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Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#401

Post by bitfhacker »

My job occupies most of the time. The rest of it I invest it with my children and family.

I'm father of 2 twins sisters (11) and a boy of 5 years old.

My father have a degenerative disease (fatal but with slow progression), and my mother spends most of her time taking care of him.

I put all my energy with my kids and helping my parents.

As soon as I realized that I can loose my loved ones, I started making selective choices with my time.

In the past, I was course trainer of linux during weekends. It was very rewarding to teach students that "wanted to learn" and the money was good, too. I remember when a student ssh'ed to a station and executed "eject" in the remote machine - he literally jumped in happiness!

I also made some websites in my spare time but it wasn't so rewarding.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#402

Post by jacobkg »

starik36 wrote: post #181
denormalfloat wrote: post #72

Invest in an S&P 500 ETF. This is probably the lowest effort side project you can have which still makes money. Also, if you learn about the stock market, it makes you more confident in how your savings looks, how your retirement will look, how to manage money, etc.

Do you mean like Vanguard? How do learn about the stock market, so the S&P 500 is a invest it and forget it kind of tool?

https://www.bogleheads.org/

That’s where I learned everything I know about investing. It’s definitely the ultimate source of information about passive investing. I spent a lot of time there a decade ago and now I pretty much don’t need to visit much anymore as the whole point is to “set it and forget it”

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#403

Post by busterarm »

MrFoof wrote: post #238
ryandrake wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an amateur shade tree mechanic myself I have so many questions! Feel free to ignore if you feel you'd be giving away your secret sauce. 1. Where do you find buyers? I'd be concerned about inventory either piling up or taking too long to sell at a price that even breaks even when you are spending time/money on fixing. 2. Do you feel your value-add is more on the sales side as a broker or is it in the repairs? I kno…

1. Mostly Craigslist, with a bit of AutoTrader. The reality is AutoTrader is swamped with dealer listings and sponsor listings that I don't feel I'm receiving any additional value for their listing fees. 2. Repairs and preventative maintenance. We average ~4 feet of snow a year, so tie rod ends, wheel bearings, control arms, bushes, flex pipes, exhaust hangers, etc. suffer since no one really maintains a steel car pr…

Regarding point 4, do you even consider small patch work? Perhaps where you would need to apply a body patch, filler, sand & paint?

I imagine with the cars you're working with rust isn't an issue, but could be needed for minor damage. Are you passing on those cars completely or leaving those as is?

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#404

Post by rayraegah »

grok2 wrote: post #42
rayraegah wrote: post #13

Launched in 2016 for free. Started making money in 2018 with $3,000+ MMR. Referral only (side) business. I work full-time as an engineer/principal in growth. I conduct a form of ethnography, embedding myself in the lives of consumers the way Margaret Mead did among Samoans. I interviews my subjects and the people around them, itemizing the contents of their home (photographing and videotaping), and accompany them as…

This is the most fascinating side business I've read of! Does what you do ultimately help whoever you are following in their business? Have you seen them make changes that have helped the business in small or even larger ways?

The goal of my side project is to use human science to put people back at the center of business decision-making. I work specifically with the founders of business and not their sales or marketing personal.

Studying consumers on their own isn’t enough to be successful. I look at all the data I can regarding technology, marginal practices, client and industry data, and speak to many experts with knowledge on the topic. I analyze the assumptions underlying what I observe happening and identify the gaps (e.g. between the client’s assumptions about their customers and what I observe in the real world, or between the industry’s assumptions about the future and consumers’ marginal practices).

Analyzing these gaps helps me see white spaces that have impact in the market, which allows me to advise my clients on where the market is likely to be years out and ensure that my recommendations are actionable. Since these are new perspectives they often make it actionable. Execution is something they handle and all of my clients have seen a change. Most are repeat customers.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#405

Post by burger_moon »

MrFoof wrote: post #277
Nabi wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask what car brands do you usually work on?

Bread and butter is the Lexus RX, Acura MDX, Honda CR-V and Toyota Highlander. There is zero issue putting them out the door, because the demand is insane. I've also started with Toyota Priuses because there's high-demand, most mechanics are allergic to batteries, and people dump them for cheap over any battery pack issue. Though I've worked on a ton of stuff, the above is where there's A) enough people owning the ab…

> I've entertained the idea of selling BMW M cars, Audi S/RS and Merc AMGs, but the reality is there's far more labor involved, far more to usually fix, higher acquisition costs, less demand, and buyers who are completely insufferable. I've sold several, but in retrospect it wasn't ever worth the time and effort.

That's interesting, when I used to have a shop and flip cars on the side, honda civics and euro cars were the most profitable. Civics because you can fix them up, lower them and throw on a set of wheels and you're good to go are super easy to turn over. Euro cars are easy to pick up at steep discounts when they're older and need repairs, and the parts are actually not bad and once you get the hang of it, they're not too bad to work on.

Of course you'd want to also have accounts with parts stores otherwise you're losing too much on those costs.

However this was 5 years ago so the small crossover suv craze wasn't what it is today.

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#406

Post by chadwittman »

DamnInteresting wrote: post #229

I established DamnInteresting.com in 2005, a place where myself and handful of others produce original long-form non-fiction in article and podcast form. Despite plenty of traffic, it didn't reach the break-even point for several years, because I despise advertisements and I refused to add them to my site. I funded the project in other ways, such as donations, publishing a book, licensing content, etc. Nowadays it st…

I LOVE your site, thank you!

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#407

Post by dsfyu404ed »

MrFoof wrote: post #84

I buy cars, repair them and recondition them to my level of satisfaction, and send them back out the door, typically targeting 55-65 year olds. I focus mostly on entry level luxury crossovers around 7 to 10 years old, though starting to also do hybrids since there’s more profit in it since everyone is seemingly allergic to batteries and pack replacement/rebuilds. Parts are cheap, I listen to music or a podcast, I do…

Do you float the titles or just bend over and take whatever arbitrary limit for non-dealer title transfers that the dealers lobbied into existence in your state?

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#408

Post by davidjnelson »

scarface74 wrote: post #224

About 10 years ago and ten years into my career, I had been working and stayed at the same job way too long and both my salary and career stagnated. I had two part time money making side projects. I was a part time fitness instructor and had some rental real estate. Teaching fitness classes was fun, I made a lot of friends, and it gave me a release valve from working at a computer all day. Real estate was a headache.…

Thanks, this is insightful. Sounds like the opportunity cost of a side business isn't worth it for you right?

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#409

Post by Matheus28 »

xiphias2 wrote: post #65
samsonradu wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would like to hear more about this, specially from an European perspective and EUR-denominated investments.

I'm focusing on Bitcoin and physical gold / silver, as I view stocks and houses overvalued, but I always get downvoted here on HN when I go into details, that's why I prefer if people read a lot for themselves. I like Mike Maloney's youtube series as a start on macroeconomics.

1. Cryptocurrency isn't an investment, it's more like unregulated gambling.

2. This [1] is the guy that you think is a good economist? Really?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/user/whygoldandsilver/featured

Re: Ask HN: What is your money-making side project outside programming?

#410

Post by FPGAhacker »

IanCal wrote: post #398
scarface74 wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, everyone that takes a VC subsidized ride on Uber is also having a negative impact on their business. If the business makes rules that are unsustainable for their business, it’s their fault. They could very easily set limits to curb abuse.

Uber are obviously trying to get people to use their service. If using their service is bad for them, that's their fault because they were deliberately trying to encourage a behaviour that was detrimental to their business. That is different from finding a way through the rules which is clearly unintended.

You don't think offering cash back is a way to get people to use their service?
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