decline of public institutions, that—
DUBNER: And even though you haven’t used words to say it, the tone of your voice implies that that’s a purely negative outcome.
KLINENBERG: The end of everything. I mean this — you think it’s bad out there, but I was going to show you just how bad it was, you know, we have destroyed social ties. I was down, man. No, I was. I was. I thought things were falling apart. And there is a tradition, by the way, in kind of American intellectual life that sees decline, right? That sees, you know, we’re bowling alone. It’s the fall of public man. You know, “the lonely crowd.” I do think that the heat wave allowed me to see something that really had not gotten sufficient attention, which is the fact that we have embarked on one of the most significant social changes in the history of our species. The rise of the one-person household. What I learned in Chicago, which the demographers in my field had not really called attention to, which cultural historians had not paid attention to, but which is an incredible fact about the world, is that for the entire history of our species, we have lived in groups. Out of necessity. We needed to protect each other. We needed to get food for each other. We needed to divide labor. And this amazing thing starts to happen in the early 20th century and to really take off in the 1950s, which is that for the first time in the history of our species, people start to settle down on their own and to live alone for long periods of time. And now we’ve gotten to the point where, in the most kind of affluent societies on earth, there are enormous numbers of people living alone.
This makes it sound as if living alone is, in some cases, a luxury — or at least a choice, a preference. According to 2018 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, 28 percent of all U.S. households are single households. That compares to just 9 percent in 1950. By the way, this could help explain why real estate is so expensive in so many cities: even if the population isn’t growing, there’s demand for more units. In Manhattan, 44 percent of households are single households; this trend is also strong in places like Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.
KLINENBERG: So I’m not Pollyannaish about this. I mean, I really think this is potentially a very big social problem. But if you look at the big picture here, there’s something far more interesting at work.
What’s interesting, Klinenberg says, is that the choice to live alone does not necessarily create loneliness.
KLINENBERG: Because one of the surprising things I discovered is that there are more people who are living alone than ever before, but actually people who live alone are surprisingly social. They’re more likely than people who are married to socialize with their friends, with their neighbors. They are more likely to participate in all kinds of shared social activities — going to the gym, going to concerts, going to libraries, cafes, things like this.
Even Vivek Murthy cautions against equating aloneness with loneliness.
MURTHY: I don’t think it’s as simple as that. I think just because you live alone does not mean that you’re consigned to a life of loneliness. Just because you live alone doesn’t mean that you’re somehow living an inferior life. People live alone for many different reasons and a lot of times because they choose to live alone. But I do think, like with all decisions we make in our life, that there are upsides and downsides.
And here’s the other thing: Eric Klinenberg is also convinced that living with someone does not necessarily insulate you from loneliness.
KLINENBERG: I’ve interviewed many people who had lived with a romantic partner and were now living alone. And they said to me, one after the next, “As lonely as I sometimes feel when I’m on my own, there’s nothing lonelier than living with the wrong person. There’s no feeling more lonely than having a domestic partner with whom one was once intimate, with whom once had a feeling of trust and connection, and coming home and feeling disconnected from that person.”
So Klinenberg wrote another book, this one called Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. This led him to ask an important, obvious question:
KLINENBERG: How does our current level of loneliness compare to levels of loneliness at other historical moments?
His answer?
KLINENBERG: This is an area where there’s all variety of data, all kinds of surveys of different quality. And if you just read journalism, you would have no idea.
His favorite example is a commonly cited statistic from the G.S.S., or General Social Survey, which has been administered by the National Opinion Research Center since 1972.
KLINENBERG: It’s a high-quality survey. It’s done repeatedly. And there is a famous problem of one year in the G.S.S., where the measure of social isolation went awry.
To measure social isolation, the G.S.S. asks people if they have close friends or confidants with whom they can discuss topics of great personal importance. The reason for this specific but somewhat odd question is that social relationships can be really hard to pin down in a survey. But having “no confidant” is a pretty specific marker.
KLINENBERG: For some reason, and there’s a lot of debate about this, in the 2004 General Social Survey, people reported a much higher incidence of having no confidant.
