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In college, I felt like having an extra $1,000 a month would make me rich.

It seems silly now, but when you’re in college, $1,000 a month can go a long way.

You could use it to:

• Pay down your student loans
• Cover your room and board
• Start investing early
• Buy a heck of a lot of video games, pizza, or ramen

By my last couple of months in college, I finally hit that $ 1,000-a-month income goal. But looking back, I realize I could have hit that number a lot sooner if I had known what I know now. That’s why I’ve put together this guide.

“Money Moves from those who Don’t manage it to those who do”

Below, I’ll show you 26 ways actually to earn $1,000 a month. No questionable methods, no b.s., and no get-rich-quick schemes. Just ways that, with a little hard work, will pay off quickly.

Have to be Patient to get money and don’t take any courses to learn how to make money it’s total fraud.

The right mindset for making extra moneyThe Right Mindset For Making Extra Money

Before I get to the methods, you need to understand the right mindset to have when looking for ways to earn extra money.

I include this section because, as a college student, I made the mistake of spending way too much money on courses that claimed they would help me make extra money.

I’m not saying that the courses were giving bad advice, but rather that I made the mistake of falling for the allure of extra income without wanting to put in the work required to get it.

Certainly, there are courses out there that can help you boost your income. But you don’t need any of those to get started.

To make extra money, you just need 3 things:

1. Be able to do something people will pay for.
2. Get people to pay you for it.
3. Keep doing #2 till you’ve hit your income goal.

The above advice applies whether you want to make an extra $1,000 or $10,000. Of course, there are details to iron out such as what you’ll do and how you’ll find people to pay you for it. That’s what the rest of this guide is for.

5 ways to make extra money 1000 a month5 ways to make extra money $1000 a month

• Freelance Writing

I’m going to start with a method that’s near and dear to my heart. Freelance writing was the first way I started making serious money when I was in college, and I still think it’s a great thing to try if you have writing skills.

There are a ton of companies out there that need written content, including blog posts, video scripts, website copy, and more.

They’re willing to pay, too; a starting writer can easily charge $50 for an article.

More experienced writers can charge $150/article or more, depending on the length and subject matter. Work your way up to that level, and writing just two articles a week could net you $1,200 a month.

To get started freelance writing, you have a couple of options. The first is to check out freelance job boards like Upwork, Fiverr, and ProBlogger.

Alternatively, you can reach out directly to blogs that accept guest contributions.

Both methods can work, though I had more success with direct outreach when I was starting — and in this realm, I had the most success when I worked to build relationships instead of doing cold outreach.

• Graphics Design

Companies aren’t just hungry for written content; they’re also constantly in need of graphics, illustrations, logos, custom slide decks, and other graphic design assets.

If you’re artistic or enjoy design, this can be a great way to make money.

The steps for getting started with freelance graphic design are fairly similar to freelance writing.

You can search on Upwork, Fiverr, or even 99designs for gigs. Alternatively, you can ask around campus to see if anyone needs design help. Making business cards and logos for people can be an especially fruitful place to start.

If you want to learn graphic design, there are a ton of avenues out there. I’ll note that it’s important to learn both the fundamentals of design (composition, type, white space, etc.) and the technical skills, such as how to use Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.

• Web Development

Having a website is a must these days, yet so many businesses and individuals still don’t have one. This is a great opportunity for anyone with web development skills to make some serious money.

But what if I don’t know how to make a website? Just read our guide, and now you have no excuses.

Combine that with a few web development tutorials on Skillshare, and you’ll have all the skills you need to build beautiful, functional websites for just about anyone.

Our web developer, Martin, was able to charge $1,000 for a basic website when he was freelancing. And those development skills eventually led him to a full-time career working for College Info Geek.

So whether you want to make some extra money on the side or enter an in-demand, well-paying field, web development is worth learning.

• Investing Your Money

I’ll state this upfront: Compared to every other method on this list, investing will take by far the longest amount of time to make you an extra $1,000 a month.

Still, you should seriously consider investing as early as you possibly can.

Here’s why: “Investing means putting your money to work for you”. Every other method here requires you to essentially trade hours for dollars; investing allows you to sit back as the money you have invested grows due to compound interest.

And the sooner you get started, the more that compound interest will benefit you.

Here’s a simple calculation

If you’re 25 now and you invest just $200 a month for the next 30 years at a 7% rate of return (which is reasonable to expect over the long term), by the time you’re 55 you’ll have a bit over $228,000 — even though you only invested a total of $72,000 of your hard-earned money.

That means that you gained a whopping $156,000 while you slept.

And that’s assuming you never increase your monthly investment as you get further into your career; do that (as most smart investors do) — and get started as early as possible to reap the benefits of compound interest year after year — and you can retire with millions.

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