Struggling Family - Looking for additional income - Advice?

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I would expand your thinking on the accounting side gig. You have to have a decent-sized town with more businesses & accounting opportunities within an hour or two from you. Network & find opportunities to do some accounting work, or even bookkeeping work from home. I have an accounting friend that went out on his own and used to always comment about the difficulty in managing the workload himself and wanted to find somebody that could help him part-time on an as-needed basis.

This will likely pay better than many other part-time ops you're going to find, and it will strengthen your experience and future earning capacity in your primary occupation.

deliver pizzas. you get tips and the companies are usually hiring, you can often call your shots as far as work days.

Watch breaking bad. Walter White had the same problem and he fixed it.

athoguht wrote:

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I got a good laugh outta that hahaha

Can you explain more about what private accounting means?

Do you have a real job or are you self-employed?

How do you work from 8-5, live in the middle of nowhere, and not get home until 6:30?

If you are driving all over the place to do accounting for individuals, it may be time to consider moving to a civilized part of the world and working for the man for a real salary and real insurance.

I thought Obamacare obviated these situations?

I feel like you could find something in the morning before work -- I used to stock shelves at a grocery store at 5:00 a.m. Thing is, the pay sucks. How much do you need to be making?

Have you considered moving to Vermont? Thanks to the state's single payer healthcare system, you wouldn't be broke, though you'd have higher taxes.

How are you with the Tax Code? Could you do tax returns for your family and friends? And then perhaps their family and friend? I think many people would rather go to someone they know and trust to have their taxes done as compared to H&R Block.

Your wife needs to get an actual job and she can still take pictures on the weekend and edit them at night. She should be able to find something to cover the cost of a sitter and then leave additional money left over.

Move to North Dakota and do accounting for the oil industry or the oil workers.

Sorry to hear about your daughter.

One other idea - when my parents were in financial constraints a few years back, my mother opened a home day care out of their home. She took in anywhere from 1-4 kids at a time and charged each by the day. Look at your state laws on these types of businesses. Most allow three or more children not related to the proprietor. Usually if you take any more, you have to become certified with the state and take on additional employees. She charged a fixed amount by the day. It was an amount that was more affordable for the families, but provided them with a serious income supplement.

yeahyeahyay wrote:

I thought Obamacare obviated these situations?

I seriously hope that is a joke. ACA did very little to deal with the cost of healthcare. The entire focus was on access to insurance coverage. After co-pays, premiums, deductibles, and lifetime caps, a middle class family is still very much financially at risk. Let's not even get started on if an earning family member loses the ability to work temporarily or permanently due to health issues. Ultimately, the legislation is a watered down band-aid and a gift to insurance companies. The ACA was never intended to be what was ultimately approved. There is a reason why every other wealthy western and eastern nation has chosen not to emulate the American insurance model.

I feel for the OP as his situation is surprisingly common and unbelievably scary.

I really doubt he is facing a lifetime cap yet. Sounds more like he had no insurance.

zohan wrote:

deliver pizzas. you get tips and the companies are usually hiring, you can often call your shots as far as work days.

Would also agree on pizza/other food deliveries. A friend has kept that gig for 20+ years... the tips and mileage make it better-paying than many other part-time gigs.

Is driving for Uber or Lyft also an option in your area? That would provide flexibility of schedule you'd need.

As someone who has family with a kid having chronic medical needs, I sympathize. Best to you. Good insurance or not, medical costs add up in a hurry, not to mention the time and emotional tolls.

Thanks for the replies, and ideas.

To clarify, I said I work 8-5. However, right now I work late so I don't get home until about 6:30. My commute is 37 miles each way, 50% highway and 50% country roads. It takes me about 40 mins total each way.

My wife makes more money as a photographer than she can elsewhere. She's established and stays fully booked, she's great at what she does, and she loves it. That's not going to change. It also allows her to stay at home during the day with out little boy.

I work for a small company as the accountant, only the controller is over me. We are a small company but handle a LOT of money, so I stay busy. I missed the bus on the H&R Block tax class, but I absolutely plan on doing that next year. I'm not great on tax code, but I can learn.

The pizza gig is a good idea. Hadn't really considered that but it is certainly something to inquire about. I need something NOW, even if it is $10 an hour.

It may come across in my initial post, but I am extremely overwhelmed, stressed, and to be honest.....scared. I put on the front of being confident to my wife as I want to be her rock, but on the inside I'm in panic mode. We have an income problem, not a spending problem, and I need to fix it. We live on an extremely tight budget. I drive a 99 chevy with 197k miles. I do all my own mechanical work when needed. I installed a new hot water heater 2 months ago when ours went out, I put a new roof on my house last summer after a big hail storm and put the leftover $ from the insurance company in to a savings account, which was quickly drained over the last several months.

We don't have family to lean on or any family in the state. All of my family has relocated to Colorado. I started searching for jobs there as we could live with one of my folks for a while until we get our own place, once we get our heads above water. But that's all 2, 3, or 6 months away.....who knows. That's why I'm trying to find something for NOW to supplement our income.

I just heard of Uber for the first time yesterday afternoon. I don't think I would find work in the area I live but certainly could in the area I work so that's something I'm going to look in to tonight.

Our son DOES, and has always had adequate health insurance. As Zohan mentioned, even with good insurance medical costs add up FAST, I can assure you of that.

I'm not looking for a handout. I'll dig freakin' ditches....if they would let me do it at night. The biggest issue is finding something I can do while maintaining my current full time position ($48k per year). That's why I was hoping for something I could do online from home, but there have been other good suggestions here to look at to. I'd like to have something set in stone within the next 10 days.

Keep the ideas coming. I will consider any serious response. Unfortunately, I'm way too damn ugly to do the webcam model thing, or I'd be all over it!!!

I apologize for the typos above. Typing fast, gotta get back to work. Thanks again to you all.

athoguht wrote:

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Pics first please.