For decades, only about 1 in 10 people said they had no confidant.
KLINENBERG: In 2004, about one in four respondents said that.
And how big a deal is this finding if you happen to be a sociologist?
KLINENBERG: This is a blockbuster finding in sociology. I mean, if you think about big changes in American social life — like, if you go to the demography meetings and someone finds like a 3 percent shift in fertility, we’re high-fiving each other in the hallways. Someone’s ordered a keg to the hotel room.
It wasn’t just this shocking finding about no confidants that got a lot of attention. It was the explanation, published in an academic paper on the G.S.S. survey, for why this was the case.
KLINENBERG: So what’s the big thing that happens in our cultural and social life between 1985 and 2004?
DUBNER: Internet?
KLINENBERG: The Internet. Exactly. So how amazing is this story now? The thing that’s going to make us better connected than ever before, the thing that’s going to create meaningful social relationships for us, turns out to make us more alone than we’ve ever been.
DUBNER: My favorite thing about the Internet is that it is the single best thing to blame anything on.
KLINENBERG: That’s right. And it’s such a big part of the story of why we’re all talking about isolation and loneliness these days.
But it turned out there was an issue with this amazing new finding.
KLINENBERG: Well, we’re now pretty sure that there’s a problem with the data. That it was an anomalous result.
Some of the G.S.S. survey data had been miscoded. Many answers that went into the “no confidant” column should have actually gone into the “decline to answer” column. So what did the “no confidant” finding look like on subsequent G.S.S. surveys?
KLINENBERG: We haven’t found it on subsequent General Social Surveys.
DUBNER: But what’s the truth then? What’s the empirical truth about how much “lonelier” we are today?
KLINENBERG: So the sad thing is I don’t think we know. I just — I think it’s a mystery. So before I came to the studio today I wanted to check into, what’s the latest? Yeah. Has there been some survey that’s come out recently that I don’t know about? Maybe the research is getting better. So I found a study that got a lot of news attention in December of 2018, and it reported that Americans are more thantwice as lonely as we used to be.
This study was done by researchers at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine.
KLINENBERG: And in the first few lines of the article, we read that estimates of America’s level of loneliness today vary from 17 to 57 percent of the population.
KLINENBERG: And one of the big problems we have in the loneliness debate is that our measures of loneliness have varied dramatically over time.
HOLT-LUNSTAD: When people ask whether there is this epidemic of loneliness—
That, again, is the Brigham Young psychologist Julianne Holt-Lunstad .
HOLT-LUNSTAD: It’s a tough question, because it’s not entirely clear whether this is something that we’re finally just recognizing or whether it’s something that is increasing. And part of that problem is because loneliness has not been systematically measured in the population and various surveys may use different kinds of methodology. So just to give an example, just in 2018, there was the Cigna survey, the BBC survey, and the Kaiser survey, that all had different prevalence rates of loneliness in the U.S.
KLINENBERG: And we have worried about loneliness since the rise of industrial society. Since we started moving away from the village and we agglomerated into towns where we didn’t know as many of our neighbors, we worried about loneliness. We worried about the loneliness of farmers. We worried about the loneliness of apartment dwellers, of people driving in cars, of people who went to movies, of people who got the telephone instead of going into social life. And so that is by no means to say that loneliness is not a social problem or that we shouldn’t worry about people who get isolated. But if you think that’s the only part of the story, you’re missing something.
I think it’s safe to say we have been missing something, especially if we get most of our loneliness news from breathless TV reports and bombastic headlines. But still, even if loneliness isn’t growing, as some people suspect it is; even if loneliness is not as damaging as some people believe it is; the fact remains that loneliness — while it may be a useful biological signal — loneliness can also be hurtful. Unwanted social isolation cannot be a good thing. So: let’s hear about some solutions. Anyone have any good ideas?
MURTHY: Number one, it turns out, is that service, serving other people, is a powerful back door, if you will, out of loneliness.
That’s the former surgeon general Vivek Murthy.
