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Mr. Advice Guy - money-making ideas

Dave Ford - Mr. Advice Guy

Dear Mr. Advice Guy,

I have no money. I have a bunch of plans for things I want to do this summer and no money to do them. How do I come up with the money I need to make sure this summer is awesome, without having to work the entire time?

Penniless

Dear Penniless,

I understand. You need money, but you don’t want to waste your entire summer making it.

I have good news for you: your job and your leisure time don’t necessarily have to be mutually exclusive.

The best thing to do is to have a look at the activities you’ve planned for yourself and try to find a job that will allow you to still do those things. Even better, try to find a job where you can actually get some of those things done while you’re working.

If your plans include travelling to different countries, maybe you could find someone to pay you to write about your travels.

If you’re into hanging out at the beach, apply for lifeguard jobs.

Enjoy camping and the outdoors? Why not be an adventure guide or fight forest fires?

With a little thought, your summer can be just like the year I turned 25. I had just broken up with my girlfriend, and I had plans to hook up with random girls and drink a lot of alcohol. So I got a job as a bartender.

My new career paid me relatively well, and it helped me accomplish what I had planned. Or, more accurately, it helped me accomplish the second part of my plan so well that I stopped caring about the first part.

Either way, it was a hell of a year.