Side Hustle idea for kollel yungerman

You can drive for Uber or Lyft, although that isn’t limited time invested., and it would require a smartphone.
Take some shifts as a cashier at your local grocery.

Day trading.

I disagree with these suggestions; Uber driving is not always safe, and it’s not very profitable either. Day trading is almost like gambling, and I’ve read stories of people getting addicted.

I’d suggest driving for a Jewish car service; they give generous portions of the fares, largely because there’s so little overhead cost.

Buying and selling things on eBay, Amazon, etc… Can be doable on a small scale.

You could also spend a few hours selling things like business mortgages or other high-yield sales, where one sale pays off significantly; companies like Eastern Union, based in Lakewood, hires people to do this for a few hours a day, not even everyday necessarily.

PT corrections officer in a private jail, drive a yellow cab, work at call center.

Working as Uber driver on most lucrative routes, like nights and airports.

I am not sure how this works, but I think most drivers rush into the next ride. You can sit and learn waiting for a more lucrative, or closer to you, order.

Also, Uber has a benefit – free college tuition for Arizona State U online. That will let you transition smoothly into the $100/hour 1-hour a week role as an accountant or a lawyer, or a software developer.

I can tell you what not to do. Day trading hasn’t been profitable since the 00’s. Computer algorithms do so many trades so fast, they put an end to any logical trades for short termed gains. From what I hear, app gigs (Uber, Lyft, Door Dash, etc.) require so much time to be profitable, it’s essentially a full time job.

Absolutely do not fall for any sales job that requires you to put in money upfront (Ambit Energy, Amway, Primerica). These are multi-level marketing companies (MLM for short). They are essentially scams that make money on sellers being forced to pay fees for the products that they are selling and prey on people who are looking for a side hustle. Unfortunately, may kollel yungerlite and their rebbetzins get caught up in it.

If I can make a suggestion, spend time to learn a trade that can be done at home. Coding/programming is good, along with database management. There are always places looking to contract a part time coder to help with their app or something.

Or get a regular job and be קובע עתים

Amateur photographer for families and children
Armature videography for funerals and speeches or small family events
Book binding
Painting / repairing of furniture. It is typically single color stuff.
Minor handy work like hanging pictures and fixing closet doors.
Sheleping or moving help
Currier / deliveries
Shamus pickup
Grocery store shopper
Call a mechanic shop and offer to pickup or drop off cars for clients who have no time.
Become a voice artist and record books digitally.
Gardening
Become a colorist. Black Magic Davinci Resolve is free to download and you can learn how to use it with a class from LinkedIn learning.
Become a video editor using the same program.
Call companies and offer to file paperwork.
Call companies and offer to straighten out the shop or sort out parts.

You said side hustle. The keyword is hustle. You’re not going to get rich (al pi derech hateva) by only being willing to do “rich” work. You gotta “hustle”.

Make the best garlic dips out of your kitchen

Steve–

Work is not a hustle. To call it that is an insult to all of us who work for a living and do so proudly. I needn’t remind you of the various occupations held by the חז”ל, and by ראשונים such as Rashi, Rambam and others. Obviously, you are not a vintner or court physician. Nor are you a tanner, sandler, woodcutter or hotelier. But the Torah tells us שֵֽׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד. It is a מצוות עשה to work, and to do so six days out of the week. I know R’ Meir says הוי ממעט בעסק, ועסוק בתורה. Ideally, through a passive income, you can follow both directives (so may it be said of us all).

Very few occupations provide a regular passive income, but there are a few:

You could do day trading. You need not pass the Series 7 exam or have any broker’s license. Just have an account with E*Trade or another online trading platform. Start small. Invest in blue chip stocks that pay a dividend. As you grow in your knowledge of the markets, you can begin buying and selling with greater frequency. But bear some things in mind:

NO PENNY STOCKS.

NO FUTURES OR OPTIONS.

NEVER BUY ANYTHING ON MARGIN (My late father ע”ה bought on margin and lost his proverbial shirt).

DIVERSIFY AND USE COMMON SENSE. Invest in real companies with a history and reputation. IBM, AT&T, Pfizer, Exxon Mobil, Texas Instruments, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Merck, IBM, Con Edison, Dominion, etc.

Of course, there’s always a catch. YOU NEED MONEY TO MAKE MONEY. So, invest what you can without causing yourself any hardship. LEARN SOME PATIENCE (a virtue I take it you need to work on a bit).

Also: Mutual funds are safe. You won’t lose money in the end, but you won’t become King Midas either.

Bonds are extremely safe. Yes, the interest rate (the return you as the investor realize) is quite low at 4.3%, but it is guaranteed.

There’s that. We should all have stock and bond portfolios.

Also, lest I forget: STAY AWAY FROM REAL ESTATE. (If you own real estate, however, KEEP IT. Even if you have to eat out of a can, DON’T SELL. Real estate is just what it says: A real, tangible holding. And real estate will always be highly valued.)