MURTHY: And one of the things that’s powerful about service is that it shifts the focus away from you and onto other people. And it also reaffirms for you that you have value to give and to share with the world.
Tracey Crouch, the U.K.’s former loneliness minister, wants to see an increase in what’s called “social prescribing.”
CROUCH: So what we found is that one in five doctor’s appointments are solely to do with loneliness rather than other medical conditions. So we started using social prescribing in the U.K. for a whole variety of things, for example, with obesity. So rather than just prescribing people pills that would hopefully suppress appetite, we’d actually get them to do walking clubs or light sporting activities. And so now we’ve rolled out social prescribing. We have link workers in our doctor surgeries that can have a whole list of organizations locally that people can get involved with, to effectively try and make sure that they remain connected in society.
As for Eric Klinenberg, he thinks the best loneliness solutions have to do with how communities are conceived and organized. He wants to see better “social infrastructure,” as he calls it.
KLINENBERG: The gathering places that are public and accessible, like libraries and parks and playgrounds, public-transit systems that work well.
This is the idea Klinenberg plays with in his latest book, called Palaces for the People.
KLINENBERG: But also the real investment in public housing and subsidized housing and in shared housing units. There are programs that do kind of, like co-op housing for older people. Like one place I went in Stockholm is a place called Färdknäppen, which it definitely is not how it’s actually pronounced but that’s how I say it. And on the first floor, there’s this big open kitchen and dining room area. And if you live in the building you commit that three nights a month you will contribute to the cooking and cleaning for the collective. And every morning, everyone in the building can sign in to dinner that night. You never have to be there, but you always have the option to have a shared meal.
KLINENBERG: I think what this conversation should be opening our eyes to is the sense that there are actually all variety of ways to organize a society. There are all kinds of ways for us to settle, for us to invest in public goods, for us to share or be private. And we are locked into a very narrow band of choices right now.
* * *
Freakonomics Radio is produced by Stitcher and Dubner Productions. This episode was produced by Daphne Chen. Our staff also includes Alison Craiglow, Greg Rippin, Harry Huggins, Zack Lapinski, Matt Hickey, Zack Lapinski, and Corinne Wallace; we had help this week from James Foster. Our intern is Isabel O’Brien. The music you hear throughout the episode was composed by Luis Guerra. You can subscribe to Freakonomics Radio on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here’s where you can learn more about the people and ideas in this episode:
SOURCES
- Eric Klinenberg, professor of sociology at New York University.
- Vivek Murthy, internal-medicine physician and former United States Surgeon General.
- Tracey Crouch, Member of Parliament and former Loneliness Minister in the U.K.
- Julianne Holt-Lunstad, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University.
RESOURCES
- “Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review,” by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Timothy B. Smith, and J. Bradley Layton (PLoS Medicine, 2010).
- “Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades,” by Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew E. Brashears (American Sociological Review, 2006).
EXTRA
- Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, by Eric Klinenberg.
- Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, by Eric Klinenberg.
- Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, by Eric Klinenberg.
- Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, by Vivek Murthy, M.D.
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Now that we’re losing lots of money in the stock market thanks to coronavirus fears, I thought it would be nice to talk about one bright spot: mortgage rates! If you haven’t been paying attention, thanks to pandemic fears, the 30-year bond yield and the 10-year bond yield have reached all-time lows. And when Treasury
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Would you like to learn how to find time to make extra money? Do you work a full-time job and feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to make more money?
For several years, I worked full-time and found different ways to make extra money, such as starting and building my blog Making Sense of Cents. Before that, I was working full-time while also attending college full-time.
Working 100 hour weeks was a regular thing for me for many, many years.
I won’t lie – working that many hours a week at both my regular job and school or side hustles was exhausting at times. I found every extra bit of time I could during the day and used it to make extra money. I took online surveys, did mystery shops, and more.
The reason I was working so much was because I was focused on paying off my student loan debt. I knew that I didn’t want that debt hanging over me, especially if I was able to make extra money to pay it off sooner.
Fortunately, learning how to find time to make extra money paid off, literally – it allowed me to pay off my $40,000 student loan debt in just 7 months.
