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Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

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11–20 of 219 posts

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#11
post #3

Depending on the rigidity of your conscience you could whip up some buzzword laden project with "blockchain" written all over it. Some suckers will throw money at that if you give it a colourful website with plenty of vague promises that you never have to deliver.

I think you need to be more explicit on the specifics of revenue mechanism to be helpful. Anyone can host a buzzword laden web page for sure, but what would the specific funnel and revenue generation mechanism be?

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#13
post #3

Depending on the rigidity of your conscience you could whip up some buzzword laden project with "blockchain" written all over it. Some suckers will throw money at that if you give it a colourful website with plenty of vague promises that you never have to deliver.

I have a hard time with tutoring as it is because most students (at least where I'm getting them) just want the work done for them and typically come to you last moment.

And you want to earn money for rent. You don’t need to move the needle of academic achievement for a generation.

If they come to you with money in hand and are just a little intellectually lazy or have worse time management than you’d like, you can still make a mutually beneficial trade.

Only offering tutoring to the most motivated students with the best time management skills is a self-limiting market.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#14
post #12

[flagged]

There are medical conditions that do not allow full time employment, period. I have no idea what the condition of the OP is but several conditions leave a person with a very limited "labour budget" beyond which they just cant perform. In such a condition the daily budget might allow either for grocery shopping, or few hours of work, but not both.

If this is the case, dropping on your own could be very precarious and potentially financially devastating.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#15
Maybe work in some field that isn't software. In retail part timers are more accepted for instance. Where I am companies typically expect 40 hours if you are a man so unless you're a woman you are out of luck. Even then you might still be out of luck. I've never seen anyone do two days a week for instance.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#16
Have you put out your resume on indeed.com, LinkedIn, etc, listing yourself as part time? Getting noticed by recruiters can be a way to get things done. Have you considered going back to school online? Being in school can help with Section 8 housing in the US, as can a disability. It also helps with lots of other public help. Also, you might scour for jobs that require a security clearance that are part time, as the government views disability far, far different than the private sector. Long term, government jobs, even part time, might be your answer. Even companies that have government contracts hire many more disabled folks than others. Actually, I know people who's job it is/has been to help disabled folks get jobs, even part time. Google Vocational Rehab for your area. There's probably a program near you. Sorry to not answer your questions the way you were probably looking, but I'm sharing what I do know of all this. I can probably help if you care to send more specifics.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#17
post #5

It's easy for me and I don't know your situation to say but try not to be so fixated on the $1200/mo. Seems to be that a solid job with Python skills could make the $1200 look small very quickly.

There is usually a cap on what one can earn while continuing to receive disability. I think the total of disability and other income cannot exceed 60% of pre-disability earnings or something like that.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#18

Have you put out your resume on indeed.com, LinkedIn, etc, listing yourself as part time? Getting noticed by recruiters can be a way to get things done. Have you considered going back to school online? Being in school can help with Section 8 housing in the US, as can a disability. It also helps with lots of other public help. Also, you might scour for jobs that require a security clearance that are part time, as the…

Well, currently I am receiving both private and government disability. As soon as I start working part-time, I will assuredly lose private disability. But the nature of my condition is that it periodically and unpredictably gets much worse to the point where I can't work at all for an extended period of time. So when that happens, and I have already lost the private disability, I won't be able to get it back. But they currently pay for half of all of what I receive, so that's not an acceptable risk I can take.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#19
There is a lot of work connecting various platforms via API. Marketing agencies in particular need this service.

You could look at the big CRM platforms like Salesforce which require only a modified version of Java called Apex to customize. I find there are a dearth of good programmers working in the platform.

EDIT: Both of these options allow you to work remotely.

Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income

#20
post #17
post #5

It's easy for me and I don't know your situation to say but try not to be so fixated on the $1200/mo. Seems to be that a solid job with Python skills could make the $1200 look small very quickly.

There is usually a cap on what one can earn while continuing to receive disability. I think the total of disability and other income cannot exceed 60% of pre-disability earnings or something like that.

That is correct. And if you lose it for that reason, it's very difficult and takes a long time to get back, even if you actually need it to survive.
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