Another idea:

Open a pizza shop. (I’m being quite serious.) You won’t need to invest in over-the-top ambience. The menu is short and straightforward. The ingredients are relatively cheap. You can pool your resources with a group of other Kollel yungeleit and establish a thriving concern. You will have to pay at least a few people to do the menial work. You yourself can serve as the mashgiach (or alternate with your partners). With such a business, you would (conceivably) be able to sit with a ספר all day. I’d stay away from a פֿליישיק restaurant. In fact, I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole. Far too expensive and too many potential kashrus-related issues. Remember: Keep it simple. And also: ALWAYS GO OVER THE BOOKS YOURSELF.

Another idea:

Become a writer. You can write original books on Torah subjects, copyright them, print them and sell them out of your house (or from a distributor). If you make a hit with, say, a Parsha book or some such work, you can make very good money. Are you a gifted writer? Are you a bona fide תלמיד חכם? Do you have your finger on the pulse of the community and know what they would love to read but is not yet available? Then get started! אִם לֹא עַכְשָׁיו, אֵימָתָי

I have found that if you daven to Hashem and tell Him that you wish to become wealthy (remember, such an ambition is nothing to be ashamed of!), and that your aim is not only to provide a better life for your wife and children but also to become a בעל צדקה and help the אָרעמע ליַיט, if you are meritorious and have no outstanding debts with Him or with man, He will answer your תפילה. So first, get your house in order. Settle all outstanding obligations. Then daven that prayer with as much כוונה you can muster. After that, embark on one or more of these ideas.

Once the Almighty answers your prayer and things start to happen (slowly at first, but they will happen), show Him that you are not out for גאווה. G-d puts a very special חן on בעלי צדקה who live humbly, don’t flaunt their wealth, and give discreetly.

I wish you much success, my friend.

Sorry my post was a bit vague. I managed to work part time for quite a few years. started at 2 hours a day and eventually to full time as the need arose.

It works but the problem is that it’s still selling your time.

Pizza shops are risky; they open and close every few years, besides some neighborhood fixtures, like J2 on avenue J, Mendelssohns, amnons, etc…the majority don’t last very long.

Also, “being your own Mashgiach” does not exclude the hefty cost of acquiring a reliable hashgocha, who is a yotzeo venichnas,as a baal habayis is not believed fully without accountability when it’s a business.

A business with more lasting power would probably be Chinese food. They seem to be open for years and years.

So, to minimize time spent on work:
1) figure out your own balance between high salary and time required to obtain that salary. Say, your choice is between working for $20/hour at a gas station for, say, 100 hours a month OR working for $100/hour as a software developer, so you spend 20 hours a month working. So, you save yourself 1,000 hours of learning per year. But this requires spending, say, 3 years 1,000 hours a year of studying programming first. So, you break even in 6 years, and you are well ahead, if you look 30 years ahead.

2) if you are interested in business ideas, like above, my suggestion – try it quickly so you know if you are good at it, and drop if you are not. I know people who are successful in online selling, but it requires a lot of effort – select products, keep orders coming, making sure that every customer is happy even if they have crazy ideas – otherwise your rating goes down and your product gets off the front page and never gets back.

3) a small store, like pizza above, joint with hevrusos, sounds like a good idea. It worked well in the past, not sure about now. One advantage you have – you can manage your time. A normal storekeeper can not afford keeping a store open when there are not many customers. But you are able to learn while manning the store, you can afford a small store. So, you can both learn and practice what you learnt at the same time. One Rav told me that he stumbled into a tiny store in Bnei Brak, selling only watermelons. So, he bought one to support the guy. The guy took his money and started saying – slowly – you gave me 50 shekalim, you are paying 12 shekalim, I am giving you 38 shekalim back, here is 10, here is 10 …. The custome got annoyed and asked why is he treated like that. The owner explained: there are many foreigners here and they don’t know the currency, and I need to make sure they understand that I am not cheating them. This is Toirah …

Move with a few chaverim to a state that offers tuition vouchers. That would save you 10s of thousands of dollars without having to lift a finger, also the overall cost of living is less un places like South Bend Indiana or Cleveland….It could also start a trend where we work smarter, not harder.

Medical billing (done remotely).

How about going to night school and learning a profession.
For those with poor English skills, go to night school , as our parents did, and learn the language of the country you are in. Believe it or not, it’s not against halacha.

Yechiel; want to know what is against halacha? Going against one’s rebbeim. If they don’t hold of college and say it’s assur, a chosid of theirs is not allowed to go.

Imagine two jews; one is told by his rebbe that going to kosher college is a Mitzvah for him in his situation. Another is told by the same rebbe that it’s assur for him to go. One will gain schar and the other will be punished – for doing the same thing!

Sewer cleaner, you can do that pt and huge demand

YSL > Kollel families are more likely to get deductions on tuition,camps etc.

this is nothing unusual. The whole society suffers this “moral hazard” where it does not “pay” in short term to quit welfare and start working for low salary. After 1990s welfare reform that forced many of recipients into the workforce, they were all better off in long term. Of course, the difference for us is that we understand that “free tuition” comes out of a pocket of another yid, or even taxpayer, and one should avoid being a taker, as R Dessler writes in his essay “givers and takers”.