Another unexpected positive was that it showed me that I really enjoyed one of my side hustles (building this blog!). Because I had already gotten rid of my student loan debt, it made it easier for me to eventually leave my day job to starting blogging full-time
Finding ways to make extra income can be great. You may be able to pay off your debt, save more money, pursue your passion, build a business, and more.
I often receive questions from others about how I was able to fit side hustling, college, and work into my life all at once. It was hard, but it was possible.
Yes, I had to make some sacrifices. But like I said, it is possible to fit side hustles into your life, even if you work a full-time job.
A lot depends on how badly you want it. Often, the more motivated you are to make more money, the easier it gets to prioritize your time. And, there will be times when you really need to think about your motivation to find that extra time.
So, whether you want to transform your side hustle into your full-time career, you want to make extra money so that you can tackle a financial goal, or something else, side hustles can completely change your life.
If you are someone who wants to start side hustling but you can't figure out how to find time to make extra money, I'm hoping today's post will help you out with this.
Related content:
- The Very Honest Truth About Going Full Time With My Side Hustle
- 80 Ways To Make Money On The Side
- 15 Outdoor Jobs For People Who Love Being Outside
- The 7 Best Online Tutoring Jobs
- 9 Ways To Successfully Balance School And Work
Here are 16 ideas for how to find time to make extra money.
1. Figure out your motivation for wanting to make extra money.
Like I said, this is a very important part of finding time to side hustle. And, there are many reasons why you may want to make extra money, and sometimes you will need to remind yourself why you are working so hard.
It can be really easy to watch others around you who aren’t doing both and feel jealous, stressed, or angry. But, think about what is driving you to work so hard.
Your motivation can be any number of things, such as paying off debt, saving for your future, going on a dream vacation, and so on.
Your motivation will be what you need to think about when you are struggling to balance both life, your day job, and how you are making extra money.
2. Wake up earlier.
Back when I had my day job, I usually woke up around one to two hours before I had to start getting ready for work.
I would use this time to work on my side hustles, which included replying to emails, brainstorming article ideas, managing my blog, finding mystery shops, looking for surveys to take, listing items on eBay, and more.
Waking up that early was sometimes rough, but it allowed me to get a number of things done before I went to work, and that was a really nice feeling.
If you're not a morning person, then you can always try to fit in a couple of hours worth of work before you go to bed. I would often work on my side hustles for a few hours before I went to bed as well.
Two hours each day before you go to work is 10 hours each week to put towards your side hustle ideas.
3. Stop hitting the snooze button.
Many people hit the snooze button over and over again in the morning.
Sleeping for those few extra minutes after your alarm goes off isn't going to change your life. And, there are many scientific studies proving that hitting the snooze button does nothing good for you.
Still, I know many people who set their alarms to go off anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour before they actually want to wake up. While they think they might get up early, they never do. Or, they think that this will make it easier for them to start their day, but that doesn’t work either.
I'm not going to lie. I used to do this and thought it was the only way I could get up. It definitely did not work, as I always felt extremely groggy and sometimes even more tired!
Instead, you should wake up when your alarm first goes off so you can use those valuable minutes to work on your side hustle.
4. Strategically use your lunch time.
Back when I had my day job, I almost always used my lunch hour for my side hustles. I would often bring my lunch to work which allowed me to save money on food and to also use that whole hour for my side hustle ideas.
Bringing my lunch to work also saved me a lot of time, because I wasn’t wasting time leaving my office.
For me, that was five hours each week right there for side hustles just by using my lunch break.
5. Use vacation days at your day job.
Again, referring back to my day job, I often used my vacation days to work on my side hustles.
I would take just one or two days off at a time so that I could relax somewhat and not feel like I was constantly running around with my head chopped off.
This option can be a great idea, especially if you have paid vacation days. It makes it feel like you’re getting paid extra to work on your side hustle!
6. Turn off your TV.
I want you to do something right now. Take a moment and really think about how much time you waste watching TV. I'm going to assume that when you add up all of the hours that you spend each week watching TV, the number will shock you.
In fact, the average American spends 34 hours each week watching TV and around three to six additional hours each week watching movies.
While I love a good TV show, 34 hours is a lot of wasted time. Just think about how much you could do if you spent half as much time watching TV. For some people, that will be around 17 hours a week that they can dedicate towards side hustle jobs.
Now, I’m not perfect, but I know that when I watch less TV, I am much more productive.
Related content: 59 Things To Do Instead of Watching TV So That You Can Take Your Life Back
7. Use short gaps in your day correctly.
Everyone has gaps of time throughout their day. This could be a gap before you have a meeting, a gap between your day job and night classes, a gap before you have to pick up the kids from school, or something else.
Maybe you have 30 minutes or an hour. Most people will just plunk down on the couch and watch TV or browse on Facebook. However, use gap time efficiently.
That 30 minutes could be spent making extra money.
Even smaller amounts of time, like 10 minutes in the carpool line can be spent answering emails. 15 minutes in a waiting room can be spent taking a survey. Those small amounts of time add up!
8. Evaluate your commute.
This one isn’t something that everyone can do. However, if you commute to work such as by bus or train, then you might want to use that time to work on your side hustle jobs.
If your side hustle is something that you can do from your phone, laptop, or just with a piece of paper, then use your commute time to make money with your side hustle.
9. Be more organized.
If you want to learn how to simplify your life so you can find more time for your side hustle, being organized is a lifesaver. When you’re organized, you will waste less time trying to find what you need, you will be able to work more efficiently, and more.
Always stay organized!
Keeping a running to do list is one of my top time management tips, and it’s how I stay organized. Everyday I’m crossing things off and adding new tasks to my list.
Without my to do list, I would feel lost, unorganized, and probably even confused about what to do! Yes, I rely heavily on my to do list, but putting a to do list together doesn't have to be hard. I keep my to do list on my phone, and it’s just a simple list of things I need to do. Others find that planners work well for them.
Your to do list will keep you on track so you don't forget what needs to be done on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, which in turn keeps you motivated towards your goals.
10. Use your days off for side income jobs.
This might seem obvious, but many people don't like to use their days off in order to make extra money.
If you have days off, why not use them to further your side hustles?
You don't even have to use your entire weekend or even a whole day. Perhaps just use a couple of hours for your side hustle on one of your off days? If you choose a side hustle that you love, it will be easier for you to work on those days without feeling as drained.
11. Create an efficient schedule.
Building a schedule that makes the best use of your time is going to be key if you want to learn how to find time to make extra money. This is because a lot of time is wasted on schedules that don’t work well.
For example, when I was in college, I always made sure that the timing for all of my classes worked perfectly with my work schedule. This required a lot of research and planning, but it was well worth it in the end.
I also made sure there wasn’t much time in between my classes, and I tried to fit all of my classes in on certain days of the week so I wasn’t wasting time driving back and forth between school every day. When I was working on my master’s degree, I found classes that started right after work. This allowed me to work my 8-5 job and go to school without any wasted time in my schedule.
You would be surprised if you stopped to think about how much time people waste in their schedules. I knew plenty of people who signed up for college classes and just took whatever classes were available without really thinking about their schedule. This might mean having hour or longer breaks each day between their classes. I also know people who took a class, went to work, and then came back for another class (wasting driving time), and more.
This can be applied to managing a full-time job along with your side hustle as well.
Building the perfect schedule to balance both your job and side hustle is one of my best time management tips, as it will allow you to maximize your hours.
One great way to have a more flexible schedule is to find an online job. You can learn more about this at Want To Make Money From Home? Here Are 17 Of The Best Online Jobs.
12. Outsource certain tasks.
You may be hesitant to outsource tasks because it will cost you money, and you're probably side hustling because you need money – not to spend more of it!
I completely get that.
But sometimes, in order to make more money, you have to outsource.
Even though there are several tasks I could do, I outsource them.
This can apply to household tasks among other things, like cleaning for example. This may sound silly, but I am sometimes guilty of procrastinating by cleaning. I hate cleaning, so it really says something if I start cleaning. If you don't have the time to do certain household tasks, such as mowing the lawn, raking leaves, cleaning your home, etc., then you may want to see if there is any value in outsourcing some of these tasks.
Another task to outsource is having your groceries delivered by a service like Instacart or Shipt. While you will pay for delivery, you may be able to save an hour or more of your time by having your groceries delivered to your house.
If you’re struggling to outsource, think about how much your time is worth and see if it’s better spent on another task. If you can make $25/hour on your side hustle by outsourcing your grocery shopping, then you will be able to make more than the cost of delivery.
13. Find passive income ideas.
Passive income is when you are able to make money in a way that doesn’t require a ton of your time to maintain.
Of course, you will need to do something in the beginning to start earning that income. That work can be either a time or financial investment. But, after most of the leg work is done, income continually comes in without much effort from you.
There might be a little maintenance here and there after you set up a source of passive income, but overall the passive income stream should continue to operate on its own.
For me, finding passive income ideas is great because I can focus more on my life instead of just my business, and I can do it while continuing to earn a great income.
Unfortunately, many people think that passive income simply isn’t real, that it must be luck and not work, that you’re a trust fund kid, or something else. Some people even think you are talking about a scam or get-rich-quick scheme.
But, that’s not true at all!
And in the article I’m about to share, you will find real ways to make passive income. Here are 12 Passive Income Ideas That Will Let You Enjoy Life More
14. Figure out what time of day is best for you.
Some people do much better working late at night. They can get into a flow and just keep going. While other people are better off working in the morning hours. There might even be some side hustle tasks that you are better off doing at night, and others that are better in the day time hours.
Everyone is a little different, and understanding which hours of the day work best for you will help you find time to fit your side hustle in with the rest of your life.
15. Ask for help when you need it.
This is something I struggle with, and I know many other people do as well. But, there are people in your life who want to help you reach your goals and succeed. It might be your partner, spouse, a parent, sibling, friend, neighbor, etc. You probably already know who these people are, but are too afraid to ask for help, even if you really need it.
Maybe you could fit in a little more time at your side hustle if someone picked your kids up from school, if your partner helped you answer some emails, or maybe you just need someone to vent to when you’re feeling stressed out.
I was lucky to have Wes to help me with things when I was side hustling and working my day job, but I promise that there is someone in your life who can help you when you need them.
16. Take a break when you really need one.
Yes, everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, but others may be more limited than others. I understand that different situations make some people busier than others.
In the end, you always need to be honest with yourself about how much time you have available for your side hustles.
You don't want to run yourself completely frazzled and stressed out, forget about the things that truly matter in life, or damage your work performance.
So, please remember to take care of yourself.
It can be so easy to overwork yourself and forget why you are working so hard!
Good time management for those who are super busy often means that you are trying to use every moment of your day as efficiently as possible. But, there are times when balancing everything can feel extremely stressful.
In times like those, when you feel like you need a break, take a short one to help you come back refreshed and focused on what you need to do.
You can go for a walk, read a book, get in a workout, take a nap, etc. Taking a break when you need one will prevent you from feeling burnt out, which is a danger when you are trying to balance everything in life.
How do you find time to make extra money? How much time do you spend each week side hustling?
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In October 2016, I decided to invest $10,000 in my first real estate crowdfunding investment, a “Class A,” 30,265 sqft, two-story office building in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Conshy, as the city is commonly known, is located 25 miles northeast of downtown Philadelphia. I even wrote a detailed post about the project to get the community’s advice
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Back in 2017, I had a very difficult decision to make. My rowdy tenants gave notice and I had to decide whether to sell my rental property or try and find new tenants. The house had been rented between 2014 – 2017 for $8,200 – $8,800 a month. But when I went to find new
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After publishing my post, Here’s How Much Money You Need To Retire Early And Live In Poverty, several readers were offended because the definition of poverty was too high. They commented that my premise was absurd and that they live quite comfortably or think they can live quite well on the income levels I highlighted.
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