What's the best way to contact you? How many hours are you looking to reasonably put in?
Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
201–210 of 219 posts
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#202Learn to trade. Trade stocks, options, or futures. Just pick one and get good at it. It takes 2-4 yrs to be profitable due to needed behavior changes and knowledge and experience needed.
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm not sure what the rules are, but perhaps you could set up a corporation that takes on the freelancing jobs and then pays you a salary of $1,200 a month? No, that'll lose you the benefits. https://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/cfr20/404/404-1575.htm "We will evaluate your work activity based on the value of your services to the business regardless of whether you receive an immediate income for your services." SSI is delib…
Could a group of SSI freelancers set up a co-op to handle that month-to-month averaging?
Brilliant idea. Not only could they distribute the work, but they could also lobby for any needed legal changes.
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#204In early 40's with outdated skills, I am in the same boat except a physical disability. While development only roles have gone out of reach now, I have been able to find QA, documentation, support, generalist roles at a non-profit, academia, and an early stage startup in that order. Reached advanced interview stages with employers looking for outdated skills (Perl scripting) or in-office positions, so you might want…
Please contact me chris@instapainting.com (I also offered OP) if still looking for a job.
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#205It's hard to take Fiver seriously. For example a quick search for 'Ruby Rails' and one of the top service providers lists a premium service of 'full stack development app' delivered in 3 days, and including a 15 minute consultation, a project plan, and audit, for ... $20.
Wait until Elon finds out...
Funny - I was heavily upvoted. Then heavily downvoted again to 1 point. Not that I mind, but people get very emotional about Elon even here on HN.
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#206You say you have problem solving competence. Then if you can do 3 easy to medium algorithmic coding problems in 1.5 hours, you do stand a chance at some remote work companies like Toptal. You may have to brush up your skills to do a mock project as well. Example React for UI and a backend language (Python/Java/Go anything really). Also you can work part time via this, its not necessarily full time.
Edit: Wish you good luck, whichever path you choose.
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#207I’ve employed people in a similar position to yours at Instapainting.com. Willing to train and pay you while you train, and also dole part time work as you see fit for software engineering services. Please email me chris@instapainting.com
Your business doesn’t seem very sustainable, photorealistic paintings for less than minimum wage won’t lead to long term workers.
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#208Hey, get in touch with me at andrea@techinterview.coach - we are expanding our coaches #s and it's a fun and rewarding side gig :)
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#209If you're not working, you have lots of time to learn new things. Why limit yourself to your existing skill set? You don't mention vision issues, so frontend, which is what I do, is probably well within your reach.
Re: Ask HN: Disabled and out of work for years, but need some side income
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Steps I'm seeing: 1. Find a lawyer 2. Consider a corporation 3. Find an external entity (friend, family, form a trust) to run business Run all plans through lawyer and revive their agreement in writing
> Run all plans through lawyer I don't think you appreciate how tight the budget of a disabled person on SSI is.
Agreed. But, I will say that I have benefited from pro-bono work in the past, more than once actually; some--many--lawyers feel they have an obligation on that end. Once, at least, I was helped out at https://www.freeadvice.com/, I think when I represented myself against a creditor that had seized my student